I wouldn’t say that I’m grief-stricken, more crest-fallen to be honest. The disturbing ennui began at 10-00 pm on Monday September 14th, the moment that “The Jay Leno Show” debuted on NBC. I have to say that I’ve been an admirer of James Douglas Muir Leno ever since I saw him play Alan Freed’s driver, Mookie, in “American Hot Wax”. Even then the ‘chin’ stood out in a crowd and it was obvious there’d be an even greater projection if the man got the chance to do some front line jawing.
The necessary iron was thrust into the fire when Johnny Carson stepped down from the “Tonight Show” in 1992. Despite a strong pitch from the self-assured David Letterman, it was Leno who got the gig. Given a team of talented writers, a terrific band and all the hoopla that NBC could muster, the show became the personification of the ‘late-night’ medium. And so it remained right up until May of this year, which was when the host took a well-earned sabbatical. Before he departed Jay affirmed his loyalty to the network, in addition to dropping hints about a new show that would debut in the fall.
There followed a build-up of gargantuan proportions. Throughout August and well past Labour Day, the nation was subjected to an endless round of media soundings in preparation for the ’second coming’ of TV comedy. On a local level, street corners within reach of the NBC studios were adorned with life-sized posters. Sight-seeing buses carried the show’s fancy new logo and ticker-tape news strips spelled out the message in Times Square. It reached the point where you’d think Leno had lobbied the Senate in search of an official go-ahead to revolutionize prime-time.
By the second Monday in the month the show had been hyped to high heaven. This was worrying because it would be nigh on impossible for any new programme or series to live up to such a welter of bull and ballyhoo. And that is precisely what happened. The critics had a field day when the series was unveiled. “It’s not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts“, said the L.A. Times. “No one expected Leno to reinvent the wheel”, huffed NPR. “It’s just that after so many years on the job, you’d expect he’d make a better one”.
The most disturbing thing of all was, the one feature of the show that elicited two thumbs up from commentators and viewers alike was the ‘musical’ finale with Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rhianna. For those who are clueless at the mere mention of the name Jay-Z, and there are many, the guy exists as an exponent of B-boying, graffiti writing, DJing and eMCeeing. Translated into non-Jay-Z jargon, he is a Hip Hop merchant. Viewed through these eyes and ears, the ‘performance’ was a travesty. As Leno’s show is being promoted as offering sixty minutes of edgy humour, those with an objective outlook could have been forgiven for thinking that the lurching, pouting, snarling and posing was yet another lightweight comedy skit.
You have to point the finger at the record industry for continuing to neglect straight-ahead pop music and creating a void that is being so hopelessly filled by rap. That’s not to say that the stuff doesn’t sell. RocNation / Sony Music issued a statement in the wake of the show, that Jay-Z has now scored more #1’s than Elvis Presley. Now this brings us straight back to the world of aching sides. Even allowing for creative accounting and the trough that the record business is still entrenched in, this is a desperate claim. If the system had been in place to accurately tally record sales across the globe when Elvis first broke through, no one in our lifetime would be able to make such a ridiculous statement.
If complacancy can be side-stepped and the Emperor’s new clothes stashed away in the closet, then NBC’s executives should by now have assembled around the board room table in order to thrash out ’plan-b’. An instant makeover is the only answer if their fall-about laughing “Jay Leno Show” has any chance of remaining in the ten o’clock slot in the months to come. And Jay? Think hard when you book your next set of guests.
