The Late Shift is a 1996 American TV movie produced by HBO. It is directed by Betty Thomas and based on the book of the same name by The New York Times media reporter Bill Carter.

Plot synopsis[link]

Behind-the-scenes network politics embroil television executives responsible for late-night programming after the unexpected retirement announcement of Johnny Carson (played by Rich Little) from The Tonight Show on NBC in 1992.

Carson's frequent guest host, Jay Leno (Daniel Roebuck), and the host of the show that follows Carson's each night, David Letterman (John Michael Higgins), both vie for the position. It is widely assumed Letterman is the hand-picked heir apparent Carson favors, but privately NBC's executives speculate that Leno could be more popular with 11:30 p.m. audiences as well as easier for the network to deal with and control.

Leno's tough manager, Helen Kushnick (Kathy Bates), secures the spot for Leno with negotiating tactics that could be construed as either shrewd or unethical. Leno is concerned that her methods might alienate Carson, but he made promises to Kushnick after his career took off and does not wish to be disloyal. She harshly instructs the comic to just keep telling jokes and leave the business end to her.

Surely enough, she lands Leno the coveted job as Tonight Show host and the producer's position for herself, on the condition that no public announcement will be made. Letterman continues to believe he is still in contention for it. Another reason NBC's executives prefer Leno is that they will own the show, whereas Letterman maintains ownership rights to his.

Kushnick's abrasive and threatening manner angers Leno's bosses, colleagues and potential guests. The top NBC execs warn the mild-mannered Leno that they are going to fire Kushnick and, if he sides with her, he might be let go as well. Leno eavesdrops on a private executive meeting in which they discuss the possibility of having Letterman step in as host. The final say falls to the chairman of GE, Jack Welch, who advises the NBC execs that they should remain loyal to Leno.

Letterman, devastated by his being passed over, brings in superagent Mike Ovitz (Treat Williams) to negotiate on his behalf, resulting in his being courted by a number of major networks and syndicates. He continues to want his lifelong dream of hosting the Tonight Show, but when a colleague of Carson's makes it clear that the Tonight job is no longer what it used to be and that he would be working with the same people who passed him by, Letterman accepts a lucrative offer to host his own 11:30 show on CBS.

Kushnick is dismissed by NBC and barred from the set. She pleads with Leno to keep his promise to her, but he is livid that she nearly cost him a dream job. Letterman and Leno ultimately go head-to-head at 11:30, Letterman winning in the TV ratings in the beginning, then Leno firmly re-establishing his show's dominance. Their personal relationship, once cordial, is never quite the same.

Cast[link]

Reception[link]

The film received seven Emmy Award nominations in categories including "Outstanding Made for Television Movie",^[1] makeup,^[2] casting,^[2] writing,^[3] directing,^[1] and acting.^[1] For her role in the film as Helen Kushnick, actress Kathy Bates won awards from the American Comedy Awards,^[4] the Golden Globe Awards,^[5] the Satellite Awards,^[6] and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.^[7] The film was also recognized with an award for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Specials" from the Directors Guild of America Awards.^[8] David Letterman, who saw clips of the film, called the movie "the biggest waste of film since my wedding photos". He also likened John Michael Higgins's portrayal to that of a "psychotic chimp". Letterman invited Higgins onto his program, but Higgins declined.^[9]

Awards and nominations[link]

Lawsuit[link]

Kushnick filed a $30 million lawsuit against Bill Carter, author of the eponymous book upon which the HBO film was based, claiming libel. Specifically, her case related to a claim that she planted a story about Carson's retirement in the New York Post.^[12] The then-pending lawsuit was noted in the film's epilogue, as the Broadway tune "There's No Business Like Show Business" plays. The lawsuit settled out of court for an undisclosed sum; Kushnick died of cancer in August 1996.^[13]

Sequel[link]

Carter wrote a sequel to The Late Shift titled The War for Late Night, which is based on the controversy involving Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show and NBC.^[14] During O'Brien's last week of shows, guest Quentin Tarantino suggested that he direct a sequel to The Late Shift, cast O'Brien as himself and make it a revenge movie in the style of his film Kill Bill with the title Late Shift 2: The Rolling Thunder of Revenge.^[15][16][17] O'Brien joked on his final Tonight Show that he wants Academy Award-winning actress Tilda Swinton to portray him in the movie. Swinton responded by saying she would "absolutely" do it if asked.^[18]

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Carter, Bill (January 30, 1994). "Behind the Headlines in the Leno-Letterman War". New York Times: p. 628. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/30/magazine/behind-the-headlines-in-the-leno-letterman-war.html?pagewanted=1. 
• Carter, Bill (2007). Desperate Networks. Broadway. pp. 333–340. ISBN 0-7679-1974-2. 
• Carter, Bill (2010). The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-02208-3. 

