Ferguson cracks wise on ‘Join or Die’ series
It was a gray day in America when Craig Ferguson left CBS’ “The Late Late Show” in December 2014, a couple of weeks shy of a decade as its host. (James Corden, who sings, replaced him.)
Ferguson has not been exactly invisible since. There was a stand-up special, “Just Being Honest,” which aired over Epix in September, and even before his last “Late Late Show” episode aired he was hosting a syndicated game show, “Celebrity Name Game,” which earned him a Daytime Emmy award and has been renewed through 2017.
But neither of those things really showcase what makes Ferguson singular, what set him off from other late-night hosts: the intimate relation with the camera and the audience watching him through it; his improvised monological essays; a readiness to follow an idea wherever it leads.
Ferguson was a magician showing you that there was nothing up his sleeve, except that there really was nothing up his sleeve, apart from his arm, tattooed with Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 famous political cartoon, the image of a segmented snake above the legend “Join or Die.”
History Channel series
That legend is also the title of Ferguson’s new History Channel series, a weekly panel show with a historical bent. The series, which premiered at 10 p.m. Thursday, puts Ferguson back in late night, chronologically speaking, but more important, it lets him run in a way that fans should find satisfying.
“It had a kind of zippy kind of ring about it, and because I got that (tattoo) stamped on when I became a citizen, it just felt right,” said the Scottish-by-birth, American-by-choice Ferguson of the show’s title on a recent afternoon in the neutral ground of a publicist’s office. As on “The Late Late Show,” he tends to lean back in his chair when he talks, as close to horizontal as is practicable, and he speaks more softly and slowly than when on camera.
“Better than ‘Historical Discussions,’ ” he continued, pronouncing the words with an uppercrust British accent. “That would feel a little stuffy.”
Each half-hour episode has a theme (bad medical ideas, worst political blunder, most influential drug, most influential band, greatest Founding Father, history’s biggest frenemies), with six candidates for each title analyzed and argued over by Ferguson and his panel of three — typically a scholarly expert, a comedian and “someone I’ve talked to, liked and respected in the 10 years that I did the late-night show.” Guests in the last category will include Judd Apatow, Courteney Cox (an executive producer of “Celebrity Name Game”), Lisa Kudrow, Joel McHale, Julie Bowen, Jack Black, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and Chris Hardwick.
“History Channel seemed like an obvious choice,” said Ferguson of his new series’ home, “because if you look at their programming, it’s vague. There are dramas about Vikings or there’s ‘Pawn Stars’ or ‘Ax Men’ or ‘Ice Truckers,’ so it’s a wide brief. I’m talking about history, but I can talk about ancient Egyptian hairstyling techniques or the best bands of the last 40 years; it’s not too specific.
“I also wanted to do a show where I knew what we were going to talk about and it wasn’t going to be … you. For example, if you’re Lars Ulrich and you’re coming to sit down with me (on “Join or Die”), we’re not going to talk about Metallica’s next album. You don’t have to sell anything to me; I know you’re very knowledgeable about music, I know you’re an interesting guy, and that’s what we’re going to do.”