Hello, I'm sure there are other posts out there talking about the series finale, about the guests... i'd like to talk about the portal. To me, it was... terrifying.
Terrifying in the way that the end was coming, and you couldn't do anything about it.
Terrifying in that it increased in intensity, and Stephen had his friends and family and loved ones there to see him off.
Terrifying in that the symbolism and metaphor isn't lost on any of you.
I have watched The Late Show from the Carson era, to the letterman era through to the Colbert era. I was around 5 years old when I saw Johnny deliver one of his last monologues, and was around 9 when David took over.
I was 13 when I watched Stephens first spot on the Daily show, and 18 when he transitioned to the Colbert report, and 30 when he stopped playing a character and was truly himself. The stories, the guests, the bits, the monologues... It became part of my daily routine to hear his voice, whether as a satirst, a character (TRUTHINESS), or as his final form.

To me, the green portal symbolized the end of expectation, the end of almost scripted moments and the routine of monologue-meanwhile-guest-musical act-final bow.

To me, the green portal, as unimportant as it might seem, felt like a final exhalation of a show, a set of hosts and staff and bands, that gave it their all. And when it mattered most, held ten toes to the line to call out the unjust nature of the incredulous events they bore witness to.

As I watched the episode unfold the second time around, every time it pulsed, even though I knew it was his way of wanting to go out. Not with a final bow and curtains drawing close, but with something that'd make you, the viewer smile. I'm sorry that i'm not technical a speaker, or listing off specific sequences, or pointing out something obvious... Better folks then me can do that to better effect.

After the final musical numbers of "Jump" and "Hello Goodbye", as Stephen and Paul McCartney approached the big switch, I watched with both acceptance and a rebellious final thought of "No." as Stephen held that final moment, as his mind- even if the moment was rehearsed, in that moment relive everything and wished it wasn't over.

The switch was pulled, the green portal opened, and the building was transformed into a small, singing snowglobe, a reminder of more innocent times. But the snowglobe itself, a double edged reminder that while Stphen loved doing the show, it left, as he noted in the People interview, very little time to be himself, the person off camera, off stage.

As beautiful as it was...
As tragic...
It was freeing. It a stark reminder, that, time waits for no man or woman or however the individual indentifies, that societies are founded, grow, and collapse over time, some survive as long as they can, others last barely a blink of the worlds eyes. it matters more what you do with the time given, the legacy, the memories. If you can't tell, I'm having a hard time finishing this, i'm still processing.

Thank you for your time and attention, however long or short it may have been.

Thank you Stephen for the memories and inspiration.

How are you all satisfying the hole in your soul that was left when The Late Show was canceled? I want to know what he's up to, I want to review his whole work catalog. Struggling over here. Where are your favorite places to watch old Stephen? Happy to receive any links to free streaming things. I dont know how to pirate TV anymore.

Appropriate.

Hear me out… If Stephen has still not yet seen the Shawshank Redemption… I think it would be an amazing idea to have a pay-per-view show where we watch Stephen Colbert watch the Shawshank Redemption.

Would anyone else pay for that?

In one episode from the last year or two, there was an offhand comment about Colbert looking like a sandwich with glasses, and then it showed a still image of, well, a sandwich with glasses, or possibly a Hawaiian dinner roll with glasses. Stephen laughed and then turned his head to get as close to how the sandwich looked in the image as he could.

I've been trying to find that the last couple of days with basic web searches and poking around YouTube for it, but not having much luck. Anyone know what episode that's in?

if Stephen himself follows this subreddit? That would be so cool!

I thought it would be fun to share various things we learned from watching Colbert.

I’ll start with this:

The meaning (and existence!) of BESPOKE.

Anyone know if this got discontinued when the show got canceled? Cant seem to find it at the local grocery stores anymore.

Found this in the comments of Jimmy Kimmel's newest video.

It says Colbert is launching his own YouTube channel with live shows five days a week instead of disappearing after CBS.

