All Hollywood Is Asking:
Is Jay Ready For Prime Time?

S the master of late night ready for prime time? Definitely, says Jay Leno who in May officially stepped down from NBC’s Tonight Show to launch a new nightly show in September.

Leno hung tough and funny for 17 years mining the US comedy vein with a smile as he tossed off thousands of jokes—130,000 if you kept count. Along the sometimes rocky way he battled his pal and CBS rival David Letterman to earn the King of Late Night  crown.

Now a TV era ends as he hands over the 11:30 sacred slot to Conan O’Brien at 10 o'clock starting on Sept. 14.

The 59-year-old comic turned talk show icon, who in 2009 was named "America's Favorite TV Personality" by a Harris Poll, and who followed in the footsteps of Jack Paar, Steve Allen and Johnny Carson, is looking forward to his new nightly gig at 10 o’clock.

What can you tell us about your new show?
I'll be back with something a little bit different. The key will be to have a lot more comedy in the second half hour. That’s the real trick. People like the monologue and the headline jokes. We haven’t even decided if there will be a chair and a desk.

How does it feel to be bowing out?
We’ve been number one since I came on and we’re going out number one. I’m happy to hand it off and feel like I’m bringing the car back—no dents and with a full tank. 

Are you worried about going head to head at 10 pm with some of TV’s most popular dramas
There’s more drama at 10 than there’s ever been. Look at the cable networks. And if viewers want to go there they can go there. But I think 10 o’clock is more like the new 11:30. Even kids have to get up early for work. I personally like drama—CSI and Law and Order are some of my favorite shows.

Do you think comedy at that hour will be a good fit?
When I was growing up there was so much comedy on prime time television. Often all evening long. I  was a comedy fan and used to watch Carol Burnett.  Our original shows will be on the air longer than the dramas. They run for 21 weeks; we'll be on for 44 weeks.

Are you comfortable with the new time?
We didn't make this decision lightly.  Our research showed that viewers want comedy and going on earlier was a good idea.   I’m not an egomaniac and we’re not going to ram anything down people’s throats.  The most fun for me is doing the monologue. After all I’m a nightclub performer who was lucky enough to get a TV talk show.

Do you remember the moment when you first heard you’d been hired to take over The Tonight Show?
I was under a car, putting a new clutch in my l969 Lamborghini when my wife came out and told me. She said let’s celebrate and I said, Okay, but first I have to finish the clutch.

What was the most poignant moment during your l7 years on the show?
John Kennedy Jr. was a guest.  I was 12 when Kennedy was assassinated and I remember watching the funeral on TV with my mother. She was crying and we saw little John John marching at the funeral.  So then 40 years later there I am—I’m introducing John Jr. and I suddenly flashed on my sobbing mother.

How have you changed since you first began the Tonight Show?
I have the same friends and am married to the same woman, and still drive the same car, although I have a few other cars. I enjoy being a voyeur with all the celebrities. But it doesn’t become my life and I don’t let it absorb me. I made enough money and I won’t worry if they don’t give me the best table at Morton’s. In fact I don’t go to Morton’s—I go to In and Out Burger.

Is it true that NBC will save a fortune by moving your show to 10 p.m.?
Definitely. We can do five shows in one week for less money than it takes to produce one dramatic episode.

Was the appearance in l995 of English actor Hugh Grant when he talked for the first time about his unfortunate encounter with the hooker on Sunset Boulevard a turning point for your show?
It was. We had been losing but we had turned it around and overtook Dave (Letterman) although it had been up and down between us.  That show with Hugh brought us huge ratings.

Have you given any advice to Conan?
I don’t need to because we are both doing versions of the same thing. He’s had the number one show and doesn’t need any advice from me. If he asks, well sure. But this is a peaceful transition of power. There’s no bloodshed. I really do like the guy. He’s a lot of fun and smart.

Did Carson ever give you any advice?
From Johnny I learned that year in and year out through terrible disasters and horrible things happening you go on and do your jokes. Your job is to cheer people up.  I have a low self esteem attitude which makes me work harder. I am somewhat dyslexic and my mother always told me "You will have to work harder to get the same thing."

Do you ever think about retiring?
I’m half Scottish—and we die at the (coal) mine. It’s what I do. Going to Hawaii and hanging out with a fat American and drinking Mai Tais is my idea of hell. I believe if you’re not producing something for someone, why are you here.  I'm not a workaholic. I enjoy writing and telling jokes. It’s exciting and silly and makes people laugh.

Ian McKellen as King Lear

Sir Ian Mckellen In The Prisoner

IR Ian McKellen, the grand master of the London stage, filmed a special King Lear for PBS this spring, and shows no signs of slowing down even though he turned 70 in May.

He’s Gandalf in Lord of the Rings and Magneto in the X-Men movies. And he’s returning to the home screen this year to star in a revival of the hit British TV cult series The Prisoner.

In fact his most recent roles—that of the fading Shakespearean legend King Lear, and Number 2 in sci-fi style Prisoner which has been shot by the AMC network—are examples of McKellen the Actor for All Ages.

The Prisoner became a must watch series in l967. Patrick McGoohan, who conceived the program, plays a British spy trapped in a strange place called The Village. He is called simply Number 6 and has no memory how he arrived.

Everyone in The Village is identified by a number. And no one knows anything about the outside world nor has any memory of their prior existence. The Village is overseen by the mysterious leader Number 2 (McKellen)—played in the original series by Leo McKern. In the new series American actor James Caviezel takes the McGoohan role.

Are there any parts you want to avoid?
I’m desperate not to play Falstaff—I hope I don’t get talked into doing that. But now I don’t work as much as I used to —12 months in the year. I try to take half a year off and get on with my life. If I still have ambitions left that’s where they lie.

Some actors who been knighted insist on being called Sir. Do you mind what people call you?
It’s a great honor when you’re plucked out and given a medal. At time it warms the cockles of my heart because it puts me in the company of people I grew up idolizing. Sir Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Alec Guinness. Dame Petty Ashcroft and Dame Edith Evans. But my name is Ian Mc Kellen—so please don’t call me Sir—because that’s not really my name.

Were you a fan of the original Prisoner series?
The original went out on British television, I think, just once, and it was before the days of video recorders. If you didn’t see it when it was broadcast, you didn’t see it. And in the seventies I was on stage eight times a week. So I didn’t see any television.

Ian McKellen and James Caviezel in The Prisoner

When did you watch it?
I caught up when it was on its reruns and was immediately intrigued. The look was so charming and unnerving at the same time.

Can you explain its continuing fascination?
One of the characteristics of the original was that in 17 episodes, the questions that you were invited to ask as to why and who is in charge and what are their motives, were never really answered. Hence, the enduring fascination. Even today viewers are still guessing what’s the meaning of it all. Well, this is different. By episode six, you know everything about the Village: Where it came from, where it’s going to, who created it, why they did it and what it’s like to actually live there. I think they needed a Number 2 who was central to this story of the meaning of the Village, because he seems to be running it and to have it played by a number of characters would just be cute, but not to the point, and I’m very grateful because it gives me an absolutely wonderful part.

In the new series Number Six is American—does that change things?
There was something about the original, where the Village was clearly British, you might even say English, if you understand that distinction. Even though the location (where the series was filmed) was in Wales, it didn’t feel like that. It felt like a little English Disney place. The new notion of The Prisoner and the Village is on a world scale. The implications are more for us all. So to have an American character at the center of it seems appropriate in a way it would not have been to that curious English feeling that saturated the original series.