trow125

I think the Congresspeople in particular wind up looking better if they play it straight. "Leave comedy to the professionals." It was adorable to see the L.A. congressman attempt to stifle his laughter during the "burrito" segment of BKAD.

Next week: 4/28 Sara Schaefer, Mark Normand and Matt Braunger 4/29 Randy Sklar, Jason Sklar and Kyle Kinane 4/30 Baron Vaughn, Rove McManus and Adam Cayton-Holland 5/1 Jim Gaffigan, Todd Glass and Nikki Glaser

4/28/14 Michael McFaul - Former ambassador to Russia 4/29/14 Robert Rodriguez - El Rey Network 4/30/14 Audra McDonald - Broadway show “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” 5/1/14 Saul Williams - Slam poet promoting a new musical, “Holler if Ya Hear Me”

4/28: Mookie Wilson (former Mets player & author – promoting book “Mookie: Life, Baseball, and the ’86 Mets”) 4/29: William Cohan (author – promoting book “The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, the Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities”) 4/30: Martin Gilens & Benjamin Page (Political Scientists – discussing their study “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”) 5/1: David Spade (comedian – promoting Comedy Central special “David Spade: My Fake Problems”)

Programming note: tonight's guest will be Ken Burns, discussing his Gettysburg Address project.

The full list of panelists is now available for the shows airing next Wed & Thurs: 4/23/14 Paul Scheer, Andy Daly, Brandon Johnson 4/24/14 April Richardson, Tom Lennon, Steve Agee

I think one of the all-time best examples of "multiple guests on a couch" came during the old Conan O'Brien show on NBC, when he had Courtney Thorne-Smith and Norm MacDonald. Watch this clip if you've never seen it before, because it is hilarious, but it also serves as a cautionary tale why celebs might not want to have a sharp-witted comedian nearby when they're trying to plug a terrible movie. There is so little spontaneity these days with big name stars appearing on TV (or in magazines, for that matter)... their publicists micromanage everything to the nth degree. Nothing can be allowed to interfere with the Global Publicity Machine. There was a news item a few weeks ago about talk show guests not being allowed to appear on other shows if they had already been slated to appear on Fallon's show. Personally, I'm fine with Jimmy monopolizing the Will Smiths and Nicolas Cages if that frees up Stephen to have more interesting guests.

Next week's rerun schedule, plus the guests who have been announced so far for the following week: 4/14/14 Patton Oswalt, Blaine Capatch, Brian Posehn (R 4/3/14) 4/15/14 W. Kamau Bell, Hannibal Buress, Eliza Skinner (R 3/24/14) 4/16/14 Seth Green, Kevin Shinick, Rachel Bloom (R 3/31/14) 4/17/14 Amber Tamblyn, Rhys Darby, Kurt Braunohler (R 4/2/14) 4/21/14 Marlon Wayans, Nick Swardson, Kerri Kenney-Silver 4/22/14 Jessica St. Clair, Lennon Parham, Rob Huebel 4/23/14 Paul Scheer 4/24/14 April Richardson, Tom Lennon

I always feel a bit of the real Stephen comes out when he interviews science folks like Neil DeGrasse Tyson (who will surely be a regular guest on the new "Late Show"!). With guests that he's REALLY interested in, I have gotten the sense that he feels a bit limited as "Stephen." Hopefully he can have fun with guests while being more sincere. I think his Jane Goodall interview from a couple days ago was a perfect example. She was a great sport but he didn't act particularly "Stephen"-ish and confrontational. He was playful and appropriate.

I think this topic should have been titled "Death of a Nation." Seriously though, I think it's GOOD that Jimmy Fallon has been so successful in late night (his ratings are huge) with his musical numbers and celebrity games, because late night does NOT need two Jimmy Fallons. I really hope Colbert will keep some of his political edge because it could differentiate him from Fallon. My worst case scenario is that Colbert at 11:30 will = Letterman at 11:30. I was a massive "Late Night" fan and there is just no comparison to what Dave was doing in the mid- to late-80s on NBC and what the CBS show has become. There's a reason I went from obsessive Dave enthusiast to watching his show 3-4 times a year at most.

No new shows the week of 4/14/14. 4/21/14 Marcellus McRae & Kate Elliot - Vergara v. California Lawsuit 4/22/14 George Will - Author, “A Nice Little Place On The North Side: Wrigley Field At One Hundred” 4/23/14 TBA 4/24/14 George Saunders - Author, “Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness”

The show will be dark the week of 4/14/14. 4/21: Gina McCarthy (EPA Administrator) 4/22: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (US Senator, D-MA & author – promoting book “A Fighting Chance”) 4/23: Robin Roberts (Anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America” & author – promoting book “Everybody's Got Something”) 4/24: Ramachandra Guha (author – promoting book “Ghandi Before India”)

If you subscribe to Netflix streaming, a lot of the LCS alumni have comedy specials available there. Josh Blue has a stand-up special called "Sticky Change" and Kathleen Madigan has "Madigan Again," just to name a couple. The Blue special is fairly recent (2012), and he talks a lot about his marriage, so it's a different side of him than we saw on LCS.

Next week: Guests include Kate Walsh, Arden Myrin and Jim Jeffries (Monday, April 7); Doug Benson, Esther Povitsky and Greg Behrendt (Tuesday, April 8); Ali Wong, Ron Funches and Guy Branum (Wednesday, April 9); and Jen Kirkman, Paul F. Tompkins and Morgan Murphy (Thursday, April 10).

