Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Recommended Reading

Roger Ebert vs. Bill O'Reilly.

The thing I find puzzling about O'Reilly is that he's supposed to be this important, influential voice in American politics...and I never see anyone who seems to agree with him or defend him or anything. There are folks out there who swear by Limbaugh and Hannity and Glenn Beck and their opposite numbers, to the extent they have opposite numbers, on the Left. But O'Reilly? Never. He gets decent ratings but my impression is that people tune in to watch the wrestling, not because they think they're going to hear any truth. Am I missing something?

• Posted at 4:43 PM · LINK

3-D Diatribe

I agree with everything in this piece by Jerry Beck about how 3-D movies are an overhyped fad that will soon dissipate. Jerry's especially right that one of the motives in making them is to encourage movie theaters to go digital.

• Posted at 4:00 PM · LINK

The Host(ess) with the Most(ess)

My comrade Aaron Barnhart complains that the NBC Tonight Show Experience webpage is missing someone. In its celebration of Tonight Show hosts — Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and the incoming Conan O'Brien — the name of Ernie Kovacs is omitted. Mr. Kovacs was the regular Monday-Tuesday host for several months late in the Allen era. Researchers don't seem to concur how long Kovacs did it but he did it. Shouldn't, Aaron wonders, his name and face be up there, too?

I dunno about this. Maybe. But it does raise the question: If you include Ernie Kovacs, shouldn't you also include Joan Rivers? She was the Monday host and did many full weeks, probably totalling a lot more broadcasts than Ernie Kovacs did. I've never seen anyone mention her in a list of past Tonight Show hosts, nor do they date Leno's stint from when he began sitting in for Carson on a non-temp basis. If Jay had not gotten the job after Johnny left, he would still have hosted more Tonight Shows than Jack Paar ever did.

And hey, what about the hosts of the short-lived Tonight: America After Dark that filled that time slot between the going of Allen and the coming of Paar? That was a different format but it was called, at least in part, Tonight. Raising this question would force us to define the program in question. Steve Allen hosted a show called Tonight (just Tonight, not The Tonight Show) that ran in the late night slot on NBC. So did Paar. The programs had somewhat different formats and staff. What makes them both the same show is the name and the approximate hour...and if that's the definition, then the flop that came between them pretty much qualifies too, doesn't it?

In which case, why not list Jack Lescoulie and Al "Jazzbo" Collins as past Tonight hosts? They weren't even guest hosts or Monday hosts. Lescoulie was the permanent, every-night host of Tonight: America After Dark and when he quit/was fired, Collins took over for the rest of the run. I actually met Mr. Jazzbo once — I'll do a post one of these days telling that story — and he was quite rankled that his name was always missing when folks listed past Tonight hosts.

Getting back to Joan for a second: I suppose the reason some would argue she shouldn't be listed as a past Tonight host is that she was identified as a Guest Host. Johnny's name was still on the show and the opening announce said she was sitting in for him. But is that more significant than the sheer number of times she hosted that program? Isn't what makes you a Tonight Show host the mere fact that you hosted The Tonight Show? And how sure is anyone that Ernie Kovacs wasn't billed as Steve Allen's guest host? I don't think any of those shows still exist.

Okay, I've officially driven this topic into the ground, taking it way too far. That's all I have to say. Goodbye.

• Posted at 8:55 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Some time ago, I linked to a thirty-second version of this commercial I always liked. Here's the full one-minute version...

• Posted at 1:07 AM · LINK