So where are we now with the Leno/O'Brien situation? If you believe what's being leaked — and there's a pretty big "if" in that phrase — the hitch is that Conan O'Brien is balking at the pushback to 12:05. There are suggestions out there that Fox may offer him a show at 11 PM and that he'd take it before he'd let NBC move him to the midnight hour.
The trouble with parsing all this leakage is that we don't, for example, know exactly what's in the various contracts. Some sources are saying that Conan's deal with NBC pays him a huge sum of money if he doesn't get at least a full two-year tour of duty on The Tonight Show, but that the network can move him and the show by that name to 12:05 without triggering that penalty. Is this so? The amount quoted seems to vary from report to report. It's always huge but the fact that no one seems to know precisely how much it is makes me wonder what else these sources don't know. That would be a major factor in what's going to happen but we don't know if that contractual provision exists or if so, if there are loopholes or outs in it.
On the Conan side, I'm going to guess that staying at 11:35 at NBC no longer seems possible so they're looking at securing the next-best situation. They'll talk to Fox and other suitors...but Fox would have to put down a huge amount of money and a long-term on-air committment to make that happen. Would they make such an offer to a guy who, when you look at the numbers, isn't doing all that well at 11:35?
Hard to say. Networks can be funny about taking away shows or stars from each other. Sometimes, it can look like a coup to steal away a competitor's asset. Other times, it looks like you're so unable to generate your own hits that you're grabbing for someone else's discards. And you have to remember that what works one place may not work in another. Fox got burned pretty badly by the assumption that Joan Rivers at 11 PM would get at least the same ratings she was getting at 11:35 when she filled in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. She didn't. Not even close.
Then you had The Chevy Chase Show in the same timeslot. That one was such a disaster that they probably don't want to rush into putting another such program on there; not without a lot of research and consideration. They might like the idea of Conan but this is looking like a deal that has to be made in the next week or so...or not at all. O'Brien's numbers for NBC haven't been bad with the kind of demographic group that Fox covets, but they probably don't justify the kind of sudden offer that would make him jump. If I had to bet, I'd bet that all this talk of Conan heading to Fox is being exaggerated by a media that likes to ratchet up the drama in a story like this.
In the meantime over at CBS, David Letterman and Craig Ferguson are "very close" to being signed to stay put "deep into 2012." Letterman started his late night career with an NBC show that debuted in February of 1982 and ran until June of 1993. Then he was off the air for two months before he started his current CBS show. If he were to retire in April of 2012 — these are approximate dates — he would have logged thirty years total in late night TV. Is the plan something like that, to come out with a round number that approximates Mr. Carson's record?
Probably not, and it's probably too soon to think about that. One thing for certain: Whenever Dave does his last show, it'll come in a network ratings "sweeps" period. No one knows yet when that will occur in 2012, just as Dave probably doesn't know now how he'll feel then about retirement. At the moment, for us viewers, it's just nice to have some stability in the daypart.
Okay, see that person up there? That's Jack Benny...at about the age he was when he would have done a cameo appearance in Casablanca if he did a cameo appearance in Casablanca. But I've decided to be unconvinced that Jack Benny did a cameo appearance in Casablanca. I studied the scene where he is alleged to be lurking and, yes, there are one or two frames there where an extra who's smoking a cigarette does look somewhat like Mr. Benny...but then the guy turns and you can see it's not him. Here — take a look for yourself. You may want to view this full screen...
So I say that ain't him. Still, there is this ad, issued at the time, which challenges moviegoers to spot where in the movie Jack Benny can be seen. And some folks have also found newspaper articles of the day which claim he was in the film, not as that cigarette-smoking guy but as a waiter. Here's one of them...
Chicago Sun, February 21, 1943, p. 32, c. 2:
Jack Benny Background for Bogart
Jack Benny is in Chicago and he will do his broadcast tonight from a local studio. He is also to be seen, unheralded, in the picture "Casablanca" which has been moved to the Garrick Theater for a third week's run in the Loop.
Benny went stage-hopping at the Burbank studio recently and visited the "Casablanca" set at the time Michael Curtiz was directing a café scene featuring Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart. There were about 50 extras seated at the small tables and a number of waiters scurrying about.
There's where you'll see Benny, among the waiters. He borrowed a white coat from one of them and appears in the background all during the scene.
It is also worth noting that in all his appearances, including the time he parodied Casablanca on his own show, Jack Benny never mentioned a cameo in the movie. You'd think he would have mentioned it on some talk show or somewhere. So what's the deal here? Obviously, there are several possibilities...
Benny is in the movie but he's dressed as a waiter in some other place that no one has identified. This is tough to believe because it was apparently possible to spot him in a movie theater when the film was first released. Casablanca has been screened and seen an awful lot since then without (apparently) anyone saying, "Hey! There's Jack Benny!"
Benny was at one point in the movie but his scene was cut and the folks who made up the press kit didn't know it or maybe he was cut at the last minute after the press kit was produced. Also not likely. If that had happened, you can almost bet the contents of Jack's vault that he'd have mined that fact for laughs, saying things like, "Warner Brothers cut me out of Casablanca, one of the greatest movies ever made! I begged them to cut me out of The Horn Blows at Midnight but would they do that?"
Benny was never in the movie and someone at Warners decided that as a sales gimmick, they'd put out that ad and maybe people would go see the film, perhaps repeatedly, to try and spot Jack Benny. This doesn't seem all that likely to me because they'd have had to tell theater owners that it was a hoax and most of them would have feared it would engender ill will from patrons who felt duped.
Benny was never in the movie but someone at Warners misheard something or was misinformed so they put out press releases and arranged the little contest ad, thinking he was in there. This also doesn't sound likely to me but it sounds more likely than any of the other unlikely possibilities.
...and that's all I can come up with. In any event, I've decided that until and unless someone shows me a still or a couple of consecutive frames that look like Jack Benny in Casablanca, I'm going to assume Jack Benny was not in Casablanca. Won't you join me in this assumption?
Here's composer-director Bruce Kimmel and a fine cast (Alet Taylor, Susanne Blakeslee, Paul Haber, Ryan Raftery, and Tammy Minoff) with a mash-up of The Sound of Music and Assassins...
January 9, 2010
