The Book was Better! - Part 1

Believe it or not, I don't spend ALL my time watching television.  I read about it too.  Here is part one of a two part post covering a few television-adjacent books I read in 2013.


A Song of Ice and Fire: Books 1-5
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance with Dragons
by George R.R. Martin

I started reading these almost by accident.  Having watched the first two seasons, I awaited the third.  In January I was on an excruciating bus commute home when I finished the hard copy book I had with me.  Desperate for distraction, I bought and downloaded A Game of Thrones to my Kindle app.  Within 60 seconds I had the book on my phone because we live in the future.  Originally, I planned to read one, maybe two books, and catch the rest on television.  But I found I didn't want to stop.  While reading Storm of Swords, I was watching Season Three and was shocked at the episode when Jamie gets his hand cut off.  The next day I realized the next chapter that awaited me was the first one where Jaime is short his sword hand.  From then on I was ahead on the books, but it didn't diminish the show for me.

I finished A Dance with Dragons around the time Season Three concluded.  The best element was that I no longer had to worry about spoilers.  I avoided most commentary on the show for fear of being spoiled.  Comments gave away key plot points.  Writers who read the books loved to (not as slyly as they thought) imply things, almost as if they were bragging they new something the Unsullied television viewers didn't.*  Even the titles of Youtube videos were dangerous.  It opened a door to read a lot more analysis out there without fear of spoilerdom.**

* I know something you don't know!  Congratulations, you're literate.

** The Meereneese Blot is an excellent blog and shed a lot of light on the events of Dragons for me.  Looking at all of Dany's chapters a different way, viewing characters as having different intentions enhances the series a great deal.  The author raises that the characters are purposefully misguided, but that GRRM withholds confirmation of that.  It is basically a much better execution of the Brody-Carrie dynamic in that Brody and Carrie are purposefully made to look like idiots while Dany in Dragons is (we think) purposefully made to look to be working against her own ideals.    

I do not understand the complaints about adapting the story from one medium to a differerent one.  Of course there will be concessions.  Plots will be cut, characters will be composited. * Two things Benioff and Weiss have state are important.  First, they are creating their interpretation of the story, not merely transcribing the books to video.  Second, they are adapting ASOIAF to multiple seasons of television, rather than strictly adapting Book One to Season One, etc.  **

* Game of Thrones still has the largest cast in television.

** How they plot this will be most interesting in Season Four, where they have about 300-400 pages remaining of Swords before they run into the simultaneous events of Crows and Dragons.  Mostly, I'm excited about the casting of Oberyn Martell.

Obviously the difference in medium allow for different strengths and weaknesses between the books and movies.  The most Stark* examples are the explanations of the geopolitical makeup of Westeros via background and history.  Also, nakedtime! **

 * Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

** Link takes you to standup comedy, not nudity.

The Late Shift
by Bill Carter
Last fall I read The War for Late Night which recounted the Conan-Leno saga.  This is the forerunner to that, by the same author, recounting the Leno-Letterman fiasco.  It includes the infamous Leno-closet-spy-session and an East Coast/West Coast war at NBC. As someone who grew up only knowing Letterman on CBS and Leno as host of The Tonight Show, it was interesting to read the prequel.

Similar to The War for Late Night, Late Shift sheds light on the executive decisions that led to the current state of late night television.  Carter tells the behind the scenes story as well as the back story of the main characters. 


The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Between watching Sherlock last fall and then becoming invested as I am in Elementary, this was a logical step.  Added bonus for preparing for the upcoming Sherlock episodes in January and spotting Conan canon Easter Eggs. Each of these include about a dozen short stories. As someone who devoured Encyclopedia Brown books to the point where I opened my own detective agency at seven years old, I find is somewhat shameful it took me nearly 30 years to read these. 

I Remember Me
by Carl Reiner
Our generation knows Carl Reiner as Saul from the Ocean's 11, 12, 13 movies where he plays an respected, old school con man who invented the game they're all playing.  In real life, Carl Reiner went from WWII veteran to a writer and director for television, stage and film, setting precedents and breaking new ground in those industries.  The memoir tells his personal stories about his time in the army, courting his wife, and his friendship with Mel Brooks, as well as his professional life including Your Show of Shows (Sid Caesar) where he was a writer and performer, and his creation of The Dick Van Dyke Show (including the discovery of Mary Tyler Moore). 

Maybe the most interesting chapter is where Reiner discusses the Red Scare and being investigated by the feds.  Two g-men came to his house, questioning him about known and possible Communists .  It's a heavy story relative to the rest of the book but still Reiner is able to inject humor in a way that shows how he's been in his business for seven decades.


Part two manana..........

Conan does commercials

I feel the need to share one of the funniest things I've seen on television since the most recent season of Veep ended.

Breaking Bad cast on Conan

Two episodes to go, so where better to get ready for the finale than on Conan? 

The cast will appear on Monday's Conan in advance of the final episode. 

Conan and Andy have mentioned Breaking Bad in almost every recent show, and have long been fans of it.  Conan even conducted an interview with the cast a while back, which I mentioned in an old post.

