Jay Leno has kept TONIGHT afloat on NBC. Leno is still learning to try to imitate Carson, but has not reached it. Johnny Carson wanted David Letterman to replace him & even wrote jokes for Lettermans CBS monologues until his death recently. When Leno first took over, he seemed to have more energy but he recently has allowed himself to get into a rut which shows. All his monologues are just jammed packed with jokes & he fires them off. Only thing is Leno is not humble like Carson. I have noticed in recent viewings Leno is using a laugh track. It is very obvious the laughs are canned to enhance the audience participation (or lack of it) when the joke is a dud.
When Carson fired off a dud, he could sense it & make a self-effacing joke about the material or himself. When Leno fires off a dud (which seems to be more & more often recently), it just sits there. When he fires off a bunch, things get pretty mean. Leno does have two big drawbacks Carson did not have. (1) Carson used to get 90 minutes to fill & had to develop a wealth of materials plus have longer interviews with guest stars which made him a better interviewer. Leno has not gotten this opportunity. (2) Leno has a competitor in Letterman & because of this, TONIGHT is no longer the number 1 show it once was.
These 2 problems are not Leno's fault, just facts. All this said, Leno is OK doing Stand-Up & holding his own but the show Conan Obrien is taking over is not the dominate show Carson had. Leno has made it his own- but he is not quite up to the standard once set by the master- Carson never needed a laugh track & Letterman has shaken TONIGHT's foundation thoroughly.
Leno's last Tonight ending was especially correct. He ended with all the children that he and his staff had in 17 years. The last scene with Leno & all the kids is a great reminder that Leno is the kid who took over for the master, Johnny Carson. He never considered himself to be as great as Carson, but he is his own man. Let's see how 10 PM treats him in the fall.
When Carson fired off a dud, he could sense it & make a self-effacing joke about the material or himself. When Leno fires off a dud (which seems to be more & more often recently), it just sits there. When he fires off a bunch, things get pretty mean. Leno does have two big drawbacks Carson did not have. (1) Carson used to get 90 minutes to fill & had to develop a wealth of materials plus have longer interviews with guest stars which made him a better interviewer. Leno has not gotten this opportunity. (2) Leno has a competitor in Letterman & because of this, TONIGHT is no longer the number 1 show it once was.
These 2 problems are not Leno's fault, just facts. All this said, Leno is OK doing Stand-Up & holding his own but the show Conan Obrien is taking over is not the dominate show Carson had. Leno has made it his own- but he is not quite up to the standard once set by the master- Carson never needed a laugh track & Letterman has shaken TONIGHT's foundation thoroughly.
Leno's last Tonight ending was especially correct. He ended with all the children that he and his staff had in 17 years. The last scene with Leno & all the kids is a great reminder that Leno is the kid who took over for the master, Johnny Carson. He never considered himself to be as great as Carson, but he is his own man. Let's see how 10 PM treats him in the fall.