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O'Brien out, Leno back in?

I've been watching Leno, Conan, and Letterman, at least through their monologues and first segment, and the interesting thing is that I think Letterman has the best perspective on the whole mess. I usually don't have alot of respect for Letterman, but he's made alot of sense discussing this incident.

Tonight, in his standard comedic way, he simultaneously took a swipe at Leno and gave his opinion of what the correct and honorable thing for Leno to do is. And that is to decline the offer to return to The Tonight Show. Which, of course, it does not look like Leno is going to do.

However, up until the moment Leno signed on the dotted line to resume doing Tonight, I wouldn't fault him at all in any of this. I think he got screwed by NBC by being pushed out of Tonight while he was still number one, then he was made promises about being given a chance at 10 pm to keep him from bolting to another network, then he got screwed by NBC again when they decided to yank his program after only 7 months, and then he got screwed a third time by NBC when they chose to very publicly try to get him back to The Tonight Show at the expense of Conan so that they could avoid paying the penalty for breaching Leno's contract.

I have a great deal of sympathy for Jay Leno and think he has been treated like dirt by the NBC executives. However, at this point, the correct and proper thing for him to do would be to, quite publicly, say 'thanks, but no thanks' and refuse to be a part of forcing Conan out.

Unfortunately, it looks like he's not going to go that route. That's too bad, and it's going to result in a great deal of backlash against him in the short term. Whether it has any long-term impact on Tonight's ratings, well, that remains to be seen.
 
Axiom said:
Yep. You can see right where Jay throws in a little insult, and Jimmy's face changes, and it was on from that point.
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It was amazing how one sided it was. Kimmel just completely outclassed Leno. It was almost sad how lopsided the barbs back and fourth were.

It's also telling how many late night shows are circling wagons with Conan. I haven't seen any of them defend Leno. Jay may or may not do well back on The Tonight Show but it seems he's already a bit of a pariah in the comedy community.
 
CoveTom said:
I've been watching Leno, Conan, and Letterman, at least through their monologues and first segment, and the interesting thing is that I think Letterman has the best perspective on the whole mess. I usually don't have alot of respect for Letterman, but he's made alot of sense discussing this incident.

Tonight, in his standard comedic way, he simultaneously took a swipe at Leno and gave his opinion of what the correct and honorable thing for Leno to do is. And that is to decline the offer to return to The Tonight Show. Which, of course, it does not look like Leno is going to do.

However, up until the moment Leno signed on the dotted line to resume doing Tonight, I wouldn't fault him at all in any of this. I think he got screwed by NBC by being pushed out of Tonight while he was still number one, then he was made promises about being given a chance at 10 pm to keep him from bolting to another network, then he got screwed by NBC again when they decided to yank his program after only 7 months, and then he got screwed a third time by NBC when they chose to very publicly try to get him back to The Tonight Show at the expense of Conan so that they could avoid paying the penalty for breaching Leno's contract.

I have a great deal of sympathy for Jay Leno and think he has been treated like dirt by the NBC executives. However, at this point, the correct and proper thing for him to do would be to, quite publicly, say 'thanks, but no thanks' and refuse to be a part of forcing Conan out.

Unfortunately, it looks like he's not going to go that route. That's too bad, and it's going to result in a great deal of backlash against him in the short term. Whether it has any long-term impact on Tonight's ratings, well, that remains to be seen.
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Bingo. I didn't have any rancor for Jay until he started angling for the Tonight Show again. Then I realized he was being purely opportunist and forcing out a good person, namely Conan.

Ryan said:
It was amazing how one sided it was. Kimmel just completely outclassed Leno. It was almost sad how lopsided the barbs back and fourth were.
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It was wholesale slaughter. Jay didn't have anything to fire back.

It's also telling how many late night shows are circling wagons with Conan. I haven't seen any of them defend Leno. Jay may or may not do well back on The Tonight Show but it seems he's already a bit of a pariah in the comedy community.
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I think it's telling also. It's also telling that the only people really defending Jay are Jeff Zucker and Dick Ebersol, two wholly incompetent people.
 
The Borgified Corpse said:
I don't really understand all of the demonizing that surrounds Jay Leno in this situation. I mean, he was the one that was forced out of The Tonight Show in the first place. You could argue that all of this could have been avoided if Conan O'Brien hadn't been so eager to take over The Tonight Show, forcing out Jay Leno before he was ready.
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Avoided? NBC offered Conan O'Brien The Tonight Show in the first place. So it is his fault that he accepted a job he has wanted and built towards for the majority of his career? C'mon now. Be realistic.

