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[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

FIFY

Just because you don't find Leno funny doesn't mean no-one else does. Apparently twice the people found him funnier at 11:30 than Conan. And I don't buy the "lead-in" crap because CBS has been kicking NBC's ass for more than a few years now and Letterman still was losing to Leno.

For the record I like both Conan & Jay and knew when they announced it in 2004 I knew Conan probably wouldn't play to a Tonight Show audience. As for you thinking things are "stale" because they've been around for a while, Johnny Carson had the same formula for 30 years.

Jay Leno is no Johnny Carson. I skipped right from Carson to Conan with Letterman in between. Of course even Carson knew that job should have gone to Letterman.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

FIFY

Just because you don't find Leno funny doesn't mean no-one else does. Apparently twice the people found him funnier at 11:30 than Conan. And I don't buy the "lead-in" crap because CBS has been kicking NBC's ass for more than a few years now and Letterman still was losing to Leno.

For the record I like both Conan & Jay and knew when they announced it in 2004 I knew Conan probably wouldn't play to a Tonight Show audience. As for you thinking things are "stale" because they've been around for a while, Johnny Carson had the same formula for 30 years.

Peter,
Jay does (and has been doing so for years) stand-up here -
http://www.comedyandmagicclub.com/

If you’re a fan, I highly recommend taking the wife there for an enjoyable night out.
The Valentine’s Day show is selling out fast.

For the record, he was an early adopter of Blu-ray, purchasing a player (via the Sony Concierge service) before many of the members here became Blu-ray fans.
And he's got a cool garage.........
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/

[Braktastic]

At the risk of spamming, I'll post this here as well. My apologies in advance, but it seemed to be a hot topic until someone brought up Conan and Leno.

I received my HK Ponyo BD today. I can confirm that it plays fine in a PS3 and that it does indeed contain a Japanese 6.1 DTS-HD MA audio track and English subtitles.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Nick Graham

The fact that millions of people like something enough to make it number 1 does not mean it has any artistic value whatsoever, it just shows that America as a whole gets dumber and dumber with every passing year. That's the Tonight Show With Jay Leno's dominance in a nutshell.

THe fact is that the show is there to make money. More eyeballs = more advertiser $$$. Jay's Tonight shows them the money. Conan's...not so much.

Carson never got stale, because he was sharp as a tack even in the end. Jay does the most purposefully homogenized, edgeless humor he can manufacture, including many things Carson would not be caught dead doing.

Perhaps. But he's funny and a lot of stuff is "cornball" humor and it plays to a very wide swath of the country. I can't tell you the amount of times I'd ask someone if they'd seen a bit on Conan (when he was on Late Night) and they'd reply they don't watch/like the show.

Let's not feel too bad for him. He & his staff got $45 million and more than likely another show soon. Look at Jon Stewart...anyone remember his show? It was good, but in syndicated hell. Now I dare anyone to tell me he's not better off now. Conan's talent will shine elsewhere.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Peter,
Jay does (and has been doing so for years) stand-up here -
http://www.comedyandmagicclub.com/

If you’re a fan, I highly recommend taking the wife there for an enjoyable night out.
The Valentine’s Day show is selling out fast.

For the record, he was an early adopter of Blu-ray, purchasing a player (via the Sony Concierge service) before many of the members here became Blu-ray fans.
And he's got a cool garage.........
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/

Thanks Penton. Jay's always seemed open to cutting edge tech, I'm sure the fact that the Tonight Show was the first talk show in HDTV (shot with SONY equipment!) has something to do with him. I've been a fan of his since the '80s.

[coolmilo]

I started the Jay = flipper disc discussion because Universal/NBC continues to prove that they can't make a good decision to save their lives. And I especially hate that they are forcing flipper discs on Blu-ray customers. It really cheapens the Blu-ray format as a whole. I’d rather go purchase from iTunes or DirecTV 1080P OnDemand than buy/rent/borrow a flipper disc. This is not what I signed up for when I started purchasing BD products. The BDA should step in and force the studios to release movies on BD50 media only.

Back to Conan/Jay, in my opinion Conan never got a chance to show how good his Tonight Show could have been because of Jay's horrible 10:00 PM show. Because it was the lead-in show, it really doomed Conan from the start. Personally I think Jay is a pretty good stand-up comedian but he is just wretched as a talk show host. He steals his comedy bits from Howard Stern (Jay Walking for one) and he never makes his guests seem interesting when he interviews them. Jay Leno = Flipper Disc

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Nick Graham

...Carson never got stale, because he was sharp as a tack even in the end. Jay does the most purposefully homogenized, edgeless humor he can manufacture, including many things Carson would not be caught dead doing.

I prefer Carson, and I agree he was sharp and smart. That said, in the several books I've read of him, both the network and his staff really wished that he updated his guests and routines, probably to attract a younger age demographic.

I don't think Leno is a dumb or homoginized as some would have him be. I do remember that in his opening weeks, he found the audience was not getting some of his jokes. Was his humor too cerebral or was he not setting his jokes up properly? I don't know, but I observed that he tuned it downwards. I don't agree with that direction, but I don't think it reason to denegrate the man.

