NBC seems content to target smart young adults with this blend of safe comedy, ingratiating conversation & frequent nods to the emergent social media. These new & improved programs, however, still leave much to be desired.
Like Prince in Purple Rain, maybe I'm just too demanding. Then again I'm an exemplar of several less than desirable demographics: late Baby-Boomers, freelance writers, failed lawyers, functioning depressives & amateur critics - dinosaurs all, according to most advertisers. I apparently don't matter much to the ad-revenue bean-counters at NBC.
Funny though they frequently are, Jimmy Fallon & Seth Meyers seem too narrow in their appeal, especially compared to the mass popularity that the more mature Johnny Carson enjoyed for three decades on Tonight. Perhaps that makes sense in this era of media narrowcasting & niche marketing. Even so, I can't help but resent my marginalization by mainstream networks.
The shows share a similar aesthetic. That's no coincidence, since they also share an executive producer: Lorne Michaels, who created the groundbreaking Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 1975. NBC's return of the Tonight Show to its New York roots represents an upgraded commitment to both the 69-year-old Canadian producer's tastes & the 39-year-old former SNL star Fallon's talents.
Another sweet-natured SNL alumnus, Seth Meyers now anchors an equally whimsical and inoffensive product on NBC's later alternative vehicle, Late Night (produced since 1993 by Michaels). The increasingly bland & happily pandering Jay Leno, host of Tonight from 1992 to February 2014 (with one notorious interruption), had long ago been neutered by Hollywood & betrayed by his own need to satisfy a lowbrow crowd.
"Satire is what closes on Saturday night," goes the old show-biz saw. So don't expect to see much biting humor on US commercial television's three legacy networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) anymore. They're content to let Comedy Central do the heavy lifting on late nights with The Daily Show & The Colbert Report. Meyers & Fallon give adequate opening monologues, but standup is clearly not their strong suit. Carson, on the other hand, was a master of topical-joke storytelling, unmatched by any of his late-night successors.
I pray that Fallon & Meyers prod their stable of writers into dreaming up a regular character as engaging in his angry mockery as the French-accented cigar-chomping Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, created by head writer Robert Smigel during Conan O'Brien's tenure on Late Night (1993-2009). But I'm not holding my breath.
Up against Jimmy Kimmel on ABC & David Letterman on CBS (not to mention Conan O'Brien & Arsenio Hall on smaller networks), Fallon faces more viable talk-comedy competition than Carson ever had to cope with. Internet options & DVR technology, of course, have reduced the pressure for immediate ratings. Now that many viewers record their favorite shows or search the Web for later persusal, TV programs can succeed even when their broadcast-time audiences are minuscule by pre-Millenium industry standards.
Much of theTonight Show's rejuvenated hipness & artistic heft must be credited to its soulful hip-hop house band, The Roots. A rambling posse of seven or more musicians, The Roots provide an excellent sonic atmosphere, exemplified by their vital contribution to the occasional feature called Slow Jamming the News. Led by drummer Ahmir-Khalib "Questlove" Thompson, this group (originally from Philly) offers a reliable foil for Fallon's wit, reminiscent of Tonight's Doc Severinsen at his loopy '70s best interacting with a bemused Carson. The Roots, in combination with trusty Fallon sidekick Steve Higgins, make Paul Shaffer (another Ontario native) of Letterman's Late Show seem like a dated show-biz phony - part of his well-worn shtick - by comparison.
Fred Armisen's smaller, whiter 8G Band on Late Night similarly gives Meyers plenty to work with as he grinds out five hours of new material every week. The effervescent Kimberly Thompson radiates sexiness & fun from behind her drum kit, offsetting the deadpan guitarist-bandleader Armisen, a seasoned SNL & improv pro. Meyers will have to develop more skills as a performer as he transitions from head writer & Weekend Update host on SNL. As it is, Meyers relies on a mediocre troupe of sketch comics for content that diverges from predictable talk-show gimmicks. Some of those tricks, such as absurdist parodies, seemed revolutionary when invented by TV-comedy pioneers Sid Caesar, Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs & Jack Paar back in the 1950s.
Fallon served a 5-year stint as host of Late Night before being promoted to Tonight. Most of my favorite moments on all of Jimmy Fallon's shows were customized for legendary guest musicians. Whether performing song parodies with Bruce Springsteen & Neil Young or his recent duet - as a geeky wannabe rockstar - with Billy Joel (on the infectious "You May Be Right"), Fallon excels at such musical bits. He's a good guitar player who also does uncanny impersonations of voices, ranging from a whiny Bob Dylan to the staccato-falsetto crooner Barry Gibb. Joined by Justin Timberlake as the late brother-tenor Robin Gibb in a recurring sketch ("The Barry Gibb Talk Show") on SNL, Fallon's disco-decadent homage to the Bee Gees is hilarious - albeit unsophisticated.
As in a striptease performance, the invisible part of this broadcasting story may be more intriguing than the shows themselves. How did executive producer Lorne Michaels, a trailblazer for subversive humor on North American television, become so damned powerful? Creating the first five seasons of Saturday Night Live provided the perfect career launchpad. Michaels had also paid his dues, having worked as a TV & film writer-producer since the late 1960s, in his native Toronto (Canada) as well as in Los Angeles (Laugh-In, Lily Tomlin specials, etc.) & New York. And he displays loyal tenacity, having convinced NBC to stick with the gentle satire of his own empire, Tina Fey's sitcom 30 Rock, when audience numbers lagged well behind the critics' endorsement.
Having a keen sense of self-deprecating Jewish-inflected humor certainly helped Michaels (pre-professional name: Lorne Michael Lipowitz) succeed in show business. Not content to ham it up as himself in cameos on SNL (he once offered the Beatles $3,000 - "Okay, $3,200!" - to reunite on the first season of SNL), Michaels also appeared in the 1985 HBO mockumentary The Canadian Conspiracy. He plays himself as the anointed successor to Lorne Greene (supposed namesake of the much-coveted resident-alien "green card"), the figurehead of a cabal of Canucks determined to politely take over the US entertainment industry.
That comic screen conceit has more or less come true, at least at NBC & in parts of Hollywood. Lorne Michaels not only produces both Tonight & Late Night, he also continues to exec-produce SNL & to control its (mostly lame) spinoff films & television shows. We couldn't have been conquered by a nicer goy - I mean, guy. Michaels has apparently left acting to the pros, declining to appear on camera (so far) on his new late-night babies.
It could just be middle-aged nostalgia, but I miss the days when the Tonight show lasted 90 minutes - as it did for most of the Carson Era (1962-92). Back then, Johnny Carson had time - and, presumably, permission from network executives - to leisurely converse with his diverse guests. More important, not all of those guests were over-exposed media celebrities trading superficial quips & hawking their latest money-making projects for a few minutes between endless commercials.
The corporate look & feel of contemporary American late-night talk-variety programs, including the Tonight Show & Late Night, leave me cold - as though a polar vortex had descended from the Great White North. Tonight I think I'll curl up with a warm eReader instead.
[Thanks to Samara Kalk of Madison (Wisconsin, USA), a print-media reporter & UW alumna, for suggesting this subject. Go, Badgers!]
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