Will DiGravio

New York

Assistant Editor at Cineaste Magazine

researcher & fact-checker: extremism, conspiracies, et al. | asst. ed. @cineaste_mag | PhDing @UvA_Humanities | @thevideoessay

Featured in: Favicon

filmschoolrejects.com Favicon

cineaste.com Favicon

medium.com Favicon

substack.com Favicon

pastemagazine.com Favicon

mediamatters.org Favicon

bfi.org.uk Favicon

burlingtonfreepress.com Favicon

sensesofcinema.com Favicon

jnews.uk + 6 more

Articles

The Night Johnny Carson Gave His Audience the Middle Finger

6 days ago | latenighter.com | Will DiGravio

This week on The Late-Night Time Machine, we travel back to June 13, 1979, and the Burbank set of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carnac the Magnificent was behind the desk, and a joke was about to flop. Johnny Carson was known for being a good sport when a joke didn’t land—as he proved earlier that same year when a fly interrupted his already spoiling monologue.
Ramy Youssef's #1 Happy Family USA Is a 21st Century Coming-of-Age Sitcom

1 week ago | pastemagazine.com | Will DiGravio

When a new work of art has a certain relevancy to the front page of the day’s newspaper, it is often too easy to get lost in drawing connections—or in commenting on how a work meets the moment, celebrating the foresight and serendipity of something that seems to speak directly to the zeitgeist. #1 Happy Family USA is one such work. Sometimes the possibility that a show’s greatness would be true regardless of its prophetic nature gets lost in that praise.
Late Night Time Machine: Conan O’Brien Searches for Grady

2 weeks ago | latenighter.com | Will DiGravio

The search lasted forty-seven days. It took Union soldiers just twelve to find John Wilkes Booth. It was as 1995 became 1996 that the team at Late Night with Conan O’Brien set out to find Whitman Mayo, the character actor best known for playing Grady on the then-twenty-year-old sitcom Sanford and Son. The manhunt began simply enough: a writer on the show got the idea to write a sketch featuring Mayo.
Late Night Last Week: Conan O'Brien Visits Everybody's Live with John Mulaney

2 weeks ago | pastemagazine.com | Will DiGravio

Every week, Late Night Last Week highlights some of the best late night TV from the previous week.
Revisiting Samantha Bee's 2017 'Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner'

2 weeks ago | latenighter.com | Will DiGravio

Though he’s never attended it while in office, Donald Trump is arguably the American president most closely associated with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Consider the legend: it was after some ribbing by Seth Meyers and President Barack Obama at the 2011 dinner that the then-host of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice, who at that time was pushing the so-called “birther” conspiracy, was supposedly embarrassed into seeking the country’s highest office.
Late Night Last Week: Everybody's Live with John Mulaney Hits Must Watch Status

3 weeks ago | pastemagazine.com | Will DiGravio

Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney is rocking and rolling. The Wednesday, April 16 episode featured one of the show’s best bits yet. Throughout the broadcast, John Mulaney cut to a group of 24 men, each wearing a shirt that revealed their respective heights, ranging from five to seven feet. The goal: achieve the perfect diagonal by lining up the men from shortest to tallest. But there was a challenge, too, Mulaney explained.
Donald Trump’s First Appearance with Conan O'Brien Was Almost His Last

3 weeks ago | latenighter.com | Will DiGravio

“Nipsey Russell isn’t available? Well, then try Donald Trump. Donald will do it.”As Conan O’Brien recalled to Rolling Stone in 2019, there was a time in his career where he came to rely on the billionaire who lived just a few blocks away from Rockefeller Center.
Late Night Last Week: Bill Maher's Hypocrisy, John Mulaney's Ray Lewis Story, and More

1 month ago | pastemagazine.com | Will DiGravio

Every week, Late Night Last Week highlights some of the best late night TV from the previous week. In this week’s late night TV recap, Bill Maher reminds everybody that he’s a hypocrite, John Mulaney gets words of wisdom from Ray Lewis, and more. On the Friday, April 11 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the host pivoted from his monologue to a story time that lasted 13 minutes—almost half the episode.
Johnny Carson Took $20,000 for a Movie Role He'd Later Regret

1 month ago | latenighter.com | Will DiGravio

This week on the Late Night Time Machine, we travel back not to the set of a late-night television show, but to the movie set of a late-night television show. In 1964, Johnny Carson was two years into his now-legendary thirty-year run hosting The Tonight Show. Though critics were at first skeptical that Carson—then best known as the host of the ABC game show Who Do You Trust?—could fill Jack Paar’s shoes, those concerns were quickly assuaged as he brought the show’s ratings to new heights.
Late Night Last Week: John Oliver on Anti-Trans Hate, Nels Cline Plays Colbert, and More

1 month ago | pastemagazine.com | Will DiGravio

Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. Every week, Late Night Last Week highlights some of the best late night TV from the previous week. In this week’s late night TV recap, Amber Ruffin talks about the White House Correspondents’ Association, John Oliver takes on the transphobic movement, Nels Cline plays Colbert, and more. Tariffs, am I right? On late night TV last week, the tariff jokes were dropping more than the stock market.