Ten Things I Love About Forbidden Planet

The first DVD I bought was Blade Runner. The second was Forbidden Planet. This latter film is a science fiction classic from Hollywood’s second golden age, 1956 (the same year that John Ford’s landmark film The Searchers was released).  Perhaps the definitive pulp sci-fi movie, it’s got everything you might expect: stalwart heroes, spaceships, lasers, aliens, a teen-aged hottie, a mad scientist, and even a talking robot.

And monsters, of course. Monsters from the Id.

Ever since I first saw Forbidden Planet on TV when I was kid, I’ve loved it.  Here are ten reasons why…

What I’m Reading: The War for Late Night

The legendary Hollywood movie producer Robert Evans once famously said: “There are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth.”

Never was this bit of wisdom more apt than in the story told by Bill Carter in his recent book: The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy. As Carter recounts the cultural upheaval which accompanied Conan’s O’Brien’s brief tenure as host of The Tonight Show, he tells a story with more than three sides—many more. In fact, the affair involved many of the smartest, most interesting people in entertainment: O’Brien and Jay Leno, of course, but also David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. And, behind them, the legions of producers, lawyers, spouses, friends, and corporate suits who all had a stake—directly or indirectly—in the outcome of the “war” that ensured.

It all makes for a fascinating read.

For those who don’t remember the events in question (I’m talking to you, Millennials), they occurred in 2009 when Jay Leno stepped aside (sort of) as head of The Tonight Show, handing the reigns over to his long-time heir-apparent, O’Brien.  As I learned from Carter’s book, this was an inheritance which had been promised to O’Brien a full five years earlier, and for which he had turned down more lucrative offers from other networks.  (More on this below…)

The hand-off seemed appropriate to almost everyone. Conan was (and is) an incredibly funny guy, and the obvious successor to Carson’s crown. Everything might have gone swimmingly had not NBC—and, specifically, its Machiavellian CEO, Jeff Zucker—tried to have its cake and eat it too.  Instead of sending Leno out to pasture, they decided to keep him on the network—to keep his whole show on the network, in fact, albeit in a stunted, awkward form that would go on at 10 o’clock.