John McCain says, "I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up." And then later, his office issues a statement — presumably at his direction — that says, "Senator McCain will, of course, thoroughly examine the record of any Supreme Court nominee put before the Senate and vote for or against that individual based on their qualifications as he has done throughout his career." A lot that is wrong with politics these days is to be found in that hurried walkback.
And this was the guy who used to claim to be a Straight Talker and who named his campaign bus The Straight-Talker Express.
But hey, it looks like Hillary is coasting to a big win. Harry Enten explains why Trump fans should not expect a replay of the famous "Dewey Beats Truman" reversal. I think we're in for a lot of "Trump really won but the media conspired against him," which of course they did by letting America hear him talk.
A lot of folks were very impressed by that Steve Allen Show clip I embedded here the other day. If you watch it again, try to imagine physically how the performers — especially Steve Allen and Steve Lawrence — stepped out of the shot and then back into it. The more you look at this number, the more remarkable it is.
Of course, nowadays it's no big deal for performers to leave the studio with the camera following them. A week or two ago, Stephen Colbert and his guest Mindy Kaling walked out the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York and hiked down W. 53rd Street to the Duane Reade drugstore at 8th Avenue. Yeah, but they didn't put themselves in the position of having to get it in one. In the studio, Colbert said to Ms. Kaling, "Hey, let's go to the Duane Reade right now" and we saw them get up and walk out the door to the street…and then the director cut to a recording made earlier in the day. The "outside the studio" activities were done in one continuous take but they could have stopped and started over.
Friends who work on talk shows have told me that the reason we don't see more spontaneity and risk-taking these days is that guest stars are afraid of being thrust into such situations — or that if they aren't, their publicists are. While there's probably some truth to that, I think it's also the hosts who fear moments when things collapse around them and it's necessary to ad-lib. Also, there's an emphasis on polish over reality. I still think that if the right host were to open himself up to winging it more often, that would be very popular.
Speaking of late night hosts, here's a current profile of David Letterman, a man who's apparently now trying to decide what he wants to be when he grows up. It's odd to see him wonder why today's late night hosts are so buddy-buddy because it's well-known that he could have had that relationship with Jay Leno and declined to go that way.
Not that he cares what I or anyone else thinks, but I'd love to see Letterman just have a weekly hour on some cable channel that would be happy with any kind of ratings at all, just so they could be associated with him. I'm imagining just Dave and one or two guests per show, sitting and talking — and they'd select guests he's interested in, as opposed to anyone who seems hot at the moment and therefore an audience draw. No bits, no band, no musical guests, no Rupert Gee, no monologue…just Dave conversing with interesting people. I can't imagine how that wouldn't be fun for him and for viewers.
By the way: I think it's a myth that when Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show, he made a conscious decision to give up appearing before the public. I think he looked and looked for the right thing to do and never found it. Eventually, he may have concluded that he'd painted himself into an ivory tower and there was nothing he could do that seemed worthy of the once and future King of Late Night. Everything also probably involved risking too much of his reputation.
I heard from people around Carson — Fred DeCordova to name one — that Johnny had a dread fear of trying to stay in front of the public long after his time. The later years of Milton Berle were often mentioned as something he did not wish to replicate and oddly enough, the other night I watched an Antenna TV rerun of a Tonight Show with Uncle Miltie from 1974. Berle lived until 2002 but even in '74, it was awkward and unfunny. He was trying topical humor which didn't connect and talking a lot about his past triumphs while still trying to let us know how he was so busy these days because there was so much demand for him.
One of Johnny's great skills was his ability to save guests who, once in his chair, turned out to not have much to say that was amusing. He was also good at gently nudging self-indulgent guests off the topic of their own greatness. (Due to extensive pre-interviewing — the kind I wish they didn't do — hosts today don't particularly need this ability.) You could see but only if you looked closely that Johnny was thinking Berle required a lot of help. And maybe something like, "I hope I have the good sense to get off stage before I start coming off like that."
Dave Letterman is nowhere near that obsolescence. I wish he'd stop giving interviews where he says he isn't sure what to do and instead just do something. That's one thing that would make his friends and fans very happy. Another would be shaving.
