Finally, something interesting on late-night TV

Truth be told, I could care less about late-night television. The shows simply aren’t interesting to me because I don’t care who went into rehab or who came out, which seems to be a main focus for guests. 

I’m also sick and tired of agendas disguised as entertainment. It’s downright ridiculous. The silliest of the bunch is that CBS thing, "The Sarah Palin Show" hosted by David Letterman. 

I interrupt this column to announce late-night TV stuff got entertaining again. The ongoing hissy between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien is the newest reality show. 

It never needed to happen. If I didn’t know better, I’d guess the NBC bigwigs are on crack. Come to think of it, I don’t know better, so maybe they are. Clearly, stupidity is alive on all levels. 

There’s an old saying that "cream rises to the top," relating to why quality people generally climb ladders of success.

Well, with this insane programming snafu, it’s abundantly clear other stuff also rises … and floats into corporate boardrooms. 

Of course, I’m accustomed to our politicians bobbing in the bowl. But I have to admit to being quite surprised that bigwigs of a huge conglomerate, a major media network giant, are circling the drain. Stockholders should pull the handle.  

"The Tonight Show" will surely continue after this dust settles. I hope it does, although I have no current interest in the venue. My connection is by an old cultural thread running back through my life to 1954. 

I vaguely remember when "Tonight" began. An enormously talented Steve Allen drove that first vehicle. I didn’t watch it much because of those pesky "school night, time to go to bed" issues. 

The show and I aged together. Jack Paar took it over. That’s when I joined his "cult" and made him part of my normal routine. To this day I have no idea what Paar did, but he did "it" very well indeed. His show was hugely entertaining. 

Way back then, TV was live. There was no "take two" editing. What they said was what you heard. I remember on "General Electric Theater" a gunfighter shot at a bottle. He fired but the bottle didn’t shatter. A puff of smoke came out the top. 

I watched the night Jack Paar walked off of his show in the middle of it because of some dispute he had with the producer. They broadcast the empty stage until the show ended. 

When he handed the show over to Johnny Carson in 1962, it upset my little world. I was in college then, and most nights we gathered in the dorm’s TV room to watch. When Johnny got it, I figured it was the end of "Tonight." 

Boy, how wrong could I be?

After college I spent nearly 30 years watching Carson through my toes. Now I watch Jay and Conan through my eyelids. Zzzzz. 

Otis Gardner’s column appears here each Wednesday. He can be reached at ogardner@embarqmail.com.