You all know I'm addicted to late-night, so how could I fail to watch Jimmy Fallon's first night? I presume he's going to be just fine, if not exactly revolutionary. Technically, however, you'd think they could have figured out some things in the YEAR they had to prepare. He's got the old-fashioned setup where he walks out and does jokes in front of the curtains, and the curtains are too bold a blue. Plus the folds form vertical stripes, and when Fallon bobs around, it gets kind of dizzying. Maybe as he gets less nervous, he'll bob less, but I'd change the damn curtain. I'd also like to see him look more at the camera. They've got to move his teleprompter to a better focal point, or else he has to memorize more.
On the other hand, the collage-like set where his band, The Roots, plays, is pretty cool, with fake brick and windows. God knows they're a welcome addition to late-night music (Craig Ferguson still has no band, just some canned library music). Fallon did a reasonably funny and charming 'slow jam' of the news before popping over to a cookie-cutter interview set, with the desk and couch in front of the obligatory skyline backdrop.
Well, that's all he's done so far, nothing egregiously terrible, and I might check in on him later, but for now I'm either switching over to Ferguson or else going to bed early. Over and out.
ETA: I checked back in on him, and was kind of sorry I did. His interview with Robert DeNiro was breathless, incoherent, and overscripted. However, 1) nerves and 2) interviewing is a skill that CAN be learned (cf. Conan).
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