Last Friday, Conan O'Brien slipped while doing a Tonight Show bit with actress—and triathlon competitor—Teri Hatcher. He hit his head on the floor while trying to race Hatcher and was injured enough for the show's taping to stop. Last night, he shared his experience and video of the fall. (It's 8 minutes, so might be good to watch during lunch... or skip about 1:15 in)
The AP reports that legendary Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon passed away shortly after midnight this morning at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members. The entertainer, a Marine who served in WWII and Korea, was 86. Though his publicist declined to divulge the exact cause of death, it's known that McMahon suffered from multiple illnesses, including bone cancer, and sustained a neck injury caused by a 2007 fall. Recent years had been financially difficult for McMahon, whose Beverly Hills home was nearly foreclosed upon last year after he defaulted on a $4.8 million loan. But he didn't seem bitter while explaining his problems to Larry King (video), and still had fond memories of his 30-plus years on The Tonight Show. Other co-hosting gigs during his long career included Star Search, TV Bloopers And Practical Jokes, and, who could forget, Alf's Hit Talk Show.
Last night, Conan O'Brien officially took over hosting duties for The Tonight Show and opened the show with a taped bit that showed him running across the country from NYC to LA (with scenic stops at the Wrigley Field in Chicago, St. Louis Arch, and a Victorian Doll Museum somewhere else).
While Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver believes President Obama is apologetic about his unfortunate remarks comparing his poor bowling skills (he got a 129) to the Special Olympics, more voices are chiming in. Notably Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who has a son with Down syndrome and is a champion to special needs families, said she was "shocked", “This was a degrading remark about our world’s most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world. These athletes overcome more challenges, discrimination and adversity than most of us ever will. By the way, these athletes can outperform many of us and we should be proud of them. I hope President Obama’s comments do not reflect how he truly feels about the special needs community.” Long Island Special Olympian Daniel Fletcher, who has competed in basketball, golf, baseball, and equestrian events, tells Newsday that he'd happily challenge the President in bowling—Fletcher recently scored a 130.
President Barack Obama visited the Tonight Show last night, becoming the first sitting president to appear on the program. He discussed the hoopla as Commander in Chief ("Michelle jokes about how our motorcade -- you know, we've got the ambulance and then the caboose and then the dog sled. The submarine."), explained his Final Four picks, and, responding to a question about being judged after only 59 days in office, said, "We are going through a difficult time. I welcome the challenge. You know, I ran for President because I thought we needed big changes. I do think in Washington it's a little bit like 'American Idol,' except everybody is Simon Cowell."
While Conan may be leaving us for the sunny skies of Los Angeles, we still all have televisions, so it's not like he's going anywhere, really. On that note, there are some more details that have just been released about his new Tonight Show gig, NBC says his old pal Andy Richter will be the announcer! It's been nearly 9 years since the two paired up, and Richter will get some on-screen time, too, as the network notes he'll also participate in comedic pieces. O'Brien said this of his old right arm: "Andy is one of the funniest people I know and we've maintained a close friendship since he left Late Night. We have a proven chemistry that will be an incredible asset to The Tonight Show. I'm looking forward to working with Andy on a daily basis again, particularly since he owes me $300." Look for the two of them on a small screen near you starting June 1st!
As the world readies for a new Late Night talk show host, here's a little history lesson on Jimmy Fallon's new set, which also housed Jack Paar's (and Johnny Carson's) Tonight Show. In the video below, circa 1984, Paar gives David Letterman a tour of his old studio, where Letterman's Late Night desk also sat. One door inside of a dressing room that remained locked for 20 years is opened to reveal some masterfully adorned pipes, a tribute from Jim Henson and the Muppets to Paar. Fallon confirms that the pipes are still there, and says "We're preserving it and putting it behind plexi."
