The Late-Night Sausage Fest

CBS recently announced the weekly guest hosts of "The Late Late Show" for the three months between the end of Craig Ferguson's run and the beginning of James Corden's. The list includes Judd Apatow, Will Arnett, Wayne Brady, Drew Carey, Jim Gaffigan, Billy Gardell, Sean Hayes, Thomas Lennon, John Mayer, and Kunal Nayyar. In other words, they're all men.

The "sausage fest" that is late-night television has received many complaints about it's lack of female representation, especially in the past year. And still, it appears as though CBS couldn't find even one singular funny woman to host the "Late Late Show" for a week. The only exception to this is the five woman who host CBS's daytime talk show, "The Talk." The group -- Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Aisha Tyler, and Sheryl Underwood -- will be doing a late-late-night version of their show during one of the weeks.

As you all probably guessed, I have a lot of issues with this. First of all, "The Talk" is a daytime talk show. Their content is not at all what audiences want during a late night talk show. I'm not saying that they can't pull it off. I'm just saying that it makes no sense to book them over other women in the industry. Furthermore, what message does it send that CBS thinks it takes five women to do the job of one man? The network could have just asked one of them to host (maybe Sheryl Underwood or Aisha Tyler, seeing as they are both established comedic performers. But apparently, CBS would prefer all five of them share the duty.

As for the men that will guest host, most of them are experienced comedic performers with connection to CBS or one of its sister cable channels. I will call it ridiculous, however, of CBS to hire Billy Gardell over his much more famous co-star, Melissa McCarthy. But I can get over that. What I can't get over is John Mayer. Last I checked, he isn't a comedian. How did CBS end up that far down the list of eligible performers to ask John Mayer and yet still couldn't come up with any women?!

Without women hosting late night shows, all shows in the genre seem to share a certain sameness. All of these shows share the same perspective, same humor, even same guests. Adding more women to the mix would expand the boundaries of what's possible in late-night. And give some new, fresh perspective.

GIRLS

Last week the trailer for season two of HBO's Emmy winning show Girls was released. I for one, am super excited since this was one of my favorite shows last year. Girls is the brainchild of writer/director/actor Lena Dunham and is produced by Judd Apatow. Before Girls Dunham was also known for her Indie Spirit Award-winning 2010 mumblecore flick Tiny Furniture, which she released 2 years after graduating from Oberlin College (basically putting us all to shame). Girls, which first premiered last year, follows Dunham's Hannah and her three other college girlfriends living in New York City as they navigate their way through careers, relationships and finding their way in life. Among Dunham the show stars Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet, and Jemima Kirke.

The reason I love this show so much is not only because its hilarious, but because it is so REAL. The characters and situations really resonate with my generation especially, as we are all about to face the "real world" after college. Though many critics have had problems with nepotism in the casting (Brian Williams, David Mamet, Bad Company's Simon Kirke), I don't think its a very legitimate argument against the show, since the presence of nepotism is something that everyone has to deal with in any industry. Plus, all of the girls are great actors anyway, so its not like they didn't deserve getting cast. Another controversial factor in the show is that it doesn't feature many characters of color despite taking place in New York City. Dunham said she has made an effort to change this for the upcoming second season. However, the show is loosely based on Lena Dunham's own life, so the characters we see is her own reality.

I think some people love to hate Girls because they don't like seeing a young woman make it as a writer and director in a male dominated industry. The reality is this show is extremely well-crafted and the dialogue is very smart. Dunham's been compared to Woody Alllen in her writing style, which I can definitely see. I'm going to make a bold statement and say that Girls IS one of the best shows out there right now. I would definitely recommend watching the first season, and I can't wait for January!

Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks is a show based in the early 1980's that deals with the typical teenager's problems. This show has a knock out cast featuring young James Franco, Seth Rogan, Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini, Busy Phillips, etc. The show is divided into the under class men and the upper class men and their collective and individual struggles but in school and home life.
Freaks and Geeks was Judd Apatow's first major hit show. Along with being Apatow's first success it was also James Franco, Seth Rogan, and Jason Segel's as well. This show is a cult classic, though it only survived one season. What makes this show such a knock out is it's plethora of timeless themes, stands on it's own as a period piece, and possesses unique and organic characters. Also, the writers did an excellent job of capturing those awkward young adolescent encounters that bring you back to your time as an awkward teenager.