Top 10 reasons 'The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson' will be missed

When the clock struck 1:30 a.m. last night, Craig Ferguson, the host of The Late Late Show, officially hung up his coat on his CBS talk show. Thus, the former Drew Carey Show decided his follow-up to David Letterman’s program had enough mileage with nearly 10 years on the air, and left the Bob Barker Studio for good.

After attempts from Tom Snyder and Craig Kilborn to make The Late Late Show a household name, Ferguson was the first and, thus far, only one to really make an impression. Through his irreverent humor, laid-back attitude, on-the-spot wit and good-natured persona, Ferguson made a basic-cable program like no other.

He may have only had a select following, but he will still be missed. Ferguson, as he stressed numerous times, is not retiring but simply moving on to bigger —or, at least, different — things. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors. But for no, let’s look back on at least 10 reasons why his after-hours show was so much fun to watch.

Image courtesy of ACE/INFphoto.com

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10. Awkward Pauses
In many ways, what made The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson so special was its ability to make what would normally be a weakness of any show one of his strengths. Case in point: his awkward pauses. Whether they were with his camera/audience, Geoff Peterson or, especially, his guests, Ferguson liked to make the best of uncomfortable situations and engage in announced or, even better, unannounced silences —much to the benefit of his audience and viewers.

By no means will this be what Ferguson is remembered for during his tenure on the CBS show, but when you’re within the madness of his post-midnight show, a little extra insanity in the host’s eyes or just well-timed reaction shots can go a long way.

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9. His Global Adventures
For economical reasons, Craig Ferguson couldn’t always go around the world, of course. But whenever he got to take his show overseas, be it Paris or Scotland, he wouldn’t just have a studio locked in with tons of familiar landmark merchandise. No, Ferguson would enjoy his time, taking himself and his guest around the streets and valleys. He explored the territory, while also making time for small talk and observational humor.

In a day-and-age where everything needs to be technology-suave and cutting-edge, there’s something refreshing low-key about these episodes. They’re more preoccupied with experiencing culture and history than getting great laughs every minute. That doesn’t mean the laughs weren’t there, of course, but Ferguson’s show was always meant to be more than just that, as I explain a little later.

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8. Intro and Theme Song
In addition to hosting his own talk show, Ferguson also co-wrote and performed the theme song. As Craig spent his younger years leading a rock band, he is no stranger to the music scene, and translated another one of his past talents to the scene when given his hosting gig.

Although there’s not a lot to say about the theme song, besides it being reworked when The Late Late Show went HD, its infectious catchiness always helps to bring a smile to the face and get one jazzed up. While tomorrow’s still “just your future yesterday,” it’s sad to know yesterday was our last yesterday with Ferguson as a late show host…. if that makes sense.

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7. His Throw-Caution-to-the-Wind Interviews
The most telling aspect of Ferguson’s interviews always came very early on, just when the guests were welcomed on stage and sat down. Every time the guest finished waving to the crowd and got situated, the host is seen ripping up his blue question cards and throwing them away behind him like confetti. It’s always subtle — unless the guest points it out — but it’s always apparent to us and explained everything.

For, as one can tell watching the show, it doesn’t really matter to the host what the guest promote or why they are there. What does matter is they are there and he just wants to have a good, fun discussion. As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been too many guests who argue about this simple requests, so Ferguson made some wonderful interviews over the years. These conversations are key to some of the show’s best celebrity fans, like Kristen Bell and the late Robin Williams, and are also home to some of the show’s best series of events, including the aforementioned awkward pauses, as well as Mouth Organ, Big Cash Prize, Guess What Her Majesty the Queen is Thinking, Touch My Glittery Ball or Freeze-Frame High Five, just to name a few. Rather than slow the show down, the interviews only make The Late Late Show more fun.

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6. Tweets and E-mail Time
Every episode, between the monologues and his eventual interviews, Ferguson made time for his Tweet and E-mail section, where Ferguson and his sidekick Geoff Peterson essentially found an excuse to BS with free material. It’s easily the loosest moment of the show — except maybe the cold opening — and that’s saying something. As such, this is where a lot of the show’s best and/or longest ongoing running jokes and in-the-moment insanity laid.

It’s hard to explain why these moments are so great, just because everything so amazing about them are within each of their little spontaneous moments. If I had to pick just one, and this is tough for sure, it would have to be the Wilford Brimley bit. Particularly because it essentially went from just an off-handed mention of possibly meeting the former actor at a salad bar to actually getting the man on the show. That, like many other things on this list, describes and defines the spirit of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

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5. His Love for His Audience
The foundation for building an audience is to have at least some respect for them, and Craig Ferguson is no different in that regard. More so than most talk show hosts however, Craig adopted the social media format head-on and very much was interested in sparking up dialogues and interactions with them as often as he could.

