LAWRENCE, Kan. – Who knew it would take over 15 years for the chinks in NBC’s late night armor to show? Indeed, what goes around seems to be coming around for the network that once branded itself “America’s Late Night Leader.”
It’s becoming clear that the decisions NBC made in 1991 set the stage for the giant mess currently waiting at its doorstep.
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Here are portions of the June 12 episode of “Smokey and the Bear,” when I weighed in on the David Letterman-Sarah Palin fiasco:
This whole thing about David Letterman and Sarah Palin. Basically, my opinion is this.
David Letterman made a few jokes the other night about Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin’s daughter. He was intending the jokes to be about the 18-year-old who had a baby that, by the way, Sarah Palin’s husband on an interview on the Today show referred to–with his daughter and baby in hand. He’s sitting next to his 18-year-old daughter, who’s holding her baby, and he refers to the baby as “a mistake.” Right there. I’m like, Jesus, what an awful grandfather! My grandparents have had their moments over the years, but I don’t think they ever called me a mistake–at least, not that I knew of. Same with my parents. But either way, it’s just like. What a jackass!
LAWRENCE, Kan. – This evening Jay Leno finishes his 17-year tenure at The Tonight Show, and it’s hard not to think of the events that have transpired since or those leading up to him getting the job. Either way, I certainly won’t be losing sleep over what to do now that Conan O’Brien is taking over. It’s simple: I’ll watch David Letterman.
Sure, I’ve been a fan of the Late Show since I was in 5th grade. For a while I loved the show for reasons I couldn’t even articulate at the time. But there was definitely something. After attending a taping in 2007, I finally figured it out. Letterman and his staff are simply smarter than the folks on the other coast.
LAWRENCE, Kan. – After three years of coming close, MTV has finally taken one last plunge toward ruining the last shred of its original self. The cable network’s long-running Video Music Awards took a nose dive Sunday night with drastic changes to format and location, not to mention a level of payoff-less manufactured hype that would make Fox chief Rupert Murdoch blush.
After introducing the VMAs in 1984, only three years after the network’s inception, the awards grew to become a legitimate event with actual awards, known for memorable performances and surprise appearances. More recently, the show became a rare break in MTV’s schedule of non-music-related programming to pay homage to the very form that put it on the map. From time to time, there might have even been some actual anticipation of who would win the unique Moonman statues. But all that has changed.
ROSWELL, Ga. — After a series of poor live programming decisions by MTV, such as the Live 8 debacle, the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and Video Music Awards, and the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show, the cable network seems to be headed back on the right track for the upcoming Video Music Awards.
For the second straight year the show will be on a Sunday at the American Airlines Arena after having been held on Thursdays for the past several years in either New York or Los Angeles at various locations, including Radio City Music Hall, New York’s Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center and the Universal Amphitheatre.