Conan vs. Leno vs. NBC

Like many folks, I have been tuning in nightly to see what will happen next in the new, behind the scenes, Late Night wars that are going on not only at NBC, but across all the networks.  Leno and Conan are chiming in throughout their own shows, of course, but so are people like David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel.  As many folks know, last week word began to spread that NBC was looking to move Jay back to 11:35, due to his sagging ratings in the 10:00 spot.  And the backlash was almost immediate.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Leno.  I appreciate what he does and the popularity he gained during his years at The Tonight Show.  I am certain that he’s taken more than his share of criticism over the debacle that occurred back in the early 90’s when Carson retired and Leno’s manager at the time worked the system in order to get him in as the heir to the hallowed seat.  Letterman had put in the time, was Carson’s choice and, at the end of the day, got royally screwed by NBC execs.  But, it’s a business and, like it or not, Leno and his people worked the business to get what he wanted.  And, while Letterman had to move to NBC, let’s be honest, he’s doing just fine.

This situation is different.  Roughly 5 years ago, Leno negotiated his “retirement” from The Tonight Show.  NBC knew the contract was running out, they had a guy waiting in the wings (just like Letterman was) who wanted his shot to sit behind Carson’s desk.  Leno agreed back then (albeit probably reluctantly), thinking that 5 years would be enough.  Turns out, it wasn’t.  And that’s where the problem comes in.

Leno and Conan got along great back then.  And last year, as Leno passed the torch to Conan, it seemed like all was going well.  But, Leno wasn’t done and NBC knew it.  Rather than risking him jumping ship from the already struggling network to say FOX and starting a new 11:00 show, NBC decides to “save money and make everyone happy” by giving Jay the 10:00PM slot, 5 nights a week with a “totally new” Jay Leno show.  Reality Check:  Now you’ve got 3 hours of late night talk shows between 10 and 1:30…more if you count Carson Daly.  Not only that, but you’ve put Conan right back where he was…hoping that the Leno lead-in audience will stick around.

Guess what?  They didn’t.  Why?   They didn’t show up to begin with.  Sure, they were around for the first couple of episodes to see what this “new” Leno show was all about which, in essence, was The Tonight Show without a desk.  Everyone seemed to know this wasn’t going to work.  Everyone except the NBC execs that is, who poured MILLIONS into the contract with Jay as well as the marketing of this new show.

Fast forward to now, NBC is stuck in fourth place in the 10 spot, sagging ratings with Conan (in my opinion, partly due to Leno’s lead-in), and no way to make everyone happy.  And we all know where that stands.  NBC has inked a deal with Leno to go back to The Tonight Show (again, to avoid him heading off to another network) and is working out terms of a deal sealing Conan’s departure from NBC.

Now, who’s at fault here?  Obviously, NBC is screwing Conan…ROYALLY.  They have been since the moment he took over The Tonight Show and they almost IMMEDIATELY began promoting The “new-and-improved-completely-without-a-desk!” Jay Leno Show.  Not only are they screwing Conan, though.  They are screwing all of Conan’s people who uprooted their families to move across the country to keep doing the show.  And now you’ve got two guys that you “support” who want the same job and everyone is weighing in on the situation.

Some will claim Jay is becoming a victim here, but I have to disagree.  In my humble opinion, and I’m just spitballin’ here,  Jay could do something else.  He could.  Go back to stand-up, do a lecture circuit, spend more time on your passion for old cars, DO A SHOW ABOUT YOUR PASSION FOR OLD CARS, but no…he wants to do The Tonight Show.  He never really wanted to stop doing The Tonight Show.  And, even though he agreed to give it to Conan, even going so far as to pass the torch, he’s not above taking it back.

And that’s my problem with it all.  In a business that was famously described in Jerry Maguire as “not Show Friends, it’s Show Business”, honor is a word you don’t hear that often.  Yes, NBC wants to keep Leno for fear that he’ll jump ship…but, Jay does have the power to honor his word and say no, right?  But, he won’t.  In fact, he’s already got a deal signed to head back to 11:35.  He’s getting what he wants and Conan is getting shown the door.

I hope Conan lands on his feet.  I am certain that he will.  He’s a voice for a younger generation (a digital generation) and that audience will follow him.  But, honestly, I hope that this whole thing backfires on NBC and that the ratings don’t come back to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  It won’t REALLY matter, because the damage will be done and they’ll have to stick with him now.  But there would be a certain amount of justice in that result.

I’M WITH COCO!

