Jay Leno is still getting a little heat for his role in the Schwarzenegger campaign. I wonder if folks realize how long those two guys have known each other. Somewhere in some tape vault, there's a copy of an old ABC Wide World of Entertainment taped at the Playboy mansion around 1975. It would have been one of Leno's first-ever TV appearances, done back when he had a huge "afro" haircut and was wearing a leisure suit. The main feature of the show, of course, was Playboy models strutting around in bikinis but they stuck in a muscleman in a tiny Speedo who wandered about and spoke with such a thick accent you couldn't understand him. Guess who. I seem to recall a little sketch where Jay was hitting on a lady and Arnold wandered by, flexed a few deltoids and took her away from him.
One advantage Arnold had by running in such a short campaign was that there wasn't time to track down all the embarrassing footage of him that's around, and Equal Time rules restricted the amount that could be aired. I'm not suggesting it would have impacted the vote but there are a lot of things he's probably glad haven't resurfaced. One other one that comes to mind is a time he was on The Tonight Show with guest host McLean Stevenson. This was back when the main feature of a Schwarzenegger appearance was that he would take off his shirt, and often his pants as well, to display his physique. Mr. Stevenson, who was actually a terrific host the first few times he sat in for Johnny, showed uncommon self-esteem or courage or something. After a brief interview, they sent Arnold backstage to strip down to his skivvies, and McLean announced, "Okay, first I'll show you what a normal, healthy male body is supposed to look like," and McLean took off his shirt. Then they brought Arnold out for a pose-off, with McLean imitating whatever the future governor did and…well, it was very funny. I remember at the time thinking that Stevenson had made the bodybuilder look pretty ridiculous but the spot worked because he [McLean] made himself look even more ridiculous.
And of course, there's the movie where Arnold (billed as "Arnold Strong" and dubbed) played the alter-ego of mousey Arnold Stang. And plenty of other stuff. I suspect we'll be seeing a good deal of this material in the months to come.
Getting back to Jay: I don't think his monologues have been slanted and even if they were, so what? The guy's entitled to his politics, which are not as easily categorizable as most folks probably make them out to be. Some folks would really like to see the late night comedians use their shows as bully pulpits to advance certain positions. A few weeks ago when Conan O'Brien was making the rounds to promote his anniversary special, he did an interview on Buchanan and Press, and all Pat Buchanan could ask him about was using his show to influence voters. O'Brien's answer, and I presume Leno's would have been much the same, was that he was doing an entertainment program; that he did the jokes he thought were funny and couldn't afford to reject good material in order to advance a personal agenda or candidate. I think what some folks don't get is that pushing your political views is not always Job One for a lot of people. It was all that mattered to Buchanan but to someone in Leno's or O'Brien's position, it's probably a very low priority…if it even matters at all. I'm sure it's more important to Leno that his show maintain its ratings, which to some extent means being a venue where any "hot" celebrity will feel welcome. When asked to appear at Arnold's victory party, I suspect Leno's only concern was not whether it would be perceived as a political endorsement but whether it would compromise the Tonight Show's ability to book other high-profile guests. Answer: Of course not.
I do think the press gave Arnold a free ride but I don't think Jay Leno should be faulted for that. Jay's show is not where candidates are supposed to be ruthlessly interrogated and held up to public scrutiny. Let's ask the folks who at least claim to be real newspeople why they don't do more of that…to all candidates and not just the one.