Anyone miss Jay Leno?

[Mac1337]

Hey guys, Leno isn't dead yet! Anyway, 11:35pm EST was always a special time for the family. Between him and that annoying, obnoxious weatherman there was no contest. I grew up with Carson so he is the king. Watching him now makes you realize how coarse TV has become. You just can imagine Carson use the kind of language routinely heard on TV shows todays, even Leno's.

BTW, Mike Douglas has gone unmentioned.

[mrbigstuff]

And Leno was at his best as a guest on that show.

so true; there was something in their chemistry that worked very well (although we later all learned that Carson favored Letterman to take his show)

I remember seeing Leno live in the mid and late 1980s and he was one of those comedians one could see with one's parents (I did) and he was pretty funny, sort of like an early version of Seinfeld's humor.

[graylocks]

vicrock wrote:
Who stays up that late? I haven't seen 11pm in more years than I can count. I guess it is obvious why - it is 5:08 am and I've been up for an hour.

i'm up late but it's been decades since i had the time to waste watching TV. well, that's not true - maybe certain kinds of TV waste. late at night i may use the time to catch up on shows i've recorded. thank god for VCRs and now TIVO.

[Yoyodyne ArtWorks]

guitarist wrote:
I miss the old Jay Leno...the pre-Tonight Show Jay. When he was just another stand-up comic. In those days he was a regular guest on Letterman. With his sport jacket sleeves pushed up, and bushy hair, he looked like a mechanic, with an edgy, funny, slightly reckless quality. I must be thinking, late 1980s or early 1990s.

By the time he was grooming himself for Johnny's desk, being nice, inoffensive, and bland, except for a weird fondness for grade-school poop and fart humor, he was the standard for all-American talk show charm, courtesy, and friendliness. A guy who clearly loves show business. I admit I was inclined more toward Letterman's subversive crankiness and unease with show biz conventions. Uneven, but occasionally surprising and deadly funny. Darker humor. Jay was like milk and cookies, Letterman was like a slice of lemon. Understandable that Jay would steadily have better ratings.

What made Jay Leno appealing? I never quite got the Leno style, as host. I respect his career, but Carson still has the place of supreme honor in that tradition.

Completely agree.

Re Cavett: He had interesting guests, but was/is a pathological egomaniac and laughably pretentious.

[NewtonMP2100]

. . .I miss....understood. . .a lot. . . .!

[RAMd®d]

although we later all learned that Carson favored Letterman to take his show

And I think that's because Carson knew that Letterman could really carry a show and that Leno could not. Carson had a long run and however different Letterman would be, he'd bear the standard of The Tonight Show better than Leno.

I think Leno might still be good as a live standup. Like Seinfled, as far from Martin Lawrence types as one could get. Thank God.

[Fritz]

don't miss the lot of them. They're all too full of themselves and love to hear themselves talk.
Worse then FM DJs talking over the intros and outros of songs and spewing on. Feh!
Johnny was the best.
Letterman and Leno (to a lesser degree for me) were funny for a while, but tiresome now.
Starting to tire of Jon Stewarts endless yacks and interruptions. Wish he'd either drop the guest idea, or let them talk.

[3d]

I miss Howard Stern on free radio.

[TLB]

I miss Headlines and Jay Walking, but little else. I don't watch Conan so I greatly enjoy the extra 30-60 minutes of sleep each night.

[Acer]

Where's the love for Merv Griffin? So sooothing...