I also don't understand why Conan thinks that moving The Tonight Show back a half-hour is so unacceptable, unless HIS ego can't help but see it as a demotion. I don't understand what this "Tonight Show legacy" is that he's supposedly protecting. Really, all The Tonight Show is is a name & a timeslot. Its only other defining characteristics are its format (which has been copied by nearly every other late night talk show) and its host (which has changed multiple times over the years).
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The Tonight Show has appeared at 11:35pm for over sixty years. Would you want to be the host that lead the show to a new timeslot after so much history? To comedians like Conan O'Brien legacy is important. He values certain things, as does a lot of comedians. He feels like moving the show would be tarnishing a long-existing franchise, and I completely agree with him.

They gave The Tonight Show to Conan O'Brien because they didn't want to lose him to another network. They gave Leno The Jay Leno Show for the same reason. Now that The Jay Leno Show isn't doing so good, they want to cancel it but they still want to keep Jay Leno somehow. I'm sure NBC would like to keep both Leno & O'Brien and give them both the best time slot possible. Unfortunately, it's not possible for 2 shows to be on the same network in the same time slot.
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Keeping Jay Leno obviously has its consequences. You can't have your cake and eat it, too. NBC should have never gave Leno The Jay Leno Show in the first place. I mean, when Conan was announced as the heir to The Tonight Show, he had five years before he was set to leave the show. Yet he feels the need to continue? He's had his run. It would have been the honorable thing to do to allow Conan to rightfully & respectfully take over The Tonight Show and move on.
 
Last night, the thing that stuck with me the most was when Letterman mentioned Les Moonves last night...in a postive fashion.

"[Satan] dropped by, and said, 'Dave, I'm glad you're here.'"
 
Wow...I have REALLY got to catch up on all the clips from everyone's shows this weekend...fortunately, I'm going to be stuck in a hotel till Sunday, so hopefully I can get back up to speed...
 
Well, THIS makes things much more interesting:

Apparently when both Jeff Zucker and Conan O'Brien were undergrads at Harvard, Zucker (the editor of the Harvard newspaper) called the cops on Conan (the editor of the National Lampoon's magazine) because as a prank, Conan swiped an entire print run of the Harvard newspaper...and another prank Conan pulled on Zucker involved advertising Zucker's dorm room phone number as a sex line...

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/no-joke-jeff-zucker-had-conan-arrested/
 
ParticleMan said:
Well, THIS makes things much more interesting:

Apparently when both Jeff Zucker and Conan O'Brien were undergrads at Harvard, Zucker (the editor of the Harvard newspaper) called the cops on Conan (the editor of the National Lampoon's magazine) because as a prank, Conan swiped an entire print run of the Harvard newspaper...and another prank Conan pulled on Zucker involved advertising Zucker's dorm room phone number as a sex line...

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/no-joke-jeff-zucker-had-conan-arrested/
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From later in the article:

So what's to glean from this Harvard history lesson? Yes, Jeff Zucker was a thin-skinned prick who didn't understand comedy or know how to handle creatives even back then.
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Um, no, O'Brien comes across as the mean-spirited jerk. Turning the guy's dorm phone number into a sex line...? Not cool, Conan... :rolleyes:
 
...I had no idea Conan committed an act of buffoonery in college. This changes everything. I'm fucking sick to my stomach thinking I supported Conan.

...cripes.
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/vp/34876759#34876759

Jay Leno: You're known for pranks, what is the best prank you ever pulled?
Jimmy Kimmel: The best prank I ever pulled was I told a guy that five years from now, I was going to give him my show and then when the five years came, I gave it to him and took it back almost instantly. It was hilarious!

I bet that hit a nerve, but it was hysterical.
 
Snaploud said:
Eh. It's textbook harassment. Conan deserved more than just an arrest.
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A medal for a great prank. Zucker is a total idiot who must have some smoking evidence on certian people because thats the only possible reason why he has NOT been sacked :wtf:
 
Snaploud said:
Eh. It's textbook harassment. Conan deserved more than just an arrest.
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Harassment? Harassment is stalking or calling someone a racial slur or bothering them repeatedly. Conan just changed Zucker's phone number once so it dialed to something else. Honestly, I think it's pretty hysterical. Zucker's anger over the situation is probably why he kept on getting pranked. :lol:
 
pranks are all good and fun, but the thing about the phone-sex one... you dont pull pranks like that one without a reason. i'm sure Jeff pulled comething on Conan that lead up to it.

there was a progression of back and forth we dont know about...
 
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