The Van Gogh-Goghs’ Late Night Talk Show Fantasy League Draft
With all the upheaval in the late night talk show world, well all the upheaval at NBC’s The Tonight Show, the Van Gogh-Goghs decided to hold a draft for their Late Night Talk Show Fantasy League. The draft was an 8-round snake draft and participants had to pick the following:
1 show host, 1 second banana or band leader/band or featured player, 2 guests, 1 musical/comedy performance guest, 2 comedy bits, 1 show host for a follow-up or lead-in program
Once a person or bit is picked they/it are unavailable for the rest of the draft. The draft order:
Charles
T. Mike
Galen
Alan
Jason (Jason was unavailable for the draft, but he was allowed to pick his team from the scraps left over from the others’ choices)
Round 1:
Charles: David Letterman
T. Mike: Johnny Carson
Galen: Arsenio Hall
Alan: Dick Cavett
Predictably the first round went to lock up the host slot for each of the shows. Big surprises in the first round: neither Conan or Leno are picked.
Round 2:
Alan makes sure he has a strong second banana with his second pick of Andy Richter.
Galen looks to the comedy bits in this round and chooses Triumph the insult comic dog.
T. Mike gets his follow-up show host locked in with Conan O’Brien.
Charles ends round two by choosing Top Ten Lists to go along with his Letterman pick.
Round 3:
Charles starts round three by rounding out his comedy bit picks with Carnac.
T. Mike tries an Ed Sullivan move with his third pick and books The Beatles as his musical guest.
Galen finishes his comedy bit picks with Stupid Pet Tricks.
Alan rounds out the 3rd round with his first comedy bit pick Marlon Brando (as played by Chris Elliott).
Round 4
Alan’s fourth pick is another comedy bit, Art Fern.
Galen uses the fourth round to to start working on his guests. Guest number 1: Barack Obama.
T. Mike finally gets around to his comedy bits and picks Viewer Mail as his first bit.
Charles’s fourth round pick for guest number 1 goes to Jonathan Winters.
Round 5
Charles goes to the follow up show host category to lead the 5th round and finally Jay Leno is picked.
T. Mike finishes up his comedy bit picks by picking Letterman’s suits made of weird stuff.
Galen picks his number 2 guest and takes Robin Williams to bring some humor to his guest chair.
Alan’s 5th round pick causes a bit of a debate, leading to the Van Gogh-Goghs throwing out his first pick: Throbbing Gristle featuring Miley Cirus. Since this pairing has never happened it couldn’t be picked. So Alan picks De La Soul for his musical guest.
Round 6
Alan begins the sixth round with a surprise, but solid, pick for his first guest:Â Fidel Castro.
Galen finally gets around to his musical guest act and picks Prince.
T. Mike’s sixth round pick goes to Steve Martin as his first guest.
Charles goes with musical guest in this round and threatens to throw a party on his show with P-Funk.
Round 7
After a head fake and making T. Mike think he was going with Ed McMahon, Charles goes with Paul Shaffer as his second banana/band leader.
T. Mike, feeling threatened, snags Ed McMahon to fill the seat next to his Carson.
After a little confusion over whether Charles’s Shaffer pick also takes The World’s Most Dangerous Band off the table, Galen goes with Doc Severinson.
Alan finished the next-to-last round with his second guest pick of Bill Murray.
Round 8
Alan’s final pick is follow-up host and he goes political with presidential offspring Ron Reagan (yes, he had a talk show).
Galen also is left with his follow-up host as his final pick and also goes political with Bill Maher.
T. Mike only has his second guest left to pick and goes political as well with John F. Kennedy.
Charles rounds out his team and finishes off the draft with his second guest and gets two guests for the price of one with Penn and Teller.
To recap the Late Night Talk Show Fantasy League shows picked in the draft:
Charles: David Letterman with Paul Shaffer, Top Ten Lists, Carnac, Jonathan Winters, Penn and Teller, P-Funk and Jay Leno as the follow-up host.
T. Mike: Johnny Carson with Ed McMahon, Viewer Mail, Suits Made of Weird Stuff, Steve Martin, JFK, The Beatles and Conan as the follow-up host.
Galen: Arsenio Hall with Doc Severinson, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Stupid Pet Tricks, Barack Obama, Robin Williams, Prince and Bill Maher as the follow-up host.
Alan: Dick Cavett with Andy Richter, Chris Elliott’s Marlon Brando, Art Fern, Fidel Castro, Bill Murray, De La Soul and Ron Reagan as the follow-up host.
Jason: Zach Galifianakis with Chris Elliott, Crushing things with an 80-ton hydraulic press, The Fugitive Guy, Andy Kaufman, Fred Phelps, GG Allin, and Jimmy Kimmel as the follow-up host.