All you Tonight Show Headlines and Jaywalking fanatics, stop your worrying: Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that Jay Leno will be staying at NBC when his Tonight Show contract is up--and will be moving into primetime with a Monday-to-Friday weekday at 10 p.m. talk show.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain visited The Tonight Show last night and chortled over his age with Jay Leno. McCain, who turns 72 on Friday, had jokes like, "My social security number is eight" and "You forgot to mention that I warned the people about the British coming." When Leno asked, "For $1 million, how many houses do you have?" McCain brought up his five years as a POW in Vietnam, "I didn't have a house. I didn't have a kitchen table. I didn't have a table," and said of his wealthy wife, "I’m very proud of Cindy’s father. ... He made the American dream."
Rudy Giuliani may have exited the presidential campaign, but that doesn't mean he's disappeared. For starters, we hope those Rudy Giuliani campaign staffers who gave up their paychecks feel good about this: According to the Washington Post, Giuliani's campaign paid his firm Giuliani Partners $60,000 in rent and paid Giuliani Security & Safety $300,000 for security. We don't understand why he stopped running - it's a perfect way to convert donations into revenue! Well, his lawyer told the WaPo that Giuliani "recused himself from taking profits. His portion would be donated to charity."
Members of the Writers Guild of America have been striking in Los Angeles and New York this past week over details of a basic contract between writers and producers - one of the biggest sticking points is the amount of residuals writers get from DVD and new media distribution. The NY Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd asked Seth Meyers (who we spoke to on Tuesday) to give her a weekend update about the strike:...
Last week we mentioned that Brendan Keefe, late of WCBS, is now and anchor at the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, WCPO. He started this week and he revealed to the Cincinnati Post some of his reasons for leaving New York for Ohio. He told the paper, "We wanted a place to raise a family that we could call home for a long time."
Fred Thompson was never an actual Manhattan District Attorney, he just played one TV. He used the same medium to announce that he was running for President by pursuing the Republican nomination Wednesday night on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Unlike California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who announced his gubernatorial candidacy by appearing on The Tonight Show in person, Thompson made his announcement via a taped message that Leno aired. Speculation about the possibility of Thompson's imminent announcement has been growing recently.
In February rumors started to fly about Jimmy Fallon becoming the next Late Night host when Conan O'Brien leaves his current spot to take Jay Leno's spot. It's an after-hours game of musical chairs! (Though no one knows where Leno will end up, it is said he'll likely stay in the late night game.) NBC chief Rick Ludwin says that Fallon is now at the top of the short list for possible Late Night hosts.
Last night Beverly Sills lost her battle with lung cancer, she died at her home in Manhattan at the age of 78. While she was a lifelong non-smoker and only found out about the cancer a few weeks ago, this wasn't her first experience with it - she underwent a successful surgery for cancer in 1974.
Bradford Reed is the inventor and probably the only player of the pencilina, an instrument that he describes as "an electric ten-stringed collision of the hammer dulcimer, slide guitar, koto and fretless bass with six pickups of varied types" and looks something like a surf board caught up in a fishing net. He has played with King Missile, the Blue Man Group band and has composed for film and animation. He has appeared on MTV, Sound FX and the Tonight Show, as well as on the streets of New York.
If you are stuck inside all day because of the snow, here's a great trove of TMBG videos to help you pass the time. Some of our favorites include the balls-out insane version of Birdhouse in Your Soul from the Tonight Show (performed with the full Doc Severinsen band!), Why Does the Sun Shine from Conan in 1993, and this version of Dr. Worm from Penn and Teller's Sin City show. [Related: there's a ton of TMBG multimedia online-- check out their DialASong, venue songs at TMBG.com (the Hollywood song is the best), TMBG podcasts... the list goes on and on.]
2:04 AM - The media is being told they have to wait a while before the TWU will talk. So with that, Gothamist is going to bed to get ready in case there is a strike - we're going attempt to check out the Brooklyn Bridge in the morning, which is supposed to be really cold tomorrow morning. Dress warm and dream of the strike being resolved by the time you wake up. Thanks for waiting with us - we'll be all over this in a few hours as well!
