Jay Leno

Friday was Jay's last night on the Tonight Show. I feel a closeness to Jay, because I have his autograph. I've never seen him in person. Somebody got one for me. I don't know if that really counts, but to me, it means we're best buds.

He's been criticized unfairly, I think, in things that happened between him and Dave and Conan. The real creeps were the fine people at NBC. Each time he "stepped down" it was because NBC told him to so they could replace him. This last time they bumped him for Conan and gave him a show at 10 o'clock. It turned out that neither Jay's nor Conan's show did all that well, so they asked Jay to come back to the Tonight Show. Of course he said yes. He didn't really want to leave in the first place. He took a lot of heat for that, when it was the suits at NBC that were the ones being jerks. Both Jay and Conan got ripped off in that whole mess.

I can't imagine that Jay's replacement will do as well, but that's what everyone thought when Jay replaced Johnny. Speaking of Johnny - I saw a taping of the Tonight Show once. Johnny used to take a lot of vacation days, but he was there that night. He was there with Ed and guests David Steinburg (supposedly a comedian, but he wasn't funny) and singer Peabo Bryson. It's the only time I've ever been to a taping of a TV show. It was great fun.