Friends and admirers said all the right things in presenting Jay Leno the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for comedy, an event commemorated with a 90-minute PBS special.
Leno “did it clean. He did it with dignity,” said Robert Klein.
“Thanks for making standup first,” said “The Daily Show’s” Al Madrigal.
The former “The Tonight Show” host did so much for NBC “that we had to celebrate his career on PBS,” quipped the latenight franchise’s current occupant, Jimmy Fallon.
And yet, watching Leno take this victory lap, it was hard not to think that, strictly in terms of the comedy world, his path might have been easier — or at least simpler — had he not won the succession battle that embittered David Letterman, forced many of their brethren and those in the media to choose sides, and placed a kind of strange asterisk on Leno’s legacy.
Leno,...
Leno “did it clean. He did it with dignity,” said Robert Klein.
“Thanks for making standup first,” said “The Daily Show’s” Al Madrigal.
The former “The Tonight Show” host did so much for NBC “that we had to celebrate his career on PBS,” quipped the latenight franchise’s current occupant, Jimmy Fallon.
And yet, watching Leno take this victory lap, it was hard not to think that, strictly in terms of the comedy world, his path might have been easier — or at least simpler — had he not won the succession battle that embittered David Letterman, forced many of their brethren and those in the media to choose sides, and placed a kind of strange asterisk on Leno’s legacy.
Leno,...
- 11/26/2014
- by Brian Lowry
- Variety - TV News
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