Leno Replaces Conan on Tonight Show...

I hope you're not talking about "Andy Richter Controls the Universe." That was a great show. And Paget Brewster still makes me feel funny down there.

Story?

I didn't like it.

I can't imagine him being anything but. Back in the old days, that was his whole appeal. The "man on the street being a dick to regular people" bits were mean-spirited and genius.

as opposed to the 200 proof undiluted power that is conan's current show? puhleeze. talk shows are lame.

am I the only one who felt like throwing a paperweight at Dan while reading this? Or am I the only ILXors with the boorish manners of a Yalie?

dude xpost

xpost

Exactly.

I see where you're going with this point, but that would be totally awesome. I'd watch that every night. "Hney look! It's the Tranny Hitler Ass Pepper show!" I mean, how could that not be entertaining?

usually dreadful....

YES I AM A CRANK

OTM.

what does this mean?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21537417/

It means that NBC still doesn't realize that the small size of the Conan audience will kill Tonight

the LA Times article that MSNBC one references, which sheds way more light on the situation:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/la-fi-leno15oct15,0,7297816.story?coll=la-home-center

haha, I went to a Conan taping in college a few years ago. Of course, there were a lot of tourists, especially from 666 Middle America 666. So Conan's doing his antics with one of the audience members, this big old lumbering guy you'd think was from like ... Illinois or something. Basically, Jay Leno's audience.

So Conan's gets up and starts dancing with the guy, and the guy realllllly reluctantly goes along. and then Conan gives him Max's drumsticks.

On the elevator after the taping, we're on there with that guy and he says to his family, "man, just when I thought I was gettin over my homerphobia" and then "and here I got those Mick Windberg fellas drumsticks." We get off the elevator and he throws them in the garbage.

I'm not sure how well Conan will do in Leno's slotttttttt. He shoulda just stayed really weird instead of trying to bridge the gap to blandsville, baby.

Leno doesn't get a Massachusetts priest stalking him...

On the elevator after the taping, we're on there with that guy and he says to his family, "man, just when I thought I was gettin over my homerphobia" and then "and here I got those Mick Windberg fellas drumsticks." We get off the elevator and he throws them in the garbage.

wtf

viva ferguson

This story seemed to debut not too long ago...and 2009 seemed so far away.

http://i38.tinypic.com/esoll3.jpg

haw haw, Conan's playing second fiddle to Leno again.

A show like this in the 10pm hour is actually a good idea. I just wish it was someone besides Jay Leno.

Who are the people who actually like Jay Leno? Whooooo arrrrrre theeeese people?

How much of the 'too lazy to turn off the tv before they go to sleep' viewership share will he lose with the move?

uggggg make him go away

I just remembered this and was glad someone on Youtube had it: SHOOOOOOOOESSSSS!

i watched jay tonight after yearsssss and he wasn't as bad as i remembered. conan otoh has been pretty shitty for a while now. he can be funny when he is outside of the late show format (uncensored). a tonight show thingy will be v. iuntersting to witness, because he kind of hates people. so so interesting. i'll sure be taking notes, don't know about anyone else.

Conan really isn't that funny anymore ... he hasn't been funny since, say, 2001 or 2002, with the mid-late 90s as his peak. Back then he was weird, sweaty, awkward, and depressed, and it was great.

a tonight show thingy will be v. iuntersting to witness, because he kind of hates people.

dave hates people too. i thought it was a requirement.

also, why dave doesnt fire his writers, i dont know. hes almost as unwatchable as leno these days.

i watch these shows sometimes and think what a mindfuck it must be to do this every day of yr life http://i35.tinypic.com/fc68h4.gif

dave is endlessly watchable and does not hate people, wtf are you talking about?

http://i35.tinypic.com/fc68h4.gif dave totally hates people http://i35.tinypic.com/fc68h4.gif

Conan is still v funny at times and seems relieved that he doesn't have to do the big dumb show

dave is endlessly watchable and does not partly due to the fact that he hates people, wtf are you talking about?

fixed

you are too dumb for this message board, btw

i thought everyone knew that dave was a misanthrope

yeah i mean dave being mean to guests is the best part i just cant take another ham joke. admittedly i havent watched him maybe 2 yrs.

re conan. still v funny.

the blow up doll choir gag last night wasn't too bad. Comparing him to his glory days is the problem, I guess

ive been starting to get back into these shows since they took mah stolen cable away and dave is still pretty funny - also craig ferguson who knew?!

Leno hasn't been funny in 20 years, but my God, Andy Richter's byplay w/ CO'B was the main reason to watch him.

You mean when he made this?

http://www.hotmoviesale.com/dvds/16867/1/Collision-Course.jpg

i already said this on some other thread but ive been enjoying ferguson more than conan lately

http://i44.tinypic.com/sw4keb.jpg

olds are asleep by then jimmy

He's never struck me as especially bright.

I imagine Richter will be back for finale tonight

i am kind of looking forward to having the option of watching Conan again (can't stay up late enough for his show on weeknights), but i'm worried he is going to get watered down for the earlier slot like letterman was.

Richter has gained some weight holy lord

Conan said last night that moving to 11:35 wasn't going to make him "grow up." The audience cheered.

Of course he will, though. I just hope it doesn't happen immediately.

good show last night

wtf was up with the white stripes btw??

Yeah, they weren't particularly on point. And it looked like Meg was wearing her housecoat.

my friend and white stripes enthusiast reported that "we're going to be friends" is conan's favorite white stripes song, so i guess they re-worked it a little for him. i thought it was pretty dope personally, def had some levity. then again i was four beerz deep at that point so the emotionality might have hit me harder than normal

ack not levity... mind-blanking on the word but i mean that it seemed like the performance felt appropriate wrt to the "weight" of the situation

(gravity!)

like yeah i got that they were tryna sound fragile or cracked or whatnot and thats cool but it just wasn't what i expected at all

My wife immediately shouted "she's pregnant" when the camera panned out on Meg the first time. Can't seem to find anything confirming that, but that may have been part of it. Strenuous drum-bashing might be out for her right now.

your wife has weird tourettes

Yeah, its uncomfortable sometimes.

Really though, she thinks Meg is definitely pregnant.

Of course he will, though. I just hope it doesn't happen immediately.

I dunno why this is some universally accepted truth. Conan's sense of humor is what it is - he said he couldn't grow up if he wanted to, but I'd put it a little differently: he's incapable of selling Jay Leno's cheesy humor or David Letterman's cornball humor, and if he tried, he'd fail. So there's no particular reason to try.

I'm not saying he'll adopt a different style of humor, or that NBC would even try to coax it out of him. But Late Night of 1999 and 2009 were remarkably different in tone, and I'd expect the Tonight Show of 2019 (should he hold the seat that long) will be remarkably different again. It's not that he ever got less funny, or that his sense of humor and wit has changed, but he's seemed to develop a greater awareness that all-absurd-all-the-time only serves to dull his more inspired bits.

I just hope he doesn't get too aware and avoid the absurd altogether.

