Earlier on Thursday, Rolling Stone published allegations from two current and 14 former employees, including production crew and writers, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Rolling Stone claimed they had approached an additional 80 current and former employees, but “not a single one agreed to speak on the record or had positive things to say about working on the Tonight Show”.
According to Rolling Stone’s report, multiple sources alleged Fallon had a history of “outbursts” and lashing out at staff when under pressure; that previous senior staff on the show had bullied and belittled them; and that guests’ dressing rooms were commonly known as “cry rooms”, where employees could go let out their stress.
Nine showrunners have worked on the Tonight Show since Fallon took over from Jay Leno in 2014; a much faster turnover than comparable late night shows like Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
They should have given it to Conan when they had the chance but they keep insisting on giving it to soulless narcissists like Leno and Fallon.
This, Conan has always been infinitely funnier, and he still has employees that followed him from the Late Night show that seem to love working with him
so much love for Conan. I’ve only seen a few clips, I’ll have to seek him out a bit.
ok I just watched this and he’s actually great: https://youtu.be/FIHxrzOQtm0
They did give it to Conan, then they gave it back to Jay. Like everything else wrong in my life, I blame the boomers.
Oooh yes, they did Conan sooo dirty during that clusterfuck.
Fuckin boomers
I love the single downvote… “god damn kids…” grumble, grumble
Unpopular opinion: Conan SUCKS and is not funny. His personal antics are downright cringey middle school level drek.
Yeah, not everyone like all types of humor. By actually having a personality and a distinct sense of humor he opens himself up to not being liked.
Unlike the charismatic black holes of Falcon and Leno that are just there and fills time until the inevitable heat death of the universe.
Conan is a jackass too, except he treats people like crap on camera and people think it’s funny.
You…think what you see on TV is…real? It’s a comedy bit.
Conan acts like that to get a laugh because he isn’t like that at all as a person and everyone knows he is joking. You won’t ever see Fallon or Corden be that way on camera because it’s really how they are in everyday life off camera.
Exactly. It’d be painfully obvious how horrible these guys are if you got to see how their staff reacted, should Fallon or cordon ever decide to do Conan’s “remotes.”
Speaking of, even with the guy that conan was always the “hardest” on in those remotes, Jordan Schlansky, you would see him break on occasion because even he knew that they were taking part in a bit. Man, I miss conan.
The Italy and Japan trips were hilarious.
I go back and do a full-remotes rewatch at least once a year. They’re all fuckin gold. But my favorite is the one where he catches onto a secret email chain of employees so they can get to any free food before anyone else. That one is just so goddamn perfect
I’ll wait to hear about all the people crying from working on Conan.
Because last I checked, Conan does seem to care about his staff. He has a history of paying people out of pocket while his shows were on hiatus.
Almost like it’s a bit for entertainment! Being a “jackass” on camera is not at all the same thing as this story.
I’ve never heard of anything saying Conan was inappropriate to them while working for him. He seems like one of those bosses that let’s people do there works and get a way with shit here and there.
I’ve loved Conan for decades, but a certain point the bits with him and Jordan Schlansky started to make me uncomfortable. Like yeah, he’s a weird, possibly neurodivergent guy who does odd things that are funny and Conan wanted to make a bit out of it and obviously Jordan was on board. But as it progressed Conan did seem to get a little mean at times, and when you have a national platform like that, you aren’t just being silly-mean to your quirky buddy, you’re opening the door to making it acceptable to ridicule people with autism spectrum disorder.
I’ve always gotten strong Ellen vibes from Fallon.
I never understood how this unfunny douchebag got famous. Are people really fans of him or was having him TWO shows purely a studio decision? He was never funny on SNL.
I thought maybe it was just me, maybe I wasn’t seeing something in ‘slow jam the news’ that was hilariously funny. But then he sucked up to Trump during the campaign in 2016 and I didn’t give a fuck any more. Fuck him.
deleted by creator
Even though SNL is built around comedians and comedic actors, it is really all about the writers. Occasionally you get a Farley/Hader/Hartman where they can transcend a skit. But mostly you get folk like Kenan or Sandler who can add flourishes but really need a solid “script” to work off of.
