The Morning Line On The Kennedy Center Honors.

This year's honorees:

Buddy Guy, Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Natalia Makarova and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

A few thoughts:

Buddy Guy, I don't know who the hell he is.
It turns out that he's a great blues guitarist.
My first thought is that they meant to honor Buddy Rich, but didn't realize he was
dead.
And they never honor anyone posthumously.
And they probably started chiseling "Buddy" on their great wall of honorees, so it sent them scrambling to honor someone else named "Buddy"
I could be wrong.

Dustin Hoffman, I guess I figured he already was honored. Maybe he did too.
Or maybe he's been lying in the weeds saying to himself "What's taking them so long?"

David Letterman. Certainly the farthest move towards left-wing comedy that they've ever made.
I wrote previously that they wouldn't really make their bones until they honored
George Carlin.
Then, he died, and it was too late.
And Mort Sahl got too involved with the Kennedy Assassination, so it probably would've made Caroline nervous.
But they were certainly further left than Letterman.
But Letterman is certainly a worthy choice.
You'd figure ordinarily that Leno would have been more in their wheelhouse.
But there would be problems there.
Both politically and cosmetically.
Giving it to Leno would be a direct slap in the face to Letterman and CBS, which is the only network brave enough to carry the event Primetime.
Because it consistently tanks in the ratings.
This is why they hold the event about a month-and-a-half before they show it, on the
day after Christmas.
Christmas week is considered the dumping ground for all Primetime shows that figure
to tank in the ratings.
Also, Leno has lost some of his prestige, what with "The Tonight Show slipping in
the ratings, and his having to drastically cut back on his budget and staff.
And Letterman has so far shown the good taste to not make any jokes at Leno's
expense, like about how "I may not have gotten the Tonight Show, but Leno never got
this"

Whoops!

I see that I have enough yet to write about this subject to take it to a Part Two.
So I will continue it next time.


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