Farewell to 'The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'

Tonight, at 12:30 am, Craig Ferguson will sign off the Late Late Show for the last time.  I started watching the show in 2009.  I was going into my senior year of high school and Craig had been hosting for about four years.  Somehow I feel like I've been there since day one, and at the same time that it's been there my whole life.  I imagine this is because of the old adage about growing older, that the more things change the more they stay the same.  Arghh.

I'm having a bit of a quarter-life crisis and
I want to talk like an old sea captain.
Please let me have this.

When I first started watching Craig Ferguson a staple of his show was hand puppetry.  Many a cold open starred the Cajun crocodile named Wavy Rancheros, Sid the profane bunny, or Gustave Flaubert the pig who shares a contempt for the bourgeoisie with the human Gustave who I still know nothing about five years later.

Eh, the pig is more interesting.

The puppets were such an integral part of the show that they took it over for the 1,000th episode while Craig was nowhere to be seen.  Now it's the puppets that are out of sight, in their place is the robot skeleton Geoff Peterson and a horse that isn't a real horse.  Of course, some things have stayed the same.  It's still a good day for America and a cat still dies but not really before we recap what we learned, althoug in my humble opinion a new picture of Paul McCartney couldn't have hurt.

Perhaps a more glamorous image of
the music icon is in order.

Few, if any, talk shows could make such major changes without losing the spirit of the show, but the Late Late Show is not like any other late night show.  It could be whatever Craig wanted it to be because the appeal was that he was making it all up as he went along.  The stage was his white void, where he could build the universe the way he wanted unless the malicious cartoonist of a censor didn't like it.  Now that vast emptiness is closing in on itself and Craig is moving on to a new adventure: he and Geoff are going to walk the earth and solve crimes.  Or he's going to start a new show that will be basically the same as the old one.

What I Learned as a New Fan of Westerns

I consider myself something of a film buff.  I’m not an expert by any means but I did watch Citizen Kane once just for kicks and giggles and I plan to do it again.  There are a few areas where my knowledge of the medium is pretty lacking.  One of those areas is Westerns, so I recently decided to brush up on the genre.  In the past month I've seen about nine Westerns, which is approximately thrice as many as I'd seen before unless you count each of the twelve times I've seen Blazing Saddles.  Actually, Blazing Saddles was part of why I avoided the genre for so long.  I thought knowledge of all the cliches was enough.  Lone gunman strolls into town, he stares down the antagonist, shoots him, then rides into the sunset.  What else is there to know?  I was only a few movies in before I realized that most of what I thought about Westerns was wrong.

I was mostly surprised by the absence of cliches, especially cowboys.  I thought cowboys would make up the majority of Western protagonists, but out of the ones I've seen there's only been one and he was just one magnificent seventh of the Magnificent Seven.  The only other movie I've seen where cowboys play a major role is Tombstone, and in that case Cowboys isn't their job but the name of their gang.  However, Tombstone has something else I  mistakenly assumed I'd see a lot of in Westerns: Sam Elliott.  Everything about Sam Elliott indicates that he should be in Westerns but in a cruel twist of fate he began his acting career just as the genre was on its way out.  His first film role was as an unnamed gambler in the classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969.  Elliott has been in a handful of Westerns but mostly he's been relegated by the powers that be to play Marlboro Man type characters in bowling alleys with his head on fire.

Oh, they're not the same movie.  Sorry, was that not clear?

One of the biggest reasons I was hesitant to take an interest in Westerns was because they were famously racist towards Native Americans.  They were typically portrayed as violent savages.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Native Americans play little to no role in most of the movies that I've seen.  The only exception is The Searchers, which is actually a complicated examination of racism by two of the most famous perpetrators of that racism; John Wayne and director John Ford.  Admittedly, the Comanche in the film aren't portrayed in the best light, but by the end it's clear that the hatred for them held by Wayne's character is far more dangerous than they are.  It's also mentioned that the Comanche are motivated by revenge for the deeds done by white men, indicating that violence is a vicious circle and both sides are at fault.  However, it's worth mentioning that one side hated with guns and the other hated with bows and arrows.

Another interesting side effect is that once I started watching Westerns I could see their influence everywhere.  I had heard that Quentin Tarantino took a few pages out of Sergio Leone's book, but after a single viewing of Once Upon a Time in The West I realized that Tarantino took all of the pages, the binding, the cover, and the flap.  I knew that a lot of The Walking Dead was inspired by Westerns, but during the midseason finale I was more surprised to see a scene that wasn't Western influenced.  It occurred to me that it was more of a Western with zombies than a zombie show with Western influence.  And speaking of Sergio Leone and television, a little more Western wouldn't hurt Once Upon a Time.  How about a little live-action Sheriff Woody?  It's not like they've got the guts to cast Tom Hanks as a decapitated head anyway.

