Add Robert De Niro and you’ve got yourself an opening night bill trying to please everyone on a show that’s otherwise clearly about targeting young men and their twitter accounts. So maybe the Astral Weeks-pimping Van Morrison fit on the show about as well as he did that silly suit (although “Sweet Thing” is and forever will be the jam), but there was that little thing about how THE ROOTS ARE THE HOUSE BAND, and between their musical versatility and “Slow Jamming The News” comic dexterity, they are actually a perfect fit for this show. (Except for the part about how NBC made them a stage that could only hold like four of the band’s 23 members.) JT was also on, he sang like Michael McDonald (well) and John Mayer (ok) and a Brother Gibb (enough). Also the Roots penned a pretty cool theme song — one of 200+ tunes they’re working on — which Scott pointed out will either be something we’ll hear nightly for years to come, or just a few more times if Jimmy doesn’t step up his game considerably. Watch the highlights and/or the whole show and get Gabe’s opening night post-mortem at Videogum.
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Oh man, the over-analyzation of this guy’s first show is laughable. It took Conan years to find his show’s niche, get used to the trial and error.
I’m hoping good things for Jimmy, I really am. But he was always an Adam Sandler rip-off on SNL from the way he acted to the joke songs while playing the guitar.
And having your entire comedic presence revolve around acting fidgety and uncomfortable will only take you so far…
It wasn’t a total trainwreck. I’ll watch as long as he gets good musical guests, ala Conan.
The thing is, no one knew Conan when he started. He was an acclaimed SNL/Simpsons writer but no one knew him as a host or an actor or what have you. Everyone knows who Jimmy is. Who he was last night was exactly the same person he’s been for years and if he does not make some big changes Carson Daly will no longer be the worst person in late night. Note to the producers: Don’t make Jimmy do random comedy like “Lick it for 10″. He’s not Conan and even if he was..that shit was miserable.
That’s the problem. Everyone already knew he sucked!
I agree he’s running against Carson Daly for the most uncharismatic late night host. Man, how did that guy get a show?! Sometimes it’s not about talent…
THIS WAS PAINFUL, they couldn’t find anybody else? another ex-snler? man, that is sad, pull Fallon off, he cannot get better, I promise you, Mr. Fallon please leave and make Taxi 2 straight to dvd
“penned a pretty cool theme song?” it sounded to me like an even-more-up-tempo version of “Here I Come”… am i wrong on that?
Slow Jammin the News was pretty funny, and good use of the Roots for sure. You can watch that video here:
http://gotchamedia.blogspot.com/2009/03/slow-jammin-news.html
The REAL story last night was that Letterman called TV dead. If they could only think beyond the stock quarter…
He was definitely nervous.
I found it worthwhile. And for a first show for a comedian whose been living under a rock for half a decade, it was damn good. I applaud Jimmy Fallon.
conan’s comedic presence revolves around awkwardness and acting like a 5 year old, and it’s awesome
No the real story was that Katie couric (on letterman), while telling a story about an inaccurate weather report, said “Bill, where’s the 8 to 10 inches you promised me last night?”
All of the roots songs sounded like different versions of their hits, which was fine with me, I like their stuff. I cannot believe they are on this show. The roots are so classic, it breaks my heart they are fiddling around for some prat like fallon. They are undoubtedly the best part of the show
As for the theme song, it is indeed “Here I Come” from Game Theory, definitely juiced up a little.
I know Van Morrison’s not 23 anymore, but “Sweet Thing” sounded unrecognizable. He even messed up the lyrics, when he was enunciating them.