Category Archives: TV

Tammy Crotty (great name) writes to ask…

I know you're probably getting many emails asking this, but what do you think Jay Leno should do? I read your post suggesting NBC give Leno back The Tonight Show, but do you think Jay can possibly accept it and not be drawn and quartered by the critics? Won't he further ruin his already tarnished reputation? I'm an extremely huge fan of Jay's, and that's why I don't think he can stay at NBC and save face.

Jay's always been drawn and quartered by the critics. He's one of the most underestimated performers in the history of television. I mean, there are those who don't find him funny and that's never going to change. But I'm amazed how often I've heard that he would crash and burn and couldn't possibly attract a viewership. They said he'd never get The Tonight Show in the first place. Then when he did, they said the ratings would drop so much, NBC would dump him in 13 weeks. When that didn't happen and Letterman then went up against them, they said Jay'd be back working the Comedy Store full-time in six months. That time, it looked like they were right…but he only failed for a while, and only in the sense that Dave got higher numbers. Jay's ratings, even in second place, were never bad. I don't think he ever got below a 3.5 or so, whereas when Letterman's numbers started plunging, he dropped for a time to around 2.8.

Those are total viewer numbers. When Jay started beating Dave in total viewers, his critics said he'd never best Letterman in the younger demographic. Then he started beating Dave in the younger demographic and kept winning the time slot by every possible measure for something like thirteen years…including many periods when NBC's entire prime time schedule was in the dumpster. When you look at Leno's track record, it makes a wee bit more sense that the network was willing to gamble with him at 10 PM and doesn't want to let him go. (It, of course, makes less sense that they were willing to shove him aside for Conan…)

What should he do? Well, if he goes back on at 11:35, which is what some sources are saying is a done deal, he'd better do a damn better show than he did at 10:00. I even thought the bits he carried over and his monologue were weaker on the earlier show than they'd usually been on Tonight. I would hope the lesson of 10:00 would not just be that Jay doesn't work in that time slot but that viewers aren't all that wild about Jay Walking, The Battle of the Jay Walk All-Stars, all those faceless "correspondents," etc. The guy needs to reinvent his show again but I have the ominous hunch the opposite will happen. Someone will say, "Let's go back to what worked" and they'll attempt to restore the old show with a slightly new gloss.

Ultimately, if Jay can make The Tonight Show #1 again in its time slot, he'll be a hero and fewer people will say that Conan was horribly wronged by the switcheroo. My gut tells me that's not possible…but then I look at his track record and I wonder if my gut is just underestimating him, as so many other guts have.

If you'd like to read some nice press on Jay, read this. And I'll bet we're about to see Leno doing the "other talk show" circuit, admitting the 10 PM show was a mistake and saying how sorry he is that it worked out as it did for Conan. He may even be, for all I know. At least he knows what it's like to be shoved off The Tonight Show because a guy with lower ratings wanted it. It's happened to him twice now.

The latest is that Jeff Zucker is allegedly threatening to keep Conan O'Brien "off the air for 3-and-a-half years" if Conan won't go along with the plan to host The Tonight Show at 12:05. That ain't gonna happen. At the time Zucker said it, assuming he said it, there was perhaps a chance it would scare O'Brien into compliance…but that statement Conan released has probably killed that possibility. Having taken the stance he took in it, it would be too embarrassing for Mr. O'Brien to now say, "Okay…on second thought, hosting Tonight at 12:05 is a great idea." Killing off that possibility is probably the main reason he issued the statement, along with trying to spin things so the story will be not that Conan O'Brien took over The Tonight Show and failed, but that NBC undermined him and reneged.

So Conan can't go to 12:05 without being humiliated…and Zucker can't back down on putting Leno in at 11:35 without being humiliated. Sounds to me like Conan's going elsewhere, and if the Zucker threat is true, it therefore becomes a negotiating stance, designed to get more favorable terms in the divorce.

One might also assume that NBC isn't wild about putting Conan O'Brien on the air every night so he can trash the network. So far, the jokes haven't been too painful, especially since the newsworthiness of it all is boosting Tonight Show ratings. I doubt it will come to this but there are probably discussions over at NBC about what to do if their star gets so insulting that they feel the need to yank him off the air. That would sure be a mess. Unless Conan voluntarily took a leave of absence, no one of any note would take the assignment, especially if it meant working with Conan's crew.

