The instrument has yet to be invented which can measure my indifference

[captainsblog]

Somewhere in beautiful downtown Burbank yesterday afternoon, and all over America at 12:30 or so eastern and pacific time, came the overwhelming sound of a studio full of one hands clapping. An era ended, and nobody cared, so did it make a sound?

I have yet to see one reference on my usually attuned Friendslist to the occasion of Jay Leno's departure from the Tonight Show last night. No tears, no nostalgia for all those nights we let him come into our living room. In seventeen years, the biggest effect he left on the American public was ennui.

I doubt if I watched him more than a handful of times in all those years, nor did I ever get the sense that I'd missed anything. How unlike the career and departure of his predecessor. Johnny was the third permanent host of the Tonight Show, but he was the Tonight Show. In most peoples' minds, I suspect, he still is, going on two decades after his retirement and more than four after his death.  People still know the references to Carnac and Art Fern and "sis boom baa" and the critters from the San Diego Zoo peeing on his expensive suit. What did Leno contribute to popular culture in those years other than a chin?  I rarely stayed up late to watch Johnny, either, but everyone "got" those references, long before the Internet and video recorders were there to preserve everyones' fifteen minutes, deserved or not.

In all those years, Carson never went on his successor's show. As the book and HBO film about the late-night wars described it, Leno's manager and schemer-diva Helen Kushnick desperately wanted a "handover" show for Leno, where Johnny would symbolically pass the mike to his successor. Carson wouldn't do it, and the final two shows he did do- a final "regular" one with Robin Williams and, famously, Bette Midler, then a format-breaker with just nostalgia and an ending tribute to his colleagues and audience- made you forget, and prepared you to regret, the guy coming in the next week.

Yet who was in Leno's guest chair, getting the formal handover last night? Triumph the Comic Insult Successor. He was always treated very decently by the last guy he succeeded; we'll see if he returns the favor now that they're both on at the same time.

And yeah, I know. Leno almost always out-rated the competition, but in those same years, the American people voted for a lying philanderer once and an idiot twice before, finally, enough of a new generation came forward to do a bit better this past time. They also preserved reality show drek over quality like Firefly and Pushing Daisies, so I'd consider the source before trying to place a permanent crown on that chin of his.

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OOH! OOH! Don't forget that the final episodes of Pushing Daisies begin airing tonight! At 10:00 eastern. Gee, wouldn't it be weird if the ratings somehow went through the roof for these?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I've got Daisies on the DVR. These last few episodes are going to be awesome.

Not a huge Leno fan, but I did occasionally tune in for some of the interviews and "Headlines" on Mondays.

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

Jay never had the connection with the people that Johnny had. Conan is even worse. I would've give my left pinky toe for the Tonight Show gig to have gone to Craig Ferguson -- a funny guy that also has a heart (he refused to make fun of Britney Spears due to his own struggle with drugs and alcohol).

Firefly...how I miss it...esp. Jayne.