Monthly Archives: July 2013

For those of you who haven't seen my pal Frank Ferrante playing Groucho Marx, here's a six-minute sampler of the act with which he tours the length and breadth of the continent. It's even more impressive live…as you'll see if you're at the Pasadena Playhouse the evening of Saturday, July 27. It's one performance only — a rare appearance by Frank in this part o' the country — and you can get info and tix here.

By the way: I mentioned here that if you went to this show, you'd see Frank and also his fine accompanist, Jim Furmston. Well, I've been informed that Frank and Jim have gone their separate ways for now. Jim won't be in Pasadena and that's not him in this video, which was assembled from Frank's recent run in Seattle. I'm sure they'll both do fine, together or apart. Talented folks like that always do. Anyway, here's Frank with a bit of his Marxian mimickry…

The L.A. Times interviews our friend, Stan Sakai. I assume you have the good sense to pick up every single comic he works on even if he only letters it.

The Comic-Con International website has posted the programming schedule for Friday. Go pick out some fun things you want to see there.

Continuing our discussion of why folks perceived Jay Leno as the Bad Guy in the whole Conan/Jay mess, Tony Tower writes…

Just figured I'd add one more unasked-for opinion in anticipation of your upcoming post. I'm not much of a Conan fan (I find his ideas often funny, but find his stage presence annoying), but my main objection to Leno's actions were this: at the time Conan's hiring was announced (2005?), Jay was publicly supportive of the move as a way to avoid another fracas like the one in the early 1990s with Letterman, and professed having no problem with stepping down.

Now according to the most recent Bill Carter book, Jay says he was actually very upset at being given a termination date and was simply too shellshocked to do anything but accept. Assuming this is actually true and not revisionist history — at the time, the story was Leno was asked if he was okay with the notion of this being his last contract; now it was supposedly presented to him as a fait accompli — I still think Leno had an obligation to fight for The Tonight Show at the time if he didn't want to leave. But once he accepted Conan's hiring and did so publicly, he should have bowed out like a gentleman when the time came near and not started making noises about moving over to ABC to compete with Conan. O'Brien was very hot at the time he signed for Tonight, and it was only the assurance that he was getting that show (and the natural assumption that Leno was okay with it, based on his public statements) that kept him at NBC — and away from competing head-to-head with Leno — until 2009. So that's what I think Leno "did wrong."

Conan did not stay at NBC because of any assurance that "Leno was okay with it." Conan's deal was made before Jay knew about it. In fact, given Leno's well-known ferocity about working as much as possible and never taking a night off, I'd be very surprised if O'Brien didn't know that Jay would be upset and was just counting on Jay being gracious in public about it. Which he was. O'Brien certainly didn't check with Leno before accepting The Tonight Show, nor would anyone have expected him to.

It's odd that you suggest it was unsporting of Leno to make noises about moving over to ABC. When Letterman was criticizing Jay — in what struck me as an extremely childish attack on a competitor for beating him in the ratings — what he said was…

When you find out you're being replaced on The Tonight Show, you call ABC, you call Fox, you try to get my job, you leave. You don't [Leno impersonation] "Yeah, okay, but I'll be in the lobby, you know, if you need me." You don't hang around. You go across the street and you punish NBC and you make them eat your words. Then Conan has a job, Jay has a job, I have a job, what's his name, Lonnie Donegan, what's his name, Jimmy Fallon has a job and Jimmy Kimmel has a job. See, that's the way these things are supposed to work. It's just part of evolution. It's an early Darwinian precept. You get fired, get another gig. Don't hang around waitin' for somebody to drop dead.

That struck me as a real disingenuous thing for Dave to say because, obviously, he's in the business of trying to knock off his competitors off the air…and when Jay was "fired" off The Tonight Show, he did talk to the folks "across the street" and he did get another job. After dickering a lot with ABC and a little for a show on Fox and a syndicated show with Sony, he decided his best offer was that nightly show at 10 PM on NBC. What Dave was saying was "Jay should have put himself in a position where he couldn't return to 11:35 on NBC opposite me."

Jay was told in March of 2004 that NBC that Conan would be getting The Tonight Show in five years. He seems to have decided that putting up a fight for it then was fruitless. Conan was already signed and Jay would look like a very bad sport if he tried to get NBC to renege on its deal with Conan because he [Jay] wanted more than five years. I don't think Jay had any choice but to accept the replacement and just wait and look around for something else to do. Which is just what he did.

Another one of these tomorrow. And the next day and the next day…I don't know how long this will run…

A lot of folks in my state who attend the Comic-Con International in San Diego do so by taking the Pacific Surfliner Amtrak train to and fro. In the past, you've generally been able to get seating on it at the last minute or even without a reservation. Not this year. Reserve now.