Mr. Zucker is getting pretty soundly trashed in the press these days…and if he's the one who actually made all the decisions attributed to him, he probably deserves trashing. I'm only hesitant because guys in his position sometimes wind up taking responsibility for moves that are forced on them by those at higher levels. No doubt the decision to move Conan now, rather than to give him a few more months to prove himself, was dictated in part by forces beyond Zucker's resistance. I'm not saying NBC didn't err mightily but in these situations, there's often a tendency to dump the blame on one guy. This was more than a one-man screw-up. In fact, it was more than one screw-up, starting back when they engineered the deal to forcibly shove Leno aside for O'Brien.

I'm still skeptical that Fox would give Conan the kind of long-term commitment he oughta have if he's going to flee to that venue. One of the major factors getting lost in all the gossip is that NBC was disappointed with Conan's ratings as host of The Tonight Show. Yes, it takes time to perfect a format and to build an audience and I think he should have had more opportunity. On the other hand, it's not like he was starting from zero, trying to create a new show out of nothing and staff it while he learned how to host a talk show. He's right that he suffered because of weak lead-ins…but you can almost hear Jay privately saying, "Hey, I had crummy lead-ins for seventeen years and I was never in third place."

Conan is a very talented guy and he's going to find a place where he can do a show for a long, long time. Apparently, it's not going to be NBC. Maybe it'll be Fox. If I were running HBO or Showtime, I'd sure consider loading a truck full of currency and seeing if he'd do a show for us. I'd put it on Monday through Friday, live and completely uncensored…and at 10 PM every night so he wasn't competing with Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jay Leno or David Letterman. It probably won't happen but wouldn't that be interesting?

I was in a recording studio today working when someone came in and said Conan O'Brien has declared war on NBC, releasing a statement saying that he would not under any circumstances do The Tonight Show at 12:05 following The Jay Leno Show. Most of the news stories are saying that, as well. But when I read the statement, I found it to be somewhat less harsh than the headlines are making it out to be. I know you've probably read it elsewhere but here it is again, just for convenience…

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I've been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I've been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I've been absurdly lucky. That said, I've been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over "The Tonight Show" in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004, I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my "Tonight Show" in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the "Tonight Show" to 12:05 to accommodate the "Jay Leno Show" at 11:35. For 60 years, the "Tonight Show" has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the "Tonight Show" into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The "Tonight Show" at 12:05 simply isn't the "Tonight Show." Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the "Late Night" show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard, and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of "The Tonight Show." But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet, a time slot doesn't matter. But with the "Tonight Show," I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it's always been that way.

Yours,
Conan

The part about Jimmy Fallon strikes me as if not disingenuous then a bit off-mark. Fallon's show isn't doing all that well and a shake-up with regard to what comes before him might just be his best shot at survival. Even if NBC decided to leave Conan at 11:35, they could still decide to replace Fallon with something more promising.

But the rest of Conan's statement probably left NBC wondering how much is sincere and how much is an attempt to gain negotiating leverage. Meetings 'twixt NBC execs and Conan's reps are said to be going on at this very moment…and if Conan's folks walked in the door and said, "Conan either stays at 11:35 or he walks," well, that might be a very short meeting.

I'm still skeptical of how O'Brien would do at 11 PM on Fox, especially since that would put him up against The Daily Show and The Colbert Report in most markets. They wouldn't beat him since he'd have better clearances but they might shave off a lot of viewers in his favored demographic. I like Conan but I don't see another place on the schedule of any major network where I'd bet money on his success. One online article I read wondered if ABC would dump Nightline and move Jimmy Kimmel later to make room for O'Brien. Dump the number one show in that time slot in favor of the guy finishing in third place? Even with Conan's "younger viewer" advantage, that doesn't sound likely to me.

So there's a lot that's unknown here. But one thing I can say for sure: Tonight's monologues are going to be interesting. I think I'm most looking forward to Craig Ferguson's. He's the one guy in this whole job description who looks reasonably secure.

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 commitment 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 time slot. 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.

Dick Cavett recalls a particularly annoying interview.

Nikki Finke says "On tonight's monologue, Jay Leno sounds upset, even going so far to say he has 'trust' issues with NBC right now." I watched it and he didn't sound upset to me. He sounded like a comic who was happy he had some good lines about a bad situation. The "trust" line was one of them. It's called a joke.

