Late World with Zach: Zach Galifianakis' Forgotten 2002 VH1 Talk Show

VH1 in 2002 as the early days of the New Millennium rolled along the cable network VH1 found itself at a Crossroads in the 90s their sister station MTV had already begun shifting away their programming from its music based Origins hoping to distinguish themselves from MTV VH1 took the opposite approach and doubled down on music they emphasized that their shows would focus on the music first and launched a series of successful franchises like storytellers popup video and of course behind the Music VH1 had carved a niche in the world of cable television but they were beginning to feel that they were becoming stagnant creatively speaking they had hit a wall they were having trouble launching new shows and people were getting critical of all the Behind the Music reruns the show was great but there's only so many times you can hear Nikki 6 talk about dying before you want to watch something else not helping VH1's midlife crisis was a disatisfaction with the age of their demographic their viewers skewed a bit older and VH1 wanted to Pivot the network away from Baby Boomers to Gen X they were looking for a way to Rebrand their Network and so they did what all networks seem to do in this situation they launched the talk show for reasons I don't fully comprehend talk shows are a go-to move for networks looking for a new identity many in network have tried and failed to launch a new talk show with the hopes of finding a new audience hell this wasn't even VH1's first crack at a talk show in the mid 9s they gave rup Paul a chat show on their Network what would make this one different would be the host h a young unknown comedian named Zach galanakis before baskets or the hangover or due date or The Hangover Enter Zach 3 Zack Alanis was a working comedian he had booked a few minor Parts as an actor on shows like Boston Common but he was most known for his role in the '90s alternative comedy scene with his trademark bushy beard and piano Zach's standup was unique but hilarious he was one of those comedians that other comedians adored amongst those comedic admirers was Janine grao Rao was guest hosting for David Letterman and used that opportunity to help out her friend Zach and book him for his very first late night talk show appearance the gig was Zach's big break and it got him a lot of attention safe to say that without that appearance he might not have gotten a role in the biggest comedy film of the 2000's El cold okay so I may have overestimated how big El cold was it's still pretty great Zach's real big break came when VH1 decided he would be the perfect pick to host their new late night show when it was announced that late world with Zach would premere on VH1 in March of 2002 it was a surprise to everyone including Zach he would later say he took the job without even really thinking about what it meant for his career VH1 explained the decision by telling Outlets that they wanted to find their own unknown comedian just like how NBC found Conan O'Brien Zach says he thinks he only got the job because he played the piano and VH1 thought that would still fit their brand as a music Network comedian Greg Fitz Simmons thinks otherwise in an interview with galanakis for his podcast Fitz dog radio Fitz Simmons talked about a pilot Zach and Greg did called Time Capsule 2000 while the show didn't get picked up Fitz Simmons remember Zack leaving an impression on the VH1 Executives VH1 really wanted their new youth-based rebranding to work and put a lot of focus on promoting their new programming late night would air four nights a week along with another new show never mind the buzz Cox Buzz Cox was hosted by another relatively unknown comedian named Mark Maron but that's for a whole other episode there's a lot of talk in the Press about what the show be Zach would describe his idea as an anti-t talk show one that would make fun of Hollywood he was hoping to create something that fit his sensibilities to help guide his vision he hired future Metalocalypse Creator Tommy blancha as his headwriter Zach had all sorts of ideas for a show including his dream of a trap door under his guests that would open up if they got too boring and so on Late World Premieres and Falters March 4th 2002 late world with Zack made his premiere on VH1 with his first guest the Foo Fighters oh hi how's it going yeah things were going well you're doing okay yeah I'm doing okay first show first show Jitters little jittery yes a little better F little better fli yeah while the show was hyped as an anti-t talk show the First episodes are pretty standard they were random non seiters and bizarre moments thrown in there but most episodes quickly fell into the usual talk show tropes Zach would do a monologue at the piano and make jokes about current events they'd cut to a pre-recorded sketch or two and then do a celebrity interview followed by musical performance musicians that appeared on the show included Vanessa Carlton Natalie and brua Five for Fighting and think about anyone who was on VH1 in 2002 when they probably did the show quite frankly the First episodes of the show are rough Zach appeared very uncomfortable on camera as if even he was confused that he had a talk show on VH1 he also admitted he was High pretty much all the time so that might have something to do with it in later years Zach made it clear just how much he hated doing the interviews they are definitely the hardest parts of the show to watch he's trying his best to appear enthusiastic but it's weird seeing him try to keep the energy up while interviewing a young Rashida Jones about what it's like being the fifth female lead on Boston Public don't get me wrong there were good parts of the show especially in the pre-recorded segments one of the best recurring bits was fake red carpet interviews they'd splice in red carpet interviews with celebrities that had Zach asking questions from an alley obviously nowhere near the event I really only brought it up so I could play my favorite one Denzel Denzel can you talk to a bush for [Music] me you get other little moments like pretending a clip from Friday 13th is from Wayne Brady's newest film but stuff like that was few and far between if you looked hard enough you could find Zach's voice in the show but it almost felt like they had to sneak it in the show felt like a compromise because in many ways it was VH1 didn't medal too much with the day-to-day production but they still had strict rules they expected Zach to follow they had to list back stage of all the artists they weren't allowed to make fun of like Creed or Selen Deion or Sher basically if you were in heavy rotation at VH1 you were considered Untouchable it's why you've never heard a good Eagle eyed Cherry joke Zach was disappointed he wanted to do a talk show like David Letterman but instead he's doing a round table discussion with the cast of sorority boys while Zach was having a hard time figuring out what his talk show Persona would be VH1 