Quick Emmy Observation

I was sitting for a while, watching the Emmys. This show, unfortunately, has less of an appeal to me than it once did. It could be because of how diffuse TV has become.

With 100+ channels, how can any one show be known by all, or even most?

When David Letterman came on to introduce the Johnny Carson retrospective, Helaine turned to ask how Jay Leno must have felt? Good question.

OK, it’s possible to justify this by saying the Emmys are on CBS. Still, it always seems Jay succeeded Johnny but has never really been his successor. Do you know what I’m getting at?

Toward the end of the Tonight Show clips, the famous scene with George Gobel, Bob Hope, Dean Martin and an ascot wearing Johnny Carson came on. It’s the one where Gobel says he feels like life is a tuxedo and he’s a pair of brown shoes.

Whether ad lib or scripted, it’s one of the all time classic talk show lines.

I wondered aloud, how many of those watching knew who these three guys were. Helaine said a lot of them don’t even know who Johnny was.

Not only that, when was the last time a talk show had two “A” list and one “B” list guests out at once (sorry George)? I’ll bet none of them was plugging anything. This was in an era of career enhancement, not product placement.

The class comedian moment of the night was when Jon Stewart’s show won and he came up, saying Letterman was his Carson. Now Jay has a reason to feel bad.

Blogger’s note: A friend, who was actually at the ceremony, told me he watched Jay Leno get up and leave as soon as his category’s winner was announced.

2 thoughts on “Quick Emmy Observation”

  1. I actually skipped the emmys for dinner out last night… I must agree with you though about Jay Leno. It feels that the “Emmy People” [im sure with the help of cbs] gave Jay such a slap in the face last night…Most online articles mention that Letterman did the piece, but none have captured the emotion…

  2. I realize he’s a nice man, but to me, Leno couldn’t ever hold Letterman’s coat except maybe as a relentless hard working guy.

    Carson was all those things Dave said. It was quite a sea change from the days of Jack Parr when the medium was still semi-new. A sense of – what – emotion – unpredictability – was very much in the air every night way back then.

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