The Late Night Wars

I am not a consistent watcher of late night TV. I am usually in bed by the time the late local news comes on, and if I do stay up to watch something on past 10pm, I am probably watching a sporting event or The Daily Show (and that not often). I used to be a Letterman devotee, back in the twentieth century, and I never liked Leno or Conan that much. Well, truth be told, I can stomach Conan in small bits, but I can't stand Leno. I don't know what it is about him, perhaps his too chummy persona or the fact that he kind of climbed over Letterman to get the Tonight Show job, but I have never liked him much.

So, I haven't really spent too much thought on the latest brouhaha involving Leno and his move back to his old time slot. It was a big story in the NY Times this morning. I read the story online, and was surprised to really find out what NBC seems to be doing to O'Brien. It seems like a pretty dirty deal, and Conan is not taking it lying down.

One more reason to dislike Leno: he's being treated somehow special by his employers. Maybe that is in their best economic interest, but it is still a poor way to treat another of their employees, namely Conan O'Brien. As a result, Conan grows in my estimation. Like Letterman when he was at his best, Conan is pissed off at his bosses and he doesn't seem to mind venting in front of his studio audience. Letterman was always hilarious when he was taking his network and their parent company down a peg. Okay, he was hilarious almost all the time, a while back, but that was a looooong while back, when I was still a junior...in HIGH SCHOOL (when we used to while away the lectures in chemistry by passing around silly, homemade Top Ten lists), but, I digress.

Which reminds me: have you seen that FedEx commercial where the boss takes Carl, the employee, on a presentation with him because somebody told the boss Carl was their "best presentation guy?" Come to find out, Carl was good at putting together the visuals for presentations, not giving the presentations. He sits there beside the boss, with a mustache and greasy, stringy gray hair. He stands up in his corduroy jacket, raises his hands and says to the clients, "Good morning...but, I digress." A hoot. You can see where that thought came from.

Anyway, to sum up: Leno still sucks. Conan getting snarky. Letterman sitting back and watching the fur fly. This boy still going to bed at 10pm.