No more Dave

Okay, looks like Dave Letterman isn't here anymore. I tried to watch Jimmy Kimmel and lasted about 5 minutes. Didn't bother to set the other Jimmy nor any of the late, lates.

The trouble with the above copies is just that. They're copies.

Same band, same opening, same lame jokes. Only thing that changed are the faces and then they all look the same anyways.

The trouble is that the late-night talk show is dying slowly and what you're seeing now is the gradual end. The fact is there are too many late night shows, counting Conan.

The problem with me on this issue is that I watched the late night talk show start up and grow slowly. My favorite host was Steve Allen, who was truly talented in both comedy and music and did both well.

He was the first to do crazy bits like dropping into a vat of jello or commenting on people walking past the studio at night just to name a few things he did. Whatever you see now, even with Letterman was the result of Steve Allen.

What Letterman did was refine the jokes from both Steve Allen and Johnny Carson. Gags like comedy bits or having kids or animals on the show all came from Steve Allen but were a little more refined through Carson and Letterman.

But Letterman was the end of the late-night talk show from a creative angle. Kimmel and the others are just copies and telling stale jokes to an audience who thinks it's hip and cool. The only remnant of the original talk shows left is Conan who's been dumped onto TBS.

And I don't really think much of other TV icons. Take Carl Sagan, who was truly the introduction into the universe with his series Cosmos. Last year his replacement was Neil deGrasse Tyson who is quite good, but he's not Carl.

And when you look at it, there's a lot of copies who just aren't as good as the original. I still think Michael Keaton was the best Batman and Mel Gibson as Mad Max. Actually much of the new Max, Tom Hardy, is hardly in the new movie at all. 

I guess you can say that I'm being a little biased and not giving these newbies a fighting chance. 

But I'm not, I have a good selection of friends of all ages and whom agree with me. The original is always the best.

Sort of like those people who read a book which becomes a movie still prefer the book. The joke goes like this; "Two goats are eating garbage and one begins eating some old film. His buddy asks how it tastes. The other goat says "the book was better."

One of the movies I liked and which was from a book was Deliverance. It was just as good as the book. But I guess Dave is gone and Conan will be my new morning dvr.

As they say, change is inevitable.