This was amazing. Here’s where he finds out about him:
And here’s the interview:
part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V4vQhpRwi4
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-ZWgHvKRjQ
Thanks for that. So cool that there’s a network late night talk show host whose response to “he’s a moral philosopher” is “A moral philosopher?! Really? Pre- or Post-Enlightenment?”
Thanks for digging those up. I missed them. I sent an email in asking when he’ll have Jonathan back on the show again because it would be an excellent followup.
URL to the Charlie Sheen high road intro, for those too lazy to google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WigGPO6EJ20
The Dancy sitdown was awesome. Man, I really need to watch his show more. He did the same thing with Sheen that he did with Spears, and it’s really a marvel to see someone on late night talk really, actually, taking the high road. Kimmel is funny, and so is Ferguson, but Craig seems to toe the line between somewhat-serious journalist and entertaining host. He’s definitely WINNING.
And damn, do I still ever love his Doctor Who cold open. He’s got my vote for next Doctor.
This was a great interview. But dear lord was this professor a bit of a pompous ass.
Slight tangent, but here’s a great Moral Philosopher who doesn’t have a stick up his butt.
http://www.justiceharvard.org/
So last night was Craig Ferguson’s final appearance as the host of the Late Late Show, which I MISSED on account of I forgot.
I’m sad to see him go. The show didn’t always work for me—his interviewing style was too often frustrating—but overall the lunacy was genuinely inspired. There were some amazing moments when he clicked with a guest, and I really appreciated his love-hate take on the entertainment industry. He was usually in it for laughs, but he could be earnest without being dreadfully earnest.
Nobody else quite like him, though it occurs to me that he and Colbert have a similar way of playing the fool. Which, when you’re obviously very sharp, is hard to pull off without putting down your audience, and I think their success has something to do with a shared generosity of spirit.
After ten years of complaining that CBS was too cheap to pay for a band, last night’s obligatory tribute/retrospective was packed up in a star-studded rendition of Dead Man Fall’s Keep Bangin’ On.
It was a fantastic sendoff , I watched him more than any other late night show in the last 6 years. I’d flip on when Letterman was on, then start paying attention when Ferguson got on.
Also loved his intro music, which he did himself.
I’m going to miss that show.
Arise thread!
I never got to watch Ferguson when he was on, but I’ve recently fallen down the rabbit hole of watching tons of videos of his show, like this one:
I am dying. This particular channel:
Has a metric fuckton of clips and interviews, and I’ve been watching hours and hours of it. Makes me sad I didn’t watch it when it was on.
I rarely would stay up late enough to watch him, but I always enjoyed his show when I did.
God I miss his show.
Pretty much gave up on late night talk shows after he went off the air. Everybody else seemed fake and insincere.
Same here. I was always astounded that he basically did a new standup act every night at the start of the show instead of a monologue like the other talk shows.
And as @RickH mentions at the top of the thread, the only reason why I sometimes caught his show is that I lived in the Central time zone most of the time. But when i was out west in Seattle? Forget it. It was on too late at night there.
That was easily my favorite late night talk show, in part because Ferguson was the only US-based host who was consistently good at interviews, at least from what I saw. Conan, Letterman, etc. had funny bits, but were usually only good at interviews when they had one of their friends on so there was little incentive to watch the whole show (caveat for the great musical performances that Letterman’s show had at a decent clip). Ferguson seemed generally interested in, and could thus make compelling, every guest he had. Also, the skeleton.
I don’t remember the last time I watched a late-night talk show. The only one active that might sometimes do it for me is Meyers. Occasionally, Colbert has a good segment or interview I see linked elsewhere, but he just never clicked as a late-night host for me despite (mostly) liking his previous work. Though, he has a lifetime pass from me for Strangers with Candy.
He’s gotten better if his podcast is any indication.
I like Colbert - but I’ve never been as impressed by a host as Ferguson. The way he did a semi-improvised monologue every day. The looseness of the show. The topics he would cover - as @BrianRubin is discovering veer away from the news of the day to focus on timeless topics. How he’d have guests over just to hang out, not because they had something to promote.
Its the only show that captured more than a bit of the zeitgeist of the best of Carson - that some fun people are hanging out, and you peer into a box and spy on them :)
An old bit from the show I was sure I hallucinated was Larry King filling in for the skeleton for an entire episode. Turns out it was real:
OMG that is fucking amazing.
I started listening to Craig Ferguson’s book Riding the Elephant (the audiobook version). It’s really good so far. I love this man’s moral clarity and his way of thinking about things.