But EVERYONE (… except MAYBE Farley) live off of the writers. People like Tina Fey and, funny enough, Conan who can make those gags t hat stick with you forever.
I am not a fan of Fallon but he has that “empty vessel” vibe to him. Give him a good writing team (… and he’ll be an asshole to them. Err) and he can fill the time in between the press pieces for actors.
Which is more or less what the Leno/Fallon style late night show is. It is a stand up segment that makes you understand why Seinfeld would open with that trash for so many years followed by mostly smiling and nodding as an actor or actress talks about their movie and plays a clip.
Personally? I always preferred the Conan/Ferguson approach. Similar structure but the comedy and riffing continues well into the interview and the actor/actress is expected to join in. Sometimes it is incredibly awkward, sometimes it makes you wonder just how much certain people knew, and sometimes it is a truly spectacular conversation that gets to the heart of the business. But I can also get how a studio might not appreciate the same Mac and Me clip being aired for the hundredth time for the movie they just spent hundreds of millions of dollars on.
And then you have people like Letterman/Colbert/Meyers who are very much in that middle ground to the extent that “everyone likes them”
I don’t disagree with anything you said, at all, but do feel the need to point out during all 3 you mentioned (Farley, Hartman and Hader) all had absolutely crazy good writers on SNL at the time as well, who were exceptional at using the talent offered. I think back to Hader doing Stefon and it was Mulany writing those, and always changing the script to make Hader break. Things like that.
Oh, Hartman and Farley very much had one of the all time great writers rooms. I very much feel that is what Adam Sandler owes his entire career to (he is a shockingly good dramatic actor, but he never would have been given a chance without the comedy background)
Hartman I feel was incredibly good at taking complete nothingburgers of a script and adding mannerisms that could elevate them. And there are some stories of him doing particularly good improv on a few sets. Hader very much “came into his own” after SNL and a lot of his best work was when he IS a writer, but similar deal and he does have some amazing moments on the show.
Farley is the one who I would actually give the nod. Basically every story is about how he would figure out something in wardrobe or do a weird mannerism to elevate everyone around him. And he made some god awful scripts hilarious. He still benefited a LOT from a solid writer’s room but, of basically all of SNL, he is probably the only one that I feel was better when he actively ignored the script.
Not sure, I’ve never watched him. I don’t really watch late shows that much lately, but I’ve enjoyed content from Last Week Tonight, Seth, Colbert, Jon Stewart when he was host of Daiky Show, and yes, Trevor Noah’s show roo (I’ve heard people lambasting him as being Neoliberal, which probably is true, but I liked how they had some angles based on black people. Same with Seth’s jokes Seth can’t tell for black and lesbian stuff). Of those I probably liked Last Week Tonight the most.
The others can be charming sometimes even in ways that’s not inherently funny, but more like hamming it up (Colbert and Seth).
I’ve never found a clip of Fallon that made me want to watch.
Totally. I said the same thing when someone posted a thread about his behavior yesterday. I got a real asshole sense from him.
Even off camera he just gives off a vibe of having an insatiable need for attention
Give Craig Ferguson his time slot.
I’d start watching non-streaming TV again if Ferguson came back.
I miss Craig
Conan was awesome and I thought it couldn’t get any better. But then came Craig and he was in a league of his own. He reinvented the genre and nobody was able to copy him since.
It was a privilege to have lived through and watch both of them in their prime.
I haven’t even seen him since he left his show. What is he even doing now? Just enjoying retirement? I mean he deserves it, but I miss him too.
I have no idea. He did like one Netflix comedy special after leaving the show but that was so long ago.
I think he’s said he never wanted the earlier time slot because the network would be too involved with the show.
“Tonight Show with Craig Ferguson” would just be like what Tonight Show has been for many decades with just the few flourishes here and there that the network would allow Ferguson to do.
With the 12:30 slot he could do whatever he wanted, the network didn’t care. Which is what made his show the best talk show of all time.
Guy is fake af, never understood the appeal of him or his show.
Absolutely… And his obnoxious fake laughs are straight up nauseating…
“I’m sorry (this got out).”
