Monday, April 12, 2010

ABC's "Castle" takes on late night talk shows

I've never watched ABC's Monday night drama "Castle" before, but I had to tune in to see "Dancing with the Stars"' Tom Bergeron play a late night talk show host. The program threw in homages to several real-life late night talk shows -- how many did you spot?

1. Tom's character, Bobby Mann, has an Eisenhower mug on his desk, just like Conan!
2. Bobby was being blackmailed because he was having an affair with a young intern, a la Letterman.
3. Bobby's sidekick, played by the great Fred Willard, was named Hank, which had to be a reference to "The Larry Sanders Show"'s Hank Kingsley.
4. If the network canceled Bobby's show to replace him with the younger 12:30 AM host, they had to pay him an $80 million penalty, the same figure that would allegedly have to be paid out by NBC if they pulled the plug on "The Jay Leno Show" without putting Jay back at 11:30.
5. Bobby had a string of ex-wives, like Johnny Carson.

If you missed it, the episode will be available online at ABC.com.

0 comments :