Goodbye Stephen Colbert and Craig Ferguson

I am going to talk about a couple of things I know almost nothing about, but that’s never stopped me before.

This week two shows ended their nearly ten year runs, one garnering more attention than the other.  I didn't watch these shows regularly, but I did watch their finales.  My reaction was maybe I should have watched both of them more.

The more high-profile departure was the ending of the Colbert Report.  It received a lot of attention because a) it is on in prime time; b) it won two Emmys as best variety show and would have won more if its mother ship The Daily Show hadn't (deservedly) won ten in a row; and c) its host is moving over to fill David Letterman’s huge shoes at the CBS’ The Late Show.

The high point of the finale was Colbert bringing back nearly every guest he ever had, including luminaries like Henry Kissenger (I honestly thought he died years ago), George Lucas, Big Bird, Mark Cuban, Willie Nelson, Randy Newman and Keith Olbermann (unfortunately wearing the bubble gum pick sport coat he wore on his show that week).  They all sang “We’ll Meet Again” as the band played on and on and on, repeating the same verse over and over.

The other show that the bell tolled for was Craig Ferguson’s The Late Late Show, and if anything he topped Colbert.  First off, he didn't end his show with a star-studded sing a long, he opened with it.  While not including any former secretary of states (although I’d have to check, they went by pretty fast) it was an impressive array of talent, including a very pregnant Kristen Bell (she looks adorable, then I remember it’s the spawn of Dak Sherpard and I get squicked out), Henry Winkler, Mila Kunis, Samuel L. Jackson, William Shatner, Quentin Tarantino, Jon Hamm, and many more (including Bishop Desmund Tutu).  They sang “Bang Your Drum” by the Scottish band Dead Man Falls, all the while beating on a variety of percussion instruments (including, disturbingly, Bell’s prominent belly).

I have to say the total effect was one of the most joyous moments in television viewing I can remember.  Unlike Colbert’s choice of “We’ll Meet Again,” (which is a song about false optimism that gets mistaken for real optimism just because we won World War II; remember it’s what played over the nuclear devastation at the end of Doctor Strangelove), the song Bang Your Drum played as an anthem for Ferguson, a former punk band drummer, with the repeated riff “Keep Bangin’ On” sounding like a personal motto (“Keep bangin’ on/and your day will come . . . No one lives forever/there’s business here you've got to finish.” 

Also, while the celebrity line up maybe wasn't as impressive as Colbert’s, the fact is that Colbert will be taking over for Letterman and if I were cynical I might suggest a lot of celebrities would want to remain on his good side.  Ferguson, toiling away in the wee hours of the AM, had a fraction of the following of Colbert and has an uncertain future, so I’d like to think that the celebrities that showed up either really liked him, or were obligated by their contract with CBS (although I can’t imagine that CBS can make cast members of The Big Bang Theory do anything they don’t want to do).  The group on the Colbert Report mingled around while singing; everyone on Ferguson’s show looked like they were having a blast.

Ferguson followed with an interesting interview with Jay Leno, who amazingly admitted that he didn't always pay attention to guests that bored him on The Tonight Show, and then concluded with a surreal ending that referred to the famous endings of Newhart, St. Elsewhere and The Sopranos. 

I had watched The Late Late Show only a couple of times, being of an age when I am unlikely to be awake at that hour of the morning.  I did VCR it a few times just because I heard it was odd, and it was.  Ferguson danced to his own drummer, and the producer of the show, David Letterman, let him.  Letterman once was the guy who refused to follow the conventions of late night talk show, until he BECAME the conventions of late night talk shows.  As with anything improvisational the results were hit and miss, but (unlike Jay Leno, apparently) he was always trying to entertain. 

So adios to Stephen Colbert and Craig Ferguson.  We’ll meet again; just keep bangin’ on.