“When you can’t look them in the eye, see how they react to a tough question – when you don’t even know if they are reading from talking points – I think it’s a disservice to the viewer”. This first week Colbert unveiled a show that, for someone who was a fan of “The Colbert Report”, was slightly disappointing.
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Friendly suggestion to Stephen Colbert after the first week of his “Late Show“: We need less Stephen Colbert. He got Bush to talk about the differences between him and his brother, asked him what unique talents he’d be able to bring to the White House.
I haven’t given up on him completely, mind you. While his humor is still there, and it’s good, this is a much deeper, more thoughtful show than many were expecting.
It was weird that Jimmy Fallon made two quick appearances during the slightly over-an-hour program.
Colbert is not an absolute iconoclast. Or will “The Late Show” go the way of modern TV by having only the creme from the top viewed online? In the early going, his uneven performance almost got him axed, but eventually he established his own voice, complete with masturbating bears and trips to the year 2000.
The first guest on the show was Kendrick Lamar, on September 9.
He’s played possible-bad-boy with the network brass. He isn’t alone on stage, though, as is accompanied by jazz musician and talk show band leader Jon Batiste. The retirement of Jay Leno and the ascension of Jimmy Fallon as the host of The Tonight Show helped begin a transition in the genre.
Though Colbert seemed shaken up at the start, he has gotten more comfortable. Especially his interview with the vice president.
Jeb Bush was one of Colbert’s two guests for his premiere. Seth Meyers’ and Mike Shoemaker’s animated super-team satire kicked off its third season on Hulu last week with the episode “Seaman’s Revenge”, featuring Andy Samberg as the voice of an Aquaman/Sub-Mariner type who means to liberate all forms of fish – even the rock band Phish – from human oppression. And during the Web-only portion of the interview, Bush did a Donald Trump imitation. It’s easy to prepare for that first show when you have months to do it, he said. Then here’s more good news: The producers of the CW’s excellent The Flash and Arrow have created an animated adjunct, Vixen, which is being posted weekly on the CW Seed site in five-minute chunks.
Switching from amusing gags to fuzzy warmth, the Porter-Gaud and Northwestern grad commiserated with Vice President Joe Biden, whose son Beau died of brain cancer in May. “We have to restore a degree of civility”. As he put it, “What the hell were you thinking?” The “Bob’s Burgers” world keeps getting bigger and TV is better for it. At the heart of it all is a man making burgers who loves his family, giving us a show without the cynicism that’s taken over other long-time animated sitcoms.
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Colbert said he reached out to Simon in hopes the “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” musician would come on the show and let Colbert whistle along to “Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard”, as it had always been a dream of his. Colbert asked Clooney. Noting that the movie star had no new movie to promote, they made one up and showed “clips” of the film.
