One of the great late night talk show guests of all time was Charles Grodin. Who else was cocky enough to slump down next to Johnny Carson and ask if he cared at all about any of his guests? (As he does in the above clip from 1990.) The studio audience and viewers at home
On Sunday, CNN premieres The Story of Late Night, a six-part docuseries examining the nearly 70-year history of television’s post-primetime talk shows. The series was produced by Toronto-based Cream Productions. To set it all up, listen to my conversation with Bill Carter (above), the long-time New York Times columnist and bestselling “Late Shift” author who
If you’re into stand-up comedy, you already know The Comedy Store. The Sunset Boulevard showplace has long been mecca for fans of live comedy. Way back when I was working for TV Guide Canada and living in Los Angeles in the mid-’80s, I saw Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey, Sam Kineson, Howie Mandel, Elaine Boozler, Jay
David Letterman’s Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction returns for a third season Oct. 21. Guests will include Dave Chappelle, Robert Downey, Jr., Kim Kardashian West and Lizzo. The streaming service issued this trailer today and I can already think of Top 10 reasons to watch the series again — just for Chappelle.
THURS/OCT 1 Let’s Be Real (Fox). Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog puppet master Robert Smigel goes after the upcoming presidential election like a puppet pit bull in this special. FRI/OCT. 2 Emily in Paris (Netflix). Lily Collins stars as an American in Paris who takes a job at a marketing firm in this comedy from
By the time I started covering television in the mid-’80s, one of the titans of the industry was already switching sides — Fred Silverman. The native New Yorker, who passed away Thursday at 82, did what nobody before or since has ever accomplished — he was the top programming exec at each one of the
Kudos to Jimmy Fallon for allowing this savaging to be posted up on line but, Holy Cow, not since Martin Short deconstructed Canadian celebrity interviewer Brian Linehan on SCTV has such a showbiz career thumping been so transparent on television. Nearly ten minutes of confrontational mayhem, straight from the couch. Steve-Martin-Short told many of the
For years I told newcomers attending Television Critics Association press tour sessions in Los Angeles that they aren’t really on this beat until they’ve been in a scrum with Leslie Moonves. Well, things have changed. What’s left of the TV beat writers could pretty well all pull up to the TCA hotel in the same