The Story of Late Night

I love late night TV. I watch more of late night shows than films or TV series, so this was something I knew I would love. It is very informantive, has many brilliant clips and good interviews but I was so disapointed by the fact that thy had nothing about Craig Ferguson, other than two 1 sec moments where they say that he was on air and that his show ended. If anyone deconstructed late night it was Craig Ferguson. And no one has been better at interviews than he was.

Also if you're going to talk about social conciousness how can you ignore Last Week Tonight with John Oliver? Or Real Time with Bill Maher?

It's painful seeing clips of Carson and Letterman and then immediately going to Fallon and Corden. It's sad how much of a dropoff there has been and now late night is just a contant pandering to the seals that applaud when the applause light goes on. There's rarely any genuine laughter - just a series of applause breaks during the monolgue and then the shilling for whatever movie/tv show is being plugged. And if it's a TV show, then that show is 90% likely to be on the same network that the talk show is on.

But that's beside the point. This is another great, comprehensive series that really goes deep without it seeming like it is stretched out for the purposes of creating more episodes... you know... the way Netflix now does. It's nice to hear from so many people who weren't necessarily the stars, to hear about what was going on in the background of it all.

It's a fun little walk down the decades of late night TV shows. Most of it is non-controversial. There is a bit of lesser known side shows from the earlier years but it's mostly about the main stream. It's a CNN doc. The main spin happens in episode 4 & 5 where they take down Jay Leno. Obviously, Conan from sister company TBS is their man. This is a solid six hour long episodes. It's informative and a bit entertaining. There's also a healthy dose of nostalgia which leaves the last episode a bit less compelling.

In terms of information, the first three episodes are a nice introduction to late night history. The remaining 3, though, are very superficial.

Two very important points: First of all, except for the last episode, they do not even mention Craig Ferguson. There is only a 1 second still of his in the 3rd or 4th episode.

Second and most importantly, they do not understand why the audience turned to TV comedians for trusted journalism. CNN does not have any self-awareness or self-reflection on that matter. When Johnny Carson was the host of the Tonight Show, U. S. audience had outlets to get information from T. V..

However, in the time of "post-truth", the audience only had TV comedians. And today, as all the TV comedians have the same idea as if they were dictated with one script from one source, the audience runs from the TV comedians and to the online comedians and commentators. There is no longer time slots to fill. There is only content with insights to what is going on in the world and in the U. S. A.

The final episode of the CNN "programme" misses out on that point in quite an ironic way.

I've been very interested in the history of late night tv since Bill Carter's The Late Shift. This documentary does a good job of showing the origins of late night through the Carson years and the Leno/Letterman war for Late Night. Naturally Conan's Tonight Show tenure was a fascinating parallel. The documentary does provide much needed insight on the shift of late night from nonpartisan to political with the rise of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but the last episode felt like more time needed to pass before a real in-depth analysis could be had of the current Late Night lineup.

One thing that I found distracting as a viewer was not what they showed, but what they didn't show. Bill Maher is mentioned briefly in a negative light following the cancellation of Politically Incorrect for his post 9/11 commentary. I'm not a big fan, but he's been hosting Real Time on HBO for nearly 20 years now, but received no mention whatsoever following that event. There was also no mention, not one, about Dennis Miller who hosted two late night talk shows. John Oliver surprisingly was mentioned only once.

Likewise, Craig Kilborn of all people received more airtime on this documentary than Craig Ferguson who hosted the Late Late Show for almost 10 years. I would have loved to see some commentary on his deconstruction of the Late Night format, which includes puppets, a remote controlled robot skeleton sidekick and a two man horse costume that became regular segments on a show that felt very stripped down, yet effortlessly funny.

While a bit off the beaten path, Fox News' Red Eye (which aired at 3am Eastern) and successor show, Gutfeld! Did not receive a mention at all, despite Greg Gutfeld's recent ratings success, sometimes beating all network Late Night shows. I suspect it didn't fit the political narrative that series was painting, and Fox News is direct competition to CNN.

Saturday Night Live, which deserves its own stand alone documentary series, was also the lone sketch show profiled. MadTV and In Living Color received no mention at all. This was very clearly a NBC focused documentary series with The Tonight Show at the center.

Even though I'm a fan of late night tv, the series does feel a little too nostalgic towards the end. The format does feel a little outdated in today's 24/7 streaming world. I think highlighting Conan's departure from TBS would have been a great bookend to this series leaving the door open to what's next for this genre and format.