The Chris Moeller Archives

The Late Shift shifts again

Ken Tucker wrote this piece last week for Grantland outlining the new landscape of late night talk television. (Yes, Grantland is a sports site. I don't get it either.) Of David Letterman, he writes, “No one other than Dave does it with the same combination of intent to further precedent, awareness of lineage, and motivation to unite a mass audience that began with Steve Allen’s ‘Tonight’… Letterman is the last man in front of the camera who carries the whole history of the genre in his head; he both honors and fucks with the tradition on a nightly basis.”

As somebody who has been firmly-- strictly-- in the “Dave” camp for going on three decades, and whose time spent watching Jay Leno averages about ten minutes a year, I find it interesting how much the celebrated, upcoming Jimmy Kimmel/Jimmy Fallon “face-off” suggests the Letterman/Leno one that has never left us.

To my mind, Jimmy Fallon is shaping up as the perfect replacement for Leno on NBC’s Tonight Show as I cannot stomach him. The man is an absolute suck-up on the air, not only to his guests, but indirectly, to his bosses, who clearly formulated the comic's thoroughly-unironic persona through corporate strategy. He's a dispenser of confectionery silliness. Whereas Dave and Conan played principally to the college dorms on their versions of Late Night, Fallon’s act plays to early teens-- and not the cool ones either. He literally giggles before the camera, and he's striving so hard for ‘adorable’ that sometimes I forget the hour and think I’m watching Parks & Rec.

The constant presence of a Mac laptop at his desk is such a pandering nod to the young demographic that supposedly favors him, I’m amazed that so many media critics seem legitimately impressed by it. (Maybe Steve Allen should have kept a television on his desk when he hosted the original Tonight Show.) To put it another way, Late Night, under Letterman, was revolutionary, the archetypal program for the post-ironic age. (Dave completely changed television before "the late night wars" even began.) Under Conan O’Brien, the franchise enjoyed another decade and a half of twisted excellence. Under Fallon, members of the studio audience receive free gifts hidden under their seats.

Johnny Carson wasn’t famous for his sarcasm, but he was a host capable of deflating the show business bubble anytime it threatened to engulf the screen. According to his long-time producer Peter Lassally, Johnny once asked a birdbrained starlet during a taping, “Have you read a book?” In interview after interview, however vacuous it might be, we see Fallon almost falling down with laughter, convulsing violently to even the slightest attempt at humor by his guest. Programs in this genre can be easily hijacked by publicists so the ability and willingness to detach from the mechanics of corporate Hollywood come as a prerequisite to the job.

Meanwhile, with the NBC-spurned O’Brien now relegated to the ghetto of basic cable (creatively, there are worse places he could be), Kimmel stands as the heir apparent to Dave. It was Jimmy K who introduced the televised tribute to Letterman, his hero, at last year’s Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in Washington. Yet declaring Kimmel "the Next Dave" implies there will ever be another. Letterman, beyond the range of any of the other fellows, is our national barometer, even a counselor of sorts during moments of tragedy. Dave has always promoted the widely-held belief that Carson is the benchmark, but it’s actually Dave who defines the job today in almost every way. Dave is the man all these others are either aping, or, in the case of Fallon, purposefully counteracting.

Dave passed Johnny a year ago in longevity, and that's not to mention the many more shows Dave has already taped after you factor out the guest-hosted episodes of Johnny's Tonight. Fallon was just formally named Leno's successor today, but for several weeks, the narrative has already been about the two young Jimmys that would be-- and likely will be-- king. The highlight of the next two to four years for me though will be our precious remaining time with Dave.

posted by CM @ 8:36 PM