Another week!

More like, another NERD week!

Let’s do this:

Chuck and Dollhouse both got renewed! Nerds rejoice. Or maybe take a step back. Both shows got renewed but at the cost of a huge reduction in budget. Michael Ausiello says Chuck is back, but he’s getting the business: “The 13-episode pickup came after Warner Bros. agreed to make significant budget concessions, including scaling back the number of episodes several members of the show’s stellar supporting cast will appear in and, per one insider, possibly eliminating one actor altogether (R.I.P. Anna Wu?). The show is also expected to cut two of its staff writers.” Ouch.

Dollhouse is also looking at budget cuts, although considering that no one on Earth actually watched the show, that’s still pretty good. This show really picked up during the last half of the season as they quickly ripped through the plot trying to get to the end of the main arc before the show got canceled. Are they going to be able to sustain that momentum for the next season? Absolutely. The lead in for Dollhouse got canceled and replaced by two sitcoms. Not exactly Must See TV. At least the season 2 Blu-ray should look pretty awesome.

But, hey, Star Trek made another $43 million this weekend. Fun Star Trek fact: Our ozone layer can easily absorb the energy released by a supernovae more than 50 light years away. Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across. Don’t worry though, Spock tells us that this supernova is threatening the whole galaxy, so that’s why they sent him and his magical red matter. We’ll never understand how nerds can get so angry about characters acting inconsistently, but they’re perfectly okay with the universe those characters inhabit making no sense. Other than Oprah (and her stupid pal Jenny McCarthy), no one has done more of a disservice to science than Kurtzman and Orci this century. (There’s still lots of time to catch back up Dan Brown!)

Also, do they not have robots or computers in the future? Why would they need an expert in linguistics (no matter how hot) to decode a signal? If they somehow have the ability to decrypt a signal from a spaceship with the technology to travel faster than light then why not use that ability to read the signal? And why did a person have to lock in on people’s signals by touching a computer screen? Isn’t a computer going to be a lot better than a human at that type of thing? The computer is capable of computing the red and blue parts of the signal and of displaying them on the screen, but it can’t put them together? That’s absolute nonsense.

Speaking of absolute nonsense, we’ve got some dynamite shows this week in the Late Night ‘Verse. The Summer Movie Season is in full swing and all our favorites are

Monday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Cameron Diaz, Kirk Fox, Blink 182
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Ben Stiller, White Rabbits
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Simon Baker, Carla Gugino, Method Man & Redman
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Justin Long, Lawrence Block
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Dane Cook, 6-year-old genius Pranav Veera, Franz Ferdinand
• Last Call with Carson Daly - Tom Lennon, Crystal Antlers

STEPHAN: Nerd week starts a little slow. Kimmel is good with that Veera kid, and Ben Stiller seems like a jerk (not necessarily a nerd, I mean, correlation is not necessarily causation, but we’re pretty close), but otherwise. Oh, I guess Carla Gugino keeps getting topless in bad movies aimed at nerds. That probably counts. Hey, and Justin Long was in the surprisingly great Galaxy Quest! Things are looking up, nerds!

Speaking of looking up, Justin Long is also in some movie directed by Cheryl Hines. Yes. The superhot wife of Larry David. Anyways, that’s not the awesome part. The awesome part is the synopsis: “A high-powered attorney duct tapes her adulterous husband to the toilet … right before their home is invaded by burglars.”

ERECH: I keep thinking, no matter how many times I see it and correct myself, that Kirk Cameron is on Leno tonight. I’d watch that maybe. This line-up though? No thanks. Last 2 weeks, and it’s not looking like a great set of guests for Jay on his way out - seems like he never really rebounded after the writers strike business, he really only has a small set of rotating regulars (who are only okay-ish) and then the usual HAI GUYS GO SEE MY MOVIE THAT COME OUT TOMORROW set. Where are the Bette Midler’s and such? Sigh.

I was actually going to tweet Fallon and tell him to get Red and Meth on his show this week, what with their new album that’s out tomorrow (which I already heard - and it is hothothot!), because they’re awesome, funny, and having the Roots back them up will be amazing. Thanks for reading my mental tweet though James - yay!

