The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Interesting and short television movie describes some of the machinations surrounding Jay Leno's replacing Carson as host of the Tonight Show. Film is currently very topical given the public drama surrounding Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno.The film does a good job of sparking viewers' interest in the events and showing some of the concerns of the stakeholders, particularly of the NBC executives. The portrayal of Ovitz was particularly compelling and interesting, I thought.Still, many of the characters were only very briefly limned or touched upon, and some of the acting seemed perfunctory. Nevertheless, an interesting story.

Over the years I've watched this movie many times from seeing it on "HBO" and I now own a copy on DVD. I must say it's very memorable and entertaining in the meantime it's interesting and educational too. As any TV fan can relate to the time of the early 90's when the time came up to replace Johhny Carson the TV living legend of "The Tonight Show" who's it gonna be Jay or Dave? This original film from HBO "The Late Shift" stays true to form and depicts the real events very well showing the behind the scenes battle between networks heads of NBC and CBS and even ABC they were all fighting for the services of Jay and Dave. The acting makes it seem real as very little actual TV footage is shown with real life people as the actors portraying Leno and Letterman make it seem so real. I haven't read the Bill Carter book so I don't know if it stayed true to the pages, but I have highly enjoyed this film over the years. From the moment when it starts showing CBS entertainment heads watching Leno sub for Johhny and they decide they want to get in on the late night game. Yet when Carson announces his unexpected retirement NBC wants to stay loyal with Leno yet conflict arrives when Letterman wants a crack at the slot at 11:30 too. It was fun to watch the wacky meeting with Michael Ovitz(Treat Williams)who makes all networks want to consider Letterman for a show. It was interesting to see the scene of Johhny telling Letterman by phone in a direct way to walk from NBC and consider CBS. And by the way Rich Little was terrific as Johhny Carson his portrayal couldn't be matched. And plenty of tense moments were provided by showing the bickering and firing of Leno's talent manager Helen which NBC heads pressured him to do. Overall great film that showed what TV is really like and it proves that networks are power and money hungry while showing that's it's a cutthroat business. Clearly there's no business like show business. Great work from HBO very memorable and a watch anytime it showed the true story of the late night wars.

Good movie, great story, great characters, I enjoyed it immensely, enough to buy the DVD when it came out. The real life story it purports to tell is more fascinating and engrossing than anything the fictionalizers could ever come up with. My friend who is in the media business said they shouldn't show insider dealings like this, it gives the business a bad name. As if.There are a few problems with the DVD though: First, the sound volume is awfully low so you have to run up the TV volume to watch it. I notice that its also like that when HBO runs it so its in the original production copy. Second, for about the first five minutes the left side of the video is cut off, that is the picture is cut off about one inch short of the left side. After the five minutes it fills the screen properly, left to right. Sloppy technical production like that is very amateurish and I don't know why the director and producer let such sloppiness slide by.Still, even with the technical flaws, its an enjoyable story, one of HBO's best I think.

I can't tell whether this movie would be interesting to people who are wheelers and dealers, but it interested me precisely because I'm not. If I'd paid half the attention to ploying the system, squeezing the cow, as these characters do, who knows what dazzling heights I might have reached? The story is probably familiar to most viewers by now. When Johnny Carson announces his retirement from The Tonight Show, NBC has to choose between two replacements -- Jay Leno and David Letterman, who can both claim to be qualified. They choose Jay Leno, which annoys Letterman. Not that Leno and Letterman aren't friends, but their socioeconomic interests are in conflict. All sorts of wheelings and dealings go on, which end with Leno keeping The Tonight Show and Letterman moving to an opposite spot at CBS.Godzillions of dollars are involved of course, so it behooves everyone to act rationally. The problem faced by these characters -- not just the two stars but everyone else -- is defining "rational." Reason ought to lead you to achieving a goal. But suppose you have several goals, equally important, and contradictory? Is "success" measured in dollars? In self-satisfaction? In security at the expense of self expression? How much is friendship and loyalty worth? These are hard decisions to make but, fortunately, for millionaires it's not lonely at the top. There's plenty of advice.The most reasonable person -- in the sense that he is least influenced by fear or sentiment -- is Michael Ovitz, played by Treat Williams. As someone says jokingly about him, talking to him is like talking to the Godfather. "You have a problem? We can solve it." Ovitz went on, as I understand it, to head Walt Disney but has recently been involved in some sort of contretemps. I think they're kicking him out of Walt Disney and giving him two million godzillion dollars to ease the pain of his passage.The most interesting character, I thought, was Helen Kushnik, Kathy Bates. She was Jay Leno's totem person. And -- the book is more explicit about this -- she was evidently one of those people who, once in power, go completely berserk and believe that limits don't apply to them. It goes beyond pushiness. They become tyrants. I don't want to sound sexist but Kushnik's behavior takes a distinctly feminine form. The monster sacre hiding behind the stage props. Judy Garland's "stage mother." They protect and advance their clients as if the clients were some rare marketable commodity. Kushnik self destructs, as everyone predicts, but I'd have liked to know more about her.But it's also fun watching the sparring that goes on between the players. Here is Jay Leno, host of The Tonight Show, sneaking around through a garage and eavesdropping through a crack in the doorway while a discussion takes place that will decide if Leno is kept on or fired."The Late Shift" isn't about a subject that occupied much of my life space at the time this was going on, but it held my interest because it's one of those minor inexpensive kinds of projects that cable, especially HBO, does so well from time to time. If it's not quite up to the standard set by "Barbarians at the Gates" it's because it wasn't written by Larry Gelbart and it doesn't have James Garner's outrageous lead performance. "The Late Shift" sees some irony in the story but not much in the way of laughs, but that's okay too.It's a intensely thought-provoking movie too. Here is the thought it provoked. "Where in the hell was Michael Ovitz when I needed him?"