Craig Ferguson has done a lot of outside-the-box things during his run with The Late Late Show, and there was little doubt that his final show as host would contain some big surprises. But for a while there, it looked like Ferguson was taking a gracious and straightforward bow out. And then this twist ending galloped along.
First of all, I’d like to give Craig Ferguson and his team a slow clap, not only for putting together a fantastic talk show over the past ten years, but for paying homage to two great sitcoms of years past during his final show. Pop stars be damned.
In true deadpan style, Ferguson’s old four-legged pal Secretariat pulled off his fabric head to reveal comedy icon Bob Newhart inside the costume. (I’d like to think this is how Bob Newhart has spent his time over the years, but that’s probably animal cruelty.) Newhart then doubles down on the surprises by revealing the Scot’s entire Late Late Show has all been a dream.
This superb ending recalls the memorable Newhart finale, in which The Bob Newhart Show’s Bob Hartley wakes up and reveals Dick Loudon’s run at the Stratford in was all a dream. Only instead of Suzanne Pleshette and Newhart in bed, it’s Ferguson and Drew Carey, reprising their respective roles from The Drew Carey Show. I don’t think anyone expected these guys to end up in bed together all these years later, but times are a’changing. There’s a great well-meaning jab at Carey, where Ferguson says he’s better when he’s not “thin and game show host-y.”
Beyond a solid and non-showy final interview with Jay Leno, Ferguson also put the following star-studded video out there, set to Glasgow band Dead Man Fall’s “Bang Your Drum.” Steve Carrell. Lisa Kudrow. Samuel L. Jackson. William Shatner. Kristen Bell playing drums on her pregnant belly. It’s all here!
Now that Ferguson is leaving, the world will enter a dark period (of repeats) until Drew Carey takes over as the first in a line of guest hosts, bridging the gap until The Late Late Show's new host James Corden takes over later next year. He’ll be following Stephen Colbert’s Late Show gig, and TV will never be the same.
Farewell, Craig, Secretariat and Geoff. May the grass always been greener.
