5 posts tagged “david letterman”

I know Britain is as youth-obsessed as America sometimes, and an article in The Daily Telegraph, about cop show New Tricks, reminded me of that fact.
   Amanda Redman, the star of the show, and doing better here than in Honest, the remake of the New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune, says in the newspaper, ‘I find it extraordinary, because we are repeated more than any BBC drama ever, and for our repeats alone we get more viewings than the first showings of, for instance, Life on Mars.’
   She may be 48 but the other three principal actors in the series, Dennis Waterman, Alun Armstrong and James Bolan, are between 60 and 73.
   And for some reason, promoting this age group isn’t “cool”.
   The BBC needs to get itself sor’ed.
   With an ageing population in the west, the over-60s is one of the most desirable demographics and it would make a lot of sense to promote shows like New Tricks alongside its other hits such as Doctor Who and Ashes to Ashes.
   It’s why I think the US networks’ opposition to a last Columbo story, on the basis that Peter Falk, in his 80s, is too old to attract advertisers, is bollocks.
   And who is to say that being over 60 isn’t cool? Ask Tom Jones, who still draws in the crowds, including young ’uns, regularly.
   In the US every weeknight, David Letterman, 61, isn’t letting up.
   Interestingly, few seem to think that excluding people based on maturity is politically incorrect—yet we go around advancing the causes of the young.
   Dennis Waterman says in the article, ‘Apparently children are very impressed when their parents point me out and say, “That’s Dennis Waterman”. … They go, “What? Is there a real Dennis Waterman?” So maybe I’ve got a new audience there.’
   The west’s youth obsession hasn’t exactly moved the world on in too many ways: young, inexperienced leaders in politics have not proved visionary in many cases.
   I am not saying we should be like Saudi Arabia where old folks run the show without any idea of advancing human rights.
   But we owe baby boomers and those even older a great debt, and we should be championing their wisdom and experience, just as many great civilized societies have done. Older is cool, but we need to begin having a more accommodating mindset.

I always enjoyed seeing Johnny Carson on late night TV. I didn’t know he was still alive.
   Oh, wait! It’s John McCain!

Sen. Hillary Clinton frequently stresses her foreign policy credentials over Sen. Obama. Today on al-Jazeera, which covered the Russian presidential election, Sen. Clinton was shown fumbling the pronunciation of Dmitri Medvedev—badly. And added a ‘or whatever’ to the end of that. This is hypocritical of Sen. Clinton and disrespectful to President-elect Medvedev (which is not a very hard word to pronounce for anyone who has had contact with Russians).
   If President George W. Bush did this, it would be all over the news, David Letterman would have it on ‘Great Moments in Presidential Speeches’, and the Democrats would be going on and on about what a dumbass Dubya is.
   I have not seen the American media showing Sen. Clinton’s gaffe, at least not as part of a news bulletin, but a quick Google search did show that it aired there in the US as part of a presidential nominee hopefuls’ debate. One blog commenter, Redmanrt, at Slate wrote this sentiment and I have to agree:

If anyone was going to get WGA writers back on their show, that was David Letterman. Reuter reports that the late-night talk show host will be back on CBS on January 2, with his company, Worldwide Pants, Inc., paying, inter alia, royalties from internet broadcasts to its writers. Both The Late Show and the Craig Ferguson show, also owned by Worldwide Pants, will be back.
   Since Letterman himself is a union member, and since he showed immense goodwill by paying his whole staff till December 31 whether a new show was made or not, this is good karma for he with the gap.
   Rival Jay Leno will be back the same night on NBC, but without writers.

I don’t know how I missed this, but after browsing Rachel’s blog here on Vox I stumbled on it: Late Show Writers on Strike.
   As has been reported in the news, David Letterman is continuing to pay his staff to December 31 out of his own pocket, even though no shows are going out due to the writers’ strike in the US. You know the man’s a good boss when folks have stuck by him for over two decades.
   The blog shows you can’t keep good writers down. They are writing, and you know, someone could pinch this stuff for a great show. Writers like Eric Roberts and Matt Stangel—or whatever their names are, since we don’t always see the credits—are at it, and the whole team is working hard to keep their humour in the public arena so Dave doesn’t outsource new scripts to South Asia.
   If the show comes back on before the strike is resolved, do look out for the following warning signs.

Top 10 signs The Late Show writing staff has been replaced:
10. Jokes relating to Ganguly and Rahul begin appearing.
9. Richard Simmons’ interview goes on for twice as long as usual.
8. Oprah begins asking if she can return as a guest.
7. Comparisons are made between The Late Show and Bosom Buddies.
6. Comparisons are made between The Late Show and The Tonight Show.
5. Michael Richards, in a free appearance, is announced as guest host for Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day.
4. Scripts refer to ‘Johnny’ and ‘Ed’.
3. Dave compliments Regis.
2. Top 10 lists are one item short.