My enthusiasm for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has plunged in the last few weeks. I still think he's one of the most talented and well-equipped human beings to ever have a talk show but his program is not as wonderful as it ought to be. Too much of it has that same "infomercial" feel as most talk shows these days. The guest is there to sell a product and the host's questions have been worked out in advance to allow them to talk about how much fun the movie was to make or how great the director or other players were. His conversation with Bryan Cranston the other day could have been read verbatim off TelePrompters…and then it segued into the two of them in a sketch that was.
Do you know what I mean by "infomercial" discussion? It's like when the lady in the infomercial says to Ron Popeil, "You mean this one machine of yours can make five different kinds of fresh pasta in under three minutes?" and Ron Popeil, who's selling the devices, tells her "Oh, you can make thousands of different varieties" which he then proceeds to name. The question is just a set-up for the pre-scripted sales pitch. Johnny let guests plug their wares too but the spots didn't sound like they'd been written by the product's publicists.
There's also a lot of obvious editing on Colbert's show. Everyone who does talk shows pays homage to the wonderfulness of men like Steve Allen and Johnny Carson. But none of them will do their own shows by the same ground rules, which involved no editing for creative reasons…and standing ovations only on the rarest of occasions, not for every entrance.
I have high hopes for the coming weeks, though. During the political conventions, Colbert is doing his shows live. Not only that but he's being joined every night in some capacity by Jon Stewart. This almost makes me want to watch all of the Republican Convention just so I'll better understand whatever it is they have to say about it. Note the "almost."