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THE LATE SHIFT was an interesting made for HBO movie that took a detailed look at the power struggle that ensued between David Letterman and Jay Leno when Johnny Carson announced his retirement and both wanted to replace him. This struggle is now part of Hollywood folklore, but for those who don't know the story and are aware of where Letterman is now, it might be interesting to learn that David Letterman wanted to replace Johnny Carson as host of THE TONIGHT SHOW more than anything in the world, but Letterman found his dreams being derailed as frequent guest host Leno had one of Hollywood's most powerful agents, Helen Kushnick, in his corner and working tirelessly to get her client the job. It's not often that we get to see behind the scenes Hollywood machinations recreated for entertainment value, but for fans of these two late night superstars, this movie provided a fascinating look at a very turbulent period in late night television. According to this movie, Letterman was practically promised the job by Carson himself while NBC had promised the job to Leno and that's where Helen Kushnick came in. The movie presents Leno as sort of a milquetoast who allowed his career to be manipulated by Kushnick and feigned ignorance to some of Helen's strong-willed manipulations of some of NBC's biggest power players and it presents Letterman as this smart and savvy businessman who, despite having Carson's support, was railroaded by NBC and Kushnick. John Michael Higgins and Daniel Roebuck credibly recreate Letterman and Leno, respectively, but it is the razor-sharp performance of Oscar winner Kathy Bates as Helen Kushnick that keeps this movie bubbling. Bates commands the screen in one of her best, if not so well-known performances as the venomous Hollywood agent who eats television studio executives for breakfast. There is also a wonderful turn by impressionist Rich Little as Johnny Carson, but it is primarily a fascinating story and the powerhouse performance by Bates that make this one worth checking out.

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.

While The Late Shift is in no way as good as the original book that describes in detail what happened to David Letterman, Jay Leno, Johnny Carson, Helen Kushnik and the rest of the late night cast of Characters, it is quite enjoyable, a good ride, and a fun time. Both Leno and Letterman are played well, if not a wee bit over-acted. It's worth renting.

I think this movie actually has a lot of nice things to say about a lot of people (Johnny Carson, Ted Koppel), and it shows that Letterman and Leno actually liked and respected each other a lot. Treat Williams as the half-Kung Fu Master, half-Godfather-like Mike Ovitz is terrific.

This movie is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the book, so if there are any inaccuracies they trace to the book, not the movie. The only thing that I noticed was left out of the movie was some of the background that took place in the 80s and even 70s - the book opens by explaining that Carson wanted Letterman to follow him, and going into why Leno was so loyal to Kushnick. The film gives very abbreviated versions of this background two thirds of the way in, which I think would be confusing to viewers who hadn't read the book, making them wonder for most of the movie why people were behaving the way they were.

Sequencing aside, the movie is a quite good job of adapting the book. I do wish the film had done a better job of explaining Carson and Letterman's friendship, and the rather vile emotional manipulations the book alleges Kushnick used on Leno. However, most of what was left out wouldn't really have worked in film formanyway.

In so far as the book was an accurate story of the late night wars, the movie is too. If you're wondering what happened with Leno and Letterman, this movie will do in a pinch if you don't want to read the book.

If you don't care about Leno and Letterman, this is a decent drama full of intrigue that probably would be worth your time if you catch in on TV, but it's not really worth renting or buying, the movie kind of assumes you already know and care about the Leno and Letterman saga. Only Leno's background is hinted at, and again, not until late in the movie, and I think the entire movie manages to not mention Letterman is from Indiana, had a long-time friendship with Carson, and it fails to really explain why Letterman was even worth fighting over in the first place, mostly he comes off as an egotistical jerk in this movie.

This movie is mostly for fans of either of the late-night shows. It didn't have to be, with some better editing this could have been a fascinating story even if you'd never heard of El Chinno or the Gap-toothed one.