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Leno is a very typical hack. His jokes go for the most obvious punchlines, he panders to his guests and is number one in late night, which is probably as it should be. He can do good stand up, but why should he try anymore? He's supposed to generate money for NBC and does it quite well.
Letterman has fallen into a shadow of his former self, and almost seems like he'd rather be sleeping than doing his show, which is a fucking shame. In the 80's, he decontructed the whole "talk show" genre and was the funniest man on TV. There are still hints of it and any time he is interacting with the audeince or people in his neighborhood, it's great TV, but the rest of the show just feels like it is going through the motions.
Conan has grown into the only consistantly watchable host, and his show is VERY much like Letterman's early work. And, of course, he's starting to make noises about wanting to move to an earlier slot, so we could have another "late night war."
The oddest thing about it is that I remember Carson at his peak, and when he was good, no one could possibly have been better. He was able to wring laughs from ANYTHING, always made his guests look good and had the best eye for comedy in history. It's too bad that most of his monlogues were so focused on current events because it made them hard to watch now. Carson left while he was still good, and when he left, he didn't keep coming back like so many others in show biz have done. He was a class act, and his actions after leaving NBC show that he was a friend to Letterman and wanted him to get the NBC slot. |
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