Will Carson's snub haunt Leno forever?

musicismylife78

Whats interesting is how Johnny Carson didnt really support Leno, evem though Leno took Carson's spot and chair.

And Carson sent Letterman jokes throughout the years and I even heard he wrote some skits.

Do you think Leno will always have this in the back of his mind?

Its obvious Leno admired Carson, but it was indeed unique that he sent Leno's competition the jokes and advice instead.

igotid88

Letterman was thought to be the successor. And Leno stole it from him.

pickupyourwill

not to get all serious here and what not, but Leno seems like a pretty well-adjusted guy who doesn't let small stuff like that get to him. just my 2 cents anyway.

musicismylife78

sure, he doesnt seem like things bother him, but it was his idol who snubbed him. it wasnt just some average joe. I would bet leno would even go as far to say Carson is his hero, and one of the reasons he got into showbiz. So I dont think its far fetched to suggest that Leno could have had his feelings hurt in a major way. Not only does his hero, not think of him as the rightful successor to the late show, but he sends jokes letterman's way, who as I said is leno's competition.

Maybe it doesnt bother him at all. I would have to think though, deep down, it maybe smarts a little.

musicismylife78

leno has always had better ratings, but its a small victory when your lifetime hero doesnt bother to think of you as a great host

pickupyourwill

sure, he doesnt seem like things bother him, but it was his idol who snubbed him. it wasnt just some average joe. I would bet leno would even go as far to say Carson is his hero, and one of the reasons he got into showbiz. So I dont think its far fetched to suggest that Leno could have had his feelings hurt in a major way. Not only does his hero, not think of him as the rightful successor to the late show, but he sends jokes letterman's way, who as I said is leno's competition.

Maybe it doesnt bother him at all. I would have to think though, deep down, it maybe smarts a little.

oh ya, deep down. i agree with ya. which is why its even cooler that Conan is taking over because he's kind of like the underdog's hero in some ways. So Leno being enthusiastic about Conan coming in shows alot of class and kindness on Leno's part.

mickeyrat

I may be wrong here. But it seems that letterman had Carson as the hero. It was NBC who came up with this clusterfuck to begin with. Carson seemed to honor what was thought to be a given. Letterman taking over after he left.Dave respected Carson and often sought his advice. Including about the fucked up way NBC handled Carsons successor .Maybe thats why Carson seemed to favor Letterman with the jokes. Also important to note that Jay was bent on doing things his way after he took over.So it doesn't seem strange to me that he wouldn't or didn't solicit Johnny's advice(that we know of).
Seems to me that the controversy was intentional , to perhaps give a ratings boost to Jay.


Will agree though that Leno is a class act and this transition is what I'm sure ALL parties would have hoped for 17 years ago. Maybe that would have happened had Dave got the job.

Kudos to Conan for booking PJ monday!!!

mca47

I think everyone including Carson expected Letterman to take over. I think there is no question that Carson and Letterman were pretty close, but I also believe Carson had a lot of respect for Leno.

When NBC named his successor, there wasn't much Carson or Letterman could do...just part of the business. What Carson did do that Letterman didn't was keep his mouth shut about it.

CJMST3K

musicismylife78 wrote:

leno has always had better ratings, but its a small victory when your lifetime hero doesnt bother to think of you as a great host

Incorrect. The first year and a half Letterman had higher ratings. I believe it was the interview of Hugh Grant following the prostitute scandal that proved the turning point.

There was a really good movie about this... showed Rich Little as Carson and a few other familiar faces as the other two. I saw it a ton of times in the 90's. I think it was an HBO movie, or at least I watched it there often. It shows Leno hiding in closets or something as Exec's had meetings so Leno could take that private info and use it against them. Leno was willing to do anything to get the show, and it worked. His methods (according to this film) were completely unethical.

Anyone else remember this film?

Edit - the film was called The Late Shift
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late_Shift

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QugUX1GJ53Y

norm

there was no fucking snub

leno and his manager went behind carson's back and stole the show from him and letterman....that's why carson resigned when he did....he was fed up with nbc's management who didn't like dave because he would make fun of them and their fragile little egos couldn't handle it

carson was the one who told dave to go to cbs and continued to support dave behind the scenes because he knew leno was an unfunny douche

leno didn't even have the class to thank, let alone acknowledge johnny when leno took over

NoCode_inMT

norm wrote:

there was no fucking snub

leno and his manager went behind carson's back and stole the show from him and letterman....that's why carson resigned when he did....he was fed up with nbc's management who didn't like dave because he would make fun of them and their fragile little egos couldn't handle it.

Wasn't Jay hiding in a closet during one of those meetings?
Douche stole all his funny bits from Stern.

norm

NoCode_inMT wrote:

norm wrote:

there was no fucking snub

leno and his manager went behind carson's back and stole the show from him and letterman....that's why carson resigned when he did....he was fed up with nbc's management who didn't like dave because he would make fun of them and their fragile little egos couldn't handle it.

Wasn't Jay hiding in a closet during one of those meetings?
Douche stole all his funny bits from Stern.

oh yeah i forget that....he hid in a closet and used the info to con nbc to give him the show


and then he hired a stutter to be the announcer.....genius!! :roll:

Wrongly Accused

who gives a crap... nbc wound up choosing the right guy for them... and that was leno, who had higher ratings for them for almost ALL of his tenure... that brought in more revenue dollars than letterman has brought in for cbs... THATS THE BOTTOM LINE!.. and yes, thats ALL that matters...

CJMST3K

norm wrote:

NoCode_inMT wrote:

Wasn't Jay hiding in a closet during one of those meetings?

oh yeah i forget that....he hid in a closet and used the info to con nbc to give him the show

hey... you forgot my post so soon?

CJMST3K wrote:

There was a really good movie about this... showed Rich Little as Carson and a few other familiar faces as the other two. I saw it a ton of times in the 90's. I think it was an HBO movie, or at least I watched it there often. It shows Leno hiding in closets or something as Exec's had meetings so Leno could take that private info and use it against them. Leno was willing to do anything to get the show, and it worked. His methods (according to this film) were completely unethical.

The whole movie The Late Shift seems to be on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QugUX1GJ53Y