Jay Leno went beyond mawkish in his final night hosting “The Tonight Show.”
In the few minutes he had carved out to himself at the end of his final telecast Thursday, he wept and paused as he invoked his dead parents and brother, extolled running a union shop, said his staff had become his family and said that over his 22 years, he’s met presidents, astronauts and movie stars, the luckiest guy around.
He could hardly get through his final words, quoting what Johnny Carson said on his last night: “I bid you a fond farewell.”
Garth Brooks was the final musical guest. Wearing a Garth Brooks cap, the country star sang one song by special request of Leno, “The Dance.”
“I didn’t know the way it would all end,” its lyric says. “Our lives are beter left to chance. I could have missed the pain. But I’d have to miss the dance.”
Brooks was called again to close the whole show, and bring things up after his crying had broughtthings down. So he played “I Got Friends in Low Places” running into the credits.
It was Billy Crystal who took over most of the show. It was explained about three times that he had been Leno’s first guest in 1992 so would be a fitting final guest.
He came on like he was doing a best man toast, taking center stage to honor Leno before he took a seat, and then after exchanging memories of their being struggling comics together, brought out the big musical event, a take off on “The Sound of Music” ditty “So Long, Farewell” with each verse sung by the most random array of celebrities: Jack Black, Kim Kardashian, the NBA’s Chris Paul, Sheryl Crow, Jim Parson, Carol Burnett and Oprah Winfrey.
It sure beat the cameo stars in the second-to-last night Wednesday — Kevin Smith, Arsenio Hall and Carrot Top, with Micky Rooney waving from the seats.
A number of celebrities in pre-taped segment Thursday offered suggestions for retirement, from Steve Carell and Kevin Bacon to Barack Obama, Matt Damon, Martha Stewart and Larry the Cable Guy.
The Obama clip had less effect because it followed a compilation of political clips that all depended on heavy post-production that mostly involved dancing.
It was a shorter than usual monologue from Leno, who spent most of it talking about all the things that had changed in a couple of decades. He also found time to insert those sure fire comedy touchstones of Justin Bieber and O.J. Simpson.
It wasn’t funny, and it hadn’t been funny all week. Like many, I started watching “Tonight” again as the end for Leno neared and was shocked with just how unfunny the whole thing was; how a lot of the humor was tied to the scatological or lewd (and that wasn’t funny either); how bad the interviews were; how intrusive the band was (with a bass player filling in for rimshot at nearly every attempt at a joke).
It was kind of a bad show, and it was a good thing NBC changed horses. Even if Leno was No. 1, it was about fifth in quality of late night shows.
“It really is time to go,” Leno said as he snuffled his tears at the end of his last broadcast.
Leno is by all accounts one of the nicest guys in show biz. Once when I interviewed he thanked me for my time. He’s got quite a work ethic when it comes to writing and doing shows. But, yeah, I agree with him.