Article: 3565 of alt.zines Path: news.cic.net!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!pacbell.com!well!barnhart From: barnhart@well.sf.ca.us (Aaron Barnhart) Newsgroups: alt.fan.letterman,alt.fan.conan-obrien,alt.tv.talkshows.late,alt.zines,rec.arts.tv Subject: LATE SHOW NEWS 5/3/94 Followup-To: poster Date: 3 May 1994 05:32:03 GMT Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Lines: 189 Message-ID: <2q4nkj$edj@nkosi.well.com> Reply-To: late-show-news@mcs.net NNTP-Posting-Host: well.sf.ca.us Summary: Send the message "subscribe late-show-news" to listserv@mcs.net to join the LATE SHOW NEWS distribution list! Xref: news.cic.net alt.fan.letterman:21521 alt.fan.conan-obrien:673 alt.tv.talkshows.late:1063 alt.zines:3565 rec.arts.tv:106196 >From Chicago: Let's see who's kicking the crap out of the Cubs today ... it's --------------------------------------------- LATE SHOW NEWS for Tuesday, May 3, 1994 Issue #12 A weekly electronic sheet by Aaron Barnhart --------------------------------------------- 4. CAN WE GLOAT? "Two years it took me to get work after my show was canceled," rues one-time permanent Carson guest host Joan Rivers in Sunday's _New York Times._ Banishment is a peculiar sentence t.v. often likes to pass on its luckless stars. In Rivers's case, getting dumped from Fox's _The Late Show_ after eight months was such a bitter experience she says that to this day she cannot bring herself to watch a late-night talk show. Arsenio Hall, who gracefully bowed out before Paramount could pull the plug on him, won't lack for employment thanks to the many television ventures he's already producing. But that isn't stopping some of his critics from enjoying a final and somewhat revisionist laugh at his expense. _Washington Post_ reviewer Tom Shales last week celebrated Hall's departure and said hearing the news of the show's demise made him feel the way liberals felt when they learned about the Iran-Contra affair. Of course, Shales -- the Roger Ebert of t.v. snacks -- was also eager to impeach Conan O'Brien after just one month on the air, a request wisely vetoed by NBC. Generally speaking, a review of the obituaries for _The Arsenio Hall Show_ leaves one with the impression that the program succeeded despite its host and format. Forgotten for now are the inroads Hall made with women and minorities (who had been drifting away from Carson for years), the appealing quirks of his personality, and the visibility he gave to scores of grateful rap, R&B and gospel performers. Eventually, however, the kicking stops and ex-late-show hosts are able to remember once more what it's like to stand up straight. Rivers found success in daytime and, more recently, home-shopping venues. Dennis Miller, who went down in flames two years ago, is now knocking us dead with an unexpurgated Friday gig. And colorcaster Tom Snyder, who got eaten alive half a decade before Rivers did, is set to return triumphantly to his old time slot. The _Boston Globe_ said it would serve "karmic justice" if Snyder were to follow the man whose show replaced his at NBC, David Letterman. But good karma is in spades for any t.v. star with talent, no matter how many vultures once afflicted him. So keep grinning, Arsenio. 3. MEDIA BITES Adam Curry, now ex-MTV, reports that ABC has scotched plans to pick up a miniseries based on the career of Madonna (which was to be produced by her company), ostensibly because she worked blue last month on the Letterman show. This seems a little implausible. For one thing, the report is almost a perfect replica of January's rumor that Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch had called off negotiations for a Howard Stern late-night show after seeing Stern's racy New Year's Eve pay-per-view special. (Stern is in fact still talking to Murdoch's people about a show on new cable channel FX.) And it's not as though either Howard's or Madonna's R-rated act has been a big secret -- or wasn't that deal with the Puerto Rican flag persuasive enough for Cap Cities? Jay Leno guested on Tom Snyder's CNBC show last night and told Tom he'd like to take the _Tonight_ show not only to New York, as he will in two weeks, but also to Chicago and other cities. He listed some guests already booked for the New York shows: Cindy Crawford, Michael J. Fox, Spike Lee, James Taylor, Sam Donaldson, and David Crosby. And when a caller pointed out that _Tonight_ is the most-watched t.v. show in Europe, Leno joked that he wasn't quite sure if that was a compliment, since he'd gotten mail from Continental viewers asking why he told jokes during the opening *news segment.