Movieline Counterpoint: Jay Leno Issues Own Open Letter About ConanGate!
Six years ago, I selflessly agreed to step aside, with only the barest minimum of wheedling, and let Conan O'Brien take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009, even though I was still in first place. (I was still in first place!) Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair seemed like a really great career move for me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity -- I guest-hosted whenever they needed me, hid in closets to eavesdrop on NBC executives' plans for Johnny's successor, fought tooth-and-nail to make sure they picked me over Dave, whatever was asked of me! -- passed up far more lucrative offers to move to Vegas full time to do nightly shows in a stand-alone theater at The Mirage shaped like my head, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking about ways to get back this franchise, even if that meant biding my time in an utterly ill-conceived show in a time-slot where sexy-doctor shows and police procedurals belong. It was my completely correct belief, that with NBC's primetime and late-night schedules in total disarray, they would eventually beg me to go back to 11:35.
And then, amazingly, after only seven months, with Conan's Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC decided to react to their terrible difficulties by pulling the plug on its late-night incubator, because while it would be nice to nurture a younger talent, who has time for that when the entire network's melting down just as they're closing a sale to another media conglomerate? Babies are nice and cute and all, but it's not like you're gonna let them host a talk show when there's a perfectly good adult hanging around.
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Jay Leno cares about... Jay Leno. Also money & prestige. He stole the Tonight Show from David Letterman and now he wants to steal it from Conan O'Brien. "Team player"? Yeah right. If Fox offered him $30 million, he'd be gone. Leno is little more than a suck-up and a bully. He wants everything HIS way and will do anything to get it.
sigh...
If you would have read the ENTIRE article you would have noticed the part about "Movieline Fakery Experience™". This is not real, not written by Jay Leno.
Brilliant parody.
Yeah the written by is a big clue..
Movieline Counterpoint: Jay Leno Issues Own Open Letter About ConanGate!
Written by Mark Lisanti
Boycott Jay Leno when he moves back to 11:30. But since no one watched him at 10, maybe no one will care!
That Jay Leno is the bees' knees! I laughed so hard my colostomy bag burst.
Finally! The Defamer we heart is back in full effect... we've missed you, Mr. L! xoxo
Nice.
Well, I just spent a day a Jay Leno's garage and he spent an hour in front of my camera for my upcoming documentary "The Last Dymaxion".
He did it for free to help me out. NBC also donated his services as long as the union medical fund was paid.
I knew without reading the byline Jay didn't write that letter. Cute Journalism.
Jay isn't perfect but he has more integrity than most peopole i've met.
More than to risk confusing the reader by penning a letter as someone else.
Jay would have to have lost both his sense of humor and his self- control to write it- he has done neither. I've known jay since 1991 and he has forced me to become a better person by simply watching him in action.
There isn't one of you he wouldn't help. Letterman however would sell you with a "what me worry" shrug. Conan would be too busy making sure he was funny enough. Leno makes his commitments more important.
That is why he really is letting the network handle it. He bears no malice against any one let alone Conan.
Why we Americans love a blood match the way we do is beyond me.
Conclusion: This is about NBC and it's relationship to it's affiliates. Conan might concider that Tonight show is his to create at
midnight or when ever he say's "Its the Tonight show because I say so" If Conan says no after Jay has agreed to let NBC cut the Jay leno show in half he's not doing his part. He's the one not being a team player and using Johnny Carson's memory to do it...
I don't buy the whole "team player" defense Leno mentions. If NBC had any sense, they'd demand that Leno's solution to their problems, would not hurt or penalize another show or celebrity on their own network!
Even so, apparently, that's not a priority, so Leno should have stood up for what is fair and decent, by not going along with just anything that was sent his way - obviously, money means more than integrity, professional courtesy or even decency, to some people! Leno will never be funny to me again, because this is all just too unfair.
Leno could have done the right thing and trust me, the execs would have been able to come up with a better solution, than how it stands now!
I wish Conan the best in whatever his future holds - Leno, good luck to you too - you're going to need it more than you realize, but if all is not well, I'd say you'll just be getting what you really deserve - a headache, fewer fans, & bottom line - money! Apparently, respect, dignity and maturity do not rate in your book!
I am a tourist, saw the article when I was about to log into my email account. Thought why they smart-mouth-wash each other so much. But these guys are just doing their job. To bad that the leaving crew did not take their 6 months more seriously and gave it the best they got, we all have to seize the day for crying out loud.. don’t just be in the light thinking “look at me I’m doing good” but all your mind should go to “what else can I do for you” and now the lawyer got him some money because we do things for money in this world and not for just pleasure like some wanker looking at free movies of naked bodies humping each other 🙂
Put best by a friend of mine: Jay should man up and fall on his sword
Yeah, I thought something this funny couldn't have been written by Jay Leno.
🙂
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Cut the guys a break. Conan and Jay are both $$$ and both said it's BUSINESS.
Jay is known as Mr. Nice Guy for a reason.