She says the new configuration — Jay for a half-hour at 11:35 followed by The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien for an hour at 12:05 — is not a done deal; that both Jay and Conan are resisting. That's probably true but I suspect they're resisting to try and get better terms and concessions, and that neither has a strong hope of keeping their current positions.

As I said earlier, the key to whether the rumors of Jay's 10 PM show ending were true would be if NBC was asking suppliers to pitch replacement shows for that time slot. That's apparently happening…so there you have it: The end of the big prime time experiment. Those who were hoping it would flop so they could sell shows in that time slot or find jobs on those shows may now rejoice. And let's all see what happens tomorrow. This is fun.

Unnamed sources are saying that NBC has made or is about to make the decision to cancel The Jay Leno Show. Given the hostile reaction from affiliates to its impact on their 11 PM newscasts, this does not come as a great surprise. It would be more of a surprise if NBC has something promising to replace it with.

I am always a bit wary of rumors from within any network. Many years ago, I was in a meeting with Fred Silverman. This was back when he was running NBC. The topic was a Saturday morning show with which I was to be involved and in the conversation, someone asked about our time slot, and would we have a certain other show as our lead-in? Fred said, "Don't worry about that show. It's a piece of crap and I'm cancelling it." Well, that's a pretty good "source," right? I mean, Fred was the guy who cancelled shows at NBC.

That very evening, a friend of mine who worked on that show called and said, "Hey, I have an offer to go do another series for CBS but I think we're going to get picked up so I'm turning it down." Naturally, I told my friend what Mr. Silverman had said. Naturally, he thanked me and took the offer for the CBS show. And unnaturally, a week or so later, Fred renewed the show he'd said he was going to cancel. I think my friend still believes I lied to him or at least misunderstood. Anyway, I always keep that in mind when I hear a rumor out of any network, especially one with no source attached.

For what little it may be worth, what I've been hearing out of the Leno program for the last month or so was that they were trying to fix it, trying to launch "The Jay Leno Show 2.0," as one person put it with new segments, new correspondents, etc. But apart from a minor tweak of the opening, I haven't seen anything change. Admittedly, I haven't been watching much. I'm still a fan of Mr. Leno but most nights, I find myself bailing after the monologue or sometimes the first bit, if I even watch at all. The program just has a cheap, "forced" feel to it and even elements that worked well on his Tonight Show seem strained to me. The Green Car Challenge especially feels like they know it's a bore but they spent all that money building the raceway so they feel they have to use it.

The earlier rumor out of the network was that they were going to cut Jay back to three nights a week and drop in two hours of Dateline NBC. That hasn't happened either, probably because it's not a solution to their problem…just a way of making Leno's show cost more per night.

Jay's numbers were actually up a bit last month, probably because he was against a lot of reruns or otherwise weak competition. Still, the underlying premise of the experiment — that it could still be profitable in that hour and not hurt affiliates' local news — remains unproven and likely to remain that way. My guess is that if there's anything to the current rumors, it's that the network has decided they'll never prove it and they're quietly asking suppliers to pitch shows that can run at 10 PM. If that's the case, it won't stay quiet for long.

This is for those of you interested in the late night shows on your teevee. For almost as long as there's been an Internet, a lady named Sue Trowbridge has been compiling the guest lists in advance and putting them on this webpage as a public service. I don't know her at all but I gather she runs an independent record label and also designs peachy websites. Her Late Night Lineups page has proven very handy for me and it may help you out, too.

I never particularly liked the original half-hour Let's Make a Deal with Monty Hall. Too thin in "game," too condescending to its contestants and audience. Wayne Brady, who I usually find funny and entertaining, is hosting a new hour-long version and I figured I'd give it a couple tries. Maybe, I thought, they've put some meat on the format…and at least the host will be worth watching, right? Well, no.

I don't much like the Wayne Brady version and I sure get the feeling that Wayne isn't too wild about it, either. I've never met the man and have heard no buzz about his off-screen attitude. But on-screen, he sure looks like when he finishes each episode, he tells the producer, "Okay, I did another one. Gimme my check and let me outta here." Maybe the first version worked because Monty never seemed like he could do anything else…or maybe it was because he owned the show. Either way, it seemed to matter to him. He connected with the traders and also with his announcer and prize model.