Anyone who watches Ferguson’s program can see this, as his entire show basically revolves around him interacting with other people: be it Geoff, the audience, his guests, his producer, what-have-you. But more so than most of his talk show peers, especially Letterman, he really, genuinely seemed to enjoy entertaining people, if just by getting a laugh through them or at their expense. Through his “Red Skeleton Army,” a name he, through habit, began calling his audience, Ferguson developed a marginalized but loyal following, and it showed. Especially in his movingly candid final monologue, you tell the host isn’t lying when he gives his thanks to the viewers who stuck with him through his constant “fixer-upper” of a show.

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4. His Honesty
One of the main reasons Ferguson became a great talk show host was through his growing upfront honesty. During his famous “Britney Spears Monologue” in early 2007, Ferguson broke a barrier unseen before it on late night television. He opened up a very serious discussion dealing with his past addictions and failed suicide attempt on Christmas 15 years ago then. It was a brave moment, for it mainly wasn’t for laughs and he didn’t care. He had something, to say and he said it, funny or not.

From that moment, Ferguson let himself talk about his problems, whether comically or seriously. As he said, he speaks for himself. While continuing this conversation more deeply in his honest and bittersweet autobiography American on Purpose, he kept this personality in his show. Because he knew comedy comes from serious pain, and he took that for all its worth. It is the kind of emotional dissection one would wish more talk show hosts would offer. I don’t see Jimmy Fallon being real any day of the week.

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3. His Improvisation
Never one to let cue cards and all that jazz get in the way, Ferguson’s improvisational, off-the-cuff attitude gave his program a genuine raw energy. Much like Letterman, Ferguson started out in 2005 by opening with about 5-10 written jokes in his monologue, while adding some improvisation whenever it came his way. When he noticed the bits he made up on the spot garnered more response than anything written, he decided not to let himself or his writers scribble anything down before hand. For better or worse, he let his wicked brain take the show where it goes.

Typically a recipe for disaster, The Late Late Show only got better when the host withdrew his cue cards. While it certainly made the show messier at times, this all kind of added to its charm. Even when a bit didn’t really work, there was always a sense Ferguson and his crew were having fun, and that he loved every minute of it. Whether or not this was true, the fun was infectious, and even if he went to the well one-too-many-times with a bit, at least he knew how to keep his spirit high.

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2. Geoff Peterson
Much like another character appearing next on the list, the beauty of Geoff Peterson, the gay robot sidekick to the host, was an idea that just bloomed into reality on chance to great results.

As Ferguson referred to his audience as his “Robot Skeleton Army,” as mentioned earlier, and having a desire for a sidekick much like his late night peers, Mythbusters’ Grant Imahara reached out to the host on Twitter and said he’d make his robot sidekick if Ferguson garnered the man 100,000 Twitter followers. Needless to say, Craig made good on his deal, as did Imahara on his.

Basing his name on “commonness,” and as an appliance as a lark on the show’s low budget, Geoff had a little rough of a road to fruition, with Ferguson’s pre-recorded voice serving as Geoff’s form of speaking to fairly mediocre results. It wasn’t until voice actor Josh Robert Thompson truly made him come to life. Through Thompson, who also animatronics the robot, Geoff became an essential presence on the show, constantly bouncing on Ferguson and making The Late Late Show full of contagiously high-energy insanity. Even at their most lowbrow, the chemistry between them was so strong it didn’t matter what they were talking about. We could watch for hours.

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1. Secretariat
By no means is this the most unprecedented or original aspect of the show, but as the curtains close, this will, to me, always define what made the show so great. Much like Geoff, the basis of Secretariat started as an off-handed joke created after the Disney movie of the same name. Even though it’s simply two men in a horse suit, there’s something so bizarrely captivating about him. Simply a horse that loves to dance to his theme music or wander the streets of wherever he may be, he’s the kind of weird, irreverent creature who ultimately became part of the program’s twisted spine.

Since then, Secretariat easily became one of the most beloved aspects of the show. Don’t believe me? Check out his Facebook pages or all the websites selling his shirts or all the videos of his crazy antics on YouTube. Whether its traveling to New York and running into everyone from the girls at The View to David Letterman himself, or competing in a horse race with the actual horse from Secretariat or simply running around enjoying the landmarks of Paris — where, all things considered, he may not have been too weird — Secretariat went from a brief joke to the third biggest fixer of the show. To think of how ludicrous helps explain what makes this show so insanely enjoyable.

For Ferguson, in the end, never cared if it all came together in an easy puzzle or if it was universally accessible or even if he was always on point. He did exactly what he wanted and what he thought was funny, and built his audience from there. At the very least, that’s commendable. It’s also just one of the many, many reasons he’ll be missed on weekly late-night television.

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