Caltrops - Peter Molyneux's The Movies





	[quote name="Horrible Gelatinous Blob"][quote name="Jhoh Creexul (custom software)"]And yes the Jimmy Norton opinion doesn't seem to be on youtube, and it's very much different because Norton is plain center and Oswalt is hard left. Also, Nortin actually is on Leno's show multiple times so his opinion can be flavored. Basically Jimmy's take is that the network fucked up with the deals and that Leno is taking a lot of the blame, and it's not Leno's fault or Conan's fault.[/quote] Patton Oswalt has been on Leno multiple times as well; more often than Jim Norton, actually. Jeff Zucker and by extension NBC are in fact incompetent, but their main fault was lacking the backbone to do what needed to be done, one way or the other. Jay Leno could have taken the 12:35a slot and revived his comedic credibility if he wanted. He could have gone to ABC. He could have gone to Zucker in 2008 and told him that he changed his mind; that he wasn't ready to leave. He could have refused to give Conan The Tonight Show in the first place. No one held a gun to Leno's head and made him say that <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6d1caacad1/jay-s-2004-announcement">he wanted to retire and 17 years of hosting the show was enough.</a> He wasn't threatened or cajoled or pressed into saying that for any reason. It wasn't about contract negotiations or money, because if it was about money he could have left in 2008 for ABC and made double what he was making as host of The Tonight Show. Jay wanted to be seen as the affable, friendly late night host who didn't mind sacrificing for the company. Like NBC itself, he wanted to have his cake and eat it too. Plain and simple, Jay changed his mind. Which is fine, really. I don't fault him for changing his mind, and I don't fault him for wanting to keep hosting The Tonight Show. What I fault him for is not having the guts to say to NBC management that he wanted to stay at The Tonight Show and letting them use him to drive 10pm into the ground for five months, KNOWING FULL WELL that both the affiliates' local news and late night key demo ratings largely live and die by what's in the 10pm slot. He knew what would happen to Conan's ratings and he began to undermine Conan in the press <a href="http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/366971-Jay_Leno_Talks_Back_An_Exclusive_Interview_With_B_C.php">less than three months in</a>: as soon as he realized The Jay Leno Show wasn't going to work long term. To say that it's not Leno's fault is to excuse his sycophancy and pathological passive-aggressiveness. Leno is the worst kind of company man: the kind who tries to pass off his own personal, completely unnecessary reprehensible actions as "just doing what the company wants." Leno's ambition won't destroy him in the same way it destroys politicians, but history won't be kind to him at all. You can make an argument that he won the show and Letterman lost it, but he genuinely stole The Tonight Show from Conan. There's a saying that it's not "show personal," it's show <i>business</i>. This whole fiasco hasn't been business, though, and that's reflected in how quick and vehement the pro-Conan response has been and how galvanizing the topic is. <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-14/conans-exit-confirmed/">It doesn't really matter at this point, though</a>; Jay Leno getting what Jay Leno wants, and fuck anyone and everyone who's standing in the way: Conan, Andy, The Tonight Show staff and crew, the 18-49 demo. "Remember kids, you can do anything you want -- unless Jay Leno wants to do it too." [/quote]