Lawsuit

• Helen Gorman Kushnick v. Disney Book Publishing, Inc., et al. (1994) Los Angeles Superior Court

External links[link]

• The Late Shift at the Internet Movie Database

The Late Shift may refer to:

• The Late Shift (book), a book about 1990s conflict regarding The Tonight Show.
  • The Late Shift (film), an HBO film based on the book.
• 2010 Tonight Show conflict, also nicknamed as The Late Shift 2, a similar conflict regarding The Tonight Show.
• Comedy Inc: The Late Shift, an Australian sketch show on Comedy Inc.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Edgar Heap of Birds
Heap of Birds at the 2009 Americans for the Arts convention.
Birth name	Hock E Aye Vi
Born	(1954-11-22)November 22, 1954 Wichita, Kansas, United States
Nationality	Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes
Field	Painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, installation, conceptual
Training	MFA Tyler School of Art, BFA University of Kansas, Royal College of Art
Works	In Our Language, Wheel
Website	http://www.heapofbirds.com/

Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds) (b. 1954) (enrolled in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes) creates art that includes multi-disciplinary forms of public art messages, large scale drawings, Neuf Series acrylic paintings, prints,^[1] and monumental porcelain enamel on steel outdoor sculpture.

Early life[link]

Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds was born on 22 November 1954 in Wichita, Kansas, where his father worked in the aeronautical industry. He attended East High School in Wichita and graduated in 1972. After graduation in 1972, Heap of Birds studied at Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas.^[2]

Heap of Birds received his MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in 1979, his BFA from The University of Kansas in 1976, and has undertaken graduate studies at The Royal College of Art, London, England from 1976-1977.^[3]

Professional career[link]

Heap of Birds has taught as Visiting Professor at Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa. At The University of Oklahoma, Professor Heap of Birds teaches in Native American Studies and Fine Arts. His seminars explore issues of the contemporary artist on a local, national and international basis.

Heap of Birds's critical reputation has been established most by his political and site-specific public signage projects. One example is Building Minnesota (1990), a signage installation mounted on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota and commissioned by the Walker Art Center.^[4] In it, Heap of Birds set forty large, metal, billboard-like signs along Minneapolis's downtown riverfront. The signs honored the forty Dakota men who were sentenced to death by Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson after the US-Dakota Conflict of 1862, in what is the largest mass execution in American history.

Recently Heap of Birds created a fifty-foot signature, outdoor sculpture titled: "Wheel," as a signature entrance piece at Daniel Liebeskind's addition to the Denver Art Museum. The circular porcelain enamel on steel work was commissioned by The Denver Art Museum and is inspired by the traditional Medicine Wheel of the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming.

Awards[link]

He has received grants and awards from The National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Lila Wallace Foundation, Bonfil Stanton Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trust.

Books[link]

• Blasted Allegories, an Anthology of Artists Writings, New Museum-MIT Press, 1987.
• Makers, Point Riders Press, 1998.
• The Myth of the Primitive, Susan Hiller (Editor), Routledge Press, 1991.
• Completing The Circle: Artists’ Books On The Environment, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, 1992.
• Visit Teepee Town, Native Writing After the Detours, Dianne Glancy and Mark Nowak, Coffee House Press, 1999.
• Most Serene Republics, National Museum of American Indian.

See also[link]

• List of Native American artists
• Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Lester, Patrick D. The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters. Norman and London: The Oklahoma University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8061-9936-9.
• Reno, Dawn. Contemporary Native American Artists. Brooklyn, NY: Alliance Publishing, 1995. ISBN 0-9641509-6-4.

External links[link]

• Artist's Official website
• Heap of Birds Venice Biennale 2007 exhibit
• Who Stole the Teepee exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian (see the Beyond Smoke & Mirrors section)
• Continuum 12 exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian

External links[link]

• Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Vision Project, Bradley Pecore