Comments on: Late night television and other bed time stories

By: jay

jay — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 01:16:12 +0000

well, i think grant hit the nail on the head with regards to the comfort and safety factor.
late night talk is a means to have a potentially humorous guest, not requiring too much attention, talk world weary citizens to sleep each evening.
as for conan, well, he’ll be five years older and he’s a father now.
he is a smart fellow, after all, he wrote some classic simpson’s episodes.
hopefully his transformation will be ‘natural’ and not forced.
he won’t be able to keep it so ‘college-ish’ (clearly i couldn’t come up with a better word) and have it last in an earlier timeslot.

By: Grant

Grant — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 10:59:25 +0000

Steve: As long as it comes on 8 track. Grant

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 00:35:17 +0000

Grant: People will recognize the “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer from Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” which is, surely, a staple of your readers’ listening habits.

By: Grant

Grant — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 11:41:59 +0000

Steve: thanks for this comment, it gave me an idea for a post, forthcoming. This is a big question: are we contracted or expanding. I think we are doing both. But more later. Thanks, Grant

Xofis: I like the phrase “generals of social order” very much. Thanks, Grant

Amoeda, I need to catch up on the shows in question. What should I be watching. As to Conan, I don’t think he will mellow. I think the twitchiness is built in. And, yes, good point, what the hosts don’t supply in the way of tedium, the guests can be relied upon to supply. Thanks, Grant

Harold: Thanks for the spell check. That’s interesting about Carson. I did not know that, to coin a phrase. Isn’t it odd how the fresh freezes into formulae. Thanks, Grant

By: Xofis

Xofis — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 12:07:15 +0000

Conan isn’t a big dog. We want the generals of social order on late night, party hosts and presidents and secret agents of a snarky sort, the Sean Connerys of the TV world. Conan ain’t it.

By: Steve Portigal

Steve Portigal — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 02:13:11 +0000

So much of contemporary culture is opening up? But so much of it is shutting down. Movies are remakes or sequels – or the latest innovation, prequels. We all use “franchise” to describe the flim properties. Or maybe they are adaptations of 70s TV shows.

As with anything, there is all sorts of great stuff out there if you seek it out, but the mainstream seems pretty sad.

Of course, I have no objectivity about whether it was more sad before – things are always going to hell, aren’t they?

By: Grant

Grant — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 18:44:07 +0000

Ennis, great point, as always, maybe the native children of the global village have something else in mind when it comes to bed time viewing. Thanks, Grant

By: Ennis Q. Public

Ennis Q. Public — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 18:40:17 +0000

I wonder … one of the big late night shows for younger viewers is the Cartoon Channel’s adult swim, a hodgepodge of recycled anime. While this is soothing on some levels, it’s quite edgy on others. The cartoons are dark, and often a bit visually unsettling. Could it be that the late night show was best suited to the depression and baby boomers, and that kids who grew up with MTV want something snarkier and more frenetic?

By: Grant

Grant — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 16:14:32 +0000

Brian, that’s certainly true, and I haven’t seen enough of Steve Allen’s to be sure of this, but my sense is that Allen’s show had a certain freshness and unpredictability to it. (Whether this was his preference or a simple artifact of the early days of TV, a world before formula, as it were, isn’t clear.) So it’s not clear whether the Late night format is getting more wacky or less.

But it is odd that Late Night is so formulaic when so much of contemporary culture (certain music, certain films) is opening up. Can this merely be the compression caused by the ratings game? I am still tempted by the idea that it is formulaic because that’s what everyone wants as their bed time story. Thanks for a great comment! Grant

By: Brian Hawkins

Brian Hawkins — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 15:12:06 +0000

Don’t you think the formula for successful late night TV changes with the generations that watch it? I’ll admit I haven’t seen much of the really old Tonight Show to back up this assertion, but I’d imagine that Steve Allen’s typical viewer would find even the terminally boring Leno to be downright wacky.

I’d like to think that most of the people my age (27) who prefer O’Brien to Leno aren’t going to settle down that much in a mere decade…

But I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.