Count Dooku

So your claim is that because Jay is just a regular guy who doesn't know anything about how business works, he was able to come up with a better contract than someone who makes deals for a living.

Or is it more likely that even though Jay claims he doesn't have an agent or a manager, he still has a team of lawyers that take care of his dealings.

Deftones

yeah and a guy who doesn't have representation.

Jimmy James

They do love a deadline.


Think how much better SNL would be if they spent any time on writing.

The nice thing is that they could probably accomplish working on bits, characters, and the like just by meeting once every couple weeks for a keg of beer and a 3 hour BS session. That's probably all you could really expect.

Jimmy James

I'm sure Jay has a lawyer (or a team of them), but it seems clear it isn't a situation where he really has a manager or agent -- we know who the players there are.

I'm suggesting that even professionals get caught up in what the paradigm is and that Jay's team pretty obviously was far less concerned with the paradigm. They got 2 years because they asked. Maybe that's because he's Jay Leno and they were desperate. Maybe it's just because he asked and nobody else does.

Count Dooku

But when Conan does a sketch of this type --like Conando, they are silly things that just repeat the same joke over again.

I'm not saying that there isn't some validity to the idea you are promoting.
I am just saying that in reality they are not going to do it.

But consider how a sketch like 1864 baseball came about.
Someone at the show heard about this thing.
They looked into it a little, decided it would be good fodder for comedy.
They arranged to send Conan out there for an afternoon
They filmed him improvising for a couple hours and edited it down to 8 hilarious minutes.

Triumph at the Star Wars premiere.
You couldn't plan that months in advance.
The movie line has to happen, then someone has the idea: let's send Triumph down there.
And if you did film it months in advance, wouldn't it be weird to come on the show and say "Remember when the new Star Wars movie opened 4 months ago..."

Yes something like 1864 baseball could be filmed a year in advance, sit on the shelf, and still be funny. But that is an exception.
Almost all of Conan's filmed bits have a topical quality: going to a recent music festival, going outside the day after a snow storm.

Count Dooku

from the report linked earlier
Leno has an ironclad, “brilliantly written” agreement that guarantees his production company a staggering $150 million if NBC Universal axes his flailing primetime show, an insider said.

If this were true as written, then NBC would still owe Big Dog (?) the 150 million dollars because even though Jay is retaking The Tonight Show, NBC is canceling his prime-time show.

Jimmy James

That's why I suggest that they're really doing what they're doing to satisfy Leno. He does not have to make them live up to that contract...if he likes what they're willing to do as an alternative.

Count Dooku

One of the scenes in The Late Shift (the movie) showed Letterman getting a contractual guarantee, not just of a show, but of a time-slot, from CBS.

So, if Conan's people didn't get such a guarantee from NBC, it was a terrible oversight, but (I think) considering the unusual situation it was also an understandable oversight.

What just sprang into my mind was the Law & Order where they gave a guy immunity to testify against someone else, and then he confessed to the crime.

RoyalTea

which is why it just pisses me off when Jay's acting like he's just doing what NBC tells him.

Jimmy James

You and me both. Eddie Haskell would find Jay Leno kind of fake.

Jimmy James

I don't buy the line that Conan didn't have a time slot so he's the one breaching the contract. This settlement suggests that it's not even close to as simple as the TMZ item that claimed it was made it out to be. There seems to be a real risk to both sides in litigating this, which suggests to me a real chance either side could win in court.

Count Dooku

I don't know what to say about the prospect that Jay Leno likes working on his crappy TV show more than he would want $150 million. It's almost easier for me to believe in the Tooth Fairy.

Jimmy James

Jay's a bit of a weird guy. He doesn't need $150 million if he hasn't even touched his Tonight Show money. I think it's clear that there is something about a show that Jay craves, which is actually the nicest thing I could imagine saying about Jay at the moment.

Count Dooku

But if there was time-slot guarantee, then moving the show would be an obvious breach of the contract.

In that case, when NBC claimed that it wasn't in breach, then all Conan's people would have to go is release the specific contract language and prove NBC wrong.

outcastja

He's a workaholic, he's not quitting until he drops dead.

Jimmy James

My guess is that the contract says something about 11:35 but also gives NBC some leeway for moving the show in case of special events running over, special coverage of Wimbledon-like events, and the like. I think the idea of using that leeway to permanently move the show would be questionable at best.

RoyalTea

considering that the Tonight Show has been on immediately following the late local news pretty much forever, having the show bumped back a half an hour to give the previous host a 30 minute show in almost an identical format seems like something that couldn't be anticipated, especially since when Conan's deal was made, everybody assumed that Jay was "retiring."

I'd be interested to see if Conan's lawyers made any attempt to renegoitiate after Jay signed his deal for the 10 o'clock show.

Count Dooku

I just can't wrap my head around it.

Jay has spent the last 20 years amassing a fortune of 100s of millions of dollars.
For what purpose? He'll never spend it and he has no heirs.
Does he plan to do something with it? Like a great charitable cause. And if so, wouldn't an additional $150 million be desirable?

Is he just like Clooney in Up In The Air, accumulating frequent flier miles just to accumulate them and reach a number?
Does Jay want to have a billion dollars? And if so, why wouldn't he want a quick 15% of that?

RUSF18

Unless they put that into the contract knowing it wouldn't be paid, but so NBC would have a reason to make this look more like a business decision.

Count Dooku

I agree with this thinking, but at the same time you have to admit that the reason lawyers/agents/managers get paid so much, and the reason contracts are so complex, is because those people are supposed to prepare for every contingency.

After 9/11 when Bush's people said that there was no way anyone could have anticipated that terrorists would hijack planes and suicide bomb buildings, it was pointed out that it was the scenario used by terrorists in a movie.

Dr Mabuse

Leno is a notorious douchebag.

It is beyond debate how full of shit and sleazy he is.

Did anyone catch Letterman making fun of this stuff with Conan?

"Hey there he is, there's the guy I know." Brilliant.

outcastja

If there's one good thing to come out of this, it's Letterman's constant bashing of Leno

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freshticles

How is it hard work stealing other people's bits, telling horrible jokes and asking people unoriginal, boring questions for a couple of hours a day? Seems I could do that job....

treszoks

Where there's smoke there's fire. It cannot be a coincidence that there has been serious problems with the last two Tonight Show deals when the same person has been involved in both incidents. You can't tell me poor, innocent Jay was totally clueless as to what was or is going on.

TheNightFlier

Masturbating Bear sighting