The Morning Line On The Kennedy Center Honors. 2.

A few more words about Letterman:
He deserves his honor for simply providing us with the hippest show on television consistently for the last thirty years.
Consistent with that is his unleashing of Paull Shaffer upon us.
Even when there aren't any guests that I particularly want to see, I watch because I want to see and hear what
piece of music Paul will play as their introduction, or "play-on".
He always plays Tom Brokaw on with "Busted", the old Ray Charles hit, a play on the word "broke".
Pretty hip.
Just two nights ago, when TV host and former footballer Michael Strahan guested on Letterman the other night,
Paul played him on with the song "Lush Life"
The connection was that it was written by Billy Strayhorn, who was long associated
with Duke Ellington.
What's more hip and more adorable than that?

Okay, the others:

Natalia Makarova.
Your basic token artsy-fartsy choice.
They make one every year.
A ballerina.
Or they could have found an opera singer, or a classical musician.
Good luck to them.

Led Zeppelin.

This one galls me on two different very subjective levels.
One, they're a group.
I don't like giving this award to groups.
I didn't like it when they gave it jointly to Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Like the only reason they were getting it was because they were married to each other.
They BOTH deserved it.
INDIVIDUALLY.
More than some actors who received it individually.

Two, Led Zepellin are foreigners.
I think we should let all worthy Americans get an American award award before we start giving it to foreigners.
I know Yo Yo Ma wasn't born here, but at least he grew up here, so I had no trouble making the exception last year.
My problem there was an aesthetic one.
I mentioned it when it happened.
They gave it to Neil Diamond last year, too.
It was one of the greatest segments they've ever done.
But then, they closed the show with Yo Yo Ma.
This gave a new meaning to the word "Anti-Climactic"
Usually they have been very careful about the order they present the Honors.
But last year, somebody was asleep at the switch.
They have been careful because, as miniscule as the ratings have been, there has always been concern about holding on to
whatever audience they had.

If I was the ratings conscious producer of the show, here is the sequence I would
use:
Open with Letterman.
That's who most of the audience will be tuned in to see, anyway.
Then Dustin Hoffman.
His name value should hold the audience in place.
At this point, throw on Buddy Guy.
He'll at least keep the dwindling audience awake.
Then shlep on the ballerina, and keep it as short as possible, which they always
do with the artsy-fartsy choice.
The remaining crowd has either Tivoed through this, or gone to the bathroom, waiting
for Led Zeppelin.
And go out big with them.
I'll see you in December, to see if anybody has listened to me.


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