I can't see him avoiding it. If anything he'd make more of a point of that, knowing how watered down 'regular' TV is. I'm just excited to see what he does. Also will enjoy NOT pre-emptively flipping the channel at 11.35 to avoid Jay's chin.

xxpost -- I turned to my husband and said 'She's either sedated or drunk'. She seemed kinda out of it.

it's weird to think that i've known Conan was leaving Late Night for almost 5 years given when this thread started, and have probably been thinking "I need to start watching Conan again before he goes to the Tonight Show" that entire time and never watched a single episode. loved the show in the 90s, though.

that entire time and never watched a single episode

You missed out on some exquisite stuff during the writers strike OMG.

u guise andy is coming back to be conan's announcer on the tonight show!!!!

!!!

wow

i already said this on some other thread but ive been enjoying ferguson more than conan lately

― max, Thursday, February 19, 2009

this is otm btw and i didn't want to let it slip by

thanks hon

i already said this on some other thread but ive been enjoying ferguson more than conan lately

Thirding the OTM on this. Worth putting in your DVR if you're not around or awake.

Did we have a whole thread on him recently, or was that spinning off of something else?

Announcer?

Yeah, hold off on Ferguson for a second - Andy Richter is the...announcer?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/24/andy-richter-to-be-tonigh_n_169575.html

LOS ANGELES — NBC says Andy Richter and Conan O'Brien will be back together again on late-night TV.

Richter, who worked with O'Brien for seven years on NBC's "Late Night," will become the "Tonight" show announcer when O'Brien takes over from Jay Leno as host in June. NBC said Richter also will take part in comedy bits.

O'Brien called Richter a friend and one of the funniest people he knows, but couldn't resist a joke: O'Brien said he's looking forward to their reunion because Richter owes him $300.

After leaving "Late Night" in 2000, Richter starred in the TV series "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" and "Andy Barker, P.I.," and appeared in "Talladega Nights," "Blades of Glory" and other movies.

i had no idea Andy stuck around 'til 2000. it seemed like he left way earlier than that.

Did we have a whole thread on him recently, or was that spinning off of something else?

― nabisco, Tuesday, February 24, 2009 5:44 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ya it was the "late late show" thread

The Late, Late Show with Craig Kilborn....

i think ferguson deserves his own thread but i dont know what i would say in it that hasnt already been said

i expect conan to continue to act like an ass as promised, but i also expect him to be a little more showbiz-y, as expected, and smart, as he is but doesn't always show as much. the last shows were good in no small part because of the old material clipped in - the old-timey baseball thing was hilarious - but in general he's been pretty decent the last year or two, of what i've seen. i think the other-city visits helped charge his batteries a bit.

ferguson being 'better' than conan is some challops. obviously, the dude is more motivated at this point - he's the new guy begging for our attention every night whereas conan is the old friend who can count on us to come around every once in a while - and he's got the leprechaun-on-cocaine schtick to match. but while he's an indisputably great comic monologuist (super standup, really) - he regularly beats conan hands-down in the lead-in - i don't think he's yet a talkshow host the way the more established guys are. how many interviews have you actually watched him do?

Ferguson's interview style is manic and all over the place. I've never seen him follow a line of questioning to its conclusion.

oh, and the white stripes thing was kinda uncomfortable because while they clearly were doing a deconstructed version of the song, it seemed like meg's guitar was out of tune, and maybe she kinda didn't care about being there. which may have been intended, but who knows.

Now that I think about it, Conan moving to the Tonight Show represents *us* growing up, too. Pretty sad.

which is to say, in highschool I wanted to be a gonzo comedy writer, and now I'm going to be a lawyer. [sadtrombone.wav]

you will bring much-needed levity to the judicial system however

oh no, he's not going to be practicing law on the Tonight Show every night, is he?

No. When people take that "social trends" voice, they're usually talking about themselves or people they know. That's why I broke it down in that way.

to an extent

ferguson being 'better' than conan is some challops.

yeah it's funny how no one actually said that too.

I WILL ONLY WATCH IF HE BRINGS BACK ANDY (which might be plausible, given the shitty shows Andy's been getting).

― n/a

I heard Andy's going to be Conan's new announcer.

Watching this, I totally forgot about all those terrible costume characters they had back in the 90s. man, that show was so wonderfully cheap and crappy.

Opening taped bit set to Cheap Trick, he's kept his theme song, Andy is announcing. Let's see where he goes.

Also, Andy's mic is live so we'll have to hear him do the McMahon chuckle.

andy was super annoying tonight

needlessly distracting imo

The bit with him driving around in his 92 Taurus to "Get out of my dreams (get into my car)" was pretty funny. He relies a little too heavily on self deprecation though IMO.

Will Farrell is hilarious in his Conan appearances. Loved the entrance.

I was pretty pumped a week or so ago cuz I thought Andy Richter Controls The Universe was gettin airtime, but turned out he was just guesting on an episode of Malcolm In the Middle.

It felt weird for Max to be so quiet -- I wonder if he'll recede into the background now that Andy's there.

ill never recede into the background dude

hahah

this was okay, it really did feel like the tonight show, didn't it? I hope it starts to feel a bit more like Conan again.

The audience is so big! Part of Conan's charm was that his show was so little and cheap looking. I think he can grow into it tho.

I wish they would put Andy on the couch :(

the Clippers dig was great

I think last night's show was probably an anamoly. I suspect Max and Andy will play greater roles as the show loosens up a little bit, but they had to burn through several big "produced" comedy pieces last night, plus a lot of Will Ferrell.

The set looks so much bigger shot as it should be than it did when Conan was giving Access Hollywood a tour of it last week (I know sets are never as big as we think they are, which means Craig Ferguson's set is probably the size of a Barbie Dream House).

Dave vs. Conan is a tough choice, but I suspect that I will end up watching Dave.

Dave only seemed funny to me as a Leno alternative. Now that Conan's his competition, I doubt I'll be seeing much of Dave until his last week or two of shows (whenever that is).

That opening piece where he runs to L.A. looked really expensive. Like I couldn't imagine NBC would want to spend that money on anything

The set does look great. Really dig the "Showbiz Pizza" curtains at center stage. The new Solid Gold logos look good too.

Conan went around the country to local NBC affiliates promoting the show, and I bet they shot all the location bits during that tour. xp

andy was super annoying tonight

― let free dom ring (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, June 2, 2009 2:47 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

needlessly distracting imo

― let free dom ring (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, June 2, 2009 2:47 AM (9 hours ago)

dude his ill-timed chuckles were killllling me u crazy

O'Brien = unfunny in a more interesting way than Leno

as i expected, he had better jokes/was more consistently funny than Dave, but I'm not sure I enjoy the persona as much, and it was just a shade more Leno than I expected (and some of the LA stuff was lamer than expected). also seemed a little nervous as he got into the monologue. but decent so far.

no abe reference, boo

Ha

Over on CBS, Letterman got off the two funniest lines of the night. First he sauntered out for his monologue and drolly announced: "Hi and welcome to the 'Late Show.' I'm Dave Letterman. I'm still here. I knocked off another competitor.'" His audience went wild and he let out a big laugh - the first time he's looked so gleeful in a long while. Then Letterman said he got a call that day from his mom, who said: "Well, David, I see you didn't get the 'Tonight Show' again."

