The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson - General Discussion

[DownTheShore]

I love the Miriam bits too; she is deliciously mean.  The Leno fly is good too.

 

I wish he would dump the Bill Clinton jokes; they are so passé.

[Kromm]

Since this topic is called "Best Guests" and not "Best For Craig", I'd like to mention that I enjoy a lot the guests who bother to interact with Geoff (and to a lesser extent, Secretariat).  The ones who simply ignore them aren't as fun. and if you go on YouTube hunting, some of the best all time celeb clips from the show are the Celeb/Geoff ones.

[hoosier80]

Ricky Gervais was so much fun with Craig last week, and in his previous visit.  I was laughing so hard the entire time.

[DownTheShore]

Gervais always seems to get such a kick out of the show that it's fun to watch him just for that.

[opus]

Keeping it classy all the way till Christmas.

Edited June 13, 2014 by GaryE

[Brattinella]

I miss Sid. But I ADORE the Leno Fly!

[Victor the Crab]

I miss Sid. But I ADORE the Leno Fly!

 

I loved Sid. I was heartbroken when Craig handed Sid off to Alyssa Milano. Why Craig, why?!!

[Kromm]

I loved Sid. I was heartbroken when Craig handed Sid off to Alyssa Milano. Why Craig, why?!!

Think of the money if he'd ebayed good ol' Sid for charity instead!

[Brattinella]

Because, Alyssa Milano.  :(

[possibilities]

I loved it tonight, when Max Greenfield said he had a suggestion for the show-- Craig got his back up, but then loooved Max's suggestion. I knew it was perfect even before Craig reacted. Lots of fun.

[opus]

Not like any other talk show? He had the animals on. A talk show staple.

[Kaoteek]

Then again, knowing that he has only a few months left, Craig probably felt he might as well do at least one, for the heck of it.

 

(and to be honest, the fact that the australian dude clearly shared Craig's sense of innuendo & below-the-belt jokes might have helped setting this segment up)

[break21]

Animals were just odd for Craig's show.

[wingster55]

I always enjoy it when Rashida Jones is on. 

[Rammchick]

How about John Oliver as a replacement?  He was fantastic when he subbed for Jon Stewart and is currently very good on his HBO show.  

[Boots]

A woman with an edge! Amy Sedaris would be great. She can do no wrong in my book.

[Victor the Crab]

How about John Oliver as a replacement?  He was fantastic when he subbed for Jon Stewart and is currently very good on his HBO show.  

 

John Oliver has a good thing going with HBO. He has the complete freedom and control to do whatever he wants on his show without facing repercussions, if any. Besides, he'd probably have to move out to Los Angeles to do LLS. And listening to past podcasts of The Bugle, LA doesn't seem to be the kind of town he'd like to live in.

[Dandesun]

I love it whenever Eddie Izzard, Ewan McGregor, Gerard Butler or Jon Hamm are on.

[Kromm]

To be fair, the only thing holding the show in LA is that they probably want to maintain a balance between New York and LA based talk shows.

 

That said, Oliver is totally wrong for the job at this point in his career and FAR better off where he is now.  Until some day way in the future, where like Colbert (and Ferguson himself, and arguably even Oliver in relation to his LAST job at The Daily Show), he actually gets tired of this current really successful show he's now got, and feels like he NEEDS to move on to a different kind of project.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Kromm

[opus]

Apparently, CBS thought like some of you....

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cbs-approached-john-oliver-late-693587

[AVorlon]

Nice to see a new show again, with Craig just back from Japan. I hope the rest of the week is new, because next week we go into reruns.

 

I thought Kathy Bates was a great guest, although WAY out of shape. Still., entertaining and fun. I was wondering if Craig gave her his old snake mug, since it had a fang missing like his old one did. I looked for the "censored" label on the bottom, but didn't see it .

[car54]

I thought Kathy was a great guest--it was clear he really enjoyed her.  

[opus]

I can finally relate to something personally. I live near Fresh Meadows, N.Y.

Edited June 27, 2014 by GaryE

[kib]

Sedaris rocks. Fun to watch two sharp funny minds batting it around.

Tada chottomatte !!!

[Scout Finch]

It didn't appear that he gave Sid away, though. In the next episode, I think, he said there had been a bunch of outrage from fans so he showed that he still had Sid. Either it wasn't meant seriously that she was actually taking Sid with her or there are a couple of rabbit puppets.

