Home » Jazz News » TV / Film

153

Jay Leno Show: This is the Best NBC Has to Offer?

Source:

Sign in to view read count
Jay Leno Show stays on familiar ground. Seinfeld and Oprah are a breath of fresh air for the comedian's new show, which feels like anything but.

It's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts.

Sixteen minutes into the new “The Jay Leno Show," it was difficult not to panic. This is the future of television? This wasn't even a good rendition of television past.

Clearly Leno believes that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and he has been very vocal about the fact that his late-night talk show was not broke. So here it is again, different time slot, busier set and same old jokes. Literally.

Yes, there was a reference to an Obama-held “root beer summit" between Kanye West and Taylor Swift, but there was also a Bush joke, a Cheney joke, a Wal-Mart joke, a Cash for Clunkers joke (getting warmer) and a Joe Biden/Nancy Pelosi joke so dated that Leno had to precede it with “people are still talking about. . . ." All of which made his opening monologue seem like an attempt to cash in on the current vampire fixation -- comedy of the undead.

With all eyes on Leno, this is the best he, and his writers, and the struggling network could come up with? A “Cheaters" parody in which the joke is that he and bandleader Kevin Eubanks are having an affair? Honestly, NBC, has it come to this?

Cut to a flatly bizarre musical car wash skit -- in which Dan Finnerty tortured some pleasant-looking woman named Meg with his silly and sexually suggestive songs -- and by the time a tuxedoed Jerry Seinfeld (Really, Jerry? Was it a tuxedo event?) appeared through the set's May Co.-esque doors, it was hard not to hope he would simply release the audience with the promise that they would not have to serve for another 12 months.

“I'm just trying to grasp what's going on here," Seinfeld said instead, just as if he could read our minds. “In the '90s, when we quit a show, we actually left."

Who thought we'd feel such nostalgia for the '90s?

For a moment, Seinfeld seemed a breath of fresh air, expressing concern that he was the biggest name Leno could get: “Is your staff aware that I have not been on television for 11 years?" and quipping that he was there to announce his new talk show. Then the star power of Oprah Winfrey appeared like a living fresco via teleprompter and it all went downhill again.

Continue Reading...

Comments

Tags

View events near Los Angeles
Jazz Near Los Angeles
Events Guide | Venue Guide | Local Businesses | More...

News

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.