Set the DVR for TBS on Monday at 11:00.  If you're like me, that conflicts with The Daily Show and Olbermann, so figure out how to record one of the repeats one of of those shows later that night.  Gotta get the Hoppah!

Middle America

Conan had a particularly hilarious time last week with Andy returning from a brief, mid-week hiatus, Conan's former roommate and longtime friend, Jeff Garlin, and Olivia Munn.

Olivia Munn is talking about how her Asian mother would beat her and wonders if perhaps white people don't beat their kids as much? 

Munn: You don't hit your children, do you?
Conan: no, I do not hit my children
Munn: No, white people don't normally hit their children.  But Asians...
Garlin: Haev you been to the South?
Andy: Have you been to Wal-Mart?

Which I found hilarious, as did the audience.  But I can't help but think a Wal-Mart joke would insult a lot of people if it were on The Tonight Show* especially the manner in which it's delivered.  A good portion of the book, The War for Late Night, and a large part of the underlying thesis is that Conan was a bad fit for most of the country , meaning the middle parts, (thought a good fit for the Coasts) where most people live and watch the show (because it comes on at 10:35 p.m. Central Time).

* I've never watched Tonight with any regularity, with Jay Leno hosting most of my life, so maybe I'm wrong. 

Anyways, it was a fun show especially if you're familiar with Conan's and Garlin's roots, but also was a little reminder who the average viewer is.   Conan and Colbert do the best interviews and this was particulary fun to have the primary guest out there b.s.-ing with the secondary guest. 

Happy 50th Conan!

Conan O'Brien turns 50 today.  The fifth host of The Tonight Show (sandwiched between the Grover Cleveland-like fourth and sixth hosts, Jay Leno) and current host of Conan has been on television for twenty years.   Late Night along with The West Wing were the only shows I watched with any regularity for four years of college.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien debuted in 1993 when a little known Simpsons and Saturday Night Live writer followed David Letterman as host, and he's been on television since, save for a few brief interludes such as being legally prohibited from being funny on telelevision. 

Conan's absurd, surreal humor still works with young viewers, despite hitting the half century mark today.  If you like Conan you've probably said things to the effect of "I don't know why it's funny, but it is."  Like any sketch comedy or variety show, the gags sound strange and borderline disturbing when you explain them in a vacuum.  ("It's the masturbating bear!")  They may "appeal to young men who watch a lot of pornography" * as one Leno viewer said.  But when watched in the context of the show night after night in a college dorm, it's plain to you why you keep watching, well, night after night.

* The link is fine, folks.  It's a clip of Conan, undercover and in character, leading a focus group to critique his own show

Maybe he will be better known for the raw deal on The Tonight Show and the outpouring of support, mainly from comedians (basically, everyone but Seinfeld) and young viewers on social media than he ever will be as the face of TBS.  There's no point in rehashing Team Coco and all that goes with it.  That can be found in a plethora of places, mainly The War for Late Night by Bill Carter.  In short, Conan was effectively Indian giver-ed Tonight due to NBC's fear of paying and competing against Leno, on the paper thin basis of a ratings failure despite a completely failed lead-in (by Leno).  The baseball equivalent would be cutting your star for not producing RBI** even though no one is ever on base.

** Like Nielsens, an antiquated statistic

So, a few things to enjoy about Conan:

As an interviewer
Of the current late night hosts, Conan's interviews are only rivaled by Stephen Colbert*** .  He's able to take on more seriously fun interviews as well.  Just recently, Conan led a discussion with his fellow Simpsons writers, as well a panel of the Breaking Bad cast showing he can deviate from the longtime talk show format on different topics.  His web site dedicates a whole section called Serious Jibber Jabber for longer interviews.

*** Deserves its own post

Taped pieces
Conan's at his best when he's out with people, riffing on whatever situation, sometimes incredibly uncomfortable, he happens to be in.  He does it with a self deprecating and good natured attitude, essentially the polar opposite of Daily Show correspondents.  A couple favorites include Conan selling his 1992 Ford Taurus, Conan visiting Ireland, and Conan's current Clueless Gamer bit.

Conan's also an incredibly sincere person.  Conan's settlement with NBC ranged in the tens of millions of dollars, but no one can say he's there for the money or to weirdly collect cars that require a crank to start.  In his relatively early days at NBC, looking to compensate Conan for reaching a particular milestone, they asked what they could give him as a bonus...a Porsche? A boat?  All Conan wanted was a vintage NBC microphone which they managed to dig out of basement storage.  He still has that microphone and I think that says a lot about his own values and career goals and probably explains a lot about how and why The Tonight Show fiasco went the way it did.

When he signed off from Tonight he left with these words which everyone should read and take to heart:

And all I ask is one thing...and this is...I'm asking this particularly of young people that watch...please do not be cynical.  I hate cynicism. For the record, it's my least favorite quality.  It doesn't lead anywhere.  Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.  


But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen.  I'm telling you.  Amazing things will happen.  I'm telling you.  It's just true.