"Parks and Recreation" and the History of Television

This week the premiere date for the last season of Parks and Recreation was announced for January thirteenth.  For the following 6 weeks two episodes of Parks will air back to back on Tuesdays, squeezing the twelfth episode seventh and final chapter of the saga of Leslie Knope into just over a month.  After all, why should NBC prolong the life of its only good remaining comedy series that isn't on in the middle of the night.  Only a few years ago Parks was only a small part of the network's then underperforming yet monumental and game changing block of comedies including 30 Rock and The Office.  The only other survivor is Community, which will not air its sixth, and also likely final, season on TV at all.  Instead the college comedy will continue on Yahoo! Screen.

In a way it's fitting that Community and Parks are the only remainders of that renaissance because both pay tribute to the great television of the past in their own ways.  Community wears its pop culture references on its sleeves with entire themed episodes that honor TV genres like the police procedural and the 80's cartoon, along with a myriad of movie genres.

Conversely, Parks is much more subtle with its TV homages.  So subtle that they're barely there at all and maybe I'm just overthinking this, but what do you want for nothing?  The series with the most overt influence is The West Wing (also on NBC).  Actually, Parks and Recreation may be the only political show worthy of being compared to Aaron Sorkin's presidential epic, just as Leslie Knope is one of the few television characters with as much inherent goodness and capacity to inspire as The West Wing's hero Jed Bartlet.  Parks has been known to cast actors who have appeared on The West Wing, the most notable being Rob Lowe, who starred as Sam Seaborn in the first four seasons of West Wing and was introduced as Chris Traeger in the second season of Parks.  Unfortunately Lowe will only make a guest appearance in the final season as  he's too busy taking commercial jobs where he thinks he's making fun of himself but he's actually just proposing tragic possible universes where he's anything other than spectacular.  Lowe's West Wing co-star Bradley Whitford also appeared in a season 4 episode of the Parks.  Other actors to appear in both shows include John Larroquette, J.K. Simmons, and Ron Swanson himself, Nick Offerman.

Hurry! The opportunity for a Sorkin-walk-and-talk
reference is getting away!

On the other hand, there aren't a lot of actors alive now who weren't on The West Wing.  What's more important is the similarities in character and their development.  As previously mentioned, both shows' respective leads are goodhearted people who earn the respect and admiration of those around them with their moral fortitude.  Of course, there couldn't be much of a show if the protagonists never had their beliefs challenged.  As Leslie climbs the political ladder of Pawnee, Indiana she is forced to make compromises much like Jed did throughout his dual terms in the Oval Office.  However, both characters use their savvy and integrity to make the most out of such difficult situations.  For example, in their respective sixth seasons both Leslie and Jed make big decisions in foreign affairs.  Leslie leads the charge for Pawnee to absorb its rival Eagleton when it goes bankrupt while Jed makes a monumental peace treaty with Israel and Palestine.

Of course, Parks and Rec is a comedy, not a drama like The West Wing, and as such it also draws from some of the great comedies of television past.  Much of sitcom history can be found in Jerry Gergich, the local punching bag.  Although Jerry is scorned by the other character on Parks, the writers seem to love him and have given him an entirely pleasant home life comparable to the wholesome world of Leave It to Beaver.  Jerry's blissful circumstance includes a wife who, as has been mentioned several times on the show, is much more attractive than he is; a trope as old as the sitcom itself, dating back to The Honeymooners.

Another standard sitcom relationship is the "opposites attract," most famously seen in Sam and Diane from Cheers.  The dynamic between Sam, a working class playboy, and Diane, a self righteous  intellectual grows from mutual animosity to something resembling love.  Similarly, when Ben Wyatt enters Pawnee as a budget specialist his callous approach to government immediately infuriates the passionate Leslie.  Over time their relationship becomes the second most beautiful on the show, the first being April Ludgate and Andy Dwyer.  April and Andy began the series not as foes but as friends, however, their differences are far more pronounced than that of Ben and Leslie, and perhaps even Sam and Diane.  Andy is an endearing goofball with a heart of gold and April is an aloof nihilist.  Their marriage is one few fans would have predicted in season one but most found to be a surprisingly perfect fit.

As sad as it is to see Parks and Rec go, it isn't the end of the world.  It isn't even the end of the network sitcom.  No, that was in 1999 you silly goose.  Sure, it would be great if NBC's "Must See TV" would come back along with ABC's "TGIF" and "my respect and admiration for Bill Cosby," but those things are gone.  Girl Meets World isn't getting any better and I'm a fool to get my hopes up for Shawn and Cory's reunion tonight.  Instead we have Brooklyn 99 and Broad City and BoJack Horseman and too many other great comedies to count.  Besides, if history is any indication, NBC is only a few years away from another revival.  If there's anything to be learned from this it's that NBC is the John Travolta of network prime time sitcom programming blocks.  Hey, here's an idea, Welcome Back Kotter reboot.