International Law

Please find below a paragraph placing the troubles of The Tonight Show in the context of NBC's larger woes:

The entire network was reeling: Prime time had hit bottom. Problems sprang up everywhere. The Olympics were looming, and NBC's grandiose plan to pay for them was a fiasco. "An enormous amount of avoidance techniques were being employed," a senior NBC executive in Burbank said.

While the links will lead you to articles regarding current affairs, the words themselves constitute a very close paraphrase of a passage found on Page 110 of The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night (1994).

Plus ça change. The book, written by the New York Times' Bill Carter and later adapted as a frisky HBO movie, is a classic inside-showbiz tale. Detailing how Jay Leno maneuvered his way behind the Tonight desk and how David Letterman scowled off to CBS in 1992, The Late Shift emerges as a thriller about the egos of NBC's comedic talent and the follies of its executives. (Long story short: NBC president Bob Wright failed to listen to his gut and dismiss Leno.)

Lamentably, the book has fallen out of print, but that is no excuse for the key players in this month's late-night intrigues not to have absorbed its lessons. Carter's book cites interviews with Leno, soon-to-be-deposed Conan O'Brien, and executive Jeff Zucker?whose career, it bears repeating, is regarded by every journalist on the TV beat as the most amazing instance of falling up in the history of telecommunications. We must assume that these men know this history, and it's too much to hope that they're repeating it as a farce just for entertainment's sake. In any event, here's a Top 10 list of fun facts, simple reminders, and sundry things to bear in mind when chattering about this trainwreck during the weeks ahead.