Friend of the Show: Kimmel bashes Leno

[Samurai]

It's funny and odd to reflect on a time when I gave a shit about late night programming.

I watched Letterman during the summer in the late 70s when I was in grade school and he had a short-lived daytime show. In high school, I would stay up to watch the monologue and opening skit of Late Night. If Seinfeld or Leno were the comedian guest, I'd hang on long enough to watch. If a hot chick actress were on, I'd hang in long enough to beat off to her watch that too.

I stuck with Letterman through the early days of Late Show. I had to be at my job early in the morning at that time in the early 90s. So I'd tape Letterman and watch it as I was getting ready for work. Sometime in the mid-90s I began to feel Dave was mailing it in, and I stopped watching in the morning and began listening to Howard.

The few times I've bothered to check out Letterman in the last several years, he comes across as a bitter, washed-up old bastard.

Leno, Letterman, Kimmel. Pretty much irrelevant to me now.

[Jon Hein is God]

Same here. I often watch Nightline and sometimes start watching Kimmel but I never make it very far unless the first guest is someone I really like. Even then I'm always disappointed in the interview, his questions are bland and too cutesy. The beginning of the show is really lame, they always do some sort of skit (usually with that fat Mexican guy) that turns out to be an ad for Doritos or something like that. He seems to think his family is incredibly talented (they're not) and features them in almost every bit. I doubt if anyone who's been watching Jay or Dave will switch to him

That's the annoying thing about Kimmel. His show is scheduled to start at midnight, but you don't get to the opening credits and monologue until 12:06 because of that annoying commercial/sketch featuring that unfunny overused Mexican guy.

And 6 minutes are crucial late at night when people are dozing off.

Jay Leno is moving his show from 11:35 to 11:34.

I hope Kimmel doesn't begin his show at 11:41, while airing that stupid commercial/sketch beforehand.

It may earn them a lot of money but it's a big turnoff.

[Jon Hein is God]

It's funny and odd to reflect on a time when I gave a shit about late night programming.

I watched Letterman during the summer in the late 70s when I was in grade school and he had a short-lived daytime show. In high school, I would stay up to watch the monologue and opening skit of Late Night. If Seinfeld or Leno were the comedian guest, I'd hang on long enough to watch. If a hot chick actress were on, I'd hang in long enough to beat off to her watch that too.

I stuck with Letterman through the early days of Late Show. I had to be at my job early in the morning at that time in the early 90s. So I'd tape Letterman and watch it as I was getting ready for work. Sometime in the mid-90s I began to feel Dave was mailing it in, and I stopped watching in the morning and began listening to Howard.

The few times I've bothered to check out Letterman in the last several years, he comes across as a bitter, washed-up old bastard.

Leno, Letterman, Kimmel. Pretty much irrelevant to me now.

Letterman's first talk show premiered in June 1980.

As for the current Letterman, well, I like him.

But I only tune in for the interviews, not the comedy bits or monologue.

He's still a great interviewer. He has a lot of fun with the current stuff. He doesn't mind having fun with the Snookis of the world.

[Ving]

That's the annoying thing about Kimmel. His show is scheduled to start at midnight, but you don't get to the opening credits and monologue until 12:06 because of that annoying commercial/sketch featuring that unfunny overused Mexican guy.

And 6 minutes are crucial late at night when people are dozing off.

Jay Leno is moving his show from 11:35 to 11:34.

I hope Kimmel doesn't begin his show at 11:41, while airing that stupid commercial/sketch beforehand.

It may earn them a lot of money but it's a big turnoff.

Are you for real? You don't have a DVR yet ? Who bothers with stupid advertisements ? Life is too short.

[WonderWarthog]

any line of thought promoting Leno in the slightest is whack-a-fucking-doo, regardless of your feeling toward Howard

[Jon Hein is God]

Are you for real? You don't have a DVR yet ? Who bothers with stupid advertisements ? Life is too short.

I DVR the show, but they're still annoying to fast-forward through.

And for the viewers who matter, the viewers watching live, it must be an even bigger pain in the ass.

