I don't know if it's a good sign when the monologue is the best part...and it isn't an amazingly good or unique one at that. I have hopes he'll get better, though. The Roots were fantastic, and even though it's annoying how much Fallon says it, it really is amazing they are his house band. Also, Timberlake is when its all said and done a pretty likeable guy. His John Mayer impression was spot on.
Yeah, this stuff takes time. It wasn't unbearable. I'll watch it on and off for a few months before I give up on it. He needs to be more comfortable w/ his interviews. Don't force the humor and ask some more neutral questions. It's like he was trying to set up a joke w/ every question. Hopefully he gets into a comfort zone and doesn't feel the need to have a laugh every 30 seconds. Fallon's nervousness was palpable, but all these things I can excuse. Hopefully he'll get the hang of it w/ time. But the comedy bits were really bad. Like someone else said, for all the time they had to prepare, the 'lick stuff for $10' and 'blonde housewives demographic' were totally devoid of humor. Space train was meh, and Slow Jams was only good because of the Roots. The writers better step their game up. Oh yeah, the monologue was actually good...as far as talk show monologues go. I don't find any other monologues funny...maybe Letterman but that's it.
The problem is that Fallon is going against Craig Ferguson, who is actually quite good imo. I mean Fallon might get better as time goes on, but for right now if i'm up late and i have the choice between the two, i'm going to switch over to cbs everytime. Ferguson was already beating O'brien in the ratings. So now, it's going to be an absolute slaughter. i see this show getting canceled.
wow, is that true?? i'm a pretty huge late night talk show fan, and i had no idea. that's pretty crazy. i think ferguson is good (esp. compared to kilborne), but i felt that he was handcuffed by the fact that his guests are predominantly 3rd leads in films and tv shows. pretty shocking to me that he had been beating conan. i don't see how they could really cancel fallon (what would they replace the 12:30 timeslot with, infomercials?), since that show has been an american institution for 25 years, but if it did, i'd feel pretty bad for fallon to go through the rest of his life with that blood on his hands.
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Fallon actually debuted better than expected. I don't remember ever laughing at his stuff during his SNL days, and never cared for his movies. But it was pretty nice first show, considering it was his first. I think they're just really close now, and Ferguson wins some times when Conan's on repeat or something. But from an advertising standpoint, Conan's markedly better in the 18-40ish group that's generally considered more important.
ok, i thought the first one blew as bad as it could have, but this segment with Cameron was pretty funny <object width="512" height="296"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/myspace/http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ehulu%2Ecom%2Fwatch%2F60910/embed/EFal5zf_8GpZpzvUuh1NQg"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/myspace/http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ehulu%2Ecom%2Fwatch%2F60910/embed/EFal5zf_8GpZpzvUuh1NQg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="512" height="296" allowFullScreen="true"></embed></object>
I don't know about the whole guest list, but you watch ferguson for him. His monologues are a step into the abyss, much different than the other late night hosts. I preferred him to Conan at the end.
As much as I think Conan is the funniest man on TV, I have to agree -- Ferguson's show was still more entertaining. Conan sort of undercut the quality of his show with his extreme corniness. Ferguson is consistently funny all the way through -- monologues, interviews, segments, ultra randomness. And it looks like now that Conan's out of the way, he's going to be ruling the late late night airwaves for a while.
I have watched a little bit every night. I think it may just take him a while to get into it. He has been much better than I had actually anticipated and has improved every night. He is never gonna be better than Conan, but he is doing his own thing.
The only thing I remember about Craig Kilborn is that he had a pretty boy vibe, I guess if you're chick those pretty boy faux interviews were cool. I just found him annoying to the extreme.
After watching most of this week, Fallon seems to take on a slightly different direction: more crowd and guest interaction. Guests and members from the audience and have been parts of comedy bits every night so far. And I wish they'd give the Roots more space. They seem so crammed in that bridge thing. And not to mention the keyboard player on top barely gets face time. BTW, interesting article on what convinced the Roots to take the gig: The Roots say Fallon gig `enabled us to survive' It actually seems like an ideal situation for them, considering the circumstances.
His humor was pretty absurdist, which is why they put him on after Letterman probably. But yeah, a lot of people didn't like him because he gave off the Douche vibe. I liked at the end when he would make his guests play "Yambo" and he'd walk around in a circle and then blurt a question in their faces to see if they could answer it.
Early Conan through 2002 was great. After that, the show became a little too safe and sort of lost its edge. Still a good show, but not quite the greatness it once was. I can see how Ferguson can be funnier these days.
fallon does seem to be finding his comfort zone pretty rapidly. i've never been a huge fan of his, but for some reason i'm pulling for the guy.
This is the first time watching his monologue. Boy it was terrible. The crowd didn't even laugh at any of his jokes, all he got were a few pity laughs. He was forced to use up all his jokes in 2 minutes because he needed to avoid the awkward laughless silences. Was he like this for all of his first few shows?