I was watching Dave when he did that "competitor" line and I was all "Oh shit, I should be checking out Conan!" and switched right over. Sorry, Dave.

see, I think that Conan is just a pretty funny guy who makes a pretty good talk show host. Dave is Dave. He is like a force of nature. He might not always be as funny as Conan (or Craig) but he is always Dave.

yeah i can get behind that

http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-golden-age.html

Someone hacked his site, I don't see anything about Obama in that entry.

it's a metaphor for the demobam-led military-politicrat industry, duh

I lol'd at Andy Richter's announcing voice.

he writes about comedy fairly often. Look at all the Fridays clips.

xp

conan is funny but he kind of seems like he might be a big asshole in ways that dave doesn't.

I watched this, and for some reason I teared up a little ... just because I feel like Conan is practically my peer, and here he is hosting the greatest talk show, living his dream. And with Andy back! And with Pearl Jam as the band, a band I loved in junior high! Very thrilling, even if the show itself was just a'ight.

Don't crap on the app

BRO'S A NO NO FOR COCO

i saw andy about a year ago at a local bar, dude was slamming back martinis at an alarming rate

Yeah, I think Andy's probably a little bit of a lush.

Dammit, I want an In-N-Out burger right now. The farthest west I've been is Arizona, though, and that's when I was 10. I have to go back now to fully appreciate the opportunity.

Dammit, I want an In-N-Out burger right now.

Haha, I was just reading about this on Twitter from someone. Went to my local one twice last week...

conan is funny but he kind of seems like he might be a big asshole in ways that dave doesn't.

― akm, Wednesday, 3 June 2009 01:56 (2 hours ago)

OTM. Constant self-deprecation can be like a classic misdirection play. It pretends to play down what it actually builds up ("He's so confident - get this - he can actually poke fun of himself! What a guy.") or quickly becomes the tool of the narcissist who sometimes hates himself but still feels superior to everybody else and wants to keep himself the center of conversation(e.g. Woody Allen). And I really like Conan, too, but I'm around a lot of comics and writers and it's a common dynamic.

xp: haven't had one in 14 years and i can taste them right now. someone fed ex me a burger w/animal style fries.

And it was really weird seeing Conan so nervous. Did anybody notice how Conan couldn't improvise with Will Ferrell? When Ferrell makes a silly gesture Conan bashfully imitates it before awkwardly going into the Land of the Lost clip.

I haven't picked up on any nervousness at all. To me, it seems like he picked up right where he left off in NYC with a different name a nicer studio. His monologue and interview style is exactly the same as it has been for the last 10 years.

Well, I was paying really close attention to his mannerisms and I noticed, in his monologue, a few high-pitched nervous laughs and a few awkward pauses here and there. Also, the audience rapport wasn't nearly as interactive and relaxed. He's still the man, he just isn't in full control yet. It'll take a few weeks for him to adjust.

He did well enough tonight. I like Letterman and all but this is the first time I actually looked forward to 11:30 pm tv in a long long time.

I imagine Craig Ferguson is pretty happy too, now that his competition is Jimmy Fallon.

it quickly becomes the tool of the narcissist who sometimes hates himself but still feels superior to everybody else and wants to keep himself the center of conversation(e.g. Woody Allen)

good post

I noticed Conan seemed to be moving his lips a lot like his mouth was dry.

His eyes were red.

Definitely baked.

it's def the apex of the entertainment world, interviewing Will fuckin' Ferrell, the unfunniest man on earth

pretty much. he beat every show in prime time on Monday.

btw, this:

http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-golden-age.html

is retarded and useless.

no it's a funny post from a professional joke writer

he's right about fallon at least

I noticed Conan seemed to be moving his lips a lot like his mouth was dry.

He does this because he is a lizard. Look at how his eyes dart.

it's def the apex of the entertainment world

He's the biggest comedy star of this era, for better or worse.

that's probably true but what generation has he really impacted? people in their 30s? for anyone like... 25 (maybe, say, 28) and younger i think the defining comedy force of the generation is chappelle. and for people that are in their 40s and up it's letterman or someone else? im kind of blindly hypothesizing here

hopefully history will be like jordan and just completely forget dane cook existed

yeah true

that's probably true but what generation has he really impacted?

I think it says a lot that the first two musical acts on the show are Pearl Jam and Green Day. The show is definitely aiming for the 25-40 audience, people who grew up with grunge and SNL/The Simpsons (for whom Conan wrote), and the most coveted demographic, the demo most likely to actually stay up past the 11pm news. Especially since all the boomers will be going to bed after Bleno's over.

And then if you're still awake, the 15-25s can watch Jimmy Fallon talk about Twitter, and if they're still awake after that, the stoners can watch Carson Daly and contemplate suicide.

I don't even dislike CO'B that much, I just seldom watch him cuz the stuff Carson and Letterman used to do in dribs and drabs -- shticking about how underwhelming the show was on a given night-- seems to be the BASIS of Conan's persona!

The guy is mostly an interviewer, not a comedian. That's his job. And I don't want to waste any more of my life watching talk shows.

dude nobody watches jimmy fallon

And I don't want to waste any more of my life watching talk shows.

DVR has made talk shows so much more palatable for me.

dude nobody watches jimmy fallon

We'll see! I'm not a fan, but I also think the worst of the American public.

conan does need to ease up on the self-depreciation tip tho - it's funny as asides but that I DRIVE AN OLD CAR sketch was like ooookkay dude - also it's hard to pull it off when nbc took jay leno out with the trash on your account

except they didnt dude they fucked him and kept leno on at 10p

but still

I think the NYTimes piece on Conan proved to me that he overthinks things too much, and some of the bits (like the car thing) seemed like concessions to a segment of the audience that will never warm to him, no matter how much he condescends to them.

When he was on the tram, screaming "NOOOOOOO", the glazed-over, hateful looks of some of the passengers reminded me of Tom Green.

The tram circle was fucking killing me.

it probably would've been a bit annoying to experience irl but i thought it was pretty funny

basically, one cannot root for the Leno 10pm show to fail, cuz then he jumps to another net at 11:35 and prospers there.

leno should just do a 30 min headlines show every night, it would be >> whatever he's really gonna do

I kind of want a Bitch beltbuckle, but that's neither here nor there.

I know Fallon's ratings started off stronger than Conan's had been in a long time, but I don't know whether or not that's still the case. His show has gotten marginally better, and he's settled down a lot.

Conan has a comedic bag of tricks for sure, self-deprecation being chief among them. It's either something you grow to like or you never do. I just appreciate that he has no shame when committing to a bit, because Leno would've never gone shopping in the hood (and neither would Letterman).

The guy is mostly an interviewer, not a comedian.

wrong

That's his job.

to some extent, but it's gonna work a little differently now

i didn't think conan's monologue stuff last night was very funny, but he's got plenty of time to loosen up. his funniest stuff is what happens between the actual jokes, anyway. the "trying on clothes" bit was pretty good, dude ended up looking like a cross between axl rose and mystery.

basically, one cannot root for the Leno 10pm show to fail, cuz then he jumps to another net at 11:35 and prospers there.

I agree! And anyway, there hasn't been a show on at 10pm on a network that I've enjoyed in quite some time, so for all I care he can prosper there as long as he wants.

i was hoping it would come back to him wearing the bitch buckle with his suit.

me too!! i liked when he picked a fan off that pile of junk and carried it around.

fallon's show is still a disaster imo - his monologues or horrible for someone who did weekend update for a few years, his pre interview bits are almost uniformly not funny (or at least not commandingly funny) and his interviews are good sometimes cuz they get him good guests, but he's just disastrous at interviewing - the steve martin interview last night was crazy uncomfortable

i was hoping it would come back to him wearing the bitch buckle with his suit.

