The Late Shift (HD) (1996) - Part 10 out of 10 - Jay Leno Vs. David Letterman

[tvpirate05]

Interesting that not too long after this movie came out, Helen Kushnick passed away. According to Wiki, it premiered in February 1996; Kushnick died in August.

In early-2010, me and a few friends came up with some actors for a sequel...I nominate Eric Stoltz as Conan.

[dkmoney007]

@tvpirate05 Yep, actually her lawsuit held up production for the film adaptation.

[DonGroucho]

@tvpirate05 if conan gets his way it will be tilda swinton

[MiketheCabbie]

I have one final late night anecdote:

My mother has been a nurse for nearly 30 years.

Back in '89, she told us about a terminal patient she was watching over who asked her if she would turn the TV to Pat Sajak's late night show, which she, of course did.

Ten minuted after Sajak's show started, the patient was dead.

Interpret that any way you want.

[sedeyus]

Damn, if only Letterman hadn't hosted the Oscars...

[ols5395]

TC18, the name of the song is "Letterman's Triumph" as listed on the soundtrack cd.

[antidiz]

If there can be an opera called Nixon in China, then surely there should be one called Ovitz at Disney. The saga certainly has all the hubris and betrayal and dashed ambitions one could wish for.

[TrevorCurtis18]

Whats the name of the song on "Lettermans great walk", (When he leaves NBC)

[1pokerknight]

awesome video man thanks for posting!

[uplateweb]

Amazing. I hope Dave's job is Conan's once again when Dave is ready to step down.

[scrollandkey]

Letterman paid for Hugh Grant's blowjob

[ace11rothstein]

Is that in his bank account or for NBC?

BTW, a monkey can run NBC and generate at least $150 mil. Not impressed!

In the end, he's still the caretaker of a FOURTH PLACE NETWORK.

[Wortcraft]

Wow, why did Letterman not like Higgins portrayal? The resemblance is uncanny. He did a great job.

[jwdogfst]

I remember watching Letterman the night after this movie aired on HBO, and Letterman hated how the director portrayed him as a guy with no life. It really had nothing to do with Higgins' impression of Letterman. The director of this flim had Letterman throwing balls at a target on the weekend for goodness sakes!

An entire week after this aired, Letterman would randomly throw balls at a target across his desk to mock the flim.

[mcrfreek89]

I think it wasn't so much how he resembles Dave, but the actions his character was doing. Sure, he's almost a splitting image of the guy, but what he did in the movie could set him off.

Not Higgins' fault at all though...he did a tremendous job. He had his characteristics, speaking traits, etc down perfectly!

[CoCoAwsomo151]

Great movie, and lets face it, Dave was/is way funnier than jay leno, and the best two late night hosts are conan and dave. Jay hasn't come up with anything original on his show EVER. Conan & Dave have class, good writing, originallity, and they're both good inteviewers. And even Fallon(who will get better eventually) has come up with more original bits than leno. Dave will go out with class and dignity, Ferguson who's funny will recieve the show, and coco will get a show on fox, if not CC.

[DonRonter]

I can't believe they actually screwed this up twice. NBC has gone to hell ever since Seinfeld and Friends ended. They put all their eggs into that basket without bothering to develop any good shows and now they're the 4th rated network. They need to clean house and fir every single person that is involved in developing that network. Start over.

[AccordionManiac]

Great movie!!! Thanks for the upload! Cheers

[foxpawz]

thanks for putting this up ! Funny how the mean ol bully Dave had the decency and integrity NOT to screw Leno over the way he just screwed Conan. I've never been a Leno fan and i don't really buy his "nice guy" act. I'm hoping like Letterman, this will only bring great things for Conan.

[thefocusman86]

Interesting to note: As of 2009, Peter Lassally who was the executive producer of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson is the executive producer of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

[Moredread25]

Thanks for putting this up after the whole Conan/Leno thing. I hate to drag a dead guy in to make a point, because he's just a straw man, but I don't think Johnny Carson would approve of this whole thing. Personally I just want to say this, even though it's too late. Jay, you should have just stayed retired and let Conan do his show, and let it rise and fall on its own merits. If at the end of his contract he was doing as poorly in terms of ratings as he has, maybe go back. But not like this.

[dkizzy84]

@Moredread25 Honestly I don't think the situation would have gone smoothly no matter what. It is this simple; NBC pulled Jay while he was #1. He was #1 from 1995-2009. They ultilmately made the decision to put jay back on the Tonight Show, the point is they decide who hosts and they made this ugly TWICE now. Jay is the loser in terms of keeping good friends because of NBC's inability to handle these situations. I'm not saying Jay didn't look out for himself but the first time his agent did it.

[Moredread25]

I don't know - You have to think back to his agent's quote - "You want to have me do all the dirty work and not tell you anything so you can pretend to be a nice guy and everybody's friend." I think think that's probably true in both of these cases. He pretends to be ignorant so he can look like a nice guy while doing jerky things to others. If he was really a 'nice guy' he would have said that he wouldn't take the Tonight Show back, or hide in a closet to keep his job.

[dkizzy84]

Yeah I don't know I just think this time around Conan's fans hurt him by not tuning in nightly and NBC being douches not letting him finish a full year either. He deserved probably 2-3 years to get the ball rolling. Jay is def looking out for Jay but I don't think it's simple enough to just blame him. NBC is ran by a bunch of clowns.

[Moredread25]

People don't tune into things at 11:30 because they like of a person's unless they are really die-hard fans. People have mostly go to bed by then. Even the best of them don't get more then 5 or 6 million a night. People watch at 11:30 if they happen to be awake. Part of the problem was that his lead in sucked. If people don't watch the 10:00, which they wern't - Leno got only about 5 million at 10 compared to the 14 million CBS was getting, which in turn hurt the 11PM News, then Conan.

