January 13, 2010
okay, time for trust falls
1/13/10
Generally, I can't write about anything career-wise on the blog - not since we made the move into television/film and could risk losing an awesome gig because I cracked wise about some entertainment executive with clever Google skills. But this Leno/Conan/NBC brouhaha imbroglio is a pretty fascinating reminder that no matter how big the players are, life is essentially still a lot like middle school.
People tend to vilify NBC for their decisions, but that's a cruel synecdoche; NBC is just like any other company, in that it's filled with some wonderful people who keep showing up to work every day in order to fight the good fight. A few of my favorite folks in Hollywood work in development there. Also, making successful TV shows is becoming more and a random game that CBS is currently winning - but these things always change.
I don't have an opinion on who is being unjustly pilloried, who is owed what, or any of it, really. I made a decision in 1992 or so that if I were watching late-night talk show television, I was avoiding something. So I absolutely never watch any of those shows on any channel, except of course The Daily Show, or if a friend happens to be on.
But this current debacle reminds me of the botched transition of the UNC basketball coaching staff when Coach Guthridge decided to step down in 2000. What should have been an easy transition instead led to Roy Williams publically fretting about the job before going back to Kansas in front of a packed stadium and telling them "I'm stayin'". It was a slice of jackassery that makes UNC fans involuntarily wince, but it was also jackassery UNC could have been avoided a week earlier with a few well-placed phone calls.
Put simply, I don't understand why these big decisions get played out in press releases volleyed back and forth, allowing every yokel to opine one way or t'other. In 2000, Dean/Gut/UNC should have brought Roy in, told him the deal, given him a few days, and then moved on to plan B. No muss, no fuss.
Similarly, at NBC, it seems like friendly grown men could have agreed to meet in a conference room with all the players, aired all desires, grievances and contingencies, and taken two weeks to come to a consensus. Anything else is theater, bullyism, gossip and cockfighting.
All of these people, at UNC and NBC and everywhere else, play golf. Golf was created so that the 430 people who run the world can do so without seeming untoward. It boggles me why they would throw their spaghetti around an entire town to see what sticks, rather than teeing off and sipping a bourbon while their cooler heads prevail. What can us kids count on if the pentumvirate start arguing?
Ben Hogan, 1-iron, 1950 - photographed by Hy Peskin
1. The probability of a secret remaining secret is inversely proportional to the square of the number of people who know it. It just takes one guy in Craft Services who knows someone who writes a gossip blog and the word is out.
2. To some extent, everyone involved wants this to happen in public, so they can gauge public reaction. Hollywood Executives are at root politicians, and they want the winds of public opinion at their backs if at all possible.
I think that the suits misjudged the players. Leno is a hack, and always has been, he'd read the farm report if he was paid well enough. Conan O'Brian does what he does because he loves doing it. He would rather walk away then let NBC ruin the Tonight Show.
(1) I think the NBC mess has been great theatre. Love catching up the next morning on Hulu.
(2) I'm still pained by the Matty D Era. The worst. Last night felt like a flashback to that time.
(3) I can't wait for the Open to go back to Merion. Great photo. Makes me want to re-read "The Match."
"insert normal rant about throwing TV sets into street"
I believe the problem isn't that Leno is unhappy, or that his ratings at the 10 slot are lower than his Tonight Show ratings (they're actually right at where they told advertisers), or that Conan is losing to Letterman. Rather, it is the fact that the combination of lower ratings at 10 and 11:30 have caused the news programs at the NBC affiliates to bleed viewership. So what NBC is doing is trying to stop the bleeding from an unanticipated consequence of their move. Someone at NBC made a bad gamble in a very high profile way, and they just don't have the nerve or desire to try to ride it out and build up viewership, or they just feel it won't happen.
Come with me, Sherman, and let's take the Way Back Machine all the way to the early 90s...
Let's see:
NBC has a star under contract to get the Tonight Show to keep him from leaving for a rival...check!
Jilted late-night star is offered a prime-time show...check!
New Tonight Show host flounders early and is threatened to be removed or replaced by jilted late-night star...check!
Entire drama is played out publicly for all to see...check!
Yes, Sherman, we *have* seen this before, haven't we?
FWIW, I never cared for Leno's Tonight Show, but it seemed to work for Leno because he didn't have a body of work to color people's view of him in that slot. Letterman and Conan both have extensive bodies of work that impact how people view what they do on their shows. Conan is suffering the same fate that Letterman would have 18 years ago - what is hip and funny in New York at 12:30 doesn't play the same way on the West Coast at 11:30.
I'm on Team Coco. I have loved him from day one back when I was in high school. (Yes, I stayed up that late, no my mom didn't know). When he got married I was heartbroken. I was pretty sure we were going to have a wonderful future together.
I'm with you, Caroline! Team Coco! His dry sense of humor is right up my alley...
Conan wrote the monorail episode of the Simpsons. That alone is better than anything Jay has done
I'll buy it when Conan goes off the air. But it all reminds me of a New Coke -esque stunt, and NBC will make piles more money. Do the local affiliates really have that much sway? I just can't see Ol' Jerry Peterson and Harold Johnson pressuring the network.
Unless, Conan WAS the New Coke, and Jay is soon to be restored à la Coke Classic. Only, old Coke was good.