The game itself is pretty much the same as it ever was. They've jazzed it up a bit with elements not unlike The Price is Right, which strikes me as exactly the wrong way to go. Price is Right follows Deal on most stations, making for a two-hour block of a format that's already gotten so stale you could fry it in butter and sell it as a giant crouton. But the odd thing about the new Deal is that they seem to have forgotten that the star of that show was always the money and big prizes. The new one has tepid prizes and a lot of zonks. At the end, they still have The Big Deal behind which is (allegedly) the most dazzling thing-someone-might-win of the day…but the prizes aren't all that grand; not in an era where giveaway shows give away millions. And instead of two players picking from the three doors, which was how it worked in the Monty days, only one gets to select. That means there's a 66.6% chance each day that the show ends on a losing note and a thud.

It's better than the last revival of Let's Make a Deal, which was a prime-time mess, and CBS is said to be satisfied with its ratings. They're down somewhat from the soap opera programming that used to inhabit that hour, but the costs are a lot lower…and that's the way that game is played these days. It's just a shame to see Wayne Brady waste his talents…and also to see that the first time in many, many years that a network decided to schedule a new game show, all they could come up with was a new low money version of an old big money program.

James Warren covers a panel discussion with Stephen Colbert. Lots of insights and even some truthiness.

I haven't mentioned this project lately for your own good…because if you start watching, you'll never do anything else with your life. But there's thing called the Archive of American Television, which is compiling a series of oral histories of the TV business. They've quizzed hundreds of performers, producers, directors, writers…even Bob Hope's cue card guy, and these are in-depth interviews, many of which run three or four hours.

If you'd like to view these videos, it's not difficult. You just have to fly out here to Los Angeles, make an appointment and go into the Academy headquarters where a nice lady will escort you to a private listening room and allow you to watch and take notes…and the first part of this paragraph is a lie. That would be worth the effort but as it happens, you can watch them on your home computer from the comfort of whatever chair you're sitting in at this moment. They don't have them all online yet but they have enough to keep you occupied for months. Wanna watch four hours of Bill Melendez telling the history of his career and how they made all them Charlie Brown specials? You're one click away from it.