Joe Purdy

Do you ever accidently come across an artist while you’re weaving through iTunes?  An artist that, as you listen to his/her music, becomes instantly familiar and you ask yourself how it’s possible that you have never heard their work before?  It was a few months ago that something like this happened to me.  I was going through the “Listeners Also Bought” section and weaving my way through some so-so stuff to find a gem of an artist in Joe Purdy.

Some of you may have heard bits of his music on Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, or even a recent Dawn soap commercial, but I would highly recommend digging a bit deeper into this guy’s catalog.  I promise you won’t be disappointed.  My musical tastes are eclectic.  I would venture to say that many people say that.  I listen to lots of different types of music and my moods and tastes change almost daily.  But, there are certain albums and artists that I come back to often.  Billy Joel, Nickel Creek, DMB, U2, Sinatra.  Some because they remind me of some thing…a particular time in my life or a place that I love.  Some because I am in a particular mood and that artist’s music seems to fit it.  Some I come back to because the artist writes music so human that it seems to fit in any mood, any time, any place.  Joe Purdy is one of those artists.

Whether he’s writing about wondering whether a love from long ago is missing him, the way New York City never stops, or how he’s ready to fight for the love of a woman, his music is honest and speaks to the soul in that way that music should.  Simple and complex, he writes what he knows, what he sees and what he feels and, in turn, we know it, see it, and feel it too.

Take, for example, the album Julie Blue, from which the song “Wash Away” is taken (heard on Lost and the new Dawn commercial).  The liner notes say, “Julie Blue is a story of an artist inspired by a moment in time. This collection of memoirs was made in upstate NY, on a tiny river island barely big enough for the house that stands on it. It was written and recorded in less than a week’s time, and its spontaneity is evident through and through. From the simple rough nature of its recording, to the sound of water hitting the docks that can be heard in the background, Julie Blue tells the tale of this magical place, its beautiful people, and the amazing experiences that were found there.”

From the first track to the last, you go on a journey both visual and emotional that is so seldom captured on an album that you can’t help but want to take it again.  And he wrote and recorded it in a week!  Simply amazing.

In a world of whining 20 something rock bands singing about…well…nothing, there are artists out there that are still making real music.  And Joe Purdy is one of them.  So, hop on over to his site, www.joepurdy.com, where you can listen to all of his albums for free.  You read that right, FREE.  You can listen to ALL of his albums for FREE.  And, if you like it, buy it, tell your friends so they can buy them too.  He’s just too good not to share.

“But I don’t want to go to church!”

So, if you wake up on a Sunday, you just don’t feel like going to church and you’re 7 years old, what’s the logical thing to do?  Steal the folks car and get the hell outta Dodge.

Best part is when he gets back home, jumps out of the car and makes a bee line for the garage.

Glenn Beck = Epic Fail

Okay, so I’ve seen this guy from time to time and he always bugs me.  But this whole rant on Fox News…I mean, WTF?  Obama is a RACIST now?!

Wait, no, my mistake, he’s not a “racist”, he just “has a deep seeded hate for white people.”  Thanks for clearing that up.

There are moments when I am awed at how far we have come as a country.  Then there are moments when I realize how far we have to go.  This guy has a platform to speak to the entire country every day.  Is this what it takes to get your own show?  Epic fail, dude…EPIC fail.

Microsoft Office 2010: The Movie

Finally got a taste of life as an action star!  Even if only for the trailer, my buddy Jeff Lepine and I dodged sparks, flew in helicopters and had stunt doubles.  What if Office 2010 was an action movie?  Find out below!

Jones BIG ASS Truck Rental and Storage

So, as I am sitting at my friend Gary Cohen’s apartment tonight watching the Penn State Nittany Lions WIN THE N.I.T.  (yeah, you read that right, for the first time since 1997, Penn State is becoming a somewhat successful basketball program) when Kevin Flinn asks me if I have seen the Jones Truck and Storage ads?  I say no, he loads them and what follows is the brilliance that I witnessed.  How could I not share.

Watch both, you won’t be sorry.  Here’s his first video:

And here is his second one, for those who didn’t think he was serious:

I want to store something with him just to meet this man.  Actually, it’s a sketch group from Illinois…but what a brilliant sketch.

The one about “motivation”

Motivation – the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior.

I have been thinking a lot about the word “motivation” recently, and not in that cliched “What’s my motivation for this scene?” actor way, but more in a way that applies to life.  What does it mean when someone says that you are a very motivated person?  Conversely, what does it mean to feel or to be unmotivated?

