I've been very interested in the history of late night tv since Bill Carter's The Late Shift. This documentary does a good job of showing the origins of late night through the Carson years and the Leno/Letterman war for Late Night. Naturally Conan's Tonight Show tenure was a fascinating parallel. The documentary does provide much needed insight on the shift of late night from nonpartisan to political with the rise of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but the last episode felt like more time needed to pass before a real in-depth analysis could be had of the current Late Night lineup.
One thing that I found distracting as a viewer was not what they showed, but what they didn't show. Bill Maher is mentioned briefly in a negative light following the cancellation of Politically Incorrect for his post 9/11 commentary. I'm not a big fan, but he's been hosting Real Time on HBO for nearly 20 years now, but received no mention whatsoever following that event. There was also no mention, not one, about Dennis Miller who hosted two late night talk shows. John Oliver surprisingly was mentioned only once.
Likewise, Craig Kilborn of all people received more airtime on this documentary than Craig Ferguson who hosted the Late Late Show for almost 10 years. I would have loved to see some commentary on his deconstruction of the Late Night format, which includes puppets, a remote controlled robot skeleton sidekick and a two man horse costume that became regular segments on a show that felt very stripped down, yet effortlessly funny.
While a bit off the beaten path, Fox News' Red Eye (which aired at 3am Eastern) and successor show, Gutfeld! Did not receive a mention at all, despite Greg Gutfeld's recent ratings success, sometimes beating all network Late Night shows. I suspect it didn't fit the political narrative that series was painting, and Fox News is direct competition to CNN.
Saturday Night Live, which deserves its own stand alone documentary series, was also the lone sketch show profiled. MadTV and In Living Color received no mention at all. This was very clearly a NBC focused documentary series with The Tonight Show at the center.
Even though I'm a fan of late night tv, the series does feel a little too nostalgic towards the end. The format does feel a little outdated in today's 24/7 streaming world. I think highlighting Conan's departure from TBS would have been a great bookend to this series leaving the door open to what's next for this genre and format.
One thing that I found distracting as a viewer was not what they showed, but what they didn't show. Bill Maher is mentioned briefly in a negative light following the cancellation of Politically Incorrect for his post 9/11 commentary. I'm not a big fan, but he's been hosting Real Time on HBO for nearly 20 years now, but received no mention whatsoever following that event. There was also no mention, not one, about Dennis Miller who hosted two late night talk shows. John Oliver surprisingly was mentioned only once.
Likewise, Craig Kilborn of all people received more airtime on this documentary than Craig Ferguson who hosted the Late Late Show for almost 10 years. I would have loved to see some commentary on his deconstruction of the Late Night format, which includes puppets, a remote controlled robot skeleton sidekick and a two man horse costume that became regular segments on a show that felt very stripped down, yet effortlessly funny.
While a bit off the beaten path, Fox News' Red Eye (which aired at 3am Eastern) and successor show, Gutfeld! Did not receive a mention at all, despite Greg Gutfeld's recent ratings success, sometimes beating all network Late Night shows. I suspect it didn't fit the political narrative that series was painting, and Fox News is direct competition to CNN.
Saturday Night Live, which deserves its own stand alone documentary series, was also the lone sketch show profiled. MadTV and In Living Color received no mention at all. This was very clearly a NBC focused documentary series with The Tonight Show at the center.
Even though I'm a fan of late night tv, the series does feel a little too nostalgic towards the end. The format does feel a little outdated in today's 24/7 streaming world. I think highlighting Conan's departure from TBS would have been a great bookend to this series leaving the door open to what's next for this genre and format.