Conan had his share of silly stuff. I didn't tune into his late night show much (past my bedtime), but after watching some of his reruns this week, I came away impressed that he had continued to evolve in what I thought to be a positive direction.

Ultimately, I think Jay had it right when he said two things:
(1) NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract."
(2) It's just (entertainment) business. And according to the golden rule, he who holds all the gold (NBC) gets to make all the rules.

Cheers!

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by coolmilo

Back to Conan/Jay, in my opinion Conan never got a chance to show how good his Tonight Show could have been because of Jay's horrible 10:00 PM show. Because it was the lead-in show, it really doomed Conan from the start.

Funny how Conan had 3-plus *months* before Jay's 10:00 show started. Don't give me the lead-in audience excuse. If it was decided by lead ins Letterman should have been #1 for several years now (CSI ring a bell?).

Personally I think Jay is a pretty good stand-up comedian but he is just wretched as a talk show host. He steals his comedy bits from Howard Stern (Jay Walking for one) and he never makes his guests seem interesting when he interviews them. Jay Leno = Flipper Disc

Newsflash: Howard didn't invent "man on the street" interviews. I listen to Howard (since 1984!) and he's claimed to have invented everything at one time or another. He's really been laying it into Jay lately. I remember him also complaining how lame Conan was when he was out promoting Private Parts, even whining how bad he thought it sounded when Max played "Great American Nightmare"...which I thought was pretty damn good considering what Max had to use.

Maybe you don't think Jay doesn't make his guests seem interesting but he seems pretty good to me. It isn't his job to antagonize them, it isn't Meet The Press either. He's pretty quick with the quip if the guest misspeaks or leaves him an opening.

So, again, the "flipper" analogy falls flat. I swear if all the people complaining about Conan being replaced actually watched the Tonight Show under his tenure we wouldn't be having this discussion.

[wallendo]

Originally Posted by cjamescook

Odd question: When a movie, like Oklahoma, was shot in Todd-AO, my understanding is that this was a 30 fps format. Is the 30 fps preserved in the Blu-ray, or is it commonly reduced to 24 fps?

Just curious if anyone knows.

The original DVD was the Todd AO film, but it was letterboxed (not "enhanced for widescreen TVs"). The sharpness and color on this was fine. Of course there isn't a lot of detail on a letterboxed DVD to begin with.

The special edition released several years later included anamorphic transfers of both versions. Unfortunately, in the time between the two releases, the Todd AO print had deteriorated significantly and the colors were washed out.

It appears that the Todd AO version would require major restoration before it could be released on blu-ray.

[WMAangel]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Funny how Conan had 3-plus *months* before Jay's 10:00 show started.

WOW, so now we're only giving him three months to expect him to become the top show at 11:30?? Funny how everyone has quickly forgotten that golden boy Leno had poor ratings starting out, was NOT in 1st place initially, and it wasn't until 1995 (with the infamous Hugh Grant interview) that he consistently was....so why is it he got TWO YEARS to improve his spot and increase ratings performance, yet Conan was not even given but 1/4th of the amount of time?

Whether you believe this fiasco was entirely caused by NBC themselves, or if you believe Jay had a hand in it, it doesn't matter...there has been irreparable harm done to the public's perception of Leno, and simply moving him back to his old spot will not guarantee things will just magically return to the way they were a year ago....that awful interview he did with Oprah didn't help matters either...

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

I swear if all the people complaining about Conan being replaced actually watched the Tonight Show under his tenure we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I watched EVERY SINGLE episode of Conan's Tonight Show....but of course, I do not have one of those legendary Nielsen boxes, so whatever I watch doesn't count....

[Jeff Kleist]

I watched EVERY SINGLE episode of Conan's Tonight Show....but of course, I do not have one of those legendary Nielsen boxes, so whatever I watch doesn't count....

If you have a cable box, it counts, just not officially. There have been a bunch of low rated shows that have been saved by the unofficial numbers

Personally I think they should track all cable boxes unless you opt out, would probably save ap ile of shows from doom if the people who actually watch it were counted.

My friend ran into Andy Richter the other day in a pizza place, gave his condolences, he was already thankfully working, playing a principal or something.

I'm sure Jay's a fine person in many ways, but after what happened to get the show the first time, and what happened now, I personally would never trust his word when it comes to anything that can effect his career. What Jay should have done is take Conan's $50mil buyout and signed a 5 year non-compete agreement to make the network happy, and then enjoyed a very successful post-Tonight standup career/semi-retirement

[Jeff Kleist]

Now for the good news, Armageddon is back on target, there was a hiccup in the Disney PR machine

The Disney stuff like Dumbo should be re-announced too. Bill and I both feel that they're trying to spread out the major titles a bit so they get the attention they deserve.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by WMAangel

WOW, so now we're only giving him three months to expect him to become the top show at 11:30?? Funny how everyone has quickly forgotten that golden boy Leno had poor ratings starting out, was NOT in 1st place initially, and it wasn't until 1995 (with the infamous Hugh Grant interview) that he consistently was....so why is it he got TWO YEARS to improve his spot and increase ratings performance, yet Conan was not even given but 1/4th of the amount of time?

