Carycomic
When you took over from Johnny Carson, in May of 1992, you were the only one who didn't congratulate him on his thirty years of hosting THE TONIGHT SHOW. Why? The female producer you hired to replace Fred De Cordova ordered you not to. In fact, she blacklisted every Hollywood celebrity who appeared on other talk shows! Which is why I initially watched Arsenio Hall during his original run on the Fox Network.But, after you fired her and hired back Fred, roughly six months into your first season as host, things not only settled down. They gradually got better! However, it was not unnoticeable how Branford Marsalis disappeared (and was replaced, as band leader, by Kevin Eubanks) after he told you on the air that he wasn't going to be the butt of even good-natured jokes, the way Doc Severinsen was for Johnny Carson. Although, truth to tell, Doc always gave as good as he got, much to Johnny and the audience's delight.Then, following your tenth anniversary as host, you seemed to get a little carried away with your power. For example; unpredictably scrambling up the established pattern of the comedy spots between the end of the monologue and the introduction of the first guest (i.e., telecasting "Monday Night Headlines" on every other night of the week but...!).And, of course, in 2009 came the most ill-advised experiment since Prohibition: "The Jay Leno Show" in prime time. Featuring as your very first guest, on Opening Night, none other than Kanye West. The guy whom I guarantee did _not_ receive a wedding gift from Taylor Swift when he married Beyoncé.Not surprisingly, your prime time show was canceled after less than half a season. Prompting your return to the 11:35 time slot...and prompting NBC to break their promise to Conan O'Brien. The latter subsequently--and justifiably--moved to TNT, who gave him a talk show that started half an hour earlier than yours. And which, thereby, successfully drained away some of those life-sustaining Nielsen ratings you so badly needed during Phase 2 of your hosting tenure. Evidence of this clearly being seen in such things as your more-than-occasional recycling of vintage Monday night headlines!Now, you've retired as host...and none too soon. Because, this past week alone, I found nothing funny about THE TONIGHT SHOW, anymore. Even Billy Crystal couldn't make me laugh during his wanna-be-poignant tribute to you, last night! So, whatever you do, from now on? I hope you have better luck with it than you did these past four years.Because, believe me, you'll need it!
briangcb
When I first started watching late night talk shows I was in my teens. In the early 2000's. I was in high school and could never sleep very well. So I started watching Leno, then after Leno would come Conan. At first I enjoyed them both equally and could never decide which one I thought was funnier. After a certain amount of time I started to notice the only time I was laughing at Leno was when he was doing his 'headlines' routine on Monday nights. Admittedly he does have some clever jokes in his monologue and I do get a kick out of his comments when making fun of people who are total idiots, whether he is outright calling them an idiot or just lets them continue to make morons out of themselves. However, Conan has me in stitches through his entire show practically. As I continued to watch both, I noticed more and more that Leno is just an arrogant and obnoxious man. He had Clint Eastwood on once and it was plain and obvious that he was strongly resisting the urge to punch Leno in the face. I know what you're thinking "Eastwood doesn't have a sense of humour" That's exactly what I thought at first as well, but I've seen Eastwood in numerous interviews since, on Late Night, the Late Show, and various other interviews. He is a very happy, kind, magnanimous person with a great sense of humour about himself, especially his age. Making comments such as if he were to do another Dirty Harry movie it'd mainly about him chasing crooks with his walker and fly-fishing on weekends.Anyways, I'm getting off topic. I continued to watch Leno hoping that maybe his attitude would improve. In fact, it got worse; making comments to actors about their teenage daughters, basically saying he wants to sleep with them. Making crude comments that would be considered sexual harassment in an office setting to his female guests, making racist comments to his black guests; Samuel L. Jackson was on once talking about the Pontiac GTO he just bought from the movie xXx and Leno made a comment saying something like 'Hmm, a black guy driving a 70's muscle car, the cops will have a field day with that.' It was obvious that Jackson was offended but he remained professional through the rest of the interview...the list goes on. It got to the point where I was fidgeting and pulling my hair out waiting for Conan to come on and I actually started to despise Jay Leno. Nothing has changed and I'm over-joyed that Conan is taking his place.
marvel88
The Tonight Show began in 1954, being hosted by Steve Allen, then in 1957 got Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson came in 1962. Jay Leno first appeared on this show in 1977, and became one of the many to become famous because of it. In the 80s, Jay began to appear more regularly, and became guest host in 1987. In 1992, Johnny Carson decided to retire. There was a bitter battle between Jay Leno and David Letterman on who would get the show, and Leno won."The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" aired on May 25,1992. It runs today. It features a great segment, Headlines, in which Jay reads actual headlines from newspapers that have a funny mistake in them. It also has Jaywalking, in which Jay travels in LA and asks questions and finds ridiculous answers from pedestrians. Jay also tells about a 10 minute monologue, that varies from night to night.Jay is a pretty funny guy, and narrowly beats out Letterman. Some things on the show can be a bit cheesy, but it's good. But Conan is still the best.8 of 10.
John Wayne Peel
I have seen Jay Leno perform in one way or another since 1974 when no one knew who Jay Leno was, and I have to tell you. Seeing him live is better when he isn't saddled with a late night talk show format.Forget the comparison to Johnny or David Letterman. It's not even apples and oranges. It's more like apples and grapefruits. It's all in your personal taste and I see a lot of the monologue jokes sub-standard to what Jay wrote for himself in his own act.But putting that aside for a moment, Jay's ease with his guests and his interviewing style have so improved since the early days. He seems like he's been there forever and not just the ten plus years so far and he seemed that way the very first time he took over for Johnny before Johnny went away.But what I can say is that sometimes his political commentary gets me p.o.'d and I have to change the channel in disgust. Here, Dave is the better of the two hosts. It never seems to be a personal assessment when he does political humor... much like Johnny Carson did for those ALMOST 30 years. (He went on first on October of 62 and left in the summer of 92. You do the math.)But I still can't stand the theme and that ROTTEN CARICATURE. I have been doing caricature for as long as Johnny Carson was on the show, and I have done better. In fact, I did one that I gave to Jay personally in the mid 1970s which he still has (Jimmy Brogan told me and I have known Jimmy for almost as long as I've known Jay.)So if you're reading this, Jay, give me a call or e-mail me. I've got a better one - and I can even send you an animated one if you'd like.And besides, Jay, you don't deserve the lambasting some of these people have given you. ...and that's a wrap...