Late Night News

Late Night with David Letterman debuted on NBC on February 1, 1982. It later turned into Late Night with Conan O'Brien and then Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and now it's Late Night with Seth Meyers. I think those were/are four pretty good shows. I haven't linked lately to one of Seth's "A Closer Look" segments but I think most of them are excellent.

Next week is the fortieth anniversary of Late Night and Meyers has David Letterman as his guest for that episode…and it wouldn't surprise me to see one or both of the others make an appearance. Fallon's working in the same building. Why would he not drop by?

The announcements say it's the episode for Tuesday, February 1. This gets us back to something that used to bug me in the Letterman days. I wanted to record every broadcast of the show on my VHS recorder but that recorder had an option to take a "season pass" for each each episode on individual days and it had an option to record a show Monday through Friday…but in my time zone, as with most, Late Night was not on Monday through Friday.

It starts after Midnight so it's on Tuesday through Saturday…and that VCR had no option for that. So I could either set five separate season passes — one for each night — or a Monday through Friday pass plus another one for Saturday, then I'd just delete whatever it recorded Monday morning at 12:30 AM.

Yeah, I know. Not the biggest problem in the world. But often when they referred to the episode that would air Wednesday night, it was the one that was technically on Thursday morning.

Right now, my TiVo says that the episode for Tuesday, February 1 features Ike Barinholtz, Bridget Everett and Hayley Brownell. There's no programming information yet for the show that — according to TiVo — airs Wednesday, February 2 but I think that's the one with Letterman. It may feel like Tuesday night when it airs but to TiVo, it's Wednesday morning…I think.

Speaking of late night TV: Howie Mandel, like everyone these days, has a podcast and his guest this week is Jay Leno. Howie is quite adamant that Leno was unfairly criticized for "stealing" The Tonight Show from Letterman and later for doing something treacherous to O'Brien. I happen to share these viewpoints. Howie almost scolds Jay for not doing a better job defending himself and it makes for an interesting discussion…if you're still interested in that kind of thing. If you are, you can listen to it here.