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I suppose we all get the Liza Minnellis that our generations deserve.

Turns out Matthew McConaughey was/is a big Exit 57 fan (!), and got Colbert to do one of the skits with him

David Letterman to host a six episode hourlong interview show for Netflix

“I feel excited and lucky to be working on this project for Netflix,” Letterman said. “Here’s what I have learned, if you retire to spend more time with your family, check with your family first. Thanks for watching, drive safely.”

Speaking of Letterman, he was on The Howard Stern Show today for the first time in years, and the interview was lengthy and candid. Total surprise to me and an absolute pleasure to listen to.

I hope it includes musical performances - I remember the weeks when I was in high school and The White Stripes and The Strokes would guest all week very fondly and can never find decent video of those performances

Glad we'll finally be able to see the full original version of the first Clive Clemmons' Inappropriate Response Channel "clip". And all those UCB skits!

I hope something can be done with Letterman's archive. AFAIK Worldwide Pants just owns the CBS archive, and his Late Night shows are still with NBC.

Speaking of Conan, what about his breaking of the Late Show sacred format of American television ? A Late Show without the desk and without the costume ! Personnally I'm tired of seeing all Late Show hosts, on every network and cable, mimic the same (Carson) pattern : desk + couch + mugs + costume + monologue + fake backdrop + band + live audience (applauding on cue) + funny looking comedian... As if it was impossible to make TV any otherwise, that audience would never watch something different. It's creatively very limiting and plagiarism.

I agree it's not very creative but what else would you do? What set up would you do? What would you change? This format is used all over the world too. They do it in places like Europe, Brazil, etc. It's just how it's done. It's most certainly not plagiarism.

I like Graham Norton's format. All guests out at the same time, in questionable levels of inebriation.

Which James Corden is "plagiarizing"!

Yeah that's another gimmick I forgot in my list : one guest after another (very limited interactions between guests, if ever)

The Graham Norton's show and some shows in France, invite several guests at the same time (around a table, or on chairs without desk) so they interact, are compared, are asked to comment eachothers, they share their similar experiences.

In France we don't really have a "Late Night" show time on TV, but many hosts are copying the Late Show (especially The Daily Show) on access prime time (for maybe 10 years now) but they only copy the spirit, not the format. Their format is very different from Carson and from eachother.

There was a scandal a couple years ago about Arthur copycatting the opening credits of Craig Fergusson's Late Show (and later invited him on his show in Paris), even tho, his show [EDIT: somewhat] different technically.

Craig Fergusson tried once to change the format too (because of the strike?) : he had his guest sat on an armchair in front of his armchair in the middle of the set (no desk) and they chatted for an hour. That was cool.

Video examples of famous French Talk Shows :

Le Petit Journal (Canal +) Weekly 8pm (Cancelled) inspired by The Daily Show

Quotidien (TMC) Weekly 7pm Spin off of Le Petit Journal

Le Gros Journal (Canal +) 7pm (30min) (Cancelled)

Clique Dimanche (Canal +) Weekly Sunday 3pm Spin off of Le Gros Journal

Ce soir avec Arthur (Comedie) American Late Night set (Cancelled) inspired by Craig Ferguson

On n'est pas couché (France 2) : weekly Saturday 11pm (2 to 3h long show!) 1 host, 3 sidekicks (comedians or critics), 4 guests at once, 2 armchairs facing eachother

BenoitRouilly wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:21 pm Craig Fergusson tried once to change the format too (because of the strike?) : he had his guest sat on an armchair in front of his armchair in the middle of the set (no desk) and they chatted for an hour. That was cool.

Dick Cavett did that in the late '70's, as well. It's an interesting format if you have a good guest and host.

In Michael Ian Black's tryout for the hosting job Ferguson eventually landed, he spent the entire episode reclined while he and his guests gave blood on stage. No matter how fond people are of Ferguson, a Michael Ian Black show would have no doubt been similarly inspired on a regular basis and thus the best man did not win

I saw a couple of episodes of Dick Cavett's interviews. Was it a successful show?
So this is an existing format on American TV, why nobody copies him?

Is it available online this Michael Ian Black' clip? Sounds interesting.

I saw it live, so I'm not sure if it's circulating online. I never forgot it, though. Since the job was replacing Craig Kilborn, I think Black's smart smarminess was such a natural choice even without the great gimmick in his test balloon, but oh well

Wow you're lucky! Was it before the time when people tape everything with their smartphone and put it online?
I don't know Michael Ian Black at all.
But I like what Ferguson did to the Late Show format, and his humour, and his improv too. He was good sport when Arthur plagiarised his intro, he invited him on his show and they did a bit together. He also dropped all charges against Arthur for copyright infringement.

It's perhaps a belabored point by now, but I feel like podcasts have not only taken over that spot late night used to occupy, at least from the perspective of a need for funny and/or insightful dialogue. For the younger generations I can see them gravitating towards that more than these traditions we had for previous generations.

BenoitRouilly wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 2:56 pm I saw a couple of episodes of Dick Cavett's interviews. Was it a successful show?
So this is an existing format on American TV, why nobody copies him?

Tom Snyder used a more or less identical format on his various shows, with the occasional addition of a call-in component so viewers could ask their own questions. His last series followed Letterman's on CBS; CBS supposedly hated it and wanted to replace Snyder, but Letterman's contract gave him control of the time slot after his own show. Ferguson's show (which was in the same time slot) was closer to a conventional talk-show format, but I think there was still a lot of Snyder's show in its DNA.

flyonthewall2983 wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:04 pm I like Graham Norton's format. All guests out at the same time, in questionable levels of inebriation.

This was partly what made Carson so great.

The Carson Podcast interviewing all kinds of people associated with the show is one of the best ones out there.