We have another installment of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. In this one, Don Rickles and Jerry go to Factor's Delicatessen and get the same waitress I get when I go to Factor's. And I challenge anyone to figure out the route Seinfeld takes from the Beverly Hills Hotel to Factor's. He seems to go down the same stretch of San Vicente at least three times. What a hockey puck.

How do you get a Tony Award? Well, in some cases, by buying it.

From a 1968 episode of NBC's Kraft Music Hall: Groucho Marx roasts Johnny Carson. One gets the feeling Mr. Marx didn't see the script until about five minutes before the taping but who cares? It's Groucho. The man seated next to Johnny is John Lindsay, who was then the Mayor of New York.

This is the first of a bunch of messages I'm going to quote here and rebut discussing what Jay Leno supposedly did that was so wrong when he took back The Tonight Show. This first one is from Jeff Stockwell…

During the Leno/Conan fiasco the gripe that I had was: Leno agreed to the contract that had him leave The Tonight Show at a pre-determined time and turn it over to Conan. I personally don't think Conan was given enough time to get his sea legs and build his audience. However, that's a point that can be argued. NBC decided Conan wasn't working and wanted to get rid of him. That's fine…it's their house.

While I don't think Leno was conniving, backstabbing, or any other such adjective, I do think his actions were dishonorable. I think Jay should have refused to go back to The Tonight Show. "If you guys want to fire Conan, that's your decision, but don't drag me into this. I left of my own accord. It's a tough job and he should get a chance to build his audience. I had a great run but I'm off to do other things."

I think NBC might have been reluctant to fire Conan if they didn't have the safety net of Jay Leno to fall back on.

I don't work in the entertainment biz at all, but that was my gut feeling the whole time it was going on. I don't think Jay is a sleazy guy, but I certainly don't think he's the stand up guy (no pun intended) that he is portrayed as.

Leno didn't "agree" to the contract that had him leave The Tonight Show. By all accounts, NBC guaranteed it to Conan before they went to Jay and told him he was out…or would be out in five years. Jay, NBC and Conan all tried to spin it like Jay was fine with it but not one person involved or around thought he wasn't pissed about it. He did not leave of his own accord. He was just gentlemanly about it.

Jay did leave The Tonight Show at the specified time and turn it over to Conan. Not only that but he handed him a show that was winning in the ratings and rather than make his final episode about himself, he had Conan on as his guest and turned most of the broadcast into a commercial to watch Conan on Monday. That's an awfully sporting way to treat the guy who got the job you wanted to keep.

Later on, when neither Jay's nor Conan's shows were getting decent ratings, NBC came up with this proposal to bump O'Brien's Tonight Show to 12:05 and insert a half-hour of Leno at 11:35. Some time ago here, I said I thought Conan would have been foolish to acquiesce to that.  I still feel that way but after discussing it with others and seeing how he's all but disappeared on Basic Cable, I'm less certain of that.  In any case, he could have agreed…and might have if he'd known there would be no offer from Fox. So he wasn't exactly fired there.

It's possible that if Jay wasn't around to go in at 11:35, NBC might have kept Conan there longer. Maybe, maybe not. And if they had left Conan on longer, maybe he would have gotten his ratings up…and maybe not. Every time a TV network axes Show A, it's based on an analysis of data and a projection that the show will not significantly improve its numbers and that they'll be better off with Show B in that time slot. Sometimes, clearly, they're wrong. But they make the swap and no one faults Show B for being in the on-deck circle, thereby making possible the axing of Show A.

I don't see that Jay had any moral or human obligation to turn down a job he wanted — and also put his staff out of work — so Conan could have more time to perhaps build up his audience. Conan did not say, when the whole thing started, "If you guys want to fire Jay, that's your decision but don't drag me into this," nor would anyone expect him to. He was offered a job that he wanted and he took it, same as Jay.

Or to put it another way: NBC decided to bump Leno from The Tonight Show because they had Conan. Later, they decided to bump Conan from The Tonight Show because they had Leno. That's pretty much the way it's always worked in television…and I would imagine in other industries, as well.

To be, as they say, continued…

…a lot of us will be down in San Diego for the first day of the 2013 Comic-Con International! Actually, a lot of us will be there the night before for Preview Night but next Thursday is the first full day and the Programming Schedule for that day is up! If you're attending the con, I suggest you study that schedule and jot down the times and room numbers of events you might like to attend. I'll post my list of panels after the con has their whole rundown online.

Actually, I suggest that if you're attending, you spend a little time at the con website. It's really loaded with useful information about how to get there, where to park, how to shuttle-bus to the con, where to eat, etc. I get asked a lot of questions about the con and at least half of them can be answered with a few clicks on that website.

My official weather forecast for the con calls for daytime highs of 70 to 73, evening lows of 68 to 65, about a 2% chance of any precipitation and a good mix of clear days and overcast. That's for outside the convention hall. Inside, I'm predicting massive crowds, serious noise pollution around the videogame dealers and a 70% chance of women dressed like Princess Leia.

