The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 This article does not cite any references or sources. (July 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show title shot.
Format Talk show, variety show
Created by David Letterman
Starring Craig Ferguson
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
No. of episodes 611 (as of October 27, 2007)
Production
Location(s) CBS Television City

Los Angeles, California
Running time 60 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run January 3, 2005 –
Chronology
Related shows The Late Late Show
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

This page is about the current incarnation of The Late Late Show. For full details of the show and its previous hosts, see The Late Late Show.

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is an American late-night talk show hosted by Craig Ferguson on CBS.

Ferguson's first show as permanent host aired January 3, 2005. Ferguson, who introduces himself as "TV's Craig Ferguson", spent the show's first few months tailoring the show to his own style. He opens the show with a (relatively) long monologue (10 to 15 minutes) consisting of a single topic that weaves its way through each joke (similar to a stand-up comedy routine), rather than the typical list of unrelated one-liners or that day's various headlines. Occasionally, there will be story arcs for several days, such as "Flu Watch: 2005", his so-called favorite holiday "Shark Week" (on the Discovery Channel) and his successful ambition to be cast as "Fisherman #1" (formerly Fisherman #2) in the made-for-TV movie Vampire Bats (which aired Sunday, October 30, 2005). His reformed "blackout drinking", his two divorces and subsequently, his sexual orientation are often used as fodder for his humor. More recently, he has undergone an extensive campaign to gain honorary citizenship of the entire United States (of which he is not actually a citizen yet) one town at a time.

Contents

Current (as of 2007) regular segments include

  • Answering e-mails sent by viewers (for comedy, Craig usually provides an obviously fake e-mail address, such as Craig@the Internet/Jeeves/Google/Hotmail.com, which changes constantly)
  • Writing letters with a quill to various people (examples: to his boss (David Letterman) asking for a raise, to President Bush asking for a copy of a telephone conversation, and to Donald Trump about his argument with Martha Stewart)
  • Interviews, impersonations, and skits (often played by Ferguson in costume) done in front of a green screen (used to project computerized images)
  • Soap opera-style showdowns with actor Dan McVicar
  • Accessing his voice-mails through a several-dozen digit extension. These usually contain either embarrassing messages or complaints, both of which he dismisses to the audience as being from "one of those... telemarke'ers."
  • Field reports from correspondent Tim Meadows in which it is revealed that Meadows did not complete or seriously botched his assignment
  • A lesson from "expert" Dave Foley on numerous subjects that he is obviously not an expert on
  • Craig "getting his freak on" (dancing) during commercial breaks.
  • Mock Larry King skits featuring Ferguson with a wig and glasses interviewing others in a parody of a Larry King Live interview.
  • The "U2 Film Review", featuring Ferguson made up like Bono and an impersonator of the Edge. While Ferguson attempts to act as a peace-conscious Bono, the Edge is portrayed as a relatively dim-witted rock star.
  • Mock interviews and/or press conferences with George W. Bush impressionist James Adomian
  • Mock interviews with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (aka. "Fake Arnold") and Robert De Niro impressionist Josh Robert Thompson.
  • A segment has featured clips of United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a news conference with a second pair of hands added, performing various activities to occupy himself while being questioned, such as sorting a deck of cards and folding paper.
  • Infrequently Craig interviews Lt. Jim Dangle and Deputy Travis Junior from Reno 911!
  • Fake in-show programs:
    • Access Extratainment Tonight, a parody of Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, and Extra with Ferguson playing host "Barney Slash".
    • The Rather Late Programme with Prince Charles, with Ferguson (wearing a comb over wig, oversized ears and jagged prosthetic teeth) playing Prince Charles, "the King of Late Night Television."
    • Sean Connery's This Day In History / A Sean Connery Holiday Memory, where Sean Connery (played by Ferguson) recounts an event that happened to him on this day (or holiday season) however many years ago.
    • "Michael Caine in Space" — a segment where Caine (impersonated by Ferguson or a guest) makes one-liners from outer-space.
    • Mick Jagger, Time Traveling Jerk
    • Larry King of the Jungle
    • Sean Connery, Street Magician

Other impersonations frequently done by Ferguson on the show include Dr. Phil, Simon Cowell, and Kim Jong Il.

When the show returns from the commercials, Ferguson welcomes back the audience, calling them "[personality trait][size][animal]s" (examples: "cheeky wee monkeys", "frisky little ponies") and then pressing a sound button on his effects box, such as a monkey or (most often) a whip sound. He has an entire battery of goofy sound effects, some of which are accompanied by lighting cues. This box, as Craig explained in answer to an email (see above) is one-of-a-kind, made specially for him "by elves." It is actually an Instant Replay audio sampler made by 360 Systems.

