European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 21, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Man show is for the moment indisputably the one instantly forgettable broadcast tends to blur into the next that s the nature of the beast. Keep it Light. Don t tax the audience. Jimmy Carter wow he gets a standing ovation. Good for you says Dave admiringly and a . The former president Selling new Book tells a couple of harmless anecdotes about being the victim of faulty translations on trips abroad. Very Nice the comic assures the statesman. The next night on Charlie Rose s program. Carte offered fascinating insights into his tensions with the Clinton administration insights that will directly affect policies in Somalia. But hey elsewhere stick to trivia. As the actress Debra Winger breezily put it to Letterman i live. I work. So what s to talk about she then proceeded to strip Down to a wonder girl costume she wore years ago on a television series and ran through the madly applauding audience. Priorities priorities. Mea Mohile As Letterman triumphs the Competition understandably fidgets. On Tom for Jay Leno whose inheritance of the Canon Mantle triggered the late night shakeup continues to play Nice Guy. In an interview on can he explained to Larry King How he perceives his audience kind of like meeting a girl s parents. You want to be funny you Don twant to be but in trying not to be rude Leno has lost some of the Edge that once made him a major draw on col lege circuits. His opening monologues Well let see what s going on in the world Lack bite dribbling off into the Standard fodder of All other late night monologues Zsa Zsa butt and Loni the death of spuds Mckenzie Beer drinking dog. More time is being devoted shades of Letterman to comedy sketches that Are elaborate and too often Clunky. And Leno s rapport with his band Leader Branford Marsalis is not As they say cooking on camera. The accomplished jazz musician is clearly not thrilled to be reduced largely to playing Brief intros and extras. There is about Leno the nest egg building confident air of a conservative Republican. He really is a bit uneasy with some contemporary music groups Liebel by Fdevoe and their blatantly sexual writings. Leno is much More at Home with h. Norma Schwarzkopf who plugging the paperback edition of. His autobiography talks about staving Home these Days washing dishes and caring for the family dogs. Another Leno favorite is sen. Bob Dole who gets in touch live by phone every so often to deliver barbs about the Clin ton administration. So All right. Leno is basically hold ing to his old ratings Levels. The problem he is Likely to stay there looking up at Letterman. And the others Arsenio Hall has the laudable distinction of regularly featuring Black celebrities. For whatever reason Black people on most other late night formats Are too often relegated to the Side of the set As members of the band. But Hall has also become too obvious with leering sexual innuendo and too uptight about the merest hint of disapproval. On one show he was thoroughly a if to a rlu�j1 Vil x a. Fly if ii t a j o of a i a q1c o a off y j nor in / i 1 tonight Piv Chevy Chase whose september premiere on Fox was this year s most unforgettable disaster has Al ready been yanked from further Public guests became openly contemptuous. The actor Ron Silver asked does anyone have a news paper i can read Conan o Brien in the old Letterman Slot Onnic remains the giant question Mark. With a Back ground in comedy writing the Simpsons he hashed virtually no performing experience and it chows. His interviewing skills Are perfunctory at of his comedy bits most notably the revolt ing Skull juice routine make Chevy Chase see Brilliant. And yet there s a keen intelligence and diabolical wit lurking around the show goes by so quickly o Brien notes you Don t even know you saw at 30, he is very much of the new generation that will eventually take Over. If not he someone a lot like watching dozens of hours of these late night entertainments i find myself unable to shake animate captured in of All things a commercial. It s the one in which someone peels Back John geese space to reveal an intricate network of multicoloured wires. The robotic image is eerily Apt for these lets Alpaugh Oun Erves into a stupor times. While Arsenio Hall up close and personal with Spike Lee continues airing on syndicated television Conan o Brien Hopes to catch on with Abc viewers. Abc november 21,1993 sunday Page 7