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Wednesday, June 3, 2009 12:23 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

this!!!

also conan's monologue was weirdly bad last night - like a winehouse joke and a kirsty ally joke - i guess hollywood needs a new famous drunk crackhead and a new fat person

monologues are horrible*

Conan not a comedian? WTF?!

http://yourkidsnotgoingpro.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/thesimpsons-margevsthemonorail_1157690485.jpg

Every time I accidentally catch a bit of Fallon's show it seems like ?uestlove thinks he's fucking annoying too.

plz let me know when comedy segments equal 51% or more of The Tonight Show, k thx bye

(I assume it could happen when the ads reach 25 mins per hour, so maybe a year from now)

plz let me know when comedy segments equal 51% or more of The Tonight Show, k thx bye

6/1/09

Every time I accidentally catch a bit of Fallon's show it seems like ?uestlove thinks he's fucking annoying too.

hahahaha YES

perhaps that was bcz it was the debut and hence unrepresentative, gabbfuckface?

How much of NBC's keystone late-night franchise is "comedy segments" is independent of whether Conan is a comedian, Morbius. This is basic stuff here. Dude wrote some of the funniest things ever to appear on both "The Simpsons" and SNL. Good enough for me.

perhaps that was bcz it was the debut and hence unrepresentative, gabbfuckface?

i dunno dude, but i watched it and you didn't, so, you know, stfu. no thanks, btw.

THAT WAS A DIFFERENT JOB

COMEDY WRITER IS NOT COMEDIAN, EITHER

Letterman, Stewart, O'Brien, Colbert, Ferguson...all comedians first, interviewers second. If you want to see an interviewer only, then watch Charlie Rose or Tavis Smiley.

TONIGHT SHOW IS NOT EVENING AT THE FUCKING IMPROV AND NEVER HAS BEEN

Stewart and Colbert spend about 6-8 minutes per show doing interviews. Not same as others. (however, Letterman has slipped from treating all interviews as a joke, which is why he used to rule)

wait, really? xp

really glad y'all are here to suss out the distinction between "comedian" and "interviewer" for me. really gonna impact my late night tv decisions from here on out i think.

Conan & Leno can never be good at those monologue zingers because they aren't constitutionally mean.
Only someone with true darkness in his heart can bring it.

if it's not someone standing on a stage with a mic, it's not comedy, apparently

btw, If you weren't too busy teaching us about the good old days to actually know anything, morbs, you would understand that Conan has always treated interviews as fodder for comedy (including neo-sketch comedy) and it appears that he will continue to do so in the new show. you can impose a comedic agenda over a promotional agenda in a subtler fashion than dave does/did.

Every time I accidentally catch a bit of Fallon's show it seems like ?uestlove thinks he's fucking annoying too.

I suggest you not read ?uestlove's Twitter, which is a series of posts about how he thinks everything on the show is HILARIOUS!!!

Even though I take that at face value, who on Earth would badmouth their highly-visible job on a highly-visible medium like Twitter?

?uestlove does always look annoyed

Thinking back on ?uest's previous tv appearances over the years, I think that's pretty much his all-the-time face.

I wish they would put Andy on the couch :(

ditto: a lot of what's funny about Andy isn't that he says anything amusing, it's that every facial reaction he has, to almost anything in the universe, is lovable and hilarious -- the best possible late-night use of this guy is just to have him sitting behind the celebrity being interviewed and grinning goofily

I saw the second episode last night and was trying to figure out where the heck Andy actually was. Does he really have a little podium-like thing down on the floor?

Yeah, he's at the edge of the audience risers.

Yep, he has a podium on the side, next to the audience. Agreed with Nabisco. Put the guy on the fucking couch. Giving him an occasional 1.5 seconds worth of camera time and forcing him to butt his way into the show to make a side comment is not playing to his strengths.

Yeah, which sort of bothers me, because isn't the whole recent tradition of having a sidekick there sort of built around people on talk shows joking with their stage managers or producers -- i.e., people whose job is supposed to involve standing there all night? Having a person just be there in a sidekick role seems a bit dumb, but I guess lots of people do it now.

Um, Ed McMahon.

just a theory, but maybe andy is there in the stuttering john position to smooth the transition for people used to the leno version.
(isn't max weinberg positionally where kevin eubanks used to be also?)

Kind of ridiculous, but maybe the decision to keep Richter on the side was some sort of concession to the balding Leno demographic? Like they thought the old folks couldn't handle having a second youngish smartass on camera all the time with Conan?

I don't know, that's stupid, but I can't think of why Richter wouldn't be back on the couch, considering that to me that seems like the golden era of Conan back in the 90s, and I most people I've ever discussed the issue with (all 3 of them) have thought the same.

xpost obvs

didn't leno have an announcer standing there? perhaps there was occasional banter? i don't know, i hadn't watched it in years and years.

Leno's exchanges were 97% with Kevin Eubanks. Stuttering John gave the intro and then spent most of his time huddled in his little announcer pit with a cup of coffee or something, getting very little camera time or interaction. A fair treatment, as that guy is pretty useless. Not so for Andy Richter, though.

Kevin Eubanks, on the other hand, was a comedy GOLDMINE.

God Leno sucks

seriously, he is the worst

okay come on ppl, we've had to endure The Chevy Chase Show

the worst still on the air

Yeah, the Eubanks-led Tonight Show band was the worst ever in late night tv. And the dude himself is a stiff. Imagine how hard Jay had to look to find someone less entertaining than himself (Branford Marsalis had enough of the shit early on).

the worst still on the air

That's pretty much a Leno vs Kimmel vs Daly cage match for me.

eubanks was just a guffawing machine

I don't know, I'd still take Kevin Eubanks over Paul Shaffer and the most dangerous band in the entire galaxy or whatever.

Shaffer couldn't even come up with a good comeback to a near-comatose Joaquin Phoenix.

oh see i haven't seen Kimmel or Daly (or Jimmy Fallon)

Fallon doesn't count because tactical nukes will be obliterating his show by the end of July (if we're lucky) (sorry The Roots, RIP)

fallon's sidekick is the actual worst though

kimmel's show>>>>>fallon's show

like, by miles

Daly doesn't even have a typical late night set-up anymore. He's out and about with a camera man shooting segments on location. For regular interviews, he has a stage, but there's no desk anymore and, more importantly, no lame Joe Firstman-led studio band.

lol you watch Carson Daly

it's a weird show - it's not even mildly entertaining but i don't think anyone who is working for the show even knows what the point of the program is

lol Adult Swim isn't always a reliable alternative at that hour, and I've usually already watched Olbermann from the night before.

