Jay Leno is a class act and an excellent comedian. He ended his run on “The Tonight Show” on the highest note possible. It made me excited about his new 10 p.m. show, look forward to Conan’s takeover and truly appreciate how wonderful “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno has been.
When I have expressed my love for late night talk shows, more often than not, I hear this response: “I’ve never liked those kinds of shows.” How can this be?! Are most people usually in bed by 11:35 p.m.? What else would someone be watching at this hour – reruns, Lifetime movies, “Parental Control” on MTV?
Perhaps the reason why I have come to love Jay and Conan is due to insomnia. If I’m ever up past 11:35 p.m., and I usually am, “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night” were always on. I know that watching TV only makes it more difficult to fall asleep and late night television certainly never helped me to finally drift off; if anything, it made me want to stay awake for just a little bit longer. I was really tired but Jay was going to have (insert name of almost any celebrity here) on as his first guest! If I stayed up to watch that first guest, I may as well stay up to see Conan’s monologue! This ruined my productivity the next morning more times than I can count. It has been an almost-nightly ritual ever since I finally attained my own personal Christmas holy grail, the equivalent to Ralphie’s Red Ryder BB Gun, in 1998: my very own television set for my bedroom. In regard to my insomnia, it was a bad choice, but in all other respects, I’m thankful for my sleepless nights. Without them, I wouldn’t have seen many wonderful films (like “The Shining” at 4 a.m.) and I wouldn’t know the joys of late night television.
Jay will be back in September and I wonder what will stay and what will go, and if his new gig will last (and if I will have a job by September). I hope Jay continues to do his one-liners about the economy – an homage to the late, great Rodney Dangerfield – because it has become a highlight of his show in recent months. I hope he does Headlines, too.
Conan, Jay’s last guest, previewed his bit about a focus group that was selected to test his act on an older audience, which some believe will be an issue in his transition from 12:35 to 11:35. A Hollywood special effects artist made him look like a completely different person so that he could sit in on the focus group and hear their feedback firsthand and uncensored. Hilarity most definitely ensues. The rest will air during his first week at “The Tonight Show.” Also, I loved that he and Jay discussed the LA paparazzi that stand outside with their video cameras waiting for celebrities to come out and then ask them the most asinine questions. Conan said it was like talking to an aunt at Christmas that you don’t know very well – I loved his “aunt” imitation.