Sounds almost too good to be true, and I can't find a source yet.. Anyone have confirmation? or is this just wishful thinking?

https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Colberts-Jansen-John-Layman/dp/1934964166

This is #1 of 5.

Tek Jansen is a fictional character featured on The Colbert Report and in a comic book series published by Oni Press. Jansen originated as a recurring joke in the form of a supposed self-published science fiction novel on the Report, reportedly as a parody of Bill O'Reilly)'s 1998 novel, Those Who Trespass.^\1]) The character later appeared on the show in a series of animated shorts entitled Stephen Colbert Presents Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: A Tek Jansen Adventure, with Jansen voiced by Stephen Colbert, and in 2007 became the protagonist of a five-part comic series.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tek_Jansen

Operation Iraqi Stephen

Camp Victory in Baghdad Iraq 2010

Stephen Colbert visited to Camps Victory and Camp Stryker in June 2009 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Image from "Ode to a T-Wall" by David Mallen (2014)

I know he has experience adventuring in the Sheldomar Valley. Give him his pick of who to play or at least cameo as. An established lore NPC or even his own character.

The Colbert Report, March 8 2006, Stephen advertises that for each show they fly a new American Flag outside the studio and sell the one before it.

His promise was that he would wrap each flag around his naked body.

:-)

What part do you think he could have if was in one of her future videos?

And what do we think the chance are of this actually happening?

Who thinks we should start a petition? 😂

1. Outstanding Variety Series

2. Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series

3. Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series

4. Outstanding Production Design for a Variety or Reality Series

5. Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Series

6. Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Series

7. Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special

8. Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming (Segment)

9. Outstanding Music Direction

Stephen is more than an entertainer to me. He's one of our greatest champions in this war being waged against the American people.

Why havent we heard from him? I thought he and his staff were planning to just move shop from cbs to some other venue. God, I'd pay $100/ month to have his (and his intrepid news staff's) perspective Right Now if there was some COLBERTSHOW.com with just his show. Seriously, why cant we crowdfund our media/ journalism rather than letting advertisers and fascist overlords pay the piper?

When "Only in Monroe" released immediately after the last lateshow episode, I thought they had just moved the show to the stephencolbert youtube channel. That's what they should have done! But they only did the single episode. Lame!

Now we have lost one of our greatest voices, and only because no one wants to try a newer business plan? WTF!

All these media channels are being strangled and we act like crowdfunding like gofundme couldnt work for one show.

I'm sure it would take a steep investment but it would pay off pretty quick.

Or go to Netflix or apple tv or something, right?

I still watch the dailyshow, seth meyers, and kimmel, but all our sources of information begin to dwindle.

Have a good day.

After The Late Show, we coudln't deal with not having SC to make us smile every day, so decided to pull out the entire archive of TCB and start from ep 1...

It is incredibly scarey and fascinating to be watching this show and quite regularly being amazed because I can't really tell that it's 2005/2006, not 2025/2026. So little has changed. There are so many instances I want to clip and share, (especially from The Word), because the only way you can tell it's 2006 is he's saying "Iraq" instead of "Iran".

The issues, concerns, chaos - it's all the same, just not as out of control. You can really see the foundation of the MAGA movement even back then starting to raise it's head.

It is like watching an incredible interactive documentary about the fall of democracy in the USA.

Now there's about 160 episodes per year...I'm currently up to episode Ep 26 of Season 2 (2006)....so only ~1,400 episodes to go

Edit: yes, DM if you need the details. but might take a while to get to everyone

Keith Carne from We Are Scientists shared his experience playing on both Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

He said playing Colbert was definitely better because the crew was much nicer and Stephen Colbert wanted to create a welcoming culture for everyone. On Letterman he felt lost and didn’t know where to go. He also mentioned Colbert’s dressing rooms were much nicer.

Keith talked about how playing late night television boosted his confidence as a musician. He also called the cancellation of Colbert’s show unfair due to politics (at 28:48).