But Carson's really not that bad, honestly. He's not trying to be a "late night host" anymore with a monologue and shit. He's going out talking to musicians and street artists and authors and it's decent tv for that hour.

the week that fallon premiered, daly was profiling a different musician each day and like showing live footage, and then the next week he was interviewing joey fatone in studio and now he's just like filming random shit around california

lol Adult Swim isn't always a reliable alternative at that hour

lol you try to watch Adult Swim after 12:30

Yeah, I kind of love that NBC gives him $20 a week to do whatever he wants.

yeah carson dalys show is secretly kind of awesome sort of because no one has ever watched it

if im too lazy to get off the couch when daly comes on i turn on springer

^^^ hardcore

i know, let's talk about how bad jay leno, jimmy fallon and carson daly are

wasn't there a word for that sort of thing?

keep up, dude

i think that word is posting

it begins with a c btw

ill discuss anything as long as it keeps gabbneb from posting in a thread

"chatting"

i know, let's ignore gabbknob

"conversating"

i know, let's ignore gabbknob

― Mr. Que, Wednesday, June 3, 2009 2:31 PM (13 seconds ago) Bookmark

i much prefer "gabbfuckface"

well yeah, you're like 2 years old

gabbfacial

I much prefer not calling people names and actually getting on with the proposed ignoring.

ignoring what?

i'm not looking forward to Leno coming back--the dude did a Katrina joke the other night??? WTF??

"cunt"

http://i35.tinypic.com/fc68h4.gif

"cockfarming"

http://videogum.com/archives/late-night/good-night-jay-leno-and-good-l_071842.html

like seriously???

Jokes about BILL CLINTON AND MONICA LEWINSKY? O.J. SIMPSON JOKES? Unbelievable. This guy is on TV? This guy gets to keep being on TV?

What possible Katrina joke could you make now that wouldn't be way past its sell date other than the awesome one they did on "30 Rock"?

floating Itos

68 children. OK, that's cute. Except what is the point? I mean, every company over time will have employees that have kids. Traditionally, these kids are honored by being invited to the company's family picnic. There's just something megalomaniacal about somehow TAKING CREDIT for other people's children. Jay Leno is not responsible for these babies.

HOW DO YOU KNOW?

Leno also fit in a last shot at O.J. Simpson, another monologue favorite. In cleaning out his office today, the comedian said, "I found O.J.'s knife. I had it the whole time."

oooooh good one, Jay

Jokes about BILL CLINTON AND MONICA LEWINSKY? O.J. SIMPSON JOKES? Unbelievable. This guy is on TV? This guy gets to keep being on TV?

― Mr. Que, Wednesday, June 3, 2009 2:35 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

also conan's monologue was weirdly bad last night - like a winehouse joke and a kirsty ally joke - i guess hollywood needs a new famous drunk crackhead and a new fat person

― let free dom ring (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, June 3, 2009 12:26 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

Maybe Mavis doesn't want kids and encourages Jay to sow his seed elsewhere!

when they say that leno connects with people in the middle of the country they mean he connects with olds whose grasp of current events grows increasingly tenuous with each passing year.

yeah, it's not like conan's monologue has been chronically bad for years or anything

i thought the kids thing was cute

floating itos

kirstie ally jokes are pretty lame but winehouse is fine--OJ and Katrina jokes are unacceptable

It was. I really think Jay's probably a super nice guy. I just think his comedy is DOA.

also he's a hard worker

all I'm saying is someone ought to measure the chins on those babies, just to be sure

so how long until Conan loses the Tonight Show-type gags and starts introducing the stupid characters again?

I really think Jay's probably a super nice guy. I just think his comedy is DOA.

He's a nice guy right now but he was one of those guys who walked on everybody to get where they are and now is shocked to find a lot of people remember what he used to be like. For instance, remember the Bill Hicks joke?

also conan's monologue was weirdly bad last night - like a winehouse joke and a kirsty ally joke - i guess hollywood needs a new famous drunk crackhead and a new fat person

The AM talk station I listen to in the mornings for traffic and weather on the 9's used to play this little segment at 7:45 called "Last Night on Leno", a sort of greatest-hits version of Leno's monologue from the night before. It was Leno being Leno, and just some cheese I had to sit through while waiting for the light to turn green.

But this morning, they played "Last Night on Conan", and let me tell you something: That guy's monologues kind of suck on TV, but they're downright pathetic when you're listening to only the audio.

"In other obvious music news, Amy Winehouse likes to take a drink."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/leno.jpg

so how long until Conan loses the Tonight Show-type gags and starts introducing the stupid characters again?

The Twitter Tracker bit was a modified carry-over from Late Night. And was still just as funny.

I hope they bring back Evil Puppy.

For instance, remember the Bill Hicks joke?

I kind of hate listening to Bill Hicks. What was the joke?

According to Google, some nonsense about Jay realizing the commercial slum his career had sunk into and blowing out his brains on The Tonight Show with the attendant splatter making a peacock on the back wall; "a company man to the bitter end".

btw reading this made me glad I was focusing on black comics during the heyday of Bill Hicks

Um, Ed McMahon.

Unless something is alarmingly wrong with my memory, Ed McMahon sat on the couch

yeah carson dalys show is secretly kind of awesome sort of because no one has ever watched it

I don't know about this new taped-segment format or whatever, but this was kind the one appeal of it -- it was like watching alien broadcasts, because you'd be like "there is this whole network talk show that exists and has all the accouterments of a network talk show, but for some reason I feel like I'm the only person in the country watching it right now"

To be fair to Leno's going-out jokes, BTW, surely part of the point of something like the OJ joke is to look back fondly on all the comic mainstays of the 17 freaking long years some segments of the audience may have spent with him, sort of like if someone said farewell to ILX and threw in some jokes about the werewolf kid

I understand that the OJ/Lewinsky references were nods back to the good ol' days, but what's pathetic about it is that those were actually the highlights of his tenure - OJ Simpson and Monica Lewinsky jokes, the same thing that everyone else was making fun of at the same time. It's an appropriately bland legacy, I guess.

seriously--it kind of makes the whole thing that much more sad

oh c'mon, I challenge you to name one funnier thing that happened in the past 17 years than a brutal double homicide

killer bees

It's like I look back at my life and the only thing I can think of that stands out is how I stopped shitting my pants, graduated, moved out of the house, etc.

All in the same year.

Katrina was pretty hilarious iirc

yeah all that stagnant water

I kind of hate listening to Bill Hicks. What was the joke?

The gist of it was that Leno had turned his back on his edgier, some might say funnier, days and become this bland idiot talk show host type of a comic.

Leno was now attempting to appeal to the very type of people he would've sneered at when he was a young comic.

Maybe Denis Leary can do the same joke but about Conan.

҉

sorry

‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮҉it's okay

I love the Bill Hicks joke (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI3s9JzaIZE - plz to ignore the visuals) but after watching Leno's "legendary" Letterman appearances on youtube, I'm of the opinion that if leno was EVER funny, it wasn't on TV.

http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/article/782/782083/top-10-buddy-cop-films-20070419035456482.jpg

The only thing stopping these two cops from solving the crime of the century...is each other.

Yeah, that Bill Hicks bit...HIGHlarious. What a miserable fuck that dude was.

sounds pretty cool to me. HA HA

i don't know he tells it like it is

people who don't smoke will die too lol

Did Jay Leno kill his damn grandmother or anything? No, he did a commercial for Doritos. That clearly calls for a joke that centers around firing an Uzi into his mouth.