I feel vindicated for strongly disliking him since SNL. Deuche bag ruined every single skit he was in. Absolute amateur laughing in every skit. Every time.
That was the best thing about SNL at the time, to me, lol
If it’s any consolation, snl was always shit for dumbasses.
Ohhhh hot take… SATAN!
There was a time when it was funny. That was before he was there.
- Deep thoughts by Jack Handy
- Andy Kaufman
- Weekend Update (Norm Macdonald (fuck Chevy))
- Phil Hartman
- The cheerleader bit
- Wayne’s World
- Bill Murray
Mad TV was where the real funny was at
When I was in college, there would be these marathons of MAD TV, and we’d play a drinking game to it. Every time there was a joke that was supposed to be funny, and wasn’t, you’d take a drink
We’d get shit faced man. Mad TV was so terrible lol
Later we did it to Key and Peele too, which was great because K&P skits are funny for the first 90 seconds or so and then they just bludgeon the joke into the fucking ground
Good times.
I’m to the point where I just assume if you’re a celebrity you’re probably a piece of shit.
I think that’s a very safe assumption based on all the examples we’ve seen.
It’s almost like living a life where you are mostly isolated from reality, have to be isolated from the public for logistics reasons, and only have contact with people whose entire existence is to make you happy turns you into an asshole. And most celebrities are people who actively sought out that lifestyle, which means they started out with an inclination towards being an asshole.
You made Keanu sad.
And Tom Hanks.
deleted by creator
Yeah, pretty much.
It’s so nice being fans of people nobody knows about. They never get caught doing shitty things because they’re not shitty people.
We put shitbags on a pedestal, for some reason. I blame greed.
Fallon is one of the least funny people on the planet. I am not joking. His shit keeps getting brought up on my YouTube feed and it is just utter crap.
The only time I had to laugh at something he was involved in, was when he made a crossover with John Oliver. Fallon obviously tried to advertise for Amazons Alexa, when Oliver suddenly asked Alexa about the working conditions in Amazon Warehouses. Fallon immediately shit himself.
Jimmy Fallon is a robot designed to laugh at people’s jokes no matter how unfunny they are.
Jimmy Fallon was a “safe” bet by NBC execs during the Leno/Conan arguments.
It’s a stupid bet.
Not trying to defend Jimmy Fallon, but is there a way to do a nightly television show for years on end that’s healthy?
The constant demand to be fresh, funny, topical, appeal to advertisers, network execs and audience members. It’s fucking insane how anyone can do it at all.
I’d imagine it takes it’s toll on even the most level headed good people.
Most of the story might be construed as nothing but the show runner turn over raised red flags for me. Conan had the same show runner, Jeff Ross, for decades. Fallon can’t keep a show runner for a year! On the Tonight Show! One of the most coveted show runner positions still left in Television. The fact that the most powerful people aside from fallon keep quietly leaving the show means to me that there is something rotten that they are all fleeing and keeping quite to protect their careers.
Conan seems to be well-regarded.
Not surprised, never could stand that guy.
I don’t hate him. Don’t like him. I never found him as funny as Jimmy Fallon did either
Who could?
I always knew something was off about his fakeass laugh…
It’s suspicious that this has gone on for years, but the story is only being published now. Seems to have been common knowledge in Hollywood. Is it contract negotiation time? Did Fallon finally piss of the wrong person? Does NBC have someone already in mind to replace him?
Maybe the alcohol rumors are true and getting to be more of an issue?
Classic Alcoholism
He cancelled a Norm MacDonald appearance on his show for saying that he put Rosanne Barr and Louie C.K. in touch because of their shared experience. Like, a therapy thing. Jimmy claimed that a female his staff cried and locked herself in an office b/c of that. At least we know what room it was and what they were really crying about.
Jimmy Fallon? Isn’t that the failed Andy Samburg?
No? Fallon is like one of the most successful comedians alive today. That a bunch of internet forum users don’t find him funny does not change the facts that the dude is widely popular.
Personally he’s not my favorite comic but he’s in the club of comedy legends. Plus, Andy Samberg is the failed Andy Samberg.