[bgrhu]

Sid is safe and sound, under the desk. The one he gave to Milano was "evil Sid," with the blue eyes.

[Iboatedhere]

For me it's Kristen Bell (of course), Jim Parsons, NPH, Michael Sheen, and Ariel Tweto. But I've also loved Keke Palmer recently. "Is this your first house?" "I'm 52 years old, Keke."

[Victor the Crab]

Loved tonight's show. So many familiar references. From 80's music, which I came to age around, to Winnipeg, where I spent four years of my developing life around, to Montreal, a city that I've enjoyed my recent years in (and where, last year, I took my brother to enjoy). Especially with the poutine, which no other place in the world can master. Not only is Montreal renound for its poutine, it's also well known for its smoked meat sandwiches (the best of which can be found at Schwartz's), and its bagels, which are very different from its New York counterparts.

 

Michael Sheen was a great guest, as always. I hope we get one more visit from him before Craig goes bye-bye.

[CattyTiger]

Wow!  What a great Wednesday night show - or Thursday morning, in my region.  Craig was on!!!  Yes, three exclamations points.  He and Michael Sheen were having fun with great real conversation.  Don't remember the last time he was that engaged, although the sobriety chat with Jane Lynch was really good, too.

 

I've been thinking how much I'll miss Craig's special brand of crazy, but with one of the What Did We Learn's - maybe the kitten coming back up with goggles and Craig's explanation - I'm really going to miss that kitten "picture."

 

I just hope he keeps touring where we can go back to Nashville to see him.

[dangwoodchucks]

I was never a late night show watcher, I don't like Letterman, Leno or O'Brien. But I discovered Craig a few years into his run on TLLS and he was must see for me every night for 4 or 5 years, and I even dragged my husband to see Craig's stand up show two hours away. I loved the musical cold opens by Craig, the interns and puppets (Oops, Istanbul), I enjoyed Secretariat for a good while, and although I didn't care for Geoff, I dealt with him. I enjoyed Craig's musical guests and was introduced to many I'd never heard of but now enjoy, Local Natives for instance. Some things I enjoyed were dropped like Prince Charles and his Late Late Programme, and other skits, especially ones with Tim Meadows.

 

But once he moved into the new, larger studio, things just weren't as enjoyable for me. I was happy that Craig was moving up and CBS was appreciating him more, but the old studio had seemed like a more cozy and intimate setting to me. Other than guests I really wanted to see, I found myself FF through a lot of the show (especially the censor woman stuff) and eventually deleted it from the DVR. I've tried to start watching again since it'll be over soon. I did enjoy Ricky Gervais and Scarlett Johansson (sorry I missed Michael Sheen, he and Craig have always been great together every time Michael has guested) but the audience members in the cold open has just gotten old. Maybe it's just me but I miss the old Craig in the old studio.

[Mystery]

I'd love to see Bonnie Hunt back on a talk show. 

[Iboatedhere]

I'd love to see Bonnie Hunt back on a talk show. 

 

I second this. I loved her talk show!

[dbrits]

The last few shows have been fantastic. I always enjoy a visit with Regis and Larry King. I'm actually glad that Larry was there promoting his "Larry King Now" interview with Craig. Hulu hasn't posted the fill interview yet but based on the clips, Craig provides a great deal of insight on his decision to end the LLS. I can't wait to watch it.

[DownTheShore]

I just wanted to start a general thread about him because I wanted to make a comment about his literal appearance at ComicCon:

 

I think he really needs to put the black t-shirts behind him.  While it's probably a comfortable article of clothing for him, that combined with the black leather jacket IMO makes him look like an aging wannabe cool guy.  He's reached the age and has the personality to carry off a Rat Pack coolness, I think he should play up that and dress that part in these public settings.

 

(Craig's probable reply to DownTheShore:  ~FLAG~ you!) :-D

[opus]

This thread topic title had me thinking he enlisted or something. At least he went in with a high rank.

[Athena]

There's already a topic for Craig here: http://forums.previously.tv/topic/2533-mr-craig-ferguson-what-a-flag-guy/

 

While I enjoy the General Craig title, do you want me to merge your post(s) with that one?

[DownTheShore]

That one seemed to have digressed into a "who will be taking over for him" topic, but if it's better to combine the two threads, I have no problem with that.

[opus]

Craig and Brit definitely bonded.

[Victor the Crab]

I actually knew what Craig and Guy Pierce were talking about when they brought up the Geelong Cats, as I am a huge fan of Australian Rules Football. My favourite team: the Collingwood Magpies. (BRING IT HATERS!!!!!)