Let's not pretend that Bill Hicks was cerebral or thoughtfully provocative. He was an angry, bitter hack.

beats a bland, boring hack

tbf leno's face begs for it x-post

xp

Nah, I can ignore bland, boring hacks and move on. No harm done. Bill Hicks has perverted the idea of what stand up is for a sizeable portion of a generation.

What's funny about Hicks is how overrepresented his fan base was on the internet for such a long time. Tributes to Hicks from bands like Tool and Radiohead probably furthered that.

I thought the funniest stuff Hicks ever did was his vanilla jokes on Letterman. I am personally okay with what he was all about - I just think he forgot to be funny most of the time.

Bill Hicks on the MTV Half-Hour Comedy Hour(hosted by Mario Joyner) was great to 13 year old me

I have gotten pulled into watching half of the Jimmy Fallon show every night since Conan started, I am the problem with America

i saw "la bamba" tonight!

I very, very few times I've seen Carson Daly in the last few years was just fine, b/c he'd have on worthwhile bands.

Then I'd switch it off to see if "Ace of Cakes" was on. I gots priorities.

In the very, very

rather

the thing abt hicks is that george carlin was so much better & more pointed in his critiques of shit that was 'wrong with society' or whatever + funnier. whereas hicks was a joyless dude who made fun of ppl who like to, i dont know, dance, or lead healthy lifestyles

so wrong. i agree that his martyr shtick got tiresome but i don't think he was joyless or unfunny.

xpost that shit is mad funny if you have a proper amount of distance, which most of his fans clearly lack

roommate, to me, discussing his 4 bill hicks DVDs yesterday--

"The thing about Bill is that he was less a comedian and more just like...a truth-teller, you know?"

The thing about Bill is that he was a comedian.

Hicks could be a hateful motherfucker and there's sort of a cathartic element to that. I don't think he was totally joyless though, he'd let his humanity poke through here and there. Probably most explicitly in his "it's all a ride" and "we are all one" acid inspired... stuff.

hoos: your roomie--he's still in college, right?

I really love Bill Hicks, but he certainly had his flaws.

Yeah he's got one more year xp

okie. was worried for a sec.

im overstating the case against hicks. but i really do prefer carlin

Wait til dude tells you about global cooling though lb, that's when the dude will really expand your understanding of the world.

xp

http://www.seriouslunch.com/misc/seriouslunch_conan.gif

WHOA!

Hahaha

no way!
I knew that bg looked familiar

i've already reverted to Letterman

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/files/uploads/celestial_sphere.jpg

what is standup, johnny fever?

hate is a key part of humanity. i like seeing it represented in comedy.

Perrin clarifies that he doesn't dislike Conan, just thinks he won't work on Tonight. Says Fallon is godawful and getting worse:

http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2009/06/prof-cheap-laffs-explains.html

Tonight isn't going to be Tonight anymore, oldies

im overstating the case against hicks. but i really do prefer carlin

― autogucci cru (deej), Thursday, June 4, 2009 3:47 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if you don't, there's something wrong w/ u

I can't define standup any easier than you can, Morbs. But I know when it's being mistreated by a goon.

O_O jeff!

did anyone else lol at the riffing on "In The Year 2000" before they started the sketch

I thought the 2000->3000 thing was awkward and lame and it seemed like the audience thought so too

I wasn't sure it was going to work as "3000" but by the time it was over I was fine with it.

Also, glad to see they're bringing back Max-as-perv gags.

Meantime, Nikki Finke has gossip and thoughts.

Juicy!

Cry me a river, evil-chin.

After the way he screwed Letterman, any poor treatment now is just karma.

Since this has sort of turned into a general late night thread, who's placing odds on Jon Stewart taking over for Letterman when his run is over? CBS and Comedy Central are Viacom bedfellows, and I can't think of a single candidate more primed for the job right now (excepting Colbert, which could be fun if he carried over the character).

x-post -- But his happy marriage. (No, seriously.)

How did he screw Letterman?

Who would do "The Daily Show"?

ugh I just imagined "Glenn Beck"

Helen Kushnick did it, really. Seen Late Shift? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116835/

xp

Who would do "The Daily Show"?

CHAPPELLE, BITCHES

by the time Letterman is ready to quit, Stewart will be in his 50s. Without the news-spoof template, I don't see a network betting on someone that old.

Didn't CBS only extend Dave's contract by 1 year recently? He's only a sure thing through 2010 I think.

"The Late Show with Demetri Martin"

"The Late Show with Dr Morbius!"

WOULD SEE

totally

first show, Seth Rogen & Sec of State Hillary Clinton

oh wow the number of nicknames generated per hour would be A+

favorite segment would be morbs stalking around brooklyn with a camera crew trying to k.o. hillbillies

Cobble Hillbillies

first show, Seth Rogen & Sec of State Hillary Clinton

okay yes, would absolutely watch this

yes pleaseeee

"Stick around, because after the break we have some guests I despise coming up, and everything else on TV is worthless!"

okay yes, would absolutely watch this

One episode of the Morbs show would be more entertaining than a lifetime of Jimmy Fallon.

Instead of a house band, there would be a white noise machine.

Would there be a sidekick?

gabbneb

or JW?

jw is totally the paul schaffer of the band

ethan

Can't wait for Dr. Morbius to interview some b-list actor, spend 5 minutes excoriating their latest project, then admit he didn't actually watch it.

He'd be more honest than most late night hosts that way.

I have to say, my favorite movie press tour is still Kelly Clarkson begging people to not see "From Justin To Kelly".

I still need to watch that.

The movie is set during spring break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Texan singing waitress Kelly Taylor meets Pennsylvanian college student Justin Bell, and they fall for each other, and various romantic complications ensue. Kelly's friend Kaya falls in love with charming busboy Carlos; Kelly's other friend, Alexa, schemes to keep Justin and Kelly from meeting; Justin's friend Brandon is always getting on the wrong side of a sexy beach patrolwoman; and Justin's other friend, Eddie, tries to hook up with a cyberpal.

I think the phrase "hot garbage" was invented specifically for "From Justin To Kelly".

Sounds like a thrill ride unparalleled!

I wonder if there was ever a Clay/Ruben movie in the works.

I'm sure somewhere on the internet there is an all too detailed story treatment for just that combination.

I recall somehow vaguely enjoying "From Justin to Kelly," maybe on one of those Sunday afternoons where there's food within reach of the couch, but I do recall thinking it could have used more of Clarkson looking hot

(been xposted by Ned into irrelevance but I don't care, I'm posting this anyway)

Actually had this been successful and spawned an entire series of AI finalist movies, that would have been hilarious!

"From Clay to Ruben"
"From Diana to Fantasia"
"From Bo to Carrie"
"From Katherine to Taylor" <---- LOL
"From Blake to Jordin"
"From David to David"
"From Adam to Kris" <--- sure this slashfic already exists

morbs' sidekick is dennis perrin, obv

head writer

woah gabb, you're Dennis Perrin??????

(I mean, I know it was an American Idol family-friendly movie, and part of the appeal of Clarkson is that she is not a sexpot by temperament or anything, but there is something odd about doing a beach movie in the new millennium that does not throw slightly more of a bone to the segment of the audience that finds the star attractive)

I guess they figured the audience would be throwing enough bones of their own

Actually I take that back, that is a horrible thing to ask for and I apologize

"From David to David"

This could be one of those body switcheroo movies.

