Several things went through my mind as I watched this hour of television on Tuesday night. OK, I admit it, I watched it Wednesday afternoon (apologies, but I have a day job).
I almost wept, because I know that this experiment won’t lead to anything long-term for this show in particular or CBS in general. I also almost wept because it is so nice to see a guy give a nod and a wink to those who came before him. It is something Jay Leno has never done and never will do. To hear Craig talk about watching the pictures as they fly through the air, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if — just once — Jay would end his monologue with a practice golf swing.
It would have been nice had they gone with the David Sanborn “Late Late Show” theme from Snyder’s days. Certainly, since the production companies are the same, rights clearances shouldn’t have been an issue. Oh well.
I would challenge one comment made in the introduction. Craig described Tom Snyder as “a cranky man, by all accounts… cranky and difficult and brilliant.” It cannot be argued that Snyder was pissed when NBC forced a studio audience upon his “Tomorrow” show. And it cannot be argued that he wished things upon Rona Barrett that Jews didn’t wish upon Hitler. But I had the pleasure of working around Tom Snyder for an entire summer, and in the mid 1990s, the last word anyone would have used to describe him would have been “cranky.” He was honest and direct, to be sure. When he disliked something, he made it known. But I’ll never forget a brief exchange I had with Tom towards the end of my internship on his show. We were walking down the halls of the Catalina Building at NBC. He was smiling his wide Cheshire grin and whistling quite loudly. I said something unoriginal along the lines of, “You seem in a good mood, judging from the smile and the whistling.” His reply, which I’ll take to my grave, was, “Kid, if you made as much as I do to do as little as I do, you’d be smiling and whistling too.” Cranky? Not hardly.
Last night’s “Late Late Show” was what I want a talk show to be. The host was interested in what the guest had to say. The guest had things to say. While I think there is a place on Craig’s show for an audience and puppets and Aquaman the advice columnist, there is also a place for conversations like Tuesday night’s show.
Though the show is consistently good, every few months Craig Ferguson knocks one out of the ballpark. His interview with Bishop Desmond Tutu a while back was outstanding, and it included a monologue and a live audience. But there is a freeness to Craig’s show that the 11:35 shows lack. He jokes about it, but the lack of promotion and the lack of a large viewing audience affords him a certain luxury. The fact Craig and his staff realize it is what sets the show apart from the competition, and likens it to the show his boss used to do at 12:35 on NBC. Conan O’Brien had no choice but to follow the established format of “The Tonight Show,” just as Jay Leno followed Johnny Carson’s format, and just as Johnny Carson followed much of Jack Parr’s style. Parr was able to tweak the format of Steve Allen’s show because the series was still in its infancy. Craig can still play around with his nightly one hour stewardship of the CBS television network.
As stated above, I don’t think this experiment will lead to anything drastic. CBS would never consent to dropping the studio audience entirely, nor would they realistically consider a Late Late Late show to compete with Carson Daly and the Sham-Wow guy. But, from time to time, television can be reduced to its simplest form, if only to remind us that the more we stray from the basic, the more complicated (unnecessarily) things become.
Thanks to Craig Ferguson, Stephen Fry, and the crew of “The Late Late Show” for the reminder.
Sleep tight North America.
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