So the tumult surrounding NBC’s nighttime schedule has finally distracted me enough to warrant a blog entry.
For the record, I feel no great pity for anyone starring in this drama. They’re all middle-aged white millionaires and will never know want of any significance again. Absent serious health or legal problems they should all be deliriously happy until they die.
I feel bad for the collateral damage to their staffers, crew and part-timers, two of whom I know, both of whom deserve better than it looks like they’re getting.
This last part got me thinking, though, “How many people do I know, just among my Facebook friends, who could do a competent-to-outstanding job as host(ess) of The Tonight Show?”
I thought it through more than I should have and refined the question.
“How many of my Facebook friends, who are, to one degree or another, Performers, given the same staff and resources as the current late night bunch, possess the following combination of desirable traits similar to those of the late Johnny Carson:
1. Nice or at least able to fake it for the camera
2. Smart
3. Accessibly funny
4. Decent-looking to very attractive
5. Comfortable in their own skin or at least able to fake it for the camera
(Johnny was by many accounts a horribly insecure man, but you’d never know it from watching him.)
(Question mark)”
Short-form, my answer was “52.”
Longer-form: “52 total (35 guys, 17 women) ten of whom I would rank as capable of doing a far better job than what I’ve seen in evidence lately.”
I also found three friends who could do Doc Severinsen’s old job, except for the trumpet solos.
Note to NBC: Call me.
