Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Forget The Three Caballeros - Try The Three Idiots: O'Brien, Stewart & Colbert
Conan O'Brien - after lucking out in his selection as "the guy who'll fill the vacant seat aka total and utter void on the late night grid following David Letterman's departure for CBS", Conan from Boston came like that Cimmerian namesake of his reputedly did to whatever town he got to be crowned in, and just TOOK OVER! Well, it was ripe for the taking too - but somebody had "TO DO IT" - and, flanked by faire-valoir / straightman Andy Richter, Conan O'Brien did just that!
Now all by his lonesome self (Andy tired of his ED McMAHONish role - who wouldn't? Although getting paid to sit down and eavesdrop on other people's conversations is a GREAT GIG...! But I am digressing...) Conan is set to take over the Tonight Show, after so many years toiling on the Late Night show Letterman left behind...! He never was Letterman's heir apparent, but he is Leno's...! Network faithfulness pays off in such grand ways, does it not? :)
Truth be told, Conan has great comedic flair - but as a host, he never was a natural. He's improved with all the practice - but still...
Jon Stewart - after a first unsuccessful try at hosting a talk-show, Stewart found both his niche and a network that would give him the ideal platform for his own brand of comedic hosting... Another "unnatural host", he found that he'd be best used as a mock anchorman - and it worked! His acolyte, Colbert, started out as one of his reporters and then got his off-shot spinoff show! Both play the opinionated types of TV personalities, especially when it pertains to politics of course, but the pupil seems to have surpassed the teacher here... Of course, Colbert was never truly Stewart's pupil either...!
Stephen Colbert - not to be confused with either Rush Limbaugh (he has more hair and never had to lose that much weight in his life!) or Robert Colbert, a childhood hero of mine - from the classic Irwin Allen show, TIME TUNNEL! :)
Stephen Colbert is the prototypical pundit TV host, largely inspired by real-life characters that are just like that on their own shows, on some other networks where any comedy is only accidental comedy...! On The Colbert Report, everything funny is supposed to be just that! It,s good to know...
Colbert was a funny collaborator of Dana Carvey's ill-fated show years back - he was mainly used as a sketch actor, though he surely helped in the writing there too, as he did on Jon Stewart's show. Now at the helm of his own program, Colbert makes the most of it by somehow luring REAL hosts such as Larry King onto his show - and returning the favor too! Plus he milks it all for ALL it's worth - writing books under the guise and pen of his TV character - which he admits is a fine line away from the true him anyway...!
It's just not surprising at all the three of them got together during the umpteenth week of the dreaded WRITERS STRIKE - when even Colbert couldn't actually WRITE much on his own show, per the Writers Guild guidelines! They saw a major political event as the IDEAL stage upon which they could crossover and in the process achieve that most precious of all things - KILL AIR TIME! They were struggling to just keep going without written material, getting by with inane, pointless ad libs and neverending interviews that went nowhere fast, with the few guests that DARED come on amidst the aforementioned strike...
Of the three, Colbert did the best - which is odd, since he must have felt the more frustrated of all, being so much the scribesman...
Oh well - within a short time, the strike ended anyway (ironically, after three weeks; three idiots, three weeks - a theme is developing here!) and the three idiots (as presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee allegedly called them first!) went back to their regular shenanigans, with a full supporting cast this time!
Hopefully, even without any good reason at all to do so, we'll see more team-ups and crossovers like this! This three-way fight was much more enjoyable than Jimmy & Jay palling around on both Kimmel's show and Leno's.
We likely will never see the TRUE feud getting resolved though: Conan taking on the host of Worldwide Pants' Late Late Show - whoever he might be by then!
It has to happen either this year or NEVER! 2009 is it for Conan; he moves on to take over (e.g. ruin) the Tonight Show while in 2010 all Late Shows on CBS could be overhauled too... Right now, it is Craig Ferguson on the back end of Letterman; can we hope to see Conan O'Brien versus Craig Ferguson before it's too late?
Inside of a steel cage. No holds barred. No time limits. No disqualification.
Rrrrrrrrrrright. *lol*
Labels: Late Night TV, Luminous pundit moi, shenanigans
