And contrary to conventional wisdom, Letterman’s not edgy. In fact, he’s just the opposite. Doing exactly what those who can criticize you want you to do is not edgy. Kissing the big Manhattan/Los Angeles bi-coastal [rear] of the elite is not edgy. He’s their jester; their puppet. Worse, he’s about as funny as watching your old, half-deaf Uncle intimidate, humiliate and demean your Aunt and then smile at the rest of the family as though he’s just reaffirmed his manhood. Letterman reminds me of the Jason Robards character in “Parenthood” in more ways than you can imagine. In other words, he’s a jerk, but in a sad end-of-his-life kind of way.
Oh, and how the elite critics resented nice ole’ Jay Leno for cleaning Letterman’s ratings’ clock all those years. And now that Jay’s back eating up primetime, they couldn’t wait to jump all over him with sniffing disapproval fed through a filter of wrist-flicking dismissal.
After exactly one show the knives came out:
L.A. Times: “Sixteen minutes into the new ‘The Jay Leno Show’ it was difficult not to panic. This is the future of television? This wasn’t even a good rendition of television past.”
New York Times: “So much ink has been devoted to describing how Mr. Leno’s new show would depart from his old one that it was startling to see how little difference there was.”
NPR: [N]o one expected Leno to reinvent the wheel. It’s just that after so many years on the job, you’d expect he’d make a better one.
(For those of you unfamiliar with these organizations, the first two once had a reputation for doggedly pursuing news stories and holding the powerful accountable. As far as what they do now, other than perfecting the art of thinning their publications to the edge of not disappearing, no one really knows … as far as NPR, they’ve always sucked.)
Good heavens, the L.A. Times was ready to panic after only sixteen minutes. Panic! And did anyone’s irony-alert go off when NPR criticized someone else for not reinventing the wheel? I’m surprised their review wasn’t interrupted by a twenty-minute pledge drive promising a butt-ugly tote bag and a CD of “Neil Sedaka Goes Cajun” for Premium Members.
Jay Leno scored 18 million viewers yesterday. Letterman draws around 4 million on a good night. If you like your television personalities too cool for school that’s got to be troubling – if you prefer those with a hold on the popular culture five nights a week not parade around with a United States flag (unless it’s on fire), today you’ve got to be a little frustrated. First ACORN, now this... What’s happening to my Amerika?!?!
Even worse, those five hours Jay’s eating up could’ve otherwise been used to trash Christians and Republicans on “Law & Order: God We Love Obama.”
You have to wonder if it will ever happen… If the coastal critics and their ilk will ever figure out that today they are the establishment … they are The Man … and that the only real accomplishment of the cruel little needy Letterman who bounces at the end of their string is tarnishing a long history of sell outs.
You want to be edgy in the entertainment business today? Be polite and keep the politics as across the board as possible. Walk on stage with the “edgy” goal of wanting to entertain and take away from their daily frustrations as many people as possible.
Jay Leno’s the new edgy, the new ballsy…
And that lapel flag makes him a downright iconoclast.
I didn’t see his show, but I’m pulling for him because all the right people are not.
Originally published on September 15, 2009 at Big Hollywood.