[Moredread25]

I definitly have to agree about the clown part though. They cut a deal for Conan taking over 5 years in advance, not knowing what their situation was going to be. They went downhill a lot in those 5 years. Leno would probably have been the safer choice, and not putting him on at 10 would have been smart, but what really kills me is that they didn't give Conan a chance when his lead in was a terribly rated show. If he was still doing poorly, they could justifiably replaced him.

[foxpawz]

exactly and again they were trying here to have their cake and eat it too with dave AND leno. but DAVE...said. no. it's that character Leno fails to have. and why i prefer Dave and Conan.

[DrDroXX]

Jeff Zucker is the clown prince over there.  He's the one to really blame for all of this now, he didn't learn from Warrern Littlefield.

[tinister]

Actually. In regards to the whole Leno/Conan situation: Zucker did almost exactly what Littlefield did back then.

The only difference this time around is that Zucker's timing is piss poor. Littlefield did it just as NBC's primetime was about to skyrocket (and would stay sky high for many years) and provide gold leadin for Jay's Tonight Show.

Zucker's doing all of it while NBC is piss last in primetime ratings. AND he's doing it after the Jay Leno Show killed the NBC 10pm timeslot. LOL

[ace11rothstein]

Good point, much like Jay was bailed out by Hugh Grant, Littlefield was bailed out by Seinfeld, Friends, and ER.

Jeff Zucker has what? A great Thursday night comedy block (which doesn't get ratings) and a Winter Olympics that will lose $100 million.

[openmindedproduction]

@dkizzy84

Conan was getting less than 2 million on his Late Night show where he was getting about 2.5m on his Tonight Show. So you can't blame his fans. He was getting a bigger audience but still only half of what Jay was getting (and Dave).  If given more time Conan could've gone up but probably not enough to surpass Letterman.

[dkizzy84]

Yeah people can be upset but Jay was #1 for 14 years and Conan just didn't have the numbers in a higher time slot.

[tinister]

Conan didn't have the numbers in a higher time slot after 7 months. It took jay almost 2 years to get his numbers up.

So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that pulling Conan out early (and putting Jay back) into a 11:35 timeslot that is now completely devoid of any 10pm quality programming (thanks to the Jay Leno primetime) is far from being the smartest move.

We'll see how it goes.

[kryptoniceffect]

@openmindedproduction But how much longer is Dave going to stay? The man's already 62 and has been doing late night for almost 30 years. Craig Ferguson showed he could compete at Conan at 1230, but could he as host of The Late Show? I'm not sure if his style could carry, and he's honestly my favorite. Would Jon Stewart compete? Who else could fill in Dave's spot? And how long will Jay stay? And who'll take his place? Fallon? It's a horrible example of really poor foresight.

[openmindedproduction]

true, Dave doesn't have too much long to go...hell, he's already had a quad bypass and could drop any minute now...

and yeah, its hard to see Craig filling in Dave's spot. I've only started watching him the past few weeks actually and have started to become a huge fan, but he can be a real hit and miss because of his unpredictable ad libs.

and I agree with about Fallon, he is terrible...but he does have a great house band; which the only compliment I ever hear about his show, lol

[arodaman]

Feguson has said he really likes 12:30 and really wouldn't care for moving up to replace Dave. He's that rare entertainer who really doesn't have a giant ego. Personally, I would love to see Letterman bring in Conan as his replacement. Ferguson wouldn't mind, as long as CBS pays him even more.

[westnyorai]

Conan will always be best followed by Letterman, and heck I'd put Jimmy Kimmel before Leno.

[LuckyStrikeDEAD]

Conan is going to come back in flames in a good way I mean. On fire. Probably on Fox. Can't fucking wait. I hope he does cameos and other crazy shit til then. Do a walk on role on Lost or something. Crash a live show. Fuck it, why not.

[foxpawz]

go on letterman and do Leno impressions. what may not be cool with everyone but I'D fucking love it !!

[openmindedproduction]

@LuckyStrikeDEAD

yeah, I hope Conan gets on Fox at 11pm and does awesome. Fox will hopefully give him a big edge and a lot more breathing room to do whatever the hell he wants on the show.

[LuckyStrikeDEAD]

I am a devout Letterman fan with Conan second. Never did care for Leno's lackluster comedy (to say the least), but I think he's a nice guy and all the overwhelmingly negative attention he's been getting lately I think is a wee bit unfair. Regardless, objectively speaking, I don't think Leno will be able to recover ratings wise, Letterman is going to reign king from here on out, and Conan is going to come back in flames.

[Dzormagen]

I am both a fan of Leno and Conan, more Conan cause I am younger (26). I honestly think this time around NBC messed up big time! It sad to see what people to when money, and all these things are involved. Show Business is serious shit, that can fuck with you forever!

[calderon2249]

haha i didn't even know about this until after conan left the tonight show

[s13guy5618]

yeah, I was seven years old at the time so this is news to me.

[rgmatos2]

cant wait for late shift 3 starring 80 years old letterman and ferguson!

[foxpawz]

Letterman is STILL King of late night in my book !

[Poojauppal]

amen

[lehnrik]

@foxpawz Obviously! Anyone who understands anything about talk shows knows that Letterman is the best, no matter the ratings.

[adob0streak]

cant wait for late shift 2 starring conan

[watsonce8]

Jay Leno still sucks. and i don't think they made it clear how much letterman didn't like Leno.

[MrSunToTheDeep]

good movie

[babyapple930]

What a film....