As this article’s being written–America is probably going to have to endure reruns of every TV show in existence through the end of the year as the result of the protracted WGA strike and writers waiting longer than they should to get what they more than deserve. While I can personally live with prime-time shows not getting back to business for a while–many of the late-night shows are the most frustrating to watch in reruns and suffering the most when we see monologues and comedic bits going back only one or two months ago talking about news stories that still basically apply…yet really don’t. I guess that proves that we’re too used to having topical subjects getting some kind of comedic perspective on a nightly basis through Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O’Brien…as pedestrian as some of their monologues may be.
Well, time to turn over to TV Land for a while instead and enjoy some TV from a more classic time, right? No, not necessarily–though that doesn’t hurt either. One of the most brilliant things I’ve seen Jay Leno’s version of “The Tonight Show” do last week while in reruns is dip into the older shows from the mid-90’s and airing a show each night from each year in that decade or by a current related theme. You can only imagine those who weren’t even born in 1993 tuning in and seeing a dark-haired Jay Leno with a little bit more of a naïve and gee-whiz sensibility in having his own show and following in the still fresh footsteps of Johnny Carson. Some might initially think Jay Leno used some Grecian formula on his hair and went to a barber that’s fifteen years behind the times. And then we probably have those who wonder why Branford Marsalis is there leading the band–subsequently not laughing at Jay Leno’s jokes as Kevin Eubanks does now…
While perhaps some people bristled recently having to watch a “Tonight Show” rerun from 1993, ’94 or ’95–I was instantly drawn in and sat there amazed at the realization of how much has changed in America and the world since Jay Leno started his reign on the “The Tonight Show.” A lot of us who have some good memories of the 90’s usually think that decade wasn’t all that long ago in the bigger picture of history. Yet viewing all the details on some of Leno’s shows reminded me that just about everything has changed since that time–including a relative peace about the state of the economy, movies, politics and the ever-evolving thing called music. Plenty of evidence showcasing all of that was in an episode shown late last week that originally aired in early April of 1995.
The state of politics…
Hearing a monologue where the top joke of the week was Ross Perot shows the quantum leap we’ve taken since the 1990’s in how we view the political spectrum. Little did we know then in our state of economic bliss how things would go under in the way of economic security and the more insidious nature to speed up political agendas within a decade. We certainly didn’t have to worry about the American people electing Ross Perot in either the 1992 or ’96 elections–and Leno’s monologues (while not maybe as influential as Johnny Carson’s monologues in making things move and shake) ultimately made Perot a punching bag of ridicule. Apparently we needed Johnny Carson again when George W. Bush became the next Presidential candidate to ridicule around 2000. Somehow all the monologues from Leno, Letterman and Conan then didn’t sway people to question Bush’s true ability to think intelligently or lead the country. Oddly, it’s only been in President Bush’s second term have their monologues possibly made a dent in general opinion…or maybe mostly via the American people’s own thoughtful volition.
Even though Bill Clinton’s administration was scarred by the Monica Lewinsky scandal by 1998–it seemed the late-night monologues had to turn to other people most of the time before ’98 to find someone to lampoon. Sure, Clinton still had his womanizing stigmas, but nobody not living in the White House really thought it would ever disrupt his Presidency. Most of the Clinton jokes by Leno in his mid-90’s monologues had to do with the battles with Newt Gingrich and the eventual Contract with America–plus Bill’s suspect marital relationship with Hillary. And here we thought some of that was a major burden on people’s backs.
Those political thoughts seem to paint America in the mid-90’s as a bit of a golden age of comfortableness not seen since the 1950’s. And it was probably akin to dangerous complacency in a lot of ways that even the 50’s naively went through.