If you're not interested in Bill, you can watch an interview with Andy Ackerman, Berle Adams, Edie Adams, Robert Adler, Alan Alda, Kay Alden, Steve Allen, Charlie Andrews, Army Archerd, James Arness, Beatrice Arthur, Edward Asner, Larry Auerbach, Rick Baker, Bob Banner, Joseph Barbera, Paris Barclay, Bob Barker, Cliff Barrows, William Bell, Ted Bergmann, Milton Berle, Rick Berman, Walter Bernstein, Lewis Bernstein, Barbara Billingsley, Wade Bingham, William Blinn, Lucille Bliss, Steven Bochco, Paul Bogart, Haskell Boggs, Mili Lerner Bonsignori, Ernest Borgnine, Tom Bosley, Peter Boyle, Ed Bradley, Bernie Brillstein, David Brinkley, James L. Brooks, Kirk Browning, Frances Buss Buch, Allan Burns, Ken Burns, James Burrows, LeVar Burton, Robert Butler, Sid Caesar, Dann Cahn, Stephen J. Cannell, George Carlin, Diahann Carroll, Leo Chaloukian, Marge Champion, Cyd Charisse, Glen Charles, Les Charles, Julia Child, Roy Christopher, Dick Clark, Kevin Clash, Tim Conway, Joan Ganz Cooney, Hal Cooper, Barbara Corday, Fred De Cordova, Bob Costas, Alexander Courage, Richard Crenna, Walter Cronkite, Robert Culp, Bill Daily, Bill Dana, Michael Dann, Bob Carroll Jr., Ossie Davis, Ann B. Davis, Madelyn Pugh Davis, Ruby Dee, Sam Denoff, Phyllis Diller, Walter Dishell, Roy E. Disney, Elinor Donahue, Phil Donahue, Sam Donaldson, Richard Donner, David Dortort, Mike Douglas, Hugh Downs, Charles Dubin, Betty Cole Dukert, Dick Van Dyke, Roger Ebert, Barbara Eden, Michael Eisner, Ruth Engelhardt, Nanette Fabray, Jerry Falwell, Elma Farnsworth, Barbara Feldon, Norman Felton, Mike Fenton, Dorothy Fontana, Tom Fontana, June Foray, John Forsythe, Michael J. Fox, Charles Fox, Fred Foy, John Frankenheimer, Dennis Franz, Albert Freedman, Chuck Fries, James Garner, Betty Garrett, Tony Geiss, Larry Gelbart, Marla Gibbs, Sharon Gless, Leonard H. Goldenson, Jerry Goldsmith, Andy Griffith, Robert Guillaume, Earle Hagen, Larry Hagman, Monty Hall, Valerie Harper, Patricia Heaton, Dwight Hemion, Sherman Hemsley, Florence Henderson, Paul Henning, Don Hewitt, Ron Howard, Russell Johnson, Quincy Jones, Shirley Jones, Chuck Jones, Earl Hamner Jr., Hal Kanter, Bob Keeshan, Lynwood King, William Klages, Jack Klugman, Don Knotts, Harvey Korman, Marty Krofft, Mort Lachman, Perry Lafferty, Angela Lansbury, Jack Larson, Norman Lear, Jack Lemmon, Sheldon Leonard, Jerry Lewis, Frank Liberman, William Link, Art Linkletter, Charles Lisanby, Sidney Lumet, Bob Mackie, Gavin MacLeod, Robert MacNeil, Martin Manulis, Sonia Manzano, Rose Marie, Bob Markell, Garry Marshall, E.G. Marshall, Richard Matheson, Rue McClanahan, Bob McGrath, Jim McKay, Ed McMahon, Barney McNulty, Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, Burt Metcalfe, Newton N. Minow, Don Mischer, Vic Mizzy, John Moffitt, Ricardo Montalban, Leslie Moonves, Mary Tyler Moore, Rita Moreno, Harry Morgan, Pat Morita, Sheila Nevins, Bob Newhart, Leonard Nimoy, Agnes Nixon, Carroll O'Connor, Hugh O'Brian, Don Pardo, Fess Parker, Regis Philbin, Suzanne Pleshette, Abraham Polonsky, Mike Post, Tom Poston, David Pressman, Tony Randall, Joyce Randolph, Phylicia Rashad, Frances Reid, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Del Reisman, Gene Reynolds, Rita Riggs, Pat Robertson, Cliff Robertson, Fred Rogers, Phil Roman, Andy Rooney, Meta Rosenberg, Marion Ross, Aaron Ruben, Tim Russert, Thomas Del Ruth, Morley Safer, Soupy Sales, Jay Sandrich, Isabel Sanford, Thomas W. Sarnoff, Bob Schiller, Arthur Schneider, Sherwood Schwartz, Jan Scott, William Self, William Shatner, Sidney Sheldon, James Sheldon, Fred Silverman, Doris Singleton, Erika Slezak, Bob Smith, Dick Smith, The Smothers Brothers, John Soh, Aaron Spelling, Carroll Spinney, Daniel Petrie Sr., Lesley Stahl, Jean Stapleton, Herbert Stempel, Leonard Stern, Bob Stewart, Dick Stiles, Jerry Stiller, Gale Storm, Maxine Stuart, George Takei, Noel Taylor, Studs Terkel, Grant Tinker, Mel Tolkin, Daniel J. Travanti, Ted Turner, Ret Turner, James Wall, Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters, Joseph A. Wapner, Ruth Warrick, Dennis Weaver, Bob Weiskopf, Joseph Wershba, Betty White, Joseph M. Wilcots, Andy Williams, Ethel Winant, Henry Winkler, Jonathan Winters, Dick Wolf, Ben Wolf, David Wolper, Jane Wyatt or Alan Young. And there are more to come.

See anyone there you're interested in? Go to this page…but before you do, say goodbye to your friends and loved ones. Because they'll never see you again.

Want to see great comedians not at their best? Tonight, Turner Classic Movies is giving you a couple of opportunities.

At 3:30 AM — check your schedule to make sure it's not different where you are — they're running The Horn Blows at Midnight, the 1945 movie that Jack Benny always claimed ended his movie career. It's kind of a silly fantasy and it's far from prime Benny…but it isn't awful. The film became a running gag on his radio show and later, his TV program. They did jokes about catching wanted criminals and, as punishment, making them sit through The Horn Blows at Midnight. It's nowhere near that gruesome and much of it is quite delightful, plus it has Margaret Dumont in a rare non-Marx appearance. Well worth seeing once.