01:18 - Okay, Gothamist is going to sleep. We need to be fresh when we wake up in a few hours to review the tense yet Waiting-for-G-Train like pre-deadline hours and confusing (and boring) post-deadline hour. Thanks for commenting and keeping us company - see you in the morning!
New York magazine brings the funny this week with a cover story about Conan O'Brien as well as some other NYC-comedy features. The Conan story delves into his "unsuave" persona and the possibilities of bringing his style to the rest of America when he takes over the Tonight Show (he says, "I’m open to going to L.A. Mostly because it won’t be my choice."). Gothamist highly recommends you read it, but we have pulled out his thought about the city:
"New York is a social experiment—the results aren’t in yet, it may not have worked, they took way too many people with a large disparity of wealth, stacked them on top of each other, and sprinkled bagels over the whole thing. Contrast breeds comedy, and the more extreme the contrast, the better the comedy."We just want to know what kind of bagels O'Brien thinks are sprinkled on top of the city - H & H, maybe? And is there lox involved? Anyway, Gothamist wonders if now is too early to start a petition to keep him in NYC, but a sunblock pharmaceutical will probably lobby to send him to L.A.
Dave Rubin, Comedian
In a re-election year stumping opportunity, the Mayor visited Conan O'Brien's talk show last night and asked him to bring the Tonight Show back to NYC. And Gothamist says, "Please, do!" The AP says that Mayor Bling "jokingly tried to make a deal," offering to give O'Brien a park permit for the Late Night softball team if he stayed in NYC. Conan said, "It's not up to me, I work for the man. If he says 'yeah,' we're fine. So we'll talk." Is the man Lorne Michaels in this case? Or Jeff Zucker, which sounds like "hooker," not "f***er," as we learned when watching Fat Actress? When O'Brien was announced (finally) as Jay Leno's successor, the NY Times' Bill Carter suspected Conan and the gang would move to LA. Gothamist hopes that in the meantime, CBS develops another LA talk show, in the post-Letterman era, and The Tonight Show will have to stay in NY. For starters, Conan will need LOTS of sunblock if he's living in LA.
Hoping to get rid of some of the Bernard Kerik stink, Rudy Giuliani was on the Tonight Show last night. We didn't catch the whole segment (Gothamist is a sucker for Chappelle's Show repeats we've seen 41 times already!), but he vaguely said he'd be into running for office again. But, as noted in today's Observer article, Rudy has been making a pretty penny as a civilian, like making $80,000 during a tsunami benefit - when other celebrities donated their time. Gothamist thinks we can expect to see Rudy's combover-less head in the news A LOT, because he will be milking his status as 9/11 elder statesman and he'll be paying some firms to poll the United States to find out his chances as a viable Presidential candiate in 2008, but in the end, Rudy might just stick to being a highly paid speaker and consultant.
Updated: The NY Times has its obituary up; expect quotes and news of tribute shows tomorrow. Here's the The Official Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson site. And here's the Wikipedia entry on Carson. And did you know that he hosted the Tonight Show in NYC for 7 years, before the move to Burbank? [Related: Conan O'Brien will take over Tonight Show duties in 2009.]
Carter reports on the TV business for the NY Times and wrote a book about the Leno-Letterman fight, The Late Shift. In our opinion, it's the best book about issues in current state of television - money, talent, and ego. And in today's paper, Carter analyzes the decision to give Leno a five year good-bye. The NY Daily News' TV critic, David Bianculli, who had complained about NBC giving the Tonight Show's 50th Birthday the short shrift the day before, thinks that NBC made the right decision. And after the jump, NBC's press release of Conan's statement last night:
Here's the NY Times obituary, as well as the Times' extensive Reagan article archive, including an interesting interactive feature about Reagan from Times reporter Steven R. Weisman. Check out the Washington Post's coverage, including articles about his legacy as the Great Communicator, as the White House's best actor, as an optimist, as the key in the rebuilding of the GOP.
Lauren Antler, Comedian
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