The Late Shift Movie Review 1996

Cable adaptation of Bill Carter's book chronicling the follies surrounding NBC's "The Tonight Show" succession battle between Jay Leno (Roebuck) and Dave Letterman (Higgins). It's the behind-the-scenes dealmakers that really steal the show, however, including Jay's profane manager Helen Kushnick (Bates) and superagent Michael Ovitz (Williams), who ultimately orchestrated Dave's move to rival CBS. Both Letterman and Leno made the movie/book fodder for their opening monlogues.

Distribution

HBO, 1100 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10036, Phone: (212)512-7400, Fax: (212)512-7498, URL: http://www.hbo.com, Remarks: Online sales through www.store.hbo.com

Available on VHS
Running time 96 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

True Stories, Mass Media, Corporate Shenanigans, This Is Your Life

Screenplay

Bill Carter, George Armitage

Cast

Daniel Roebuck, John Michael Higgins, Kathy Bates, Treat Williams, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley, Rich Little, Sandra Bernhard, Peter Jurasik, Reni Santoni, John Kapelos, John Getz, Lawrence Pressman

Cinematography

Mac Ahlberg

Director

Betty Thomas

Music

Ira Newborn

Producer

Don Carmody, Ivan Reitman, Northern Lights