TCM is following that with Block-Heads, a 1938 Laurel & Hardy comedy that for a time, looked like the end of their movie careers, too. It's a short (less than an hour) feature that like many of their pictures, starts out as one movie and then changes premises mid-stream. At the outset, it reminds one of two earlier Harry Langdon military comedies, The Strong Man and Soldier Man…and that may be because Langdon was one of the writers on Block-Heads. So that may be where the plot about Laurel being a World War I vet came from.

But wherever it came from, it quickly disappears. The movie suddenly turns into a remake of one of the umpteen films Stan and Ollie did where a jealous husband walks in on an innocent scene between his wife and Laurel and/or Hardy and thinks there's hanky-panky in progress. As much as I love The Boys, I never warmed to those storylines and this one is more contrived than most. Still, they were at their peak as comedic performers…and their peak was, to me, higher than anyone else's ever. So in spite of the plot, they're wonderful to watch.

Alas, audiences didn't concur when Block-Heads was previewed before audiences. The reaction showed that some rewriting, refilming and further editing were needed. That was not unusual — they did some of that on most of their movies after the first previews — but this time, it was more difficult. Mr. Laurel was having problems in his personal life and he disappeared and was unavailable. Not only was his expertise in comedy writing and editing absent but so was his body. How do you do reshoots on a Laurel & Hardy film without Laurel? The folks at the studio whipped up a few new brief scenes with Mr. Hardy and filmed a whole new end gag (actually, a repeat of one from an earlier film) using stand-ins.

The movie was, from all reports, improved…and yes, I know. A lot of Laurel & Hardy fans consider the end-product one of their best efforts. But I don't and it's my weblog so that's what it's going to say here…though I hasten to point out again that even Laurel and Hardy at their worst is worth watching. And this is far from their worst.

As I said, it was also (almost) their last. Hal Roach's contract to release Laurel & Hardy movies through MGM had ended and Laurel was in absentia. This led to the announcement that the team was kaput. Here's a news item that ran at the time…

Langdon's movie career had declined to the point where he was working as a gagman for Laurel & Hardy. There's some question among historians about how serious Roach and his associates were about creating a Langdon & Hardy team. It seems to have been more of a publicity stunt and a threat to get Mr. Laurel to behave. In any case, the next movie Oliver Hardy made — Zenobia — did not have Laurel and in it and did have Langdon though they were in no sense an on-screen team…just two actors in the same movie.

By the time they filmed Zenobia, Laurel had dealt with his problems and was ready to get back to work. What stopped him was that he and Hardy had always had separate contracts with the Hal Roach Studio, expiring at different times. This seriously limited their negotiating strength since when one's deal was up, that person couldn't credibly threaten to take his partner and go to another studio. Laurel decided to wait until Hardy's current pact was over and thereafter, they would sign only as a team. While waiting for that to happen, Hardy appeared in Zenobia, and audiences shrugged. Nice enough…but they didn't want Oliver without Stanley. Roach then made a deal with United Artists to release more Laurel & Hardy movies and another deal with those men as a unit and that's pretty much the history. Don't let anything I've written here stop you from watching Block-Heads. Like I always say, even weak Laurel & Hardy is better than no Laurel & Hardy.

Lewis Black has a new special on the History Channel (of all places) and it begins airing tonight. It's called Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black. I have no idea if it's any good but hey, it's Lewis Black. Here's the schedule on when it airs.

Fifty years ago today, the first episode of Rocky and His Friends was broadcast on ABC Television. The show would later be known by other names and in other permutations — The Bullwinkle Show, The Rocky Show, Rocky & Bullwinkle, etc. — but it was Rocky and His Friends when it started on November 19, 1959.

I think I was watching that afternoon. I remember discovering the show and being excited about having a new cartoon to watch. At age seven, I was already weary of seeing some of the same cartoons over and over and over and over…so anything different was exciting. I don't think I appreciated at the time how wonderful the show was or would turn out to be. That took time…but that was okay because the show was timeless.

Working with or just being around June Foray, I've really come to appreciate how beloved the series was and is. She can't go anywhere without folks throwing out their favorite lines of dialogue or telling her their favorite Fractured Fairy Tale. It's not just "That was a good show." It's more like "Some of my happiest childhood moments…" or "My whole sense of humor…" or "My desire to become a writer [or artist] came from that series!"

This article celebrates Rocky and Bullwinkle reaching the big five-oh. I'm not sure there will be a lot of others but we know what today means. 11/19/59 was the day television — and therefore, eventually, the nation — got a little hipper.