>From Chicago: It's the water -- and a lot more ... it's --------------------------------------------- LATE SHOW NEWS for Tuesday, March 22, 1994 Issue #6 A weekly electronic sheet by Aaron Barnhart --------------------------------------------- 3. MEDIA BITES Movie critic Gene Siskel's essay on why he and Roger Ebert have cancelled their scheduled visit on tonight's _Arsenio Hall Show_ appears in March 21's _Chicago Tribune._ At issue is Hall's generous treatment of Minister Louis Farrakhan during an appearance on Hall's program last month. (One critic called it an infomercial for the Nation of Islam.) Gene is angry with Arsenio for not challenging so much as a single statement by Farrakhan. He says he and Ebert would've canceled sooner, but that he was holding out hope Arsenio would eventually distance himself from Farrakhan's statements about Catholics and Jews. Guest Jon Voight confronted him twice about Farrakhan during a recent appearance; Hall was evasive. And Siskel himself had a wrenching 45-minute phone conversation last week with the host, who even offered to bring Gene on during the segment normally reserved for the monologue and discuss Farrakhan's appearance. But Siskel says he won't be satisfied until Arsenio, who bills himself as an activist-host, shows he is willing to denounce bigotry of every stripe on his show. "A host who once delivered a superb, stinging monologue of rebuke to a restaurant chain, Denny's, that discriminated against blacks, wouldn't allow a guest to quote from a hateful book of anti- Semitic lies without questioning the need to do so, would he?" Siskel and Ebert had been booked for a post-Oscar appearance since last year. Richard Zoglin has a review of the Letterman show in this week's _Time_ that sounds a complaint familiar to alt.fan.letterman regulars: the new, successful Dave is also the "boring," "defanged" Dave who has disappointed his "old fans." Gripes Zog, "Now Dave's cameras pay 'surprise' visits to shop owners in the neighborhood, who seem all too prepared for instant celebrityhood." (He forgets that Dave has always had a fetish for preparation. He also forgets that for every Rupert Jee there has been a Bart Dadon; neighbors reappear only if they pass Dave's test for anti-celebrity that has been a major part of his t.v. genius since the days of the morning show.) As if Zoglin weren't fickle enough, he also says NBC ought to replace Conan O'Brien with Greg Kinnear, even though he admits the latter's comedy is unfunny. (Zog has a history of favoring speed over endurance: he also wrote _Time_'s 1989 cover story that modestly suggested the sudden popularity of _The Arsenio Hall Show_ represented "a geologic shift in late-night TV.") For a more thoughtful comparison of old Dave/new Dave, see the piece by another "old fan" (and old guest), James Wolcott, in the 10/18/93 _New Yorker_. Ken Tucker has a two-page review on the Tom Snyder and Greg Kinnear talk shows, entitled "Snyder and Snider," in the March 18 _Enter- tainment Weekly._ Tucker is charitable toward Kinnear but saves most of his praise for Snyder, who he says "is using the medium with an ease that's just about perfect" and whose exile to CNBC he calls "shameful." There's also a sidebar Q & A with Tom, wherein he rates the other late-night hosts. And now _Variety_ is reporting that CNBC President and former Reagan shaper Roger Ailes has had it with his top talent. It seems Snyder should've renewed his contract months ago. Snyder's people are also blamed for the "steady flow of leaks" saying Tom is David Letterman's personal choice to host the new 12:35 show on CBS. Ailes now says he'll dump Tom if a renewal isn't inked soon. Really now. Bob Costas gives NBC a *year* to find a replacement for _Later_. Meanwhile, the pioneer of late-night intimate conversation is on this same network's frigging payroll. Yet *nobody* so much as picks up the phone to offer this man a tryout for the job. And then the company weasels wonder why Snyder's unhappy. Don't they ever learn? 