Unless you've been living like a prepper for years, all that we're going through is brand new to us, thanks to COVID-19 and our government's piss-poor response to it. After more than a month in self-isolation, it's easy to see why some are going a bit squirrelly. I do not and will not believe this should be cause for jumping the gun on "reopening the country" (a stupid term, if you ask me).
But I digress (which is easy to do in a blog where you're the only reader)...
Among the many changes we've seen is the face, literally and figuratively, of late-night TV. Whether you're a fan of Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel, you've seen how they have shifted to a home-studio format instead of airing repeats.
We're Colbert people here. Stephen's show (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, aka LSSC) is taped in HD in a very sparsely decorated room. His family lends a hand as his in-house production crew and they work in conjunction with the mothership back at CBS studios.
Colbert's musical director, the incomparable John Baptiste, is the only member of his band that plays on the show from his own house (in New Orleans, I think). Contrast this with Seth Meyers' show that follows Fallon's, where he has his much smaller band playing from their individual homes together. Stay Human, Baptiste's band, is too large to accomplish such a task.
It's not just the look of the LSSC that's changed, it's the entire vibe and I think that goes for the other shows. No live audience (and no laugh track, thank God), has been a definite drain on the energy Stephen exudes. He freely admits he gets his juice from the interaction with those in the studio. Without that, his show, while still funny, lacks in that buzz.
The most surprising things to note are the much more frank and free-spirited interviews with celebrities, also broadcasting in their homes (sometimes in their PJs) and the stark, but haunting, performances from some very talented people. My favorite of the later was a solo piece by Michael Stipe, formerly of R.E.M.
When things return to normal -- and they will -- I think I will miss this new format of late-night talk shows. Unlike cable news where a good background, audio, and video can make it seem like a news anchor is speaking from a studio, the late-night hosts can't hide behind such tricks. Talent steps forward while the talentless disappear.
Yours in late-night,
Michael
But I digress (which is easy to do in a blog where you're the only reader)...
Among the many changes we've seen is the face, literally and figuratively, of late-night TV. Whether you're a fan of Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel, you've seen how they have shifted to a home-studio format instead of airing repeats.
We're Colbert people here. Stephen's show (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, aka LSSC) is taped in HD in a very sparsely decorated room. His family lends a hand as his in-house production crew and they work in conjunction with the mothership back at CBS studios.
Colbert's musical director, the incomparable John Baptiste, is the only member of his band that plays on the show from his own house (in New Orleans, I think). Contrast this with Seth Meyers' show that follows Fallon's, where he has his much smaller band playing from their individual homes together. Stay Human, Baptiste's band, is too large to accomplish such a task.
It's not just the look of the LSSC that's changed, it's the entire vibe and I think that goes for the other shows. No live audience (and no laugh track, thank God), has been a definite drain on the energy Stephen exudes. He freely admits he gets his juice from the interaction with those in the studio. Without that, his show, while still funny, lacks in that buzz.
The most surprising things to note are the much more frank and free-spirited interviews with celebrities, also broadcasting in their homes (sometimes in their PJs) and the stark, but haunting, performances from some very talented people. My favorite of the later was a solo piece by Michael Stipe, formerly of R.E.M.
When things return to normal -- and they will -- I think I will miss this new format of late-night talk shows. Unlike cable news where a good background, audio, and video can make it seem like a news anchor is speaking from a studio, the late-night hosts can't hide behind such tricks. Talent steps forward while the talentless disappear.
Yours in late-night,
Michael
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