The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy

Listening to the WTF podcast obsessively has led me to a number of other obsessions (why isn’t anyone else listening to this yet so I can talk to people about it?!). I was vaguely aware of the Conan/Jay Leno Tonight show debacle when it was going on but I have never consistently watched either of those shows so it wasn’t really something I thought much about. During the episode with Conan, they talked about how he first got into late night and how hurt he was by the whole scene with NBC. He mentioned that many people in his family had read The War for Late Night to understand what he was going through but that since he lived it, he never wanted to read the book.

The War for Late Night reads like a thriller. Bill Carter recounts everything that has happened in late night television worth talking about since David Letterman went to CBS and Jay Leno took over The Tonight Show from Johnny Carson (this story was the focus of his previous book The Late Shift). The book gives background on all the current hosts of late night television (Conan, Jay, Dave, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Chelsea Handler) and details all of the behind the scenes events that were happening as the major networks tried to build or maintain late night franchises. Even though you know how the story ends, the details behind it are fascinating. It is easy to forget that television is a business and that even though you might be attached to a show if it isn’t pulling in the right number and type of viewers it will be cancelled, just like a product that isn’t selling well. It’s worth noting that Bill Carter writes like a journalist, with no one person shown as the bad guy and everyone’s motivations carefully examined.

If you want to know more about the fallout from the war for late night check out The Onion A.V Club’s examination of Conan O’Brien’s new TBS show, the documentary of his post-Tonight Show tour and The War for Late Night.

Lucky Peach

Lucky Peach is a new quarterly food magazine from David Chang, celebrity chef of the Momofuku (Japanese for Lucky Peach) restaurant group and published by McSweeneys. I have always been a lover of magazines from Highlights to YM to my current five subscriptions (The Economist, Sunset, Elle, Entertainment Weekly and Anthology…clearly I am confusing to magazine marketing firms). Lately, since discovering Anthology at a great local magazine shop, I have been on a major twelve dollar magazine binge. Twelve dollars for a magazine seems crazy, it’s more than a paperback book, but these magazines tend to be more art/story-based/aspirational to the life you want to be living than your standard magazine. Lucky Peach is a perfect example of this. The first issue is focused on ramen (from instant noodles to a journey to Japan to eat at the most famous ramen restaurants) and is both a celebration of foodie culture and an exploration of how silly it is to spend hours talking about your food. There are recipes, articles and beautiful illustrations. I found myself smiling, laughing, nodding and ready to make some soup while reading this magazine. I particularly enjoyed the transcription of a conversation between David Chang, Wylie Dufresne and Anthony Bourdain about the current state of food and Ruth Reichl’s review of various types of instant ramen (somehow it was comforting to me that one of my food idols loves instant ramen too). Lucky Peach seems to be at all my favorite shops and many publications have posted reviews of it from the San Francisco Chronicle to Time to NPR.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

My late night heart belongs to Jon Stewart but after hearing a few interviews with Jimmy Fallon about his new book Thank You Notes, I was interested to see some of his show. I enjoy how excited he gets when talking to people and his musical talents. So far my favorite clips are:

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake sing the history of rap in two amazing mashups. The first leads from Sugarhill Gang to Jay Z and the second from Kurtis Blow to Teach Me How to Dougie (Part one: Youtube, Part Two: Youtube or Hulu).

Stephen Colbert covers Rebecca Black's Friday with lots of special guests in a spectacular performance (Youtube or Hulu).

Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen cover Whip My Hair Back and Forth (Youtube or NBC).

Hear more from Jimmy about what being a late night host is like and his comedy career on Fresh Air and WTF.