Leno didn't lose half of Johnny's audience, the way Conan did Jay's. He had three months to gain some traction and it wasn't happening. Leno was #1 until Letterman showed up (yes, there was no competiton really...Nightline...). Letterman goes to CBS: boom! #1 show. Why didn't that happen with Conan? You need to ask yourself that, and tell me when you have an answer. I'll give you a hint: it wasn't lead-ins.

Whether you believe this fiasco was entirely caused by NBC themselves, or if you believe Jay had a hand in it, it doesn't matter...there has been irreparable harm done to the public's perception of Leno, and simply moving him back to his old spot will not guarantee things will just magically return to the way they were a year ago....that awful interview he did with Oprah didn't help matters either...

I wholly blame NBC for wanting to have their cake and eat it, keep both people under contract and not have the competition. Jay was handed a raw deal in 2004 and bless him for not making a stink about it, which he could have (and looking at the reaction these days) should have. I also believe Conan's agents got greedy.

I watched EVERY SINGLE episode of Conan's Tonight Show....but of course, I do not have one of those legendary Nielsen boxes, so whatever I watch doesn't count....

I watched it quite a bit and it just wasn't as good as his Late Night stuff.

[FourToedStatue]

Jeff why wasn't a lossless track added to the Goodfellas reissue? Even full Metal jacket got PCM when it was reissued.

[Jeff Kleist]

Because they're pressing the exact same disc again. Re-authoring costs thousands of dollars between paying the tech, doing the encode, re-doing AACS, making the new master etc

[jfcarbel]

Jeff, now that Apollo 13 is officially announced, I am wondering since April is NASA 40th, could we maybe also see a release of HBO Video's "From the Earth to the Moon"? Have you heard any buzz on this title?

[Jeff Kleist]

I already answered it after you asked before

[jfcarbel]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I already answered it after you asked before

Doh, FTETTM = From the Earth to the Moon

Sorry, just noticed it now, my acronym decoder was on this fritz this late in evening.

FTETTM has an issue that the FX will not hold up very well in HD. When they did the 16:9 versions they retransferred all the footage in HD, but they should probably do it again anyway. I expect that's why they missed the Moon anniversary, and will probably miss this one too. Very sadly. It's a top want for me as well

That's a shame, you would think when these studios do transfers knowing that material like this would sell well to HD enthusiasts that they would spend the effort to do it right so as to avoid doing it again for future HD formats.

I would have thought computer FX would have had such high resolution, but it goes to show you how much detail film still holds over digital formats. Amazing that film negatives from Wizard of Oz scanned right into 4K digital and so much detail could be pulled from them and look so good after all these years.

And now with Obama pushing off moon funding, we might wait a long time before they can time this again with another event. Sigh, I love FTETTM as much if not better then Apollo 13.

[Jeff Kleist]

That's a shame, you would think when these studios do transfers knowing that material like this would sell well to HD enthusiasts that they would spend the effort to do it right so as to avoid doing it again for future HD formats.

When they did it, like with so many movies they DID think they were doing it right I'm sure. But it's been about 5 years since the redo, 3 generations of tech.

I would have thought computer FX would have had such high resolution, but it goes to show you how much detail film still holds over digital formats. Amazing that film negatives from Wizard of Oz scanned right into 4K digital and so much detail could be pulled from them and look so good after all these years.

Rendered and models created for 480 TV broadcast. The good news is that there is a bunch of model work that may be salvageable. Computer FX is/was expensive and time consuming, so rendering is done at the lowest level they can get away with, and as many cheats as possible are used to crank it out on the short schedule. It's not the issue with digital formats so much as what it was targeted for.

My friend's mom worked for HBO at the time. I've got all kinds of FTETTM swag. Keychains, hats, they even had a telescope (that I don't have). There was an internal video set that had 2 rocket bookends and a lenticular pic that went across all the tapes.

[Bizi Jones]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Leno didn't lose half of Johnny's audience, the way Conan did Jay's. He had three months to gain some traction and it wasn't happening. Leno was #1 until Letterman showed up (yes, there was no competiton really...Nightline...). Letterman goes to CBS: boom! #1 show. Why didn't that happen with Conan? You need to ask yourself that, and tell me when you have an answer. I'll give you a hint: it wasn't lead-ins.

He didn't start losing until Leno started his show at 10pm. His ratings were consistently beating Letterman (18-49), and NBC even advertised this, then Leno started his 10pm thing, and everyone's ratings at NBC suffered. Conan started out slow, probably because some execs thought that toning him down for the 11:30 spot would keep the old folks happy. That was a mistake, cause judging by Coco's last 2 weeks when he started to rip on NBC his ratings took off again. NBC ****ed this up, but Leno should have either said something back in 04, or just gone to another network to screw NBC for taking his show away. And not 'wait in the wings' for Conan to stumble and stab him in the back. He's a quisling, (from Norm's interview on Letterman, when he got canned from SNL)