Day: January 15, 2010

Rich Johnston makes observations at Bleeding Cool about my having a bit of fun regarding Shatterstar. I suppose if you accept the subtext Rich suggests, I come across as kind of juvenile. To which I would say, well, yeah, I write comic books for a living and my office is crowded with action figures. I am kind of juvenile. My friends choose to find it charming. At least they say they do. Anyway, check it here.

UPDATED at 10:07 PM–i think this quote from the issue of “Variety” that covered the announcement of the planned transition, published back in 2004, pretty much says it all:

Insiders said Leno didn’t want O’Brien to suffer the turmoil he did upon Johnny Carson’s announcement that he was retiring as host of “Tonight,” which set off a fierce war between the Leno and Letterman camps. Letterman, then the host of NBC’s “Late Night,” had assumed he would take over for Carson.

So how’s that whole Conan-not-suffering-turmoil thing going? To say nothing of what Conan’s writers, musicians, etc., are dealing with, since they won’t be getting a multimillion payout from NBC.

So I watched Leno’s show for the first time in a long time last night, and he did an interview with Jimmy Kimmel. And it was the single most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever seen. Kimmel was relentless in jabbing at Leno about his taking back “The Tonight Show” (which is, let’s face it, NBC’s plan at this point, although “plan” might be too generous a word.) And yes, Kimmel was on video screen which provided some distance, but even so, there was a certain ballsiness on Kimmel’s part saying this stuff to Leno’s face. And I thought, Well, that’s the historic job of the comedian, to speak truth to power. The court jester, after all, was ostensibly the only one who could take japes at the king…unless, of course, the king lost patience and beheaded him.

And that’s when I had a clearer vision of why the dynamics of this entire thing are off kilter, and why Leno displacing Conan is a bad idea. Not business wise, not ratings wise, but comedy wise.

The comedian is the court jester.

You can’t be the deposed king returning to power and court jester at the same time. Especially if you’re beheading the previous court jester.

PAD