Ask and ye shall receive as far as the number of female TCR guests is concerned, apparently. It's always great to see the amazing Jane Goodall, who, incidentally, turns 80 tomorrow. 4/7 EDWARD FRENKEL - Author, “Love and Math” 4/8 JANE GOODALL - Author, “Seeds of Hope; Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants” 4/9 SHERYL SANDBERG - Author, “Lean In: For Graduates” 4/10 STING & TRUDIE STYLER - Album, “The Last Ship” & 25th Anniversary of the Rainforest Fund Benefit Concert

4/7: Matt Taibbi (author – promoting book “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap”) 4/8: Denis Leary (actor – promoting movie “Draft Day”) 4/9: Colin Firth (actor – promoting movie “The Railway Man”) 4/10: Jennifer Garner (actress – promoting movie “Draft Day”) Week of 4/14: DARK!

It would be interesting to do a long-term study. I just crunched the numbers for 2014 so far, and the shows are actually tied in terms of the number of female guests (12 each, not counting the female member of Lake Street Dive, which appeared on the "Report" last month). The reason the numbers aren't equal is because there were a handful of shows with two guests, for instance, the book club episode with Michael Chabon and Mariel Hemingway, or the recent "Daily Show" with Gibby Haynes and Amy Yates Wuelfing. I did not count any of the first-act "desk" guests who occasionally appear on "Colbert," though I know there are a few women who have shown up there, such as Slate's Emily Bazelon. Considering the pressure over the years on news outlets, Sunday talk shows, etc. to feature more women, it's surprising that the issue hasn't gotten more attention. Based on my gut (which is what Stephen would want, right?) I bet that if you looked at the last five years of "Colbert," female guests would be 20% or less. Jan: TDS 12 M, 4 W; TCR 13 M, 4 W Feb: TDS 11 M, 3 W; TCR 8 M, 6 W + 1 co-ed band Mar: TDS 9 M, 5 W; TCR 11 M, 2 W

3/31 Biz Stone: Co-founder of Twitter and author, “Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind” 4/1/14 John Malkovich: Film, “Cesar Chavez” 4/2/14 Dan Harris: Author, “10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story” 4/3/14 Mark Mazzetti: Author, “The Way of the Knife” Feel free to use this thread to comment on this week's shows. I'll start posting the lineups here a few days in advance (I usually get them from Comedy Central on Wednesday or Thursday the week before). Incidentally, I believe Stephen only had two female guests in all of March: Caitlin Flanagan and Maria Shriver. The continuing lack of female guests on the Report is one of my pet peeves.

I will always love LCS for introducing me to Alonzo Bodden -- I have seen him live several times and follow his podcast and Twitter. I really enjoyed the "house" format in the first couple of seasons and have fond memories of Rich Vos ironing and the various pranks the comics played on each other. I'll keep watching, though I'm not super-optimistic about the show's resurrection either. (And I will admit to being one of the butthurt -- I burst into tears when Dave Mordal was eliminated, the first and only time I've EVER had such an extreme reaction to a reality show. Dat Phan appears regularly in the San Francisco area, where I live, and I still feel a little surge of anger when I see his name, especially since Mordal seems to have retired from stand-up. I believe he now does morning radio in the Twin Cities.)

Just curious -- does anybody know how much of the show is scripted in advance? For instance, do the comedians get the chance to come up with some of the material before the cameras start rolling? And do the show's writers ever contribute to the comedians' responses? I know most comedians are pretty quick-witted folks, but it can't all be off the cuff, can it? The fact stated above that the show runs longer than the 22 minutes broadcast reminds me of "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me," NPR's news quiz. I've been to a handful of tapings and they often run 90 minutes, cut down to about 50 for radio. Of course, some of the stuff that wound up on the cutting room floor was material that I thought was hilarious, but I guess decisions have to be made.

snowcrash, I will start a similar weekly thread over at the Colbert Report. Funnily enough, just before the announcement of TWoP's demise, I was planning to set up a thread for John Oliver's new show, "Last Week Tonight." I'm sure a lot of us TDS fans will be eager to watch/discuss it as well. It debuts in late April.

One of the things I liked about TWoP was that it was one big thread, not lots of tiny threads. I thought (a bit presumptuously, but since this forum hasn't really taken off, why not...) that I could start a thread for each week by posting the guests, to limit the number of threads. So we'll see how it goes. However, I do plan to stay at TWoP until they turn off the lights!

One of the things I have done over at TWoP is post the following week's guest lineups as soon as they become available (I'm on the CC mailing list, so I usually get them on Wed. or Thurs.). Here are the guests scheduled to appear during the week of 3/31/14: 3/31: Peter Dinklage (actor – promoting show “Game of Thrones”) 4/1: Michael Lewis (author – promoting book “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt”) 4/2: Samuel L. Jackson (actor – promoting movie “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) 4/3: Pelé (former professional soccer player & author – promoting book “Why Soccer Matters”)

I've been on TWoP for over a decade as "loudfan," primarily posting on the talk show boards, especially "The Daily Show," which I've been watching since the Kilborn days. I have probably missed fewer than a dozen shows since Jon took over. I have posted TDS' guest lineups on TWoP and on my own site since the 90s. I hope some of my fellow TWoPers follow me over here!