Is This It X

Jimmy Fallon’s Impressive First Night

Jimmy Fallon has enormous shoes to fill.  Conan O’Brien was beloved as the host of Late Night, and won over the young audience that NBC hopes Fallon can keep and, to a certain extent, attract.

But Fallon won’t be nearly as good as Conan O’Brien.  That’s for certain.  Even though he’s been doing webisodes since 2008, Fallon isn’t close to as experienced and it takes an awfully long time for a talk show host to get comfortable.  And comfort between the host and guest is probably 85% of what makes a talk show host successful.

With that being said, Fallon will have an incredible guest list in his first week.  On Monday, Fallon will talk to Robert DeNiro and Van Morrison will perform a track from Astral Weeks – one of the best albums ever recorded.

The rest of the week, Fallon will talk to Tina Fey, Jon Bon Jovi, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Donald Trump and Serena Williams in some order.

Oh, and Fallon somehow convinced The Roots to serve as his house band.

The Roots, by themselves, are why I’ll be there on March 2, but I think Fallon’s show (UPDATE: has) real potential.  So I’d say that you should check out Fallon on 3/2 and give him time to blossom.

McDreamy Leaving ‘Grey’s’

Patrick Dempsey’s character Derek Shepherd, aka McDreamy, is quitting Seattle Grace, according to EW.com.

Here are the details, via a press release from Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes…

“After learning at a deposition that more of his patients have died than survived, Derek decides to quit — even as Meredith refuses to give up on him.”

Let’s be clear, though.  Patrick Dempsey is not leaving Grey’s Anatomy. That much was made clear by Rhimes’ press release and all of the media’s reports about Grey’s. Katherine Heigl and TR Knight may be on their ways out after this season, but Patrick Dempsey and the rest of the cast are sticking around Grey’s. Whether they actually stick around Seattle Grace is still unclear.

For clarity, check out March 12′s episode.

Lisa Kudrow OK With Friends Movie

Lisa Kudrow is on board for a Friends movie. But there are a few conditions.

1. The producers of the film, who would likely be the same producers from the NBC TV show, must stay true to the original show.
2. The script must not suck, and must make sense with where Friends ended.
3. Her co-stars must all come back.

Those three things sound reasonable, I guess.

“I think we are all of the opinion that it would depend on the script,” Kurdrow says, “but I’ve always felt that if everyone else was going to do a movie, then I wouldn’t want to be the person who refused and then had to be replaced – that wouldn’t be fair. So I would do it, but I’ve no idea how the show would translate to a movie.

“It’s not like Sex and the City. Friends was a multi-camera show filmed in front of an audience, so it has a very different feel. It would be tricky to pull off, sure, but if it could be done, that would be great.

The audience can be faked.  Don’t worry, there’s technology to do that.  But the thing about Friends is that it reportedly played out at the end, and the re-runs have not aged well (unlike Seinfeld or The Simpsons).  So I’m not so sure that there is a high demand for a movie.  The comments section underneath this article could be a pretty good barometer for the market for a Friends movie.  But know that, with Kudrow admitting that she would do a Friends movie, no one else has said that they would come back to do one.

The toughest people to get would undoubtedly be Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston.  Aniston is an established movie star, and Perry has a new HBO series coming out this spring with Rescue Me co-creater Peter Tolan.  Both Aniston and Perry figure to be pretty busy for a while, but you never know.

What do you think?  Is a Friends movie a good idea, or do you like how the show ended.

Lauren Graham’s New ABC Pilot Picked Up

I love Lauren Graham, even though I only know her through my TV.  Which is why I was excited to read Variety‘s report that Graham’s ABC pilot – Let It Go – has been picked up for next fall.

The plot is this:  Graham plays a talk show host who gives out relationship advice, only to get dumped and struggle to follow her own advice in the wake of the break. She struggles with the break up, tries to find another man, cries and does some other boring stuff.

Though I’m not a TV expert, Let It Go will likely get canceled .  I think there’s a good chance Let It Go is canceled in its first year.  Unless the writing is stellar, or fans of Gilmore Girls turn out in droves to see the actress who played Lorelai Gilmore do her thing in a different show.

Which they will.  For precisely one episode, before they realize that this isn’t Gilmore Girls 2.

So, I’m sorry Lauren.  Maybe you’ll acting career will end and you’ll move in with me.

Jack Bauer Hanging It Up?

Kiefer Sutherland recently confessed to EW.com that he, for the first time since taking on the role as Jack Bauer, has seriously thought about leaving 24 when his contract ends in 2010.

“I don’t think about [the end of 24] a lot, but I did this year for the first time,” he confesses. “It was one of those weird moments where the stage was unusually quiet; it was like a ghost town. I was looking around [thinking] about all the work that went into building this thing and it hit me: This will end one day, and I’m going to be sad about it.

“Whether season 8 is the end or not, I don’t know,” he continues. “I love making the show, so I’m leaving my options open. And in all fairness, I think the audience will dictate that more than anybody.”

The critics seems to be tiring of 24 recently, but fans of the show have stuck around to continue to make 24 one of the top programs on TV.  But the interesting question is/will be: How will 24 end.

There’s been loads of speculation, but executive producer Evan Katz tells EW.com that there are really only two ways it could end.  One of which is obvious.

“There are two obvious choices: Jack dies, or Jack finally has a happy ending,” suggests executive producer Evan Katz. “It’s actually an interesting discussion as to which would be more faithful to the show and more rewarding for the audience. Because if we give him a happy ending, part of the audience would be mad at us for doing what is easy. And if we kill him, they would be mad at us for a different reason altogether.”

Or they could just fade to black like The Sopranos.

Stay tuned for more information in the coming months.  In the meantime, check out the interview Michael Ausiello did over at EW.com, it’s pretty interesting for 24 fans.  But the bad thing is that it doesn’t solve anything about the end of the show.

Clooney Back Goes Back To The ER

Though ER is no where near the juggernaut it once was (think as it in terms of today’s Grey’s Anatomy, only with doctors working in Chicago), George Clooney is repaying a favor to ER for making him a star. Clooney is returning for the finale of ER as Dr. Doug Ross.

Don’t believe the published reports from this past week?

Here’s your visual evidence.

Good move, ER. I’ll be watching the seriesfinale.