Well, in this coming week, we get the last Colbert Report and the last Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I stopped watching Mr. Ferguson about a year ago because his show had gotten to be a bit too much about him horsing about with the horse and Gay Robot Skeleton and dancing and making faces at the camera. But I miss the show as it was before he got on that track and I'll probably watch all this week and then regret having missed as many as I did. When he was at his best, I thought he was the best interviewer in late night.
As for Colbert, he has "Grimmy" (i.e., Death) listed as his last guest. I wondered the other day if the premise was that they were going to "kill off" the old, right-wing Stephen Colbert so he could be reincarnated as his future talk show persona. But I'm thinking that's too obvious and they must have something else planned. I'll be watching that, too.
Thursday night, Conan O'Brien's show is called Conan to Go and it's a compilation of his best "remote" segments. I stopped watching Conan some time ago for pretty much the same reasons I gave up on Craig Ferguson: Too much host clowning about for cheap laughs from the studio audience, not enough actual talk show. But I've set my TiVo to record Thursday night and also Tuesday when one of his in-studio guests is Dick Van Dyke.
Every year about this time, GSN hauls out old episodes of I've Got a Secret and What's My Line? to air for a week or two. I'm told this has something to do with keeping control of the package because if they don't air them occasionally, they lose their rights and some other network might get them. Whatever the reason, they're running them for I-don't-know-how-long starting Wednesday night. Your guess is as good as mine as to which episodes we'll get or even which of the many versions of those two shows they'll be picking from…but I've set my TiVo.
Wednesday, Turner Classic Movies is running The Kid and City Lights. If you're wondering why people revere Charlie Chaplin…well, here's your chance. If neither film grabs you, there's no point watching anything else he made. Friday, they have on several of the best movies Jack Lemmon was in. There will be more included in that network's big Neil Simon Film Festival in January, hosted on-air by our pal, Ken Levine.
Late this week, the CW Network is running Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. Their website says Friday night and my TiVo says Saturday. Either way, they seem to be running it in a 90 minute time slot, which means that instead of hacking parts out to allow for the increased commercial time we have today, they'll run it in full and then pad out the time with other things, probably Magoo shorts. When the show first aired fifty (!) years ago this month, it was in an hour slot. It was never longer but I keep getting messages from people who swear it was longer when they first saw it. Nope.
By the way: For years, I suggested to stage-type producers that someone mount Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol as a live production…and I'm sure I'm not the only person who ever had that idea. I even once (briefly) tried to sell Jason Alexander on the idea of producing and starring in such a thing. Anyway, someone's finally doing it…for one performance tonight. I hope it's as wonderful as it should be.