Last night I watched the final performance of Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. It's a run that's lasted twenty-two years, with that one brief hiccup from when Conan was host. It was completely different from last time, since there were no plans to simply move Jay to an early time. He had fully announced his retirement, and there was no coming back from that.
So, what did I think of his farewell?
I haven't been Jay Leno's biggest fan. At times his show felt extremely formulaic, he seemed to just coast between guests that he wasn't personally invested in, and his humor sometimes felt... "safe" is really the only way I can think of describing it. I don't mean that he should use as much blue language as The Daily Show (which I feel can easily take the "pushing good taste" idea a little too far), but I never got the feeling he was taking any chances.
But that's not to say he wasn't a natural entertainer.
Watching Jay interact with people who weren't from Hollywood was always fascinating. He could make people he met on the street feel completely at ease around him, willing to answer questions even if there was a chance they'd come off looking incredibly dumb. He would be invited into peoples' homes to perform skits, he'd bring people from the street on stage to talk to him, and the one thing I always appreciated about his show was that every show started with him walking out and shaking the hands of the people that came to see him. Before he told a joke, before he mocked the famous, before he talked to a guest, he would always thank his fans.
I think Jay wanted to be able to ask his own questions, but the network probably put more and more limits on his show as time went on. I remember him talking to Hugh Grant right after he cheated on Elizabeth Hurley, and he asked the question on the mind of every person that saw her in a poster for Bedazzled: "What the hell were you thinking?"
There was the usual cavalcade of stars showing up to wish Jay farewell, though there were more "modern" stars than there were classic ones. You had a couple of big names (including one of the biggest), but Kim Kardashian? They couldn't get one of the classic actors to show up? I mean, they had Mickey Rooney in the audience this week, you'd think they'd be able to get Julie Andrews, Cher, or someone else who's been in the industry a long time up there.
I must say, if I ever do something grand for that long, I'd want Billy Crystal to be the one to do the tribute to me. It was a very heartwarming act that Billy put on for Jay, but I think my personal favorite bit when it was just the two of them, two old friends, sitting together talking about when they first got started. Stories about Jay's apartment in Boston, about their first appearances on television, those were what made the show great.
Garth Brooks performed well, but having never really been a huge Garth Brooks fan (I respect his talent, I just don't go looking for his music anywhere), I think it meant more to Jay than anybody to have another friend there to sing him out.
However.
The last segment, when Jay said his goodbye, was probably one of the best moments in television I've seen in several years. Watching Jay talk about the crew he worked with and how they became his family, about how he suffered a lot of loss when the show first started, and praising everybody there as being just as important as him to getting the show done and done right... I don't hear many people accuse Jay of being egotistical. He intentionally had the name of the show changed to "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" instead of "Starring Jay Leno" because he didn't want to seem like a big shot. David Letterman said in an interview that Jay is the "funniest" person he knows, and also "the most insecure." I don't think he's insecure, I think he's simply able to recognize all the people that help hold him up in the spotlight. Apparently Jay even took a massive pay cut in order to keep crew members from being fired.
You really got the impression that Jay knew the name of every single person in that crew. He talked about being introduced to children and grandchildren of his coworkers. He talked about how anybody on the crew buying a new car would have him come out and look at it.
And there was true heartfelt emotion. The man who, arguably, was the hardest working man in Hollywood (not only did he do the Tonight Show almost every week, but he would also travel and do about 150 stand-up comedy shows a year), was going to wake up the next morning and not have to immediately try to think of jokes for an opening monologue. You could see he was going to miss it. Multiple times, his voice broke and you could see him barely managing to hold back tears as he talked about the whole experience, and in that moment he wasn't the guy who sat behind the desk parading celebrities in front of an audience, he was just a guy who liked to tell jokes who happened into the job of a lifetime.
I didn't watch you every night, Jay, but no matter how great Jimmy Fallon is, no matter what else happens, it's going to be weird to see that time slot and not see your name attached to it. I, and so many other people, will miss you.
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