Leno Replaces Conan on Tonight Show...

wait, really? xp

really glad y'all are here to suss out the distinction between "comedian" and "interviewer" for me. really gonna impact my late night tv decisions from here on out i think.

Conan & Leno can never be good at those monologue zingers because they aren't constitutionally mean.
Only someone with true darkness in his heart can bring it.

if it's not someone standing on a stage with a mic, it's not comedy, apparently

btw, If you weren't too busy teaching us about the good old days to actually know anything, morbs, you would understand that Conan has always treated interviews as fodder for comedy (including neo-sketch comedy) and it appears that he will continue to do so in the new show. you can impose a comedic agenda over a promotional agenda in a subtler fashion than dave does/did.

Every time I accidentally catch a bit of Fallon's show it seems like ?uestlove thinks he's fucking annoying too.

I suggest you not read ?uestlove's Twitter, which is a series of posts about how he thinks everything on the show is HILARIOUS!!!

Even though I take that at face value, who on Earth would badmouth their highly-visible job on a highly-visible medium like Twitter?

?uestlove does always look annoyed

Thinking back on ?uest's previous tv appearances over the years, I think that's pretty much his all-the-time face.

I wish they would put Andy on the couch :(

ditto: a lot of what's funny about Andy isn't that he says anything amusing, it's that every facial reaction he has, to almost anything in the universe, is lovable and hilarious -- the best possible late-night use of this guy is just to have him sitting behind the celebrity being interviewed and grinning goofily

I saw the second episode last night and was trying to figure out where the heck Andy actually was. Does he really have a little podium-like thing down on the floor?

Yeah, he's at the edge of the audience risers.

Yep, he has a podium on the side, next to the audience. Agreed with Nabisco. Put the guy on the fucking couch. Giving him an occasional 1.5 seconds worth of camera time and forcing him to butt his way into the show to make a side comment is not playing to his strengths.

Yeah, which sort of bothers me, because isn't the whole recent tradition of having a sidekick there sort of built around people on talk shows joking with their stage managers or producers -- i.e., people whose job is supposed to involve standing there all night? Having a person just be there in a sidekick role seems a bit dumb, but I guess lots of people do it now.

Um, Ed McMahon.

just a theory, but maybe andy is there in the stuttering john position to smooth the transition for people used to the leno version.
(isn't max weinberg positionally where kevin eubanks used to be also?)

Kind of ridiculous, but maybe the decision to keep Richter on the side was some sort of concession to the balding Leno demographic? Like they thought the old folks couldn't handle having a second youngish smartass on camera all the time with Conan?

I don't know, that's stupid, but I can't think of why Richter wouldn't be back on the couch, considering that to me that seems like the golden era of Conan back in the 90s, and I most people I've ever discussed the issue with (all 3 of them) have thought the same.

xpost obvs

didn't leno have an announcer standing there? perhaps there was occasional banter? i don't know, i hadn't watched it in years and years.

Leno's exchanges were 97% with Kevin Eubanks. Stuttering John gave the intro and then spent most of his time huddled in his little announcer pit with a cup of coffee or something, getting very little camera time or interaction. A fair treatment, as that guy is pretty useless. Not so for Andy Richter, though.

Kevin Eubanks, on the other hand, was a comedy GOLDMINE.

God Leno sucks

seriously, he is the worst

okay come on ppl, we've had to endure The Chevy Chase Show

the worst still on the air

Yeah, the Eubanks-led Tonight Show band was the worst ever in late night tv. And the dude himself is a stiff. Imagine how hard Jay had to look to find someone less entertaining than himself (Branford Marsalis had enough of the shit early on).

the worst still on the air

That's pretty much a Leno vs Kimmel vs Daly cage match for me.

eubanks was just a guffawing machine

I don't know, I'd still take Kevin Eubanks over Paul Shaffer and the most dangerous band in the entire galaxy or whatever.

Shaffer couldn't even come up with a good comeback to a near-comatose Joaquin Phoenix.

oh see i haven't seen Kimmel or Daly (or Jimmy Fallon)

Fallon doesn't count because tactical nukes will be obliterating his show by the end of July (if we're lucky) (sorry The Roots, RIP)

fallon's sidekick is the actual worst though

kimmel's show>>>>>fallon's show

like, by miles

Daly doesn't even have a typical late night set-up anymore. He's out and about with a camera man shooting segments on location. For regular interviews, he has a stage, but there's no desk anymore and, more importantly, no lame Joe Firstman-led studio band.

lol you watch Carson Daly

it's a weird show - it's not even mildly entertaining but i don't think anyone who is working for the show even knows what the point of the program is

lol Adult Swim isn't always a reliable alternative at that hour, and I've usually already watched Olbermann from the night before.

But Carson's really not that bad, honestly. He's not trying to be a "late night host" anymore with a monologue and shit. He's going out talking to musicians and street artists and authors and it's decent tv for that hour.

the week that fallon premiered, daly was profiling a different musician each day and like showing live footage, and then the next week he was interviewing joey fatone in studio and now he's just like filming random shit around california

lol Adult Swim isn't always a reliable alternative at that hour

lol you try to watch Adult Swim after 12:30

Yeah, I kind of love that NBC gives him $20 a week to do whatever he wants.

yeah carson dalys show is secretly kind of awesome sort of because no one has ever watched it

if im too lazy to get off the couch when daly comes on i turn on springer

^^^ hardcore

i know, let's talk about how bad jay leno, jimmy fallon and carson daly are

wasn't there a word for that sort of thing?

keep up, dude

i think that word is posting

it begins with a c btw

ill discuss anything as long as it keeps gabbneb from posting in a thread

"chatting"

i know, let's ignore gabbknob