"I Got Lenoed" by ComedyDoctors on YouTube
Okay, the actual title is The 1984 Los Angeles Comedy Competition With Host Jay Leno – Special Edition. We’re giving away 4 – count ’em, FOUR – copies of the DVD. The first person to post a relevant comment in reply to this article gets a copy, and so will 3 random respondents between now and the end of next week. Read the story behind the DVD’s history below or click the image above to go to the YouTube video where you can hear this same story – set to music!
Jay Leno has made the news, oh, a time or two lately and not just because of the Team Leno – Team Coco controversy over Conan O’Brien’s department from The Tonight Show. After Jay traded quips with President Obama at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, some took a long look at the history behind his routine (e.g., “Leno WHCD Jokes Recycled”). The DVD we’re giving away offers one glimpse at the longevity of Jay’s jokes.
Xenon Pictures producer Leigh Savidge shared the drama that inspired the “I Got Lenoed video:
In April 1984, a 25-year-old producer named Leigh Savidge persuaded Jay Leno, at the time a fast- rising club comic, to host a filmed event called the Los Angeles Comedy Competition. Emptying his bank account and borrowing money from friends to pay Leno’s fee and finance the show, Savidge’s camera’s captured 25 minutes of Leno’s never-before-seen stand-up act as part of a one-hour show.
Since Leno had never done a comedy special that featured a significant portion of his live act, Savidge received strong initial interest in the show. But when he went out to shop it, he was shot down everywhere he went. No one would talk to him or return his calls. He soon found out that Leno and his manager Jerry Kushnick had poisoned the well in the TV and pay cable community, strong-arming people at HBO, Showtime and other channels into not broadcasting the show.
Later Savidge was able to secure two major home video deals but both were subsequently killed by threatening calls and letters from Kushnick – he was now telling key executives that Savidge didn’t own the rights to the show (even though he’d signed a contract on Leno’s behalf).
One night Savidge stopped by the Improv comedy club in Los Angeles. He saw Leno at the bar and confronted him about what Kushnick was doing. Leno acted surprised, gave him a speech about how important friendships are in show business and said he’d put in a good word for him with Kushnick. Kushnick called the next day to scream at Savidge, warning him to stay away from Jay. It soon became evident that Leno was a complete phony and that he was trying to kill the show simply because he didn’t want 25 minutes of his act out on video.
Sketch by Roy Blumenthal
Unable to get any kind of deal, Savidge started a company to self-distribute it and sued Leno for breach of contract. The case was settled out of court with Leno withdrawing all rights in the show and paying a fine.
But when Savidge attempted to release the show on vhs, Leno’s lawyers attacked again – suing for a temporary restraining order claiming the video box violated the terms of the settlement agreement and made Leno’s face appear “scary to children.” The judge threw Leno’s claim out of court, rebuking his legal tactics in the process.
Later, after Leno became host of The Tonight Show, Leno called Savidge personally and told him that he’d have NBC lawyers all over him if he tried to do anything with the show. “The lawyers love this ****. NBC can write it off.” The call from Leno came on the night David Letterman appeared on CBS for the first time.
In February of this year, Savidge saw Leno perform at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, California. Four of his routines were ones that he had performed 26 years earlier in his show.
1984 Los Angeles Comedy Competition With Host, Jay Leno comes to DVD for the first time on July 13, 2010. The DVD’s special features include the enclosed “I Got Lenoed” video plus the court transcript that includes Leno’s lawyer’s pleading that the video box was “scary to children.”
Addendum 4-14-10: Just the night before this post, twitpal Roy Blumental had sketched Jay Leno (pictured left). Thanks, Roy, for letting us share it.
4-15-10: the June issue of Playboy Magazine (you know, Hef’s publication with interviews, comics, sex advice, and naked women) hits the news stand with an article on Leno controversies, “The Late Shaft.”
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I want to win this dvd! Not a big Leno fan (Ferguson!), but I did see him live once.
hey, don’t draw Jay’s attention or he might still your website
I’d love to spread this around the internet, and save everyone $75 from seeing Leno live. 🙂
Weird coincidence! Last night I saw Leno on the Oprah show. We get Oprah about three months late in South Africa.
I looked at the jaw on tv, and had to draw it. I posted the caricature on Flickr. And woke up this morning to find ActionChick’s tweet about this post. Unrelated to my pic.
So here’s the pic: @RoyBlumenthal: Sketch — Jay Leno http://snaptweet.com/b3f20.
And I’d fricking *love* to win the dvd! I’ll happily pay shipping costs to South Africa!
I had no idea about any of this but it sounds really interesting. Leno IS scary to children….and not funny. #teamconan
Leno *should have* simply said to Savidge, ‘Dude… I recycle jokes. And I would prefer it if you remove my 25-min segment from the vid. I’ve written some new and exclusive material for the vid, and I’d like to re-shoot. Come… Let’s make each other famous.’
Instead, he did the bully thing. He led with his jaw, and nailed a young innnocent in the process. Yikes.
On Oprah, he said that he makes his living off being a standup comic. And his tv work is basically just income he sticks into a fund. I reckon if people know how much of a heavy he is, he’s gunna have to rely on that fund soon.
I agree with Roy…Leno could have worked out something with Savidge. He could have bought the show back and then killed it. It just shows again that Leno steps on whoever he has and doesn’t care as long as he can achieve what he wants…even when he’s already rich and successful. What a tool.
What’s pissing me off about this story is how unnecessary it is for Leno to guard his re-use of material.
I’ve got a book of Bill Hicks transcripts. The bloke is screamingly funny, no matter how many times I hear his stuff. And the transcripts show that his material did NOT change! He honed that material, and got it polished to perfection.
If Hicks could proudly own his old material, why the hell can’t Leno? Is he *ashamed* of the repetition? Is it some sort of dirty secret that he re-uses his own stuff?
I think Leno has a lot f writers behind him now – he still does stand-up in Vegas on occasion, but I would assume it would be much of the same.
Jay Leno is a comic GENIUS in the same way I am the King of Siam.
Kevin Pollak (on his awesome Chat Show) summed it up nicely recently. (On May 2, 2010 to be exact.) “Jay Leno made a business decision 20 years ago to stop being funny…”
All I can say is: I agree.
I wish Jay Leno would get new writers, personally. The ones he has pretty much have a framework for jokes and they’ll be damned if they’re going to shy away from it.
I liken his monologues to the “Mad Libs” of jokes.
One last thing- Jay Leno had his ‘diss’ of Conan wherein the attempted Time Square bomber is that he was on “Team CoCo” ??
Really? That is the best they could come up with?? That’s just irritating, like a rash on the ass of late night.
Is that what “Leno” is Italian for? ‘Late Night Rash’?
Hmmmmm
What a GREAT story, even more proof of just how much of an ass Jay and his team are.
This is one movie I would never download, this filmaker deserves a ton of success for sticking with it and getting the true story out there.
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Jay Leno meets Letterman…how cool would that be?