Start packing. And I seem to have missed the window of opportunity for my annual joke about how if you need a place to park, leave now. That's only funny if you do that before it becomes serious advice.

Speaking of the Tony Awards two weeks ago as I don't seem to be able to stop doing, here's that piece of special material they did with Andrew Rannells, Megan Hilty, Laura Benanti and host Neil Patrick Harris. Funny spot…

Jeffrey Toobin on the Supreme Court and Justice Kennedy.

I hope the following doesn't sound morbid or in poor taste but I've always thought this country was asking for trouble by appointing Supreme Court Justices for life, thereby allowing the decision of when to bring in New Blood to hang on something as capricious as the health of old people. It seems to work out to something like one new justice every presidential term but one of these days, it won't. Someday, fate will work its wicked way and three or four justices will die or retire within a short span, thereby allowing one president — and maybe not even a popular one but someone who's on his or her way out — to utterly reshape the court for a long, long time with many appointments.

The party that doesn't control the White House at that moment will scream foul and say that in the interest of fairness and judicial balance, the president should appoint some candidates from their party…but he or she won't. His or her party will be drunk with power and feel that fairness demands they set the agenda for the next several decades. How do you think Republicans would feel if Obama suddenly had the power to replace Scalia, Thomas and Roberts? Or how Democrats would have felt if Bush could have replaced three from their side? And yet we leave it wide open for this to happen…

This is Old News and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of you skipped it —

— although I must say some of it may become New News again. I believe we're fast approaching the day when Jay Leno will be free of an NBC contract that prevents him from seriously dickering with another network to do a show once he departs The Tonight Show next February.

Whether he wants to is a good question. I've heard two people who are reasonably close to him say opposing things: That he wants another show a.s.a.p. to stay in the game and that he wants to retire from that game with his damn good track record. He's been consistently winning his time slot in all demographic areas, including the younger viewers. In fact, he's winning his time slot by a wider margin than Jimmy Fallon is winning his.

I've also heard all manner of theories as to what kind of deals, if any, will be seriously put before him. Some folks say none, he's too old for anyone to invest in. Jay will be close to 64 when he leaves The Tonight Show and even if he can win younger viewers for now, it can take many years to build a new franchise elsewhere. If you're a TV network, do you sink millions into starting a new business built around a guy who qualifies for Social Security?

Maybe. A number of people I know in the TV industry tell me there's no chance in hell Jay will get another series on any channel in more homes than C-Span3. Another number tell me with equal certainty that yes, of course he will. When else will any network have a chance to open a new time slot — late night or otherwise — with a star who has that kind of track record and is going off, as Jay probably will, in a solid first place? And I have it on good authority that some prospects have been dangled with as much dangling as his NBC deal allows.

Here's my infallible prediction: I don't know. Don't know if he wants another series. Don't know if anyone will offer him one. This is way too unprecedented for me to make a fearless forecast.

So I'm not going to write about that…now. What I am going to write about is something that's intrigued me since the Conan/Jay brouhaha went down. I spend a lot of time with friends in this business talking about ethics and manners and legalities and such. Jay got hammered a lot for either sabotaging Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show or reneging on some promise or somehow engineering a Machiavellian coup. Whatever, he came out of it all The Bad Guy in some eyes and I have never understood what people think he did wrong apart from the fact that his 10 PM show wasn't very good.

I asked here a few months ago and several of you wrote in with your takes on it. Over the next few days, I'm going to run one e-mail per day and offer up a rebuttal/defense of the guy. If the ancient history nature of it all bores you, just skip on to the next posting — which on this blog is usually an obit or a plug for Frank Ferrante. I'm just kinda interested in what people think Mr. Leno should have done differently…and in presenting an alternate view to what some critics of his actions seem to believe. I'll post the first one, which is from Jeff Stockwell, tomorrow.

MAD Magazine: Still awfully funny.

Here are The Golddiggers with a number that I believe is from their 1970 summer show on NBC, which was the one shot in London. I wish someone had complete videos of those programs because I remember Marty Feldman, who was part of the cast, doing some very funny sketches, often with Charles Nelson Reilly.

The song is "Something Special," which is from Georgy, a Broadway musical based on the book and movie, Georgy Girl. The show was directed by Peter Hunt and had a book by Tom Mankiewicz with, it is said, a last minute ghost-written rewrite by Peter Stone. (Hunt and Stone had just had a big hit with 1776.) There was music by George Fischoff and lyrics by Carole Bayer. Ms. Bayer became Carole Bayer Sager shortly after this show closed…which it did four days after opening in February of 1970.

The Golddiggers performed this number on an album they released that year and later in many other places. It may be the last remnant of the musical comedy, Georgy…