Most boring body-switch movie ever -- they'd just look at each other and be like "oh, hey, man, this is pretty similar to before"

David A would finally have pubes, though.

ain't nobody's sidekick, honey. i'm gabbneb, bitch.

Much more likely that the entire movie would be about Cook attempting to track down Archuleta in order to force him to switch back; going from "monkey-faced trim magnet" to "Daddy's little punching bag" can't be an easy transition.

xp: okay of all possible responses that is probably the one I expected the least

yeah lol im trying to think if it's some reference to something i'm not getting

all I'm seeing now is Britney Spears on the other side laughing her ass off at ILX

"Gawd, they STILL haven't figured it out? HAHAHAHAHA"

Hey you kids like comedy well here's some comedy

"The original genesis of the idea for (this tour) was 'Common Sense,' " said Beck, referring to Thomas Paine's Revolutionary War-era pamphlet. "The first half of the show is just about the lack of common sense in some of the laws that have been passed around the country that are just insane. The second half of the show is just a fusion of Thomas Paine and Sam Kinison."

After they were both dead.

I'm assuming the kinison part translates to "Glenn does piles of blow just before going onstage".

Oh yeah and check yer local listings, as this is coming to your local multiplex. Really.

"The only ones I don't get along with are the ideologues, where I think common sense no longer plays a role.... "he said. "You have to be able to say, 'Wait a minute, my side was wrong on this.

hm that so..?

I thought the Dreyfuss/Bradley Cooper part of the show was a lot of fun last night.

I was distracted during Gwyneth Paltrow's first segment last night because of her shiny Barbie doll legs, but apparently someone came and wiped her down during the break because they weren't as bad later on. Girl likes the lotion I guess?

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gawker/2009/06/zk2Z35IWTobxqjihWDJeMNIwo1_500.jpg

comic mainstays of the 17 freaking long years some segments of the audience may have spent with him, sort of like if someone said farewell to ILX and threw in some jokes about the werewolf kid

link?

irlolling my face off at The Morbs Show

and someone post DP's "throwing bones" to 'posts v much in c' and lock thread, I'm drunk

last night: 2 Kirstie Alley fat jokes and an OJ joke

I kind of resent the audience now.

re "one more year of Dave" -- close to extension to 2012, they say:

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/06/cbs-renews-letterman.html

hard to imagine a better sight looking breifly at the monitor than conan o'brien strangling dane cook. unfortunately, they seem to be laughing about it now

I went to tonight's taping. There's a lot I could blab about but I don't know what's desiderata for you guys.

Off the top:

Audience was weird and young-ish. Certainly a lot younger looking than Jay's tonight audience. A segment of a UCLA frat showed (but were they there for Conan or, more likely, Dane Cook?).

Conan is odd to see in real life. It's not his height that takes you by surprise (I knew to expect that) but his thinness. A lot of his audience interactions feel more staged in person. He forgot to introduce himself. This is partially the fault of the audience, who was possibly too loving.

Dane Cook comes across as a somewhat affable guy who is more of a tireless self-promoter than anything else. It's easy to over-hate him but he seemed pleasant enough.

The band was good and played in the aisles during some commercials breaks.

Conan's already slipped to #2 in Late Night. He drew a 7.1 on his debut and a 2.9 last night (to Dave's 3.4). What a disaster for NBC.

What a disaster for NBC.

Did they really think Conan was going to regularly beat Letterman? I think he's going to have to build an audience again, and I think he can do it.

I feel so bad for NBC.

What a disaster for them!

sorry, bleh.

Just me or is ILX pretty damn cranky lately?

was Conan delayed by the NHL game? which lost out to the NBA on ABC?

i mean i wouldn't be totally surprised if that trend continues, but don't think last night is an especially good data point

A 2.9 with Eddie Murphy as guest #1 isn't so good. Of course, when was the last big Eddie Murphy movie? Charlie Murphy would probably be a bigger draw at this point.

Now that the sheen is wearing off Conan's Tonight Show, it's starting to seem a little slapped together. Not in the cool way Late Night was, but in a "oh shit, we're drowning" kind of way. Granted, they're only 8 episodes deep at this point, but I'm not surprised the ratings are taking a dive.

Solution #1? PUT ANDY RICHTER ON THE COUCH!

I am really, really confused by Richter in his weird little podium.

Now that the sheen is wearing off Conan's Tonight Show, it's starting to seem a little slapped together. Not in the cool way Late Night was, but in a "oh shit, we're drowning" kind of way. Granted, they're only 8 episodes deep at this point, but I'm not surprised the ratings are taking a dive.

That's just it. Conan's show had a lot of appeal in the way it was so silly and devil-may-care. Now that the stakes are higher it'll be a while before it can find the right tone. It'd be like giving Jonathan Richman a major label deal in the 1980s and hoping he might be like Michael Jackson.

i'm pretty sure if anything more andy richter would not help

what a disaster for NBC

Andy in more bits = funny

is NBC still in business

not wanting andy back on the couch is like regrowing your amputated hand and then pining for your sweet-ass old prosthetic hook

just because your knuckles are a little itchy

OR SOMETHING

xp: agreeeeein

Dane Cook comes across as a somewhat affable guy who is more of a tireless self-promoter than anything else. It's easy to over-hate him but he seemed pleasant enough.

did it seem kinda quiet in the audience for the first part of his segment? on TV it sounded like he was barely getting laughs, and those were just obligatory "oh a laugh line" laughs.

Yeah, I have to admit deriving a certain amount of joy from seeing him die onstage for about 75% of the interview.

Jeez. What a disaster for NBC.

I am so happy to see Eddie Murphy turn into a more toothless Bill Cosby

Oh the humanity

Have we looked into the possibility that Letterman is CHEATING?

Er, uh, how exactly?

He and Palin are colluding to keep each other in the news.

steroids

I think Shaffer must have a hand in this.

Conan is a scary man in real life. I saw a taping of his show in 1995 (Christmas episode with Tony Bennett and Ritchie Sambora) and as a warm-up, Conan came out dancing. He was doing this real herky-jerky style chicken dance up the stairs into the crowd. He got up to a couple of rows from me and was staring down this girl in an aisle seat, still doing this heart attack dance with those beady little eyes looking all dead inside. It was really, really creepy. Plus, the guy's like eight feet tall.

What a horrible disaster for NBC this is.

god help us all

oh shit, they're drowning

what a horrible disaster this is

for nbc

conan o'brien: nbc's horrible disaster

Oh, the humanity

the conanity

they should change the name from "the tonight show" to "the horrible disaster, sponsored by nbc"

http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/images/gallery/chris-crocker-cries.jpg

Leave NBC alone!

I turned on NBC last night at 11:30, saw this:

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/2.08/2.08images/hindenburg.jpg

did it seem kinda quiet in the audience for the first part of his segment? on TV it sounded like he was barely getting laughs, and those were just obligatory "oh a laugh line" laughs.

He was aided by the applause sign throughout. They either didn't know who he was, or what kind of interview this was going to be. Here's this usually energetic comedian in a suit and telling slow anecdotes. You know it's bad for Cook when the college people who smuggled beer in through gatordade bottles and who look like they're going to a Bruins game, when even that party doesn't get excited for Dane Cook.

http://editorial.sidereel.com/Images/Posts/nbcnew.JPG

I'd love to hear more details, Cunga. I'm not too cool to hear the small details.