was having a harder time with the ratings they were awful the first 3 weeks of the show were averaging only 129,000 viewers a night Zach began making jokes on air about how nobody knew him which peaked when he stood in line with his own audience before the show and nobody recognized him oh it's with that Zach guy I've seen it I wouldn't stand in this line that guy's terrible in an effort to write the ship they hired former David Letterman producer Robert Morton to try and fix the show Morton came in and promptly fell in love with it he thought the show reminded him of young Letterman and didn't think the show needed fixing it just needed time Late World Gets Weird with the pressure mounting in the show circling the drain the crew at late World began to realize they were probably going to get canel is at that point they said it and that's when it got funny as the show marched closer and closer to its inevitable demise it got closer and closer to what the initial vision for late world with Zack was it truly became the anti-t talk show instead of doing a monologue in a studio Zach brought his monologues to daycares old folks homes and City buses Robert dairo is uh producing a uh musical about Queen it's called are you talking to me Fat Bottom Girls are you talking to me one show opened with an empty piano before revealing that Zach called in sick that day and instead would be doing the show from his house the whole episode took place there complete with an interview with Ricky Lake while doing dishes it's I think our audiences are similar well I don't want to speak for your audience mine's really really dumb he began putting red carpets at random locations and interviewing strangers as if they were celebrities he do things like bail on a monologue one joke in and instead do an interpretive dance to Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie he'd randomly shave his beard in the middle of an episode for no discernable reason other than he could there was a whole episode with my new favorite recurring character sneaky Jesus in his favorite episode Zach did a completely by the book episode of the show save for the fact that there was only one disinterested audience member who didn't even stay for the whole taping he still had to do celebrity interviews but he did them more and more on his terms for example a George Lopez interview was hijacked by VH1's quote unquote new consultant for the show Fred Willard that's good jokes here that's good jok don't let him sit here like that he's a major Talent got a series apologize I apologize how were you discovered speaking of VH1 Zach finally began the time honor tradition of talk show host making fun of their own network he ambast to the ratings the guests and especially the musicians surprisingly VH1 liked when Zach mocked them which allows me to make this fun little Montage of him ripping them apart Bono testified yesterday at the air rage trial of RM guitarist Peter Buck it's not really a joke there but this is VH1 I just have to say crap like that how many of you have seen my television show you're the demographic that VH1 is looking for VH1 sucks VH1 sucks all right why don't they cancel Behind the Music you know I mean that thing's on too long Behind the Music is the same old story behind the music the show should be called drugs car crash fat while the new more unhinged version of late world with Late World is Cancelled Zach gained some buzz it was too little too late at the end of April Zach announced the show was canceled then the crowd sheered and confetti dropped the show would air as a lame duck for the rest of that week but all the logos would be plastered over with the word canceled the day he announced the show's demise was also the same day his guests were the band poised which I think just sums up the disconnect between VH1 and Zack Alanis right there one of his final guests may have been his most infamous as his future hangover co-star and a man so desperate for an Academy Award it hurts me Bradley Cooper appeared on the show one of the best examples of Zach's anti-t talk show philosophy their mundane conversation is constantly interrupted by voiceovers of their inner monologues talking about how poorly the interview is going and crazy stuff good if someone farted a fart joke you know somehow I'm not surprised um that was a great fart [Laughter] joke the final episode aired on May 2nd 202 as Zach came out to the theme from The Incredible Hulk and without his piano David ketner played a man hired by VH1 as a one-man laugh track who screamed and laughed throughout the entire episode at inopportune times the show got dangerously close to sincerity but always pulled out at the last second after thanking the most important person involved in the show himself Zach sat on his piano and left America with his final words dearly beloved we are gathered here to get through this thing called life electric word life it means forever and that's a mighty long time but I'm here to tell you there's something else the afterworld a world of never- ending happiness you can always see the Sun day or night so when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills you know the one doctor everything will be all right you know what I'm just trying to say let's go crazy let's get down that's it Zach walked out of the studio and into a dumpster and late world was over its entire run was less than 2 months the The Legacy of Late World show was become a cult classic much has been written about its Brilliance and how it was canceled too soon but I don't agree an article Zack and GQ Magazine set of late world that didn't get funny until it was going to get killed and boy was that right the show only became great when it was clear and had no chance of survival it wasn't a show that was killed too soon it's a show where lucky lived for as long as it did after the show Zach went back to a standup career he downplayed the effect the cancellation had on him but his friend Pat Oswalt would later tell GQ Magazine they think the cancellation up Zach for a decade Zach's career eventually recovered so greatly that I think most people people aren't even aware he hosted a talk show in VH1 Zack did get a second chance at a talk show when he launched between two ferns that show is much more representative of Zach's sense of humor strangely enough during my research I found that the seeds for Between Two Ferns seemed to be planted even way back during the late World days when people would ask Zach about his idea for a talk show he'd mention he wanted a stark almost Charlie Rose s dark background he'd want no studio audience and of course he'd want no celebrity guests well two out of three ain't bad right thanks for watching if you enjoyed the video please consider hitting the like button if you want to see more of my videos maybe consider hitting subscribe and if you want to do either one of those things that's fine but you should probably keep watching 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