The state of movies…
Here’s one that obviously needs no explanation in how things have changed. It just didn’t hit me earlier, though, how much movies and other forms of entertainment have evolved in such a short time since the 90’s. While most people cite 1939 as Hollywood’s golden year ever for movies (and fellow Associated Content producer, Timothy Sexton, www.associatedcontent.com/article/459930/the_best_year_ever_for_movies.html rightly cites 1980 as just as great)–I’ve long thought 1994 was close to the same caliber in movies that managed to influence all others that followed for the next ten years. Seeing a Leno rerun last week from 1993 (with guest Tom Hanks–promoting “A League of Their Own”) reminded me that within a year, he’d have two back-to-back Best Actor Oscars and be in one of the great movies of the 90’s: “Forrest Gump.” 1994 also gave us “Shawshank Redemption”, which eventually developed into one of the most beloved movies made ever by young and old alike. Add 94’s “The Lion King”, “Pulp Fiction” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” as all movies that influenced every movie you’ve seen since other than the gross-out comedy (that took the low road later with “Something About Mary”).
I also was reminded on other 90’s Leno reruns that Hollywood truly tried to bring back an old part of itself by making old-fashioned blockbusters for a while. A seemingly more sane Mel Gibson was promoting “Braveheart” on one episode from 1996 that brought back the four-hour epic that people didn’t mind sitting through again as well as the Oscars showering them with awards. Of course, Hollywood had record business in the 90’s–and they thought they could get away with almost anything. The rise of the indie feature in the next decade would change that to a degree. It’s a somewhat strange phenomena that Gibson managed to keep making big, epic, important movies in the 2000’s that you either loved or hated.
It was a telling sight seeing a younger Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, et al., before their fame and/or legend became too large for them to nearly contain. All of them are much more mature now and obviously struggling to top what they’ve already done. At least they’re the true emblems of class in Hollywood–despite peaking early and trying to keep up only ten years later in a time when movies drastically changed from when they started.
The state of music…
Out of all the others–this probably blew me away more than any. All you had to do was see one of those Leno reruns from 1995 when “The Tonight Show” somehow thought it’d be cool to have Anita Baker and James Ingram sing a soulful romantic ballad duet together at the end of the show. Hopefully some of you reading this can remember a time when you’d see a lot more of those type of musical performances at the end of not just late-night shows but right in prime-time and back when variety shows were still going. And you know Leno’s “Tonight Show” has always been hip, which shows how far we’ve gone just since 1995.
I wrote an article here on Associated Content detailing Celine Dion’s new 2007 musical sound and the death of the power ballad since her 90’s peak. The romantic power ballad was red hot in mid-90’s America until something happened to stop it. Obviously, some people threw a party and had a beer or more when that happened. But seeing a performance like that on a Leno rerun from only twelve years ago was somehow refreshing and eerie. There seemed to be a romanticism renaissance in America during that time that I hope we can still get back to. Maybe that’s only because I’m one of those quixotic types–though having music more reflective (or vice-versa) of the harsh realities of the hard-knock life (i.e. the rise of Hip-Hop and Rap) gives a recurring state of depression to the music charts that maybe isn’t quite as bad as polar-opposite 90’s Grunge was. And don’t even make me mention the downgrade in the pop songwriting world where the only bubbly songs left are just cookie cutter with no real feeling or emotion.
Obviously, the age of terrorism and general uncertainty of the future put more of a damper on a more positive outlook in music since 2001. The sexualizing of music has always been there–but the cynicism and an emergence of powerful people running corporations who have no sense of quality proved the ability to give vast changes in little time.
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And here we think of all other decades prior to the 90’s to be ancient history. Who would have thought that watching “Tonight Show” reruns from the early days of Jay Leno’s reign would give us a chance to see how fast things can change when we expect ten years to change things only slightly? The writer’s strike may be a nuisance for those demanding new episodes and monologues from “The Tonight Show” and other late-night shows. At least it provided us a chance to look back to analyze a decade that hasn’t been analyzed that thoroughly yet in relation to our current one. It also should make you pay a little more attention to this decade so you won’t be too shocked when it looks nostalgic to you in maybe only…three years.
