Month: June 2009

…but while we have an interlude, I give you Han Solo, P.I. – enjoy.

Never forget. Never forgive.

I forgot who Chicago was playing in the Eastern finals – maybe Cleveland? – but it was definitely Utah and Portland in the West. I watched Johnny Carson’s last episode of the Tonight Show from a hotel room in Panama City in the company of my then-girlfriend and her roommate. School was out, classes done, nothing left but to log some beach time and watch basketball – but then, I wasn’t interested in the beach and she wasn’t interested in the basketball.

To boost the new guy, NBC did something they hadn’t done in ages: the first week of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno went out live, following the conference finals games. And – I remember this clearly – the third night or so, they had Blue Man Group, who did an amazing routine with drums and PVC and Captain Crunch, and the crowd went batshit, and Jay was half-sheepish as he chimed in, “This is not your father’s Tonight Show.”

It didn’t last, of course. Leno became about as edgy and entertaining as 1% milk sometime around the fifteenth Judge Ito Dancers appearance, and even a bad night on Letterman entertains me more than the best of Leno. But all these years later, I feel like I should at least give the new guy a chance.