* Though it made the AP wire, you may not have heard about Friday's _Arsenio Hall Show._ In what was by all accounts an unplanned 10-minute rampage, comedian and _Arsenio_ regular Bobcat Goldthwaite went nuts on the set, laying waste to the interview area, upending furniture and equipment, throwing cushions to the crowd, and spray-painting PARAMOUNT SUCKS on the blue background wall. Host finally got guest in a headlock as a hugely entertained crowd chanted, "Whoomp! There it is!" Yes, it was out of control and gratuitous to the max. It was also great television. Not surprisingly, Paramount weasels said later that had there been time, they would've retaped the segment. Sucks is right. 2. F.Y. EYES Those print ads promoting Dennis Miller's new HBO Friday talker leave us with an unbearable urge to mail three bucks to the Quality Paperback Book Club ... Playing to one of the show's strengths, NBC and AT&T are co-sponsoring a _Late Night with Conan O'Brien_ "Ninth Annual College Band Search" contest. Look for promotional ads in your school's daily. Your band must send in a videotape by May 31 ... Don Fitzpatrick says commentator Jeff Greenfield is moderating a late-night program, currently in the test stages, that will feature panel discussions on the day's news topics. Apparently Greenfield's new contract obliges ABC to develop a late show for the erstwhile _Nightline_ contributor. Incidentally, this sounds exactly like the format for Brandon Tartikoff's _Last Call,_ which is already signed on in dozens of markets as the show following _Nightline_ ... You may have heard Fox Television's announcement a few weeks ago that it had no plans to develop a program to succeed the highly unsuccessful _Chevy Chase Show._ It turns out this was not just a dumb excuse for a press release. _Variety_ reports that Arsenio Hall Productions secretly met with Fox execs several weeks back to discuss the possibility of bringing _Arsenio_ over to the fourth network, where the host got his big break during a smashing 13-week fill-in on the post-Joan Rivers _Late Show_ back in 1987. When Fox ultimately demurred (justifiably not wanting to endanger what remained of affiliates' goodwill at 11:00), the announcement soon followed that Arsenio was quitting his show. 1. THE LINEUPS LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS, 11:35 P.M. EST Tu 5/3 Robin Williams, Mark Leyner, Big Head Todd and the Monsters We 5/4 Mia Farrow, Tim McGraw Th 5/5 Brett Butler, Rob Lowe Fr 5/6 Sharon Stone, Jake Johannsen, Chris Farley Here's the week from Los Angeles: Mo 5/9 Billy Crystal, Ray Charles Tu 5/10 Angela Lansbury, Michael Keaton We 5/11 Magician David Copperfield Th 5/12 Candice Bergen, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Dennis Miller Fr 5/13 Bette Midler, Magic Johnson, Traffic Steve Winwood's old group are reuniting this summer, and they're going to start with an appearance on Dave's show. THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC, 11:35 P.M. EST Tu 5/3 Dana Carvey, 4-foot-11 cabinet member Robert Reich We 5/4 TBA Th 5/5 Will Smith, Courtney Thorne Smith, bird enthusiast David McElvey Fr 5/6 Lauren Hutton, Clint Black, Jack Palance Mo 5/9 Jay Thomas, Cirque de Soleil, Laura San Giacomo LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC, 12:35 A.M. EST Tu 5/3 Roy Scheider, Anka Radakovich, The Spinanes We 5/4 Jacqueline Bissett, Matt Salinger, Shaver Th 5/5 David Hyde Pierce, Pedro Almodovar, late-show favorite Stomp Fr 5/6 Kim Coles, Shonen Knife Mo 5/9 Ed Asner, dig LATER WITH GREG KINNEAR, NBC, 1:35 A.M. EST Tu 5/3 Ray Liotta We 5/4 Rita Rudner Th 5/5 Katey Sagal Mo 5/9 Kevin Pollak Looking ahead, we see Greg's guest on the 19th is Wendy's founder and t.v. shill Dave Thomas. That makes it the first episode of the new _Later_ we can sink our teeth into. -- Thanks to S Trowbridge THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW, Syndicated Tu 5/2 Thea Vidale, Jessica James We 5/3 Susan Powter, Colin England Th 5/4 Maya Angelou, Andy Garcia Fr 5/5 TBA (but if it's anything like last Friday, don't miss it) Mo 5/8 Rob Lowe, Raven-Symone, Basia Also, don't miss TOM SNYDER on CNBC, airing live Monday-Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern with a rerun of that evening's show at 1 a.m. Reruns also air at those times Friday through Sunday. 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. --------------------------- 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 get on the LATE SHOW NEWS distribution list. Just send mail to listserv@mcs.net with this message only ... subscribe late-show-news to get LATE SHOW NEWS in your mailbox every week. -- Send late-night program news and comments, and Amy Butler's e-mail address if you've got it, to late-show-news@mcs.net