A partial list of some of Ferguson's favorite sound effects:

  • Whip crack
  • "Performance enhanced" whip crack, featuring the sound of the whip being whirled around a bit first
  • Woman moaning
  • Lightning strike (complete with lighting effects)
  • Woman screaming
  • Sheep
  • Wolf howling
  • A sound Craig has identified with pandas
  • Cheesy lounge music
  • Rapid dialing of a telephone to check his "messages"
  • Donkeys screeching
  • Monkey noises
  • Baboon noises
  • Rooster noises

Sometimes Ferguson ends the show by pressing the moo sound button, stating "That's the Cow of Time. We're out of time. Goodnight everybody."

Another running gag (materializing gradually over the course of several months in the summer of 2006, and otherwise a cross-promotion for another CBS show) was Craig going out of his way to pick on fellow CBS show host Bob Barker (who, he eventually concluded, was a vampire). At the end of each Bob-bashing segment he would chuckle to himself and say that "Bob Barker is going to kick my ass one of these days!" The inside joke is that The Late Late Show sometimes has trouble filling the studio audience, so audience from the day's earlier taping of The Price is Right (on the floor below) are invited to stay. The climax was reached on July 15, 2006, when Bob, flanked by the rest of The Price is Right's staff, including announcer Rich Fields and some of Barker's Beauties, staged a "surprise" visit. This was the last show before a long-planned replacement of the set. Although Bob did not kick Craig's ass, he did do some serious damage to his desk with a single blow. The desk was later totally destroyed by the models, and Craig returned, after the commercial break, with a card table covered by a checkered picnic cloth. The episode ended with Craig helping the episode's musical guests, Family Force 5, completely trash the set.

A new set was built for the show over the course of a week of reruns, and debuted on the July 24, 2006 episode. It featured several new additions - such as a miniature CBS dirigible that floats along over the painted city - and a flickering light that, as promised by Craig, was fixed the following day.

Barker appeared on his show immediately after retirement and presented a portrait of himself as a vampire to Ferguson as a gift.

The opening theme for the show was dropped after Craig Kilborn left. When Ferguson was hired as the full-time replacement, he co-wrote a new theme song, which he sings. Much to the chagrin of longtime viewers starting on July 7th, 2006, the show's opening was time-cropped and featured only the ending of the song. The lyrics of the song are: "It's hard to stay up/It's been a long, long day/And you got the sandman at the door/But hang on/Leave the TV on/And let's do it anyway/It's OK/You can always sleep through work tomorrow, OK?/Hey, hey, tomorrow's just a future yesterday ..."

For logistical reasons, the musical segment, shown towards the end of the program, is often taped first. The instruments are set up on stage allowing the band to rehearse. The studio audience is brought in, the musical segment is taped, and the then the stage is reset for the show opening (mostly empty, not even the chairs for the guests). When Craig "throws it" to the band later, they actually aren't there, a fact sometimes revealed during a wide shot at show close. When the interview segment runs long and the musical guest is "invited back," they merely roll the tape the next day. This process also allows the musical segment to end right on time, since they know in advance exactly how long it runs.

The opening monologue is called "Show and Tell." While outlined in advance, it is not completely scripted. Much of it is improvisational.

Following Show and Tell, there is often a comedy sketch with Craig in costume. While the transition appears quick when the program airs, in fact taping is paused for a few minutes to allow for set and wardrobe changes.

On January 30, 2006, Ferguson showed the more serious side of his personality by turning his opening monologue into a eulogy for his father who died the day before. Ferguson was nominated for his first Emmy for this episode.

In 2006, clips of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson began appearing on the video website YouTube. Subsequently, Ferguson's ratings "grew 7 percent (or by 100,000 viewers)."[1][2]

  1. ^ http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0611290071nov29,0,6109533.column?track=rss
  2. ^ http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/08/magazines/business2/youtube_piracy.biz2/index.htm?section=money_latest
v • d • e
Current Late night talk and comedy shows in the United States
Networks
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Fox MADtv  · Talkshow with Spike Feresten
CBS Late Show with David Letterman  · The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
NBC The Tonight Show with Jay Leno  · Late Night with Conan O'Brien  · Last Call with Carson Daly  · Saturday Night Live
Cable
Comedy Central The Daily Show  · The Colbert Report
Fox News Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
E! Chelsea Lately
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late_Late_Show_with_Craig_Ferguson"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.