Subsidies

 

This is gonna be one of the stranger references I've made on this site, but bear with me.

Back in 1996 there was an HBO movie called "The Late Shift" which told the story of the Late Night TV show battle between David Letterman and Jay Leno over who would succeed Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show. As stupid as this may sound today, this was actually a Really Big Deal in the '90's...one of those absurd pop culture stories which dominated the headlines and the tabloids for several years.

The movie itself was decent, with some interesting casting including Kathy Bates and Treat Williams, but nothing special. The main problem is that the audience is expected to root and feel sympathy for a couple of dudes who were already rich & famous and who would both continue to be rich & famous no matter how the story played out. The stakes weren't exactly the fate of the world, is what I'm saying.

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