Tuesday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Terry Bradshaw, 8 yr old piano prodigy Ethan Bortnick, Blink 182
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Jane Fonda, Piedmont Bird Callers, Kenny Chesney
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Matt Lauer, Mary McCormack, Dana White, Iron & Wine
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Kathy Griffin, Nelson George
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Eminem, Mike Tyson
• Last Call with Carson Daly - McG, Snoop Dogg, Joel Madden, Keane

ERECH: Dave has a really strong week of guests, and tonight is no different. Say what you will about Jane Fonda, she’s still entertaining talk show fodder. Follow that up with the Piedmont Bird Callers, and that’s some good tv! (skip that musical guest though, boo)

Eminem is into round 2 of his “please buy my album” tour on Kimmel - with another due later in the week. I can save us all some time by saying to flatout skip it - the album and Kimmel. Iron Mike and Yimmy make for some fun talkshowery for sure, but it’s not worth having to sit through that cracker and his awful new album to see it.

Also, note to self; try and watch the premiere of Glee tonight on Fox. TRY being the operative word!

STEPHAN: Sorry, nerds, today’s not quite so great. The (well, I was going to say great, but that seems like a lie) McG is on Carson explaining how he’s great at making trailers. Remember when that one chick was dancing in her underpants? Or that time that old lady wore a bikini? How about when John Connor is shouting about how we have to go to war with the Ro-bits? I certainly do. Just once, he has to come through on the movie itself, right?

Wednesday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Bill Maher, Adam Richman, Mandy Moore
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Stephen Colbert, General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, Grizzly Bear
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Bryce Dallas Howard, Dierks Bentley
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Guy Pearce, Hattie Hayridge, Hensley
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Ben Stiller, winner of “Dancing With the Stars”, No Doubt
• Last Call with Carson Daly - The Airborne Toxic Event

STEPHAN: If Colbert sticks around for the Bob Lutz interview, this might be the greatest moment in television history. Hey, keeping up the nerd theme, Craiggers has Hattie Hayridge who I believe played the female version of Holly on Red Dwarf. I have no idea why she’s on television now, but God willing, Craig is back on the booze and thinks it’s the late 80s/early 90s. Yay, time travel!

This paragraph is here so after I see Terminator: Salvation at midnight, I can come back and shout at strangers about how much better the trailer was than the movie. Unless, I’m too angry to be coherent. Then this paragraph will still be here.

ERECH: Carson Daly’s new format may not be that fun to watch, and in fact almost makes his show feel longer than a half hour (which isn’t a good thing, trust me), but after giving it a month or so to sink I think it’s actually the best way for his to show to go down. Look, Carson and his monologue was an awful idea, the guy isn’t funny and trying to force himself into that talk show host routine was a bad idea. The way the show is now, a white man’s Byron Allen if you will, actually suits him much better and makes the show just that much more watchable. Well ok, I wouldn’t go that far, but at least now the show is just boring and ignorable, as opposed to before when it was pure awfulness on a stick.

Now, after Fallon I don’t find myself rushing to find the remote to get the hell off of NBC like I used to. No, I’ll grab the lappie and check mail, read the news, post on twitter, whatever - and leave Carson on in the background. This way I get plenty of fodder for more reasons why things suck, but palatably so. I mean, I got to see him suck up to Joe Torre the other night, as Torre presented “Cars” with a custom Dodgers jersey, Torre pretending to be friends with Carson the whole while he kept calling him “Skip”. It was horribly offensive to me on a certain level, yet oddly better than any informercial or Nic Cage movie TNT was showing at that time of night.

So ‘grats Carson, you’ve gone from being the worst thing on at nights, to just barely being better than an informercial! You’ve come a long way, baby!

