A-List
Five People In Search of a Talk Show
Most weeks, the A-List deals strictly in movies. But, as much as I'd like to regale you this week about my top ten movies of 2009 (yes, friends, that does mean another two-part list in the very near future), topicality wins out. As you may know if you have not been living under a rock for the past week, there is a major, compelling, twisty drama occurring on your television set: the behind-the-scenes drama at NBC regarding its late-night propositions. Jay Leno, originally of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and currently of The Jay Leno Show, is apparently heading back to the late-night timeslot, as his primetime comedy show has been...shall we say, not doing very well in the ratings. However, Conan O'Brien, current host of The Tonight Show, doesn't want to be pushed back from his spot.
So, for all I know, by the time you're reading this article, Conan has left NBC and is taking calls from the FOX network. Jay may already have The Tonight Show back, or, who knows? Carson Daly could have the Tonight Show slot. The point is, if things continue to play out as unexpectedly as they have in the past week, there will likely be one late-night slot on NBC that is in need of being filled. In past years, there have been other late-night shows that failed, hosted by people as wide and varied as Pat Sajak, Spike Feresten, Chevy Chase, and Alan Thicke. Yes, Alan Thicke, of Growing Pains, had a talk show. Obviously, the standards have been tightly focused to, at the very least, make sure either comedians or people with a funny background get their own shows.
The question that this A-List is posing and answering at the same time is: which people should have their own talk show? More than that, who should take over whatever slot is left over from the craziness currently at NBC? Again, it seems pretty obvious that NBC wants to keep Jay Leno at whatever cost is necessary, but if O'Brien leaves soon, someone aside from Leno and Jimmy Fallon may need to fill that time. Sure, there's the possibility that NBC will stick with having Leno at his old 11:35 p.m. timeslot for an hour, and follow up with Fallon, but these days, guessing what NBC executives are thinking is the stupidest thing a person could do. Let's plant some thoughts into their addled brains, then, with this A-List.
Zach Galifianakis
Anyone who's seen The Hangover knows that Zach Galifianakis, as the strange future brother-in-law Alan, is a funny and shameless guy. Anyone who's seen Galifianakis' stand-up knows that he's a great, if incredibly and cheerfully quirky, comic. But anyone who's seen Galifianakis' Web talk-show series, Between Two Ferns, knows that this man could be the most warped and twisted talk-show host ever. Now, I harbor no delusions that anything remotely like Between Two Ferns could ever end up on network television, what with its format (a three-minute encounter with a celebrity such as Jon Hamm, Jimmy Kimmel, or Charlize Theron that's meant to be a cable-access-style interview, replete with cheap production design and an ornery host) or Galifianakis' willfully inaccessible style. However, here's a guy who could make the talk-show format fresher and more exciting than anyone else has since Conan first started at NBC.
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