[junemeatcleaver]

There are reports saying James Corden has been annoucned as the new host of the Late Late Show.

 

I just remember him from his Doctor Who episodes.

[opus]

I never heard of him, but then again, I had never heard of Craig Ferguson either. (I wasn't a Drew Carey Show watcher)

[nowandlater]

Yeay white males!!!

 

(I've known about Corden for 7 years...before he won his Tony...because I'm a fan of the British version of Big Brother, and he used to co-host one of its talk shows.)

Edited August 5, 2014 by nowandlater

[Kromm]

James Corden?  Well that's unexpected.

 

On one hand.... good that they thought out of the box in one way.  Bad that they apparently couldn't find an actual ethnically diverse candidate who was viable in that outside-the-box area.

[Athena]

Corden is actually a good chat show host. I loved "A League of Their Own" which is a British sport panel show. He seems to get along with a lot of people and like most good comedians can laugh at himself a lot. 

[Brattinella]

James Corden is pretty funny.  He is probably a good fit.  I just wish Craig didn't have to go.

[halopub]

Blech! I initially thought he was funny enough when he guested on Lily Allen's talk show a couple years back and totally charmed her. Since then, though, I seem to always spot him on panel/award shows where he either repeats his tired pickup lines or reverts to shruggy, drunk bro humor with Jack Whitehall. Plus didn't he just get dinged for a painfully sycophantic job of hosting the Brit Awards?

 

Hopefully being a family man has softened his more annoying shtick but I fear a late night retread of PIers Morgan here when a disliked personality flees for a fresh start stateside. Hopefully he'll be inspired by Craig and Stephen, refuse to really play the Hollywood suck up game and not invite guests with whom he has nothing to say.

[nowandlater]

After all the chatter that this job should go to a non-white male, it *looks* like CBS went out of its way to find a white male.

 

Anyways, I wonder if he can get Seth Meyers to up his game (now, I will head to that thread to rant about Seth.)

[Kromm]

After all the chatter that this job should go to a non-white male, it *looks* like CBS went out of its way to find a white male.

 

Anyways, I wonder if he can get Seth Meyers to up his game (now, I will head to that thread to rant about Seth.)

It's a shame Meyers isn't actually Jewish. That's not actually super-diverse, but if you go through the roster of Late Night network TV hosts they haven't even had a Jew (Steve Allen wasn't actually one either, despite the general assumption, like with Meyers, that he was).

[Kromm]

I have to say, the more I think about this, the less likely I think this is a real casting instead of a rumor.

 

First there's the recognition factor.  Sure Corden was Tony nominated, but it was for a play few people outside of theater circles paid attention to.  His UK work is probably pretty well known to Anglophiles in the US, and probably totally unknown to everyone else.  

 

But late night shows have made stars before, so it's at least possible that aspect is a calculated risk.

 

The bigger problem is that Corden would come in (even with "practice") with very shallow cultural awareness of the US.  He lived in Manhattan for 6 months for his Broadway appearance, but on stage he was playing a British character, so it's not like he had to adapt that much for his stay here.  He's likely seen endless TV and movies, sure, but there's SO much that doesn't encompass.  His speech will unconsciously skew towards phrasing and terms that don't work over here, and he'd be constantly self-correcting.

 

As much as Ferguson, if this rumor if its actually true would probably have to do with John Oliver's success as well.  But both Ferguson and Oliver lived and worked in the US for DECADES before getting Talk Shows they had to front.  In other words the true speech of Americans (not just the TV & movie versions), the politics, the little social annoyances and quirks that wouldn't be apparent to true foreigners, etc. were all well known to these gentlemen.

[nowandlater]

The bigger problem is that Corden would come in (even with "practice") with very shallow cultural awareness of the US.  He lived in Manhattan for 6 months for his Broadway appearance, but on stage he was playing a British character, so it's not like he had to adapt that much for his stay here.  He's likely seen endless TV and movies, sure, but there's SO much that doesn't encompass.  His speech will unconsciously skew towards phrasing and terms that don't work over here, and he'd be constantly self-correcting.

 

 

I don't know. British pop-culture is awash in American influence. It's unavoidable. If you watch The Graham Norton Show, there's an American (or Americans) on the show each week. I've watched a lot of British reality TV, and it's clear that British people know what's up.

Edited August 6, 2014 by nowandlater