Am I the only one bored with late night talk shows?

My suspicion is, you are not so much bored with late-night talk shows, is you are not in favor of other people hearing the things they say that they tune into those talk shows to hear. Your resentment causes you to be suspicious of the format in general, and irritates you to the point where you care so much about something you are supposedly "bored" with, in hopes of crowdsourcing your resentment in online community boards that might get more people to become dissatisfied with the things you are.

When I am "bored" with something...I just stop watching, and go to the DVR, which has at least 40 hours of well-written series television, and a good amount of excellent films I haven't gotten around to seeing. And if that isn't enough to sate my boredom, I can always go downstairs to the bigger DVR hooked-up to the bigger TV. Failing anything on either of these worth watching, even though I recorded them specifically because I doubt there are enough people sharing my tastes to allow for all these to be running constantly like Shawshank or Lord of the Rings movies often do, well, there's always a backlog of music DVR's and surround-sound discs I haven't unpacked yet because I'm trying to organize my music and video as I go.

If you are really, truly bored by what there is on television to watch late-night, I feel truly sad for you, that you never discovered that ever since around 1977 or so, audiences no longer had to rely on live signals to disctate what they want to watch. Ya know, if you want more talk shows to experience, there are many on teeny-tiny cable networks with all their efforts put into eking out revenue from a scant few shows they can afford to present, so they work like balls to make sure they are providing relevant, interesting content to their fringe audiences. I hear Oprah's programming is very good, if estrogen-drenched. There are huge swings in the topics constantly discussed with intelligence on CSPAN's 1, 2 and 3. Fuse, and any number of channels marked "MTV" present shows you never knew existed because you think it's all "Sweet Sixteen" all the time. And, if you're really just looking for a few seconds of entertainment while willing your eyes to shut, the Time-Life infomercials are excellent, if repetative.

I haven't mentioned the shopping or religious channels yet, because the gorts don't like it when we talk about...shopping, here.

I've often felt, the best way to use a magnanimous resource like television, is to find ways to use it counter-intuitive to the people who want you to do it all in lockstep. So I take great benefit from working a little harder to get it a little better. OH - and also, we never watch television in real-time anymore. Even watching the news, I make sure I've taped-ahead, then roll it back, so I can wear the hell out of my 'skip" button. Sometimes late at night, it's the only exercise I get.

 

lol we're a special breed here

 

Carson and Cavett were the best interviewers (I wish Cavett's PBS show had survived instead of that goshawful Charlie Rose). But Carson was a very talented comedian as well.

B/c Carson did not try to foist his politics on his audience and was not "in your face", he was often derided as "bland". In the early years Carson often had controversial guests -- BION both Ayn Rand (!!) and JFK assassination prosecutor Jim Garrison were guests in the '60s. However w/the debut of Tomorrow in 1973 Carson pretty much ceded this type of guest to Tom Snyder.

NBC Letterman is my favorite late night show of all time -- even though Letterman himself was far from a great interviewer.

 

Tom Snyder was cool. What was that phrase he always used?

 

This is a new phenomenon. In olden days -- say, 10 years ago -- most people tuned in to late night shows to hear newsmakers lampooned, not to be preached at like some Hollywood reverse image 700 Club.

 

"Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah"

 

I want to be entertained for a late night show - whoever the puppet is.

What turns me off are the opening monologues which are now platforms for agendas, pleas, and supposedly funny takes on pokes, jabs and point scoring attempts I abhor on the political "talking head" networks.

 

Letterman was interesting, he could be very good interviewing someone if he liked them, maybe not a straight interview but it would end up being really entertaining ( I was just watching some old shows he did with teri garr) dick c was amazing and one of the best at interviewing pretty much anyone from any walk of life. I wish more (a lot more) of his old shows were available

ps I haven't seen a current talk show in years...maybe a decade

 

Craig Ferguson was the best when I started watching around '11. I DVR'd all the episodes and binged them on Saturdays. Once he got his new studio, he started phoning it in majorly and I tuned out until he announced he was leaving, then I watched again. I always loved Dave too, but not to the point of DVR'ing each show. Actually, Craig started phoning it in around the same time as I started staying up later and later doing homework, and Dave kinda eclipsed him at that time, for me. Currently, I watch Seth and Stephen when something big happens and I wanna see their take, but that's it.

