Tag / David Letterman

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Book 4 (of 52) – Just The Funny Parts

Just The Funny Parts: …And A Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into The Hollywood Boys’ Club – Nell Scovell

Television writer and producer Nell Scovell looks back at her career in this funny and biting memoir.  She tells the story of her career, starting in magazines, moving to television and movies, and teaming with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on her book Lean In.  Usually one of the only women in the writing room, Scovell was only the second female writer hired by Late Night with David Letterman and, following Letterman’s 2009 admission of improper “relationships” with female staffers, she wrote an essay in Vanity Fair calling his show a “hostile work environment” for women.  Besides Late Night, Scovell has written for The Simpsons, The Wilton North Report, Coach, Monk, Murphy Brown, Charmed, Newhart, The Critic, NCIS, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast, amongst others.  She also created Sabrina The Teenage Witch, adapting the Archie Comics character for ABC.

Odds are good that you have seen a program written by Scovell at some point over the last 3 decades.  She tales a serious subject, the roadblocks to a writing/directing/producing career in Hollywood for women, and wrapped it in funny anecdotes of her time bringing beloved characters to life.  Hopefully this work opens more opportunities for her, and others like her.

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2014 Emmy Awards – Reality and Movies

Emmy_statueWith the Emmy Awards scheduled for Monday night, here’s day two of my predictions for the awards, today focusing on reality shows and made for TV movies.  I likely have seen not seen most (any?) of these, so I will probably not have an informed decision, but when has that ever stopped me.

Outstanding Reality Show Host

Jane Lynch, Hollywood Game Night

Betty White, Betty White’s Off Their Rockers

Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars

Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, Project Runway

Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance

Anthony Bourdain, The Taste

Tom Bergeron has won this in the past, and that seems like as good a reason as any for him to win it again.

Outstanding Reality Show Competition

The Amazing Race

Dancing With the Stars

Project Runway

So You Think You Can Dance

Top Chef

The Voice

The Voice broke The Amazing Race‘s winning streak last year, but I’m thinking the CBS adventure show takes back the crown this year.

Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Series

The Colbert Report

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Jimmy Kimmel Live

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon

Real Time With Bill Maher

Saturday Night Live

The Colbert Report broke through last year and wrestled the award away from his pals at TDS.  Given that the show will be wrapping up soon so that Colbert can move over to CBS to take over for Letterman, I would think he will win another award as a going away gift.

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Book 1 (of 52) – The War For Late Night

The War For Late Night - Bill Carter

Jay Leno is a sad individual.  That is the one main takeaway from this, the tale of the late night showdown of 2009-2010, and author Bill Carter’s previous work, The Late Shift, which chronicled the first occurance when Leno’s people ousted Carson from The Tonight Show.  Jay is quoted numerous times as saying his only purpose in life is to “tell jokes at 11:30,” no matter who, or what, gets in the way.

In 2004, NBC had a (good) problem: two successful late night hosts who both wanted to host the same show.  In an effort to keep Conan O’Brien from moving to ABC or FOX and competing directly against Jay Leno, they promised him that Jay would retire and he would get The Tonight Show in 5 years.  This book tells the familiar story of what happened after those 5 years, when a hurt Jay Leno wouldn’t (couldn’t?) just walk away, a naive Conan O’Brien thought that his loyalty counted for something, and a happy David Letterman watching it all unfold from the sidelines.  We all know how the story ended, with Jay back on The Tonight Show and Conan off on TBS, but the destination is not as intriguing in this case as the journey.

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Book 3 (of 52) – The Late Shift

The Late Shift - Bill Carter

 Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.  The host of the Tonight Show changes, NBC executives start to think they’ve made a huge mistake, and, while the new host is on the air, offers the job to someone else.  No, this isn’t the story of Jay Leno stealing the Tonight Show back from Conan O’Brien, but the original story of Jay Leno stealing the Tonight Show from Johnny Carson and then fighting off David Letterman.

It is a fascinating story, even more so within the context of nearly the same thing playing out 18 years later.  Jay Leno is the permanent guest host of the Tonight Showand his manager is working furiously to push Johnny Carson out of the way.  When Carson announces he is retiring, Jay had just signed a contract guaranteeing him the top spot.  Meanwhile, as NBC’s other late night star, Letterman assumed he would move up an hour once Carson retired.  NBC execs, wanting to placate both stars, split down the middle.  When Jay’s manager goes crazy, starting booking wars and alienating publicists, NBC decides they made a mistake a offer the job to Letterman, who instead decides to leave his home of over a decade and start over at CBS.

The behind the scenes look at these shows, and the men who host them, is intriguing.  Jay Leno comes off as someone with extreme mental disorders.  He is loyal to a fault, either to his manager who almost sabotaged his career or to the network he thinks of as home.  He seems to have trouble dealing with people in an adult manner.  His life appears to revolve around two things: hosting the Tonight Show and fixing old cars.  He is married, but it comes off as though it was done not out of love, but because when you reach a certain age, you are supposed to be married.  The famous story of Leno hiding in a broom closet for hours so he can eavesdrop on a call between NBC executives, and the glee it brought him showing off that he knew things he shouldn’t, makes you feel sad for him. 

Letterman comes off as the more together person, but that really isn’t saying much.  He is described as a bundle of neuroses, who is never satisfied with a performance and is overly critical and dismissive of his own skills.  He spent years bashing the network and his bosses and yet expected them to just know how much it would have meant to him to be the host of the Tonight Show.  The book ends with a triumphant Letterman on top, his Late Showon CBS winning the ratings war for the first year plus.  Unfortunately, for Letterman and his fans, this started to go the other way with Jay Leno, behind a resurgent NBC primetime lineup, overcoming Dave and holding on to the top for years.

As we know, the sequel would happen 18 years later, and Bll Carter is back with the sequel.  Hopefully, I don’t have to wait 18 years to read it.