We can't stop .... riding with CoCo

There's a war going on that no man is safe from. No we're not talking about the war between the Sunnis and Shiites, the one between rogue polar bears and earth, or the River Terrace Crew vs. the 19th Street Gangsters.... We're talking Jay Leno vs. Conan O'Brien. We've come to realize it's about more than just two men, it's about the future of comedy and more likely, the future of network TV, and naturally we have strong opinions on the matter, so here they are. If you can distinguish who wrote what, you're up for next year's blog reader of the year.

In my eyes there are three basic categories of TV; half-hour sitcoms, hour-long dramas and the Real World/Road Rules Challenge. Network TV has systematically destroyed the first two. Originally, Jay kept his 10 o'clock time slot, because his show was cheaper to produce than any kind of scripted TV. This new approach to network TV meant that innovation was being further stifled as NBC now devoted 33% of its primetime to a show they knew would not attract a large viewership. But NBC is not alone in its failure to attract meaningful, smart or even entertaining programing. Increasingly networks are relying on reality TV and formulaic crime scene shows to fill their time slots and they are reluctant to let shows develop, pulling the plug on them before they have matured. The times they are a changin and the result is network TV has become nearly unwatchable.


Over the years, smart, funny comedy shows have been phased out of network TV as networks rely on basic comedic formulas with laugh tracks and give new shows little room to build a following. The most obvious and glaring example is of course the cancellation of the funniest show of last decade: Arrested Development. Fox not only ended the show's life; it tore its heart out and stomped it into the ground repeatedly by airing the final four episodes against the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Olympics. We are seeing the same error repeated with Better Off Ted and potentially Modern Family. These shows have not yet been given enough marketing or time to develop a real audience. For example, last night's lineup on ABC was a rerun of Scrubs, a rerun of Better Off Ted, then new episodes of each. I tuned into to watch Scrubs, realized it was a rerun and was lost for the rest of the night, figuring I could just stream the new episodes later. With a great scheduling like that, its a wonder anyone has ever seen these shows.

I am reminded of a story about Seinfeld. After the first season, the NBC executives nearly canceled the show because it was not doing well and had mediocre ratings. They also thought about moving it to Saturday at 10:30. Obviously they decided against that and Must See TV was born. But I wonder in today's world if Seinfeld would have survived that first year, as brilliant shows like Modern Family and Better Off Ted face extinction as the Two and a Half Mens of the world rule the day. Complicating matters is that more people who would watch shows like Modern Family, are getting their media from alternative sources like Hulu.

The lack of creativity from networks is perhaps more evident based on the lack of worthwhile one-hour dramas on network TV. There is exactly one good network drama left, Friday Night Lights, and while NBC hasn't cancelled it, yet, it's done the next worst thing, first exiling it to Friday nights, and then exiling to DirecTV. Because time-travel is retarded and never makes sense, I can't bring myself to start Lost. All of the great dramas are now on cable networks. Some argued that the FCC drove this with puritanical restrictions on subject matter, but I don't buy that because HBO no longer has claim to any of the five or even ten best shows on TV. Instead, upstarts like FX and AMC have filled the network void by taking chances on smart, well-acted shows with great premises. The networks passed on both Mad Men and Breaking Bad either because they didn't think the idea would work (Mad Men) or they didn't want to be associated with the content (Breaking Bad and meth). It's not that the networks lack good pilots, it's that they either cancel them too soon (Freaks and Geeks and Pushing Daisies) or turn them into complete farces (Greys Anatomy - yes, I will defend season one because it was amazing).

That leads us to the fight between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. Lost in the hilarious NBC and Jay-bashing that has gone on in the past week is the fact that Conan's show just wasn't doing well and really wasn't all that funny compared to his days on Late Night. While that may be attributable to Conan and his writers, or NBC's decision to cut Conan off at the legs before he even started by putting Jay on at 10, I think it is more indicative that Conan's style of humor, and more generally, TV that doesn't hit you in the face, isn't going to draw big audiences immediately.

In this light, it should be no surprise that NBC would look to supplant Conan with Jay given the way they've handled dramas and sitcoms. Conan's style was always very different than Jay's corny-ass-headline-reading brand of humor. Bits like the
Walker Texas Ranger lever and Vomiting Kermit/Masturbating Bear
aren't going to appeal to the large kind of audiences that the Tonight Show seeks. In response and apparently at NBC's direction, Conan altered his show in search of mass appeal. Not surprisingly, this failed spectacularly and Conan managed to alienate both his hardcore fans and former Leno viewers. In the long run, this could be the best possible thing for Conan. Either he goes to Fox and gets a fresh start, full network support and a little creative freedom, or ideally, he leaves the networks either for the internet or cable, say Comedy Central, where he can appeal to the niche to which he is a comedy god. And Jay, well he can go back to being an unfunny douche and number one and networks can go back to dying a slow and painful death. Radiohead -Everything in its Right Place

Bonus Content! Our favorite podcast host Bill Simmons (okay, at least mine, not sure about Josh) recently hosted TV Critic Tim Goodman of the SF Chronicle on his podcast to talk about the late night wars. That conversation is informative about the failures of NBC to handle this properly and definitely worth a listen. They also go on to discuss TV in general towards the end which was also interesting. Enjoy! Here's the link to that show.