2. F.Y. EYES "Johnny Carson: His Favorite Moments from the Tonight Show" will be released May 27 from Buena Vista, three tapes each priced at $15. A fourth tape of Carson's final show on NBC is included in the $60 boxed set. The collection includes excerpts from monologues and guest appearances as well as Mighty Carson Art Players bits. Next month, Good Times will issue six videos to launch what will be a continuing series of Letterman highlights from the old show. The dates are in for Dave's and Jay's coastal swap. _Late Show_ will air from CBS Television City in Los Angeles the week of May 9-13, while the _Tonight_ show travels to 30 Rock for five shows beginning May 16. (Don't believe it if you hear that this is the first time _Tonight_ has originated from New York since Johnny moved the show in 1972. John Mendoza was on the Tom Snyder show the other night and talked about his days as a limo driver in the Big Apple, and how one night *late* in the '70s he had the privilege of chauffering Carson when he was in NYC doing a week of _Tonight_ shows there.) Letterman tickets are available by writing "Tickets, Late Show in L.A., 1697 Broadway, New York 10019." Leno tix, we assume, can be had by sending a "Tonight Show in New York" postcard to NBC in Burbank. Jay will use the spacious Studio 8H used by _Saturday Night Live_ and the old _Later_. 1. THE LINEUPS LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS, 11:35 P.M. EST Tu 3/22 Rich Hall, Diane Sawyer, John Michael Montgomery We 3/23 Meryl Streep, Placido Domingo Th 3/24 Matthew Broderick, Neil Diamond, Julie Krone, late rerun Fr 3/25 Rosie O'Donnell, Lou Reed, Neil Patrick Harris, late rerun Mo 3/28 Barry Manilow Again this week on Thursday and Friday, late-late Daves after the NCAAs and your local news. THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC, 11:35 P.M. EST Tu 3/22 Jason Priestly, one-hit wonder James We 3/23 Willie Nelson, supermodel Vendela, Bill Maher ("Politically Incorrect") Th 3/24 Kyle MacLachlan, Crowded House Fr 3/25 Dennis Rodman, Afghan Whigs Mo 3/28 John Goodman, Boy George, Terry Bradshaw, rerun LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC, 12:35 A.M. EST Tu 3/22 Ellen Cleghorne, Robert Conrad, Richard Marcinko We 3/23 Alan Rachins, Nick Turturro, Jawbox Th 3/24 Rich Hall, Grant Lee Buffalo Fr 3/25 Maria Conchita Alonso, Chad McQueen, Texas Mo 3/28 Ice-T, Amanda Pays, David Cross, rerun If you missed Dave's appearance on Conan, it is the scheduled rerun for Friday, April 1st. LATER WITH GREG KINNEAR, NBC, 1:35 A.M. EST Tu 3/22 Talk show host Ron Reagan We 3/23 Emilio Estevez Th 3/24 TBA Mo 3/28 TBA THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW, Syndicated Mo 3/28 Howie Mandel, Crispin Glover, II D Extreme, rerun TOM SNYDER, CNBC, 10 P.M. EST (and rerun at 1 A.M. EST) Tom's in reruns this week; probably a good time to get initiated to the show. Reruns always air at 10 and 1 Fridays thru Sundays. The E! entertainment television cable network broadcasts reruns of _Late Night with David Letterman_ "seven Daves a week" at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Monday through Friday, reruns can also be viewed at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern. The following schedule was taken from the E! update line. Mo 3/21 Marilu Henner, Sam Kinison, (11/14/85) Tu 3/22 Sarah Jessica Parker, Jimmy Degriff (2/8/91) We 3/23 Phoebe Cates, B.B. King, Howard Stern (8/1/89) Th 3/24 Raquel Welch, Sandra Bernhard (2/17/86) Fr 3/25 Brooke Shields, Merv Griffin (11/11/82) Sa 3/26 Connie Chung, Jerry Seinfeld, Wayne Gretzky (2/5/86) Su 3/27 Teri Garr, Richard Lewis (10/20/85) We're not sure, but Thursday's rerun might be the one Madonna showed up for. Thanks this issue to Samer Farha and S Trowbridge. --------------------------- Send news and comments about this electronic sheet to late-show-news@mcs.net Entire contents Copyright (C) 1994 by Aaron Barnhart. All rights reserved. Redistribution prohibited without written permission of the author, with the exceptions that a single user (a) may retrieve LATE SHOW NEWS from the archive listed below by anonymous FTP, and (b) may send to another single user by electronic mail where an electronic mailing list such as Majordomo is not employed. LATE SHOW NEWS is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.mcs.net in the directory /mcsnet.users/barnhart/late-show-news. Or send mail to late-show-news@mcs.net to be added to the LATE-SHOW-NEWS mailing list. -- Aaron Barnhart late-show-news@mcs.net