For months people have been saying how the future of television hinges on this one show, this experiment. The idea is that if a talk show can do well at 10pm, then all the dramas in that timeslot – which are very costly to create – could be replaced with inexpensive talk shows or worse yet, more Reality TV.
I have mixed feelings. I like Jay Leno – he was a class act when I met him – but I also like scripted television and believe that unscripted TV, specifically Reality TV, could be the death of the medium. The internet’s already eaten newspapers for breakfast, could TV be on the menu for lunch? Now Leno is of course not Reality TV but it is a shift away from scripted television in the traditional sense.
Its recession economics – what can I create at a lower price to generate equal revenue? Or even if less revenue is coming in what can I do to improve my cost-to-revenue ratio?
I like writers. Particularly I like the current crop of writers – after years of ignoring almost everything on television suddenly there’s more shows I want to watch than hours available. Some of the best television is on the air right now and almost all of it is scripted: 24, The Big Bang Theory, Chuck, Castle, How I Met Your Mother and that’s just on Mondays. There’s also Lie To Me that’s very deserving of mention. Overseas there is some of the best television I’ve seen in years coming out of the UK like Doctor Who, Torchwood, Hustle, and The Sarah Jane Adventures. I can’t remember a time since high school when there were so many quality shows on TV. And there are some great semi-scripted shows as well such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report – comedies that have on increasingly frequent occasion wandered into hard hitting journalistic backcountry that would make Murphy Brown proud. There are even some fantastic unscripted shows like Dragon’s Den and its American cousin Shark Tank on ABC.
So with TV doing so well creatively (American Idol’s ratings dropped significantly last year which I can only take as a good sign), why shake things up? I don’t want to see a dearth of scripted shows or funding. I don’t want 10pm to be Leno up against another talk show and 3 reality shows. Because then all the CSIs and other procedural crap will get squeezed into primetime and take timeslots away from shows like Chuck. Chuck barely got saved during the up fronts but you’ve got 8 shows out there were you can watch someone die a horrific and bloody death and then watch morons make bad puns about it for the next half hour. Would there not be more diversity on television if one of the CSIs had made room for, say, a second season of Knight Rider? Yea, Knight Rider had its flaws but it was something I could watch with my kid.
The prospect of Jay Leno’s new show isn’t nearly as bad as the evils of Reality TV but like Reality TV it’s cheap to make and that threatens the market of good ideas.
However there is also the possibility that the show just wants to present an alternative to all the crime shows – apparently one of the taglines was “100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!” and on those grounds I have to respect their efforts.
Now after that rant I suppose I should actually talk about the show on its own merits and not it’s potential threat to television as we know it.
I had mixed feelings. First off I missed the monologue so I can’t comment on that. The car wash serenade was mildly fun but ran way too long, it felt like something SNL would have either rejected or put in the last half hour of a mid-season episode. Jerry Seinfeld was interesting and entertaining and I think it speaks volumes about him that he’s still a huge get 11 years after leaving the spotlight. The Oprah bit had some comedy to it but mostly felt like a commercial.
The Kanye West interview bares much examination. For one thing, this clearly inflated the ratings – it was why I watched I’m mildly ashamed to say. That having been said, Jay was more than a class act, he turned into a real reporter. Like Stewart with Cramer, Jay really held Kanye’s feet to the fire and wasn’t afraid to hold him to task for what he’d done. But Jay also showed compassion and humanity by eventually saving Kanye when he cleared had no idea what to say. Was Kanye genuinely upset? Not until Leno mentioned his mother which told me that’s still a sore wound for him and his emotional motivation had nothing to do with what he did to Taylor Swift. I don’t accept Kanye’s apology for 4 reasons.
One, his ever-so-condescending offer to “help” Taylor out made it sound like he thought she was some unsigned artist needing the lucky assistance of a great big celebrity like him to make a name for herself. Her last album outsold his last album 3 to 1.
Two, he tried to blame the whole thing on the death of his mother over a year and a half ago. “My pain caused someone else pain”? Please. That’s disrespectful to everyone involved. Maybe the death of your mom made you an alcoholic and you were drunk when you attacked a teenager on national television but how you respond to pain is your choice and your responsibility.
Three, he already apologized on his blog but then removed it – how long until he retracts this apology too?
Four, he said he’s going to take some time off to deal with his issues. Until he cancels some concerts or in some other way actually takes action along these lines, it’s just words.
I’m not sure how I feel about, immediately after offering this allegedly heartfelt apology, then taking to the stage and performing a song. Granted he was supposed to do that before this whole dust up and Jay even thanked him for not backing out of his obligation but it’s a little hard to take him as sincere when he performs moments after saying he needs to take a break and his stage presence is built around how awesome he thinks he is, that it’s hard to see humble there.
A part of me couldn’t help but think that in the days of battle rap a truly talented rap artist would have taken the song as an opportunity to lyrically apologize or at least make some kind of dedication or something. Clearly Mr. Auto-tune isn’t that kind of artist. That takes talent and sincere emotion – Wayne Brady is a better rap artist than Kanye could ever hope to be as far as I’m concerned.
So getting back to The Jay Leno Show I wish Jay a level of success that keeps his new show on the air but does not become a runaway hit or financial dynamo that reshapes the industry and I rather suspect that’s what Jay wants as well.
Of course if he wants to become the next Jon Stewart, well, then I wish him monumental success. I’d like to see him rip Glenn Beck a new hole or three.
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