Detectives look for “motive” when working on a case because it shows the reasoning behind a criminal act that has been committed.  A person commits a crime to help them get something that they want.  They have a goal (sometimes tangible, sometimes not) and an obstacle standing in the way.  While there may be other ways that they could achieve that goal, they choose a path that forces them to commit a crime in an effort to get to that goal more quickly.  But, my question is this…does that make them more or less motivated than the person who chooses a different path?

Show business is riddled with stories of the proverbial “Casting Couch”, as well as other means by which an aspiring performer/director/writer/etc. climbs up the next rung of the ladder at the expense of someone else or part of themselves.  Then again, I guess those stories exist in any industry.  Does that sacrifice and willingness to do whatever it takes mean that this person is “highly motivated”, “ambitious”, or “obsessed?”  At what point does motivation become a negative?

On the other side of the coin, there are many folks in this world who are pursuing a career in their chosen field who could be categorized as “unmotivated,” seeming to simply drift along through life as one day turns into one week, one week to one month and so on.  When I see or meet those people, I often find myself thinking, “What’s their story?”  Perhaps they have achieved a certain level of success and they no longer feel the motivation to grow.  Perhaps they are trapped in a job/career that they don’t really want to be in but chose it out of circumstance rather than desire and, therefore, feel no motivation to excel.  Or perhaps they are stalled out, living in a haze and unable to determine what their next move should be.   Their motivation to make change is being stored up inside until one day the tank is full, they can’t take it anymore and that decision to do something must be made like Lester Burnham in American Beauty…”I feel like I’ve been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I’m just now waking up.”

When we choose to do something, it’s because we are motivated to achieve something else and that “something else” can be simple or complex.  We go to the gym because we are motivated to get into better shape, we eat something because we are motivated to end our hunger, we recycle that bottle or buy the hybrid because we are motivated to save the resources of the planet we live on.  And motivation is a living, breathing thing.  We are often times motivated to respond to something that we have seen or heard.

The reasons people are motivated to be an actor are as numerous as the stars.  Some choose it because they want to be famous, some choose it because they love the applause, some choose it because it gives them a sense of self worth.  I chose it because I want to make people think, ask questions, discuss.  Oddly enough, as I write this, I think it’s because it’s my way of motivating people to do something…to make change, even if that change is as simple as smiling for a little while.  It’s certainly the reason I produced Love Jerry last fall.  Sure, I wanted to be in it again, but more than that was the power this project had to make people think, talk, question and respond.  I think it’s also why I work so hard at what I do.  I love what I do and I never want to take it for granted.  As I said once before, the day I take it for granted is the day I know I should be doing something else.

What’s the point?  I think it’s good for people to ask themselves from time to time, “What’s my motivation?”  Evaluate the goals we set for ourselves in both the short term and long term and see if we are still motivated to achieve them.  And, if we’re not, why aren’t we?  What has changed and are those changes good or bad?

Time moves quickly and it would be easy for us to wake up one day and realize we’ve been in a coma for the last 20 years.  But, with consistent reevaluation, we can avoid it.

“This is a moment of challenge for our country. But we’ve experienced great trials before. And with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure, but to prosper — to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis. That is what we can and must do today. And I am absolutely confident that is what we will do. I’m confident that at this defining moment, we will prove ourselves worthy of the sacrifice of those who came before us, and the promise of those who will come after.” – President Barack Obama

Stay motivated, people.  That is all.

Welcome to the Show

A friend of mine pointed out that, while I launched my new website, I didn’t actually post anything on this blog yet.  So, I thought I had better get to doing that.  As I said in that “About Me” section of this blog, this blog is an experiment.

I’m horrible at keeping journals.  I always tell myself that I want to do it.  I even go so far as walking through Staples, seeing a notebook and thinking, “Oooo…I should buy that one.  It’d make a sweet journal.”  It never works out that way.  I’ve even had a couple of failed blog attempts.  Maybe “failed” is a bad word.  I should say “unfinished”.  Yeah, I’ve had a couple of failed unfinished attempts at blogs, but they never seem to work out.

Yet, I keep trying.  So, with the launch of a new website, I thought I’d give it another go.  I have things to say; some funny, some not.  I have things happening in my life;  some great, some not.  Mostly, I have things I want to remember or pass along.  And that’s what I intend this to be.

I can’t guarantee daily updates.  In fact, I can promise there won’t be.  But I can say that I hope it will be interesting both for myself and for anyone reading…even if the person reading is me, but the “me” that exists a year from now and is reading this and wondering why I started this.

There you have it.  See you soon.