Earlier on Thursday, Rolling Stone published allegations from two current and 14 former employees, including production crew and writers, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Rolling Stone claimed they had approached an additional 80 current and former employees, but “not a single one agreed to speak on the record or had positive things to say about working on the Tonight Show”.
According to Rolling Stone’s report, multiple sources alleged Fallon had a history of “outbursts” and lashing out at staff when under pressure; that previous senior staff on the show had bullied and belittled them; and that guests’ dressing rooms were commonly known as “cry rooms”, where employees could go let out their stress.
Nine showrunners have worked on the Tonight Show since Fallon took over from Jay Leno in 2014; a much faster turnover than comparable late night shows like Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
That seems to be true of a lot of SNL Alum. I don’t find the (infinitely more likeable) Will Farrell funny either, though from what I’ve heard his success is largely in his ability to get people motivated, so you see a lot of good films with unfunny Farrells, where Farrell is the reason why it’s funny, but it’s not obvious because Farrell himself isn’t.
For Fallon: I suspect the fact that he couldn’t get through a single SNL sketch without breaking character and bursting out laughing “humanized” him to a sizable amount of the audience, and despite Lorne Michaels’ dislike of that kind of thing, meant Micheals ended up going to bat for him.
I… don’t think that should be the basis of putting someone in the slot that should have been gone to Conan, but I’m surprised how unpopular Conan is among people I know who aren’t part of my circle of friends, and how popular Fallon is.
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I don’t disagree with anything you said, at all, but do feel the need to point out during all 3 you mentioned (Farley, Hartman and Hader) all had absolutely crazy good writers on SNL at the time as well, who were exceptional at using the talent offered. I think back to Hader doing Stefon and it was Mulany writing those, and always changing the script to make Hader break. Things like that.
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I came to this conclusion too! always considered Will Farrell to be unfunny.
But I think he has like a “funny aura boost”. Because when he’s in a movie, it feels like the whole staff is having a lot more fun and are looser. And that makes the whole film more enjoyable.