I liked Corden at first, but never watch him anymore. I don't dislike him, but I think there's a bit of resentment that he got way more advertising and recognition that Craig ever did, almost immediately. Fallon was okay on Late Night, but I can't stand him on Tonight. I can't watch JKL because of all the ABC product placement, and I completely forget Conan exists.

If I hadn't gotten hooked on following late night ratings about five years ago, all these shows would probably be completely out of my mind by now.

 

You don't sound like an OldSoul

 

Maybe my "laugh or cry" comment was hyperbole. It was a comedy show first and foremost. But I admit to being genuinely moved by things he did on occasion. At any rate, Johnny really was an enigma. He didn't wear his heart on his sleeve, a quality which I find desirable in a TV host.

 

I never watched Ferguson. Ill have to check out some of his shows online. I like Fallons bits in the form of online clips.

I think much of my “boredom” may be due to my attention span getting shorter and shorter. When we were away a few weeks back, late night talk shows were pretty much it on hotel TV ( no apple tv ) when we turned in. It was hard to sit thru Fallon as a whole. Plus, the commercials are now so annoying since we are use to watching netflix, hbo shows, etc.

Yes, i think the talent is saturated...however...my attention span is not what it use to be. I can sit thru Bill Mahar at times. I like his sarcastic style.

Norm Macdonald has a great talk show going online and youtube.

 

Old soul, not old body. I chose the name because a teacher had called me one because of my music interests about 2 weeks before I signed up.

 

Something like "Sit back, relax, and enjoy yourself as the beautiful pictures fly through the air." ??

 

You can check out some old Tom Snyder and the Conan series, Serious Jibber-Jabber.

Ferguson can be extremely serious and inquisitive or plain off-the-wall silly and improvise with Robin Williams perfectly.

Check his episode with Desmond Tutu for the Peabody-winning segment. And the Robin Williams for the craziest silliness.

 

I used to like Kimmel, but then he started wearing a suit, lost weight, and became as meh as the rest of them.

 

Here's a proper "youth" take for you: Carson was a relic of the '60s who should've retired a good decade before he did. I only ever watched the Tonight Show when Leno or Rivers were guest-hosting.

 

Not so fast, there...don't forget, 10 years ago they already had the 700 Club..and it was already doing the same thing...as it had since Father McCoughlin. 10 years ago, we were also at least a decade past Morton Downey. 10 years ago, we had experienced Rush Limbaugh for over 20 years already. There is nothing new about a guy with a microphone, using it to get people on his side. And those good-'ol days of Johnny Carson? Every time he got a new sponsor, he proudly put that product up to his face and smiled sincerely at you as if introducing you to his new best friend. And he wasn't even the first Tonight Show host.

This "new phenomenon", hasn't been new for quite some time.

 

I guess that's what makes horse races. The only way I would watch Joan Rivers:

 

Downey Limbaugh are not the same as Carson Letterman. Talk-variety is a different format.

 

I think he would say "Fair enough, fair enough" while in a haze of cigarette smoke. Didn't he? He had gravitas.
I also dug Eric Sevareid, as a commentator, back in the day of network news. I have a somewhat convoluted story about him but probably not worth your time, or any one else's here.

 

Talk is talk. What you do with it is always your decision. Format schmormat. It's all "butts in seats": market share.

 

what? politics and alpo aren't exactly the same thing....or are they? wait......that was ed!

 

No - but BUYING Alpo and BUYING my politics is. And there wore words prior to the ones you highlighted, you know. If I wrote those first, they probably pertained to the others. That's all I have to say on the subject.