Roasted Eggplant, Zucchini, Tomato and Garlic Salad

I love eggplant at restaurants but I have always been a little intimidated by cooking it. It has been appearing in my farm box the last few weeks so I set out to conquer my fear with some help from my friend the internet. I looked at some different recipes and blended them together for a delicious salad.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 head of garlic, peeled into cloves

1 eggplant, chopped in half, then halved again, then chopped into wedges ½ inch thick

1 zucchini, sliced in ¼ inch thick coins

1 cup chopped tomatoes (grape, cherry or beefsteak)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

½ lemon

2 tbsp soft sharp cheese (suggest feta or goat cheese)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss garlic, eggplant and zucchini with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and spread out the vegetables. Roast vegetables for 30 minutes. Remove and toss with tomatoes, juice of the lemon and cheese. Add salt and pepper as desired.

To make it into a complete meal, add a chicken breast or a cup of quinoa or both. Will make two meals with the additions or a side salad for four.

A Month of Movies

I have been very committed to checking off the movies that I wanted to see over the last month. I tried to break up the light movies with some thoughtful movies in between. I love the whole experience of the movies, from the big theatres with stadium seating to the neighborhood theatres that are the size of my apartment. I don’t even really mind the six dollar popcorn and four dollar bottles of water, it’s all part of the common movie experience. My only real complaint is that more theatres should allow matinee prices until 6 on the weekends, instead of only allowing the first showing to be the matinee.

Bad Teacher: Ever since Undeclared, I have tried to see everything that Jason Segel appears in. He nearly always makes me giggle, even if he might not always choose great movies. Bad Teacher is worth watching on video or if it was appearing on TBS but it definitely doesn’t require a theater visit. Cameron Diaz is a jilted gold digger who has to return to teaching to pay her bills and hopefully land herself a husband along the way with Justin Timberlake as a substitute who is heir to a watch fortune and Jason Segel as the gym teacher who shares interests with Cameron but only has a schoolteacher salary. There are funny parts along the way but overall it just didn’t keep my interest.

Beginners: I loved this movie so much. It was the happiest sad movie I have seen in a long time. I cried but still felt happy and inspired when the movie was over. Beginners is based on the writer’s dad coming out of the closet after his mother’s death. Shortly after he begins to live his life as a gay man he discovers he has cancer. The story flips back and forth between dealing with the father’s story and the recovery of the son after the loss of his father. The movie is well acted (starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer) and filled with art. I highly recommend this movie.

Crazy Stupid Love: This was a light, fun romantic comedy with lots of hotness from Ryan Gosling and awkwardly funny moments from Steve Carrell. In the story, Steve Carrell’s wife (Julianne Moore) tells him she wants a divorce after more than 20 years of marriage. He reacts by going regularly to a bar frequented by ladies man Ryan Gosling and pouring out his tale of woe. Ryan Gosling takes pity on him and helps him get his manliness back. At the same time, Ryan Gosling is falling for a girl (Emma Stone) who is totally immune to his charms. It was a sweet movie and a great way to spend an afternoon.

Horrible Bosses: This movie is worth watching just to see Jennifer Aniston as a pervy dentist, Colin Ferell as a balding cokehead and Kevin Spacey as an egotistical maniac. It was very funny and totally ridiculous. The three main characters are plotting to kill their bosses (the three mentioned above) and a series of unfortunate events follow. I feel like I wanted it to be a little funnier than it was with such a great cast but I have a feeling that it is one of those comedies that actually gets funnier the more you watch it. If you want to get a head start on the people that will be quoting this movie see it in the theater but it will be just as funny as a rental in a few months.

Tabloid: This compelling documentary is the story of one of the biggest tabloid stories of the 1970s. Joyce Kinney, a former beauty queen, flies to England to kidnap her former boyfriend, a Mormon missionary. She takes him to a cottage and depending on who you believe; either has a romantic getaway or forces him to have sex with her. The documentary heavily features interviews with Joyce and she is a unique character, hard to tell if she is manipulating the audience, genuinely innocent or completely crazy. The story has many twists and turns with lots of laughs along the way. It’s hard to believe it’s a true story at many points. It’s fascinating and I would recommend seeing it.

I can’t wait to start my August movie viewing, particularly interested in seeing The Interrupters, Attack the Block, Our Idiot Brother and 30 Minutes or Less.