Samantha Bee, the longest standing reporter on The Daily Show, was definitely one of the early contenders to replace Jon Stewart in the role. The consolation for Bee not getting the position was that she would get her own show on TBS.
After seeing the first 2 episodes of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee," we know Comedy Central made a mistake by not picking Bee as the new host and TBS made a mistake by only having a weekly airing.
The second episode benefited from the timing of the death of Antonin Scalia, especially since The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Nightly Show were on vacation. Mocking the panic buttons from the press, Bee noted calmly that there is a provision in the Constitution for replacing Supreme Court justices.
The opening segment ended with Bee agreeing with Trump and feeling huge remorse. "OK, listen up creamsicle! We had a deal. You open your face hole, garbage spills out, I make jokes, I get to keep my comedy job. You're not allowed to make sense!"
In the first episode, Bee went off on a Kansas state senator Mitch Holmes, who wrote a dress code for the state capital, but only for women. Like Noah has an easier time with comedy on African-American issues, Bee does have a leg up on these types of stories.
The show is similar in format to The Daily Show. Like Noah, Bee does the anchoring standing up, though she has a pseudo podium that works well for her. The first 2 segments have been in studio where the final segment has been a field piece. The interview is definitely not missed on this show.
The first field piece was following around Jeb! like a German documentary. The piece was warm and funny; the pace had tones of the old old Daily Show feel to field pieces circa mid-2000s. The story almost felt like it belonged on Bravo back when Bravo actually showed arts programming.
The second field piece was the first of 2 parts on Bee actually traveling to Jordan to talk to Syrian refugees. We even saw part of the video where Canadians warmly welcomed Syrian refugees to Canada. Nice show of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Syrian refugees once they came to Canada. The snark was saved for the politicians and pundits trying to scare people about Syrian refugees.
Admittedly, Bee worked on field pieces for The Daily Show for 12 years, but you feel this warm and happy, informed and entertained feeling that often is missing from the current crop on Comedy Central.
The show has some of the anger and angst from the old program, and doesn't sound any different than what we heard from John Oliver or Jon Stewart. The whole "female host" gets dealt with in the open to the show, though hopefully with time, that will disappear as humor isn't restricted to gender.
Bee wraps up the show with great appreciation for the audience. In the second episode, Bee did say a segment on women in the workplace had to be postponed because of the Scalia death story, so Scalia lived as he died, interfering in women's plans. The "Colbert Report" suffered from not having a good way to end the show most nights. An extra joke at the end is worth sitting through the last commercial break.
Bee has the advantage of working on this type of a show for 12 years, but needs to find her own voice. You can already see where this is heading and we want to be along for the ride.
"Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" airs Monday nights at 10:30 pm Eastern on TBS in the United States and in Canada on The Comedy Network. That makes for one of the few Canadians to have a late-night talk show in Canada, even if the show pokes fun at the United States and is not produced with Canada in mind.
Thanks Jon Stewart and 'The Daily Show' for your pokes on Canada
Our Daily Show tribute to Samantha Bee, Jason Jones
CanadianCrossing.com Daily Show coverage
When Samantha Bee was on The Daily Show, there was an ongoing bit over a woman hosting The Daily Show from the 2008 classic bit seen above.
A Canadian gets to grace the host chair of 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'
In 2014, Bee got a chance to host, well, co-host part of The Daily Show along with her husband, Jason Jones. Bee and Jones could have had some fun co-hosting The Daily Show. We understand the reason (millennials) why Comedy Central, with Jon Stewart's blessing, went with Trevor Noah (millennials) but Noah is more likely to pull punches where a verbal joust is needed. While Bee and Jones hosted only one Daily Show, you definitely saw the potential.
Jason Jones, Samantha Bee 'share' Daily Show chair
Even if you are fast-forwarding through the commercial breaks, you can't miss the promos for "The Detour," the family comedy produced by Bee and her husband Jason Jones and starring Jones. The scene where Jones and his TV wife explain sex was painfully true, a bit over the top, and truly hilarious. And that was in the promo. "The Detour" premieres April 11 on TBS.
Bee has proven, even in 2 episodes, that she doesn't need a co-anchor or a desk. She brings just enough of the old Daily Show magic, a bit more swearing, and a Canadian perspective to U.S. and world events.
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Canada has a rich history of comedy, yet very few late-night talk shows north of the border. The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos is the most obvious recent example. That was more of a talk show with very little comedy.
"Ed & Red's Night Party" ran on City TV from 1995-2008. Mike Bullard had a good run with Open Mike on CTV from 1997-2003 and his short-lived Global show from 2003-2004.
To be fair, CBC airs political humour with "This Hour Has 22 Minutes," though that is only 30 minutes per week. "Tout le monde en parle" certainly counts as an influential talk show on Radio-Canada. The Canadian version has been around since 2004, but is only on once a week. While the influence is strong in Quebec and French-speaking populations, not many from English Canada watch the show.
Late night is a good place to test out new talent. Currently, CBC runs Coronation Street reruns after the late local news followed by reruns of CBC prime time shows, past and present. CTV and Global would rather run late-night American shows. There is great potential for late-night Canadian TV success.
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Canadians don't often get to host a late-night show in the United States. The obvious reference is to "Thicke of the Night" which, despite the many jokes about the show, lasted 10 months from the fall of 1983 to the summer of 1984.
Even though your humble narrator was alive in those days, I don't remember seeing this show. Watching YouTube clips did not bring back any memories.
Research tells us that Richard Belzer, Arsenio Hall, and Gilbert Gottfried, among others, contributed to the show. So the program couldn't have been that bad, though parts of it were that bad.
Thicke got the opportunity to do the nighttime show based on the success of his daytime show, the appropriately named "The Alan Thicke Show" that ran on CTV from 1980-1983.
To be fair, part of why the jokes continue about the show that apparently few watched is that shortly after the run, Thicke enjoyed sitcom success with "Growing Pains." Hard to make fun of someone that few would have remembered. Also, Thicke has had a good sense of humor about the nighttime show and his career. His work on "How I Met Your Mother" was an opportunity to tie in with the Canadian references on the program.
The show was produced by Metromedia and syndicated on over-the-air stations. While syndication was very popular back then, late night was more difficult since most stations set their own lineups, so it really depended on where you live as to when the show would come on the air.
Tom Green had a late-night show on MTV that lasted about 15 months of new episodes in 1999 and 2000, and was a carryover from his show in Canada that first aired on Rogers Television 22 in Ottawa and late on The Comedy Network. The show was briefly revived in 2003 as "The New Tom Green Show."
George Stroumboulopoulos did a variation on The Hour on CNN that was handled so poorly by the U.S. cable news outlet that you never knew from week to week whether an episode would actually air.
Stroumboulopoulos update: The Canadians have disappeared
George Stroumboulopoulos CNN show dominated by Canadians
Samantha Bee may be on only a single day of the week, but everyone can easily find her on TBS.
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videos credit: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee/TBS; The Daily Show with Jon Stewart/Comedy Central
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