[Samurai]

Letterman's first talk show premiered in June 1980.

Okay, sheesh, I was off by about a year.

[IlluminatiJones]

The Tonight Show is perhaps the greatest TV franchise of all time. Leno valued the franchise over money. This is lost on Letterman and Stern. Look at Stern specifically... in my opinion he has destroyed his legacy with the Sirius years where he valued his net worth over everything. Leno has more money than he can spend in ten lifetimes, and is the king of late night as the ratings leader. There is no other way to spin it.

You seem to be blurring Letterman and Howard together, and accusing one of being just like the other. They're not. For one thing, Dave clearly likes chicks.

The power/glamour/cache of "The Tonight Show" franchise wasn't "lost" on Letterman: THAT'S WHAT THE WHOLE FUCKING THING WAS ABOUT!!!

And you're missing my point: Leno had to be cheap and agreeable, because he had no back-up.......................not Jackie-level no back-up, but nothing like Dave did.

And he didn't have Dave's clout.

If Jay didn't hold on to "The Tonight Show", he would have been damaged goods. Meanwhile, Letterman walked across the street to CBS and became a cornerstone of that network.

Leno just could not have done that.

Leno was cheap and he was a safe bet. That's it.

I used to give Leno and Kushnik major credit for pulling off that coup, ousting one broadcasting legend and cock-blocking another out of "The Tonight Show", but I think it was simply the suits at NBC saving money. Carson was making a fortune, and Letterman would have had to have been paid a fortune.

And Leno was and is much, much, much more of a company guy. He'll do the local weather for the NBC affiliate in Des Moines, hop on a plane for a meet and greet in Dallas, and stop off on the way home to fix the programming director in Phoenix's car.

Letterman is not even winning his time slot. Think about that. It is the only thing that matters. I used to be a Letterman fan in the 80s, but he has sucked for decades. There is nothing edgy or entertaining about his show any more. He sits there and waits for someone to hand him a line. For me the great hosts knew how to set up the guest and play the straight man (Carson was excellent at this). Letterman fails at this big time.

I don't see Letterman as just "sitting there and waiting for someone to hand him a line". Like with the first part of your post, I think you're blurring the Howard/Letterman line, and confusing the two.

I prefer the edge of Letterman......................or former-Letterman.............................to the "so, I hear you've got a movie coming out.............................." ass-kiss of Leno.

As for what history will say, Leno will go down as one of the best standups of all time

uh, no.

and king of late night for decades.

usurper of the throne, more like. but he took it and held it, and for that all credit, but he's really, really, really lame. Letterman's a shadow of his former self, and is becoming quite a tragic figure, but he really had "it" back in the day. He could make an interview with a chess champion compelling. His remote pieces were all gold. He was downright wacky.

Leno hasn't done anything content-wise to deserve to be called king.

You may not be his demographic, but he owns it.

You're right. And here we come to the crux of the argument: popularity vs. quality

Yeah, Leno is much more palatable to Main St. America, but Letterman's always put on a funnier show, and is the funnier dude.

Also, let me know when any of those guys do anything this cool: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/

I bet the interns Letterman was doing were pretty cool.

[Willowglen]

Kimmel seems like a frat boy douche bag. Whenever I hear about something him and his "uncle Sal" have done I get douche chills.

Cousin Sal (is a douche) Uncle Frank was great but he died last year.

I can honestly say that I've NEVER made it through for than 15 minutes of Kimmel's show. He presses his lips up to every guest's buttocks and smooches away.

Interesting since the guests usually don't show up until about 20-25 minutes into the show

Kimmel is a succesful late night host whos employers love him and has a huge amount of famous friends (actual friends that dont want anything from him) that will show up for him to do anything he neeeds them to do and a hot talented GF that loves him for him.

Sounds like everything Howard always wanted to be but couldn't pull off. Howard dreams that he could make some phone calls and have Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Harrison Ford, Don Cheadle, Cameron Diaz and countless others show up to shoot a joke video for him. Not that Howard would ever spend any time doing anything this creative.




And Howard could only pull this off in his babysitter masturbation fantasies.