Thursday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Andy Samberg, the winner of “American Idol”, Lionel Richie
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Amy Sedaris, Jean Redpath
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Kiefer Sutherland, Ivanka Trump, Billy Boy On Poison
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - John Waters, Manda Mosher
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Tim Daly, Common, Busta Rhymes
• Last Call with Carson Daly - The Kills

ERECH: Yimmy has another show me from 5 years ago wouldn’t have missed for the world. The better looking dude from Wings, Common, AND Busta-bust?? Now though, I can’t stand the two black guys anymore (and in fact would go so far as to saying I actively hate Busta now), and don’t care about Tim Daly at all. Not a bit.

Jimmy2 however has a show he won’t be able to coast on. His interview skills are still pretty weak, and unless the guest is somehow a friend of his or some kind of SNL/comedy related person, Fallon pretty much gets his ass kicked during the parts where he is supposed to talk. Unless he can get Kiefer to talk about what a weird drunken a-hole he is, don’t expect much from tonight. Except for lady-Trump boobies - because she sure does like to put those things on patrol, don’t she? Man, if I was her Dad I would be so asha… oh wait, her Dad probably pays her extra to do that huh? Eww.

STEPHAN: This is what’s wrong with America. Leno is going to win the ratings battle tonight thanks to the American Idol winner even though Dave has Amy Sedaris tonight. I guarantee you won’t find anything more entertaining than that segment tonight. I thought this was grownup time? How then does Amy Sedaris not have her own television show? We have to write up this nonsense for six shows hosted by white guys every night. How is Chelsea Handler the only lady with a late night show? C’mon!

Oh, yeah, nerd week. Um, I guess Andy Samberg counts as a nerdlinger, and he’s going to be on Leno, who’s a car nerd. Somehow car nerdism gets a pass as not being nerdism, but I gotta say, every programmer I know either has a ridiculous sportscar or a motorcycle. They’re the same people on the same team. Although, I’m not really sure how Leno’s denim fetish fits in. (Even the Today Show mugs are denim!) Plus, have you every been to a car show? It smells like someone poured motor oil on Comic-Con. Is that really enough to not count as a nerd?

Friday:

• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - Brian Williams, Jesse James, Tori Amos
• The Late Show with David Letterman - Ricky Gervais, Pete Correale, Green Day
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Sig Hansen, Chrisette Michele
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Mark Ruffalo, Mindy Kaling, the Decemberists
• Jimmy Kimmel Live - Hank Azaria, Anton Yelchin, Eminem
• Last Call with Carson Daly - Glasvegas

STEPHAN: Are the Fallon and Craiggers lineups switched around? I’ll admit I have no idea who either of the people on Fallon are, but I’m pretty sure they’re from Europe, so, y’know. Fun fact: Death Cab for Cutie and the Decemberists are too totally separate bands. Anyways, new week finishes up strong. Anton Yelchin is not only in the new Star Trek, but also Terminator: Salvation. And he’s getting followed up by whatever lives in Eminem’s skin now (Like a Edgar suit).

ERECH: Wow, week over already? Alright, zipping through pinball style - Gervais into Hank Azaria in Mindy Kaling and stick around for the Decemberists and then call it a night.

I like Brian Williams and all, but seriously Jay? One week to go and this is what we get? I don’t get you man, I just do not get you.

And there we go kids, another week of Late Night Thing for the books. THE HISTORY BOOKS!

Speaking of history books, have you been listening to how great The Best Show on WFMU has been lately? Last week Patton Oswalt and Aimee Mann were live in the studio, and featured a call from Zatch Galifinkasooohasd too! The week before that, Martin Short. The week before, well I can’t remember that far back, but it was pretty amazing too.

The point is, Tom Scharpling is on a streak right now - a golden streak of unparalleled proportions - and if you’re missing out then you’re a dummy. Period.

WFMU is just sitting there, waiting for you to come visit it, and partake in all the goodness. Check out the archives, check out the live stream, and for the love of jam listen Tuesday nights from 8-11pm EST to The Best Show on WFMU and laugh like an idiot for 2.5 hours straight - just like your friends Stephan & Erech do.

LNT - man, we had nothing for the outro this week, did we? Free plug Tom, enjoy it!

LNT ARCHIVES