Just think how NBC's hype campaign would've petered out if Sinatra had died a day earlier, instead after Seinfeld was already over.
What do you bet that NBC knew Sinatra had died by the time Leno's "Seinfeld" lovefest began, but didn't want to interrupt the show and screw up their juggernaut night of ratings? Notice how the "NBC Special Report" came on *right* after the Leno show ended?
Eb
Nonsense. First of all, the Leno taping ended a good five hours or more before Sinatra was rushed to the hos- pital...and aired on the East Coast a good three hours beforehand as well. If I'm not mistaken, the final Seinfeld was long over, ER and local news had ended, and the Leno show had hit air even on the West Coast, before the Cedars/ Sinai crew had pronounced Sinatra dead...and Leno was over before the family released the sad news some time later. Neither NBC nor anyone else outside Sinatra's immediate family and his physicians knew he had passed away until close to 4 in the morning in the East...and almost 1 AM in the West.
The only connections between Sinatra's passing and Seinfeld's retirement (at least for the moment) were, 1) they happened the same day, and 2) they represented respect- ively the passing of the one musical giant with the biggest cross-generational appeal, and the final curtain for the last truly mass-appeal comedy TV show. We won't see either musicians or TV series with such universal appeal again, in our increasingly fragmented and demographically divided popular culture.
In article , [email] (Talk1370) wrote:
Well, a) Leno taping five hours beforehand is totally irrelevant, since the interruption would've been a *live* report from the news division. b) I was talking about West Coast programming. Yes, he died too late to make the East Coast showings of Leno.
But I don't agree about "almost 1 AM in the West" -- while I didn't hear about the death until shortly after Conan began at 12:35 AM, some other West Coast people reported seeing special reports interrupt the Letterman show (which *ends* at 12:35 AM). Maybe the news of Sinatra's death wasn't released until after midnight, but it seems to have been released well before the end of the Leno hour.
Eb
Seinfeld's retirement (at least for the moment) were, 1) they happened the same day, and 2) they represented respect- ively the passing of the one musical giant<
Maybe it was more than a coincidence that Frank's passing was on the same day as the last Seinfeld episode. Maybe Ole Blue Eyes was heartbroken over the series ending. ;-)
We lost two greats that day! What a loss--but they left behind their legacies--they live on!
Sue K Gurnee, IL (written as I'm listening to "My Way" from the Sinatra CD "The Main Event - Live from Madison Square Garden).