As the comedians note in tribute to David Letterman (from last night’s Kennedy Center Honors on CBS), it is fun to see Dave be uncomfortable. People (namely Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jimmy Kimmel and Ray Romano) complimenting and honoring him definitely makes him squirm.
This tribute was great to watch, except the end, when producers made all four presenters interact in a scripted manner. That was awkward for everyone.
CBS is two episodes into the second season of Person of Interest-and unless I am mistaken they are injecting a little more humor in the new season. But the engine of the series remains The Machine. CBS recently posted a behind-the-scenes video about the Machine with perspectives from executive producers J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan.
I am unsure what surprises me more-that Jim Caviezel, the star of CBS’ Person of Interest, is pals with the band Chicago, or that he does a great Christopher Walken imitation.
Watch and enjoy.
I always love seeing sneak previews of the new fall shows. Now thanks to official network YouTube channels, I can share some of the previews, plus their official description. Next: CBS’ Elementary.
“Go behind the scenes of ‘Elementary’ starring Jonny Lee Miller as detective Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson in a modern-day drama with a crime solving duo that cracks the NYPD’s toughest cases. Watch Thursday Sept 27, 10/9c only CBS!”
I am probably the last person to link to this, but it is still worth a look in my opinion. In this clip from earlier in the week, Craig Ferguson (of CBS’ The Late Late Show) explains a security scare he and his staff endured.
The New York Times also wrote a nice summation of what happened.
So somebody on a message board has threatened the life of David Letterman. So of course to Dave this is an opportunity for comedy. And man is he milking it. Here’s the top 10 from August 22.
Anytime that Bill Murray appears on David Letterman, it makes for classic television. I missed last night’s appearance, but fortunately CBS posted a clip to the Late Night site.
The man will bleed in the name of comedy.
The week I was on vacation, away from CBS TV, Craig Ferguson pulled off an experimental episode of his Late Late Show. On the February 23 episode (which unfortunately is no longer archived on the CBS website), after the opening monologue he interviewed the British actor and writer Stephen Fry for the length of the whole show without a studio audience. That element of the show hearkened back to the format done by original Late Late Show host, Tom Snyder, who always had done the show without a studio audience.
The opening monologue, which I linked to above, reveals the transparency in which Ferguson consistently conducts the show. He conceded that he was slightly bothered by the dust-up on NBC involving Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. Coming out of that, it got Ferguson thinking about the dynamics of his television show and itching to try a show without a studio audience (an aspect of his normal show that he fully concedes he appreciates and feeds off of on a regular basis).
If anyone doubted his being inspired by Snyder’s old format, Ferguson eliminated that possibility with the closing line of the monlogue, quoting Snyder’s traditional line to his audience: “Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air.”
CBS did not post the entire episode, but I’m sure if you look through You Tube, you might find snippets here or there. But for now, I provide you the five-minute snippet CBS was kind enough to post. Should I find out they will be replaying the episode, I will try to post a note here or on my Twitter account (TalkingwithTim).
One last thought on this experiment, to echo Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker, who wrote a great analysis of this episode: “I vote for one edition a month of The Late Late Show in this format.”