Sure. Let me think...

The line for the show is in this black cage-like fence just outside, and parallel to, the Universal lot on Lankershim Blvd.

The movement of the Tonight Show from Leno's old place in Burbank to the Universal lot is part of a larger scheme. NBC/Uni wants to turn Ventura/Lankershim into the Times Square of Los Angeles in the next few years. They're planning on building another tall black tower to stand side-by-side with the current one. The new one will be right on top of the subway entrance. It's quite possible this development won't happen as the LA government, and local neighborhood residents, don't want the traffic of a Times Square built around Universal. They're doing everything they can to block this from happening, obviously. The government wants building to be moved near Barham, where they can get more property taxes.

There is also a plan for a bike trail to be built along the L.A. river. It will go from this Universal megacenter to Northridge, I believe.

Conan's set is newly built just inside the lot. It holds 350+ and is much larger than Jay's studio.

The comedian who comes out to warm the audience beforehand is infinitely funnier than the guy who does Leno's show (and who is also the announcer - I forget the dude's name).

Conan's facial expressions work much better on TV. From the distance I was watching you couldn't capture the nuances of his reactions. He plays for the TV much more than I realized.

Max Weinberg has a serious business look on his face throughout the entire show. It's kind of funny.

They shot three promos for that night's show when the show was over.

Everything else was standard tv taping. (including the kindly pages who still have to treat the audience like human cattle)

I don't know if you live near LA, Pleasants, so I'm sorry if the LA real estate trivia is boring. Outside of the things I mentioned it was a regular tv taping, and I didn't know if you've been to one of those.

Just the one I mentioned above at the old show.

Oh, sorry, didn't notice that it was you who posted that story earlier. Yeah, I noticed he is a bit more eerie-looking in real life too. All those self-deprecating jokes he makes about his appearance ring more true in person. My eyes were drawn to his hair, thinness, and beady eyes.

I noticed he didn't come out and greet the audience at all. I wonder how long he's been doing that. One of the things I did admire about Jay is that he would always come out beforehand and talk to audience members and pose for pictures.

And I've noticed that a lot of old people tend to think Conan is some sort of childish fruitcake - they just hate him. You'd think he was Bruno judging by my conversations with some older people about him when I got back to talk about the taping. *shrugs*

http://rosenblumtv.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/stower_titanic.jpg

foreground: nbc audience
background: tonight show w/conan o'brien

LOL my dream sort of came true tonight

http://i40.tinypic.com/euk9ye.jpg

What a disaster for NBC.

good luck nbc.

The comedian who comes out to warm the audience beforehand is infinitely funnier

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/touchingbase/docs/images/pardo1.jpg

meanwhile on kimmel, good ol' artie lange

what a disaster for sirius radio

they are handing this out to the studio audience
http://www.marieclaire.com/cm/marieclaire/images/Z6/MCX060108Bulletin009-medium-new.jpg

Last night with Norm MacDonald was probably the most 'Conan' the show's been since it started. His cheesy jokes about Andy Richter, and his 'news' from the vault...even Jim Gaffigan was fun.

The show is struggling, but I can't hate it. I just can't. And besides, for me, Conan at his worst is 10 times better than Leno.

Another early 90s SNL castmember (Kevin Nealon) prob means another great episode.

YOU PEOPLE

i sort of wish Conan's new set was more like Leno's old one. Warmer colors, bricks, wood grain, neon signs, high fives at the beginning, etc. Something really cold and cavernous about his new set. Reminds me of so you think you can dance or something.

I kinda like it, it's got a nice old-fashioned quality to it. Love the Super Mario Brothers screen!

the fonzie & tom cruise wax figures (esp tom cruise) are hilarious - i think they might've found their first great reoccurring "characters"

tom cruise as peeping tom killed me both times tonight

I am so unreasonably happy that Larry David really dresses like that

conan seemed genuinely surprised when the tom cruise fingers grabbed the door.

haha yeah, i almost wondered if that was even part of the plan

Haha, real-life Larry David very much like Curb Larry David.

Triumph talking to the Beastie Boys, and Flavor Flav one-liner, were the best parts.

so is this where the what a disaster thing started?

Si

what a tragedy for board memes

late to the party but triumph killlllled it at bonnaroo

Just gotta second the namechecking of Jimmy Pardo and Never Not Funny. Extremely funny stuff.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/78858/the-tonight-show-with-conan-obrien-fri-june-19-2009#s-p2-so-i0

Triumph after the first ad break

ha, good stuff

Max leaving the Tonight Show?

http://www.aspecialthing.com/forum/f42/max-weinberg-leaving-tonight-show-14094/

^^^ not cool. Jimmy Vivino isn't strong enough to take his place and La Bamba is too goofy to do it. Max has to stay!

What a disaster for NBC!

I'm guessing that he only came to LA to help make the transition smooth for Conan.

nooooooooooooooooooo

somebody teach richter to play drums, stat.

dammit. Who're they going to get to star in 'Max on Max 3'?

somebody teach richter to play drums, stat.

This mental image is cracking me up.

I'm really looking forward to the unrelenting awfulness of Leno's primetime show. 5 hours a week with no celebrity interviews or musical guests?

If Max does turn out to be finished with Conan, at least he got an appropriate sendoff. Did anyone else see it? His drum riser wheeled out of the studio and down the street as he soloed away.

a message on his facebook fan page doesn't seem like the most credible source.

Wait, the new Leno show isn't a talk show?

yeah that stupid blog post is completely wrong -- Max is going on tour w/ Springsteen and returning to Conan's show in a few weeks, as he has a dozen times before.

er i guess not even blog post, message board post! the worst kind of post of all!

yeah that stupid blog post is completely wrong -- Max is going on tour w/ Springsteen and returning to Conan's show in a few weeks, as he has a dozen times before.

― big bank cank (some dude), Tuesday, June 30, 2009 9:10 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah they did a whole bit about this on the show...

hold on wait, word is that max was just found dead in a berlin hotel room - RIP

yeahh -- but i'm just saying people seemed to be still posting under the impression that the item might be legit!

no i know, i was just adding on to what you said

yeah i'm just now watching the bit w/ him drumming down the street, so awesome

trying to decide if i should make the joke again

loving this "twitter tracker" shit

norm macdonald's moth joke tonight was amazing

This afternoon I was near Universal when they usually tape and just the thought of being in the same vicinity as a Conan-Norm tv moment was kind of- nay, VERY - cool.

I knew it was happening because it was in big bold letters on the universal monitor that Norm was on tonight.

there should be a isnormonconantonight.com

^^right on

What a disaster for NBC.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/03b4a86265/between-two-ferns-with-zach-galifianakis

the wannabe celebrity people tonight was a beautiful trainwreck

That was epic. Panning between Conan's bewildered face and Pratt's smug expression.

I wish a moment this would be the death knell for The Hills kids.

I wonder how a NYC audience would've reacted to those guests and that interview. Conan's LA studio audience seems so much more languid than his old one.

languid?? they were booing

On old school Late Night w/ Conan he would've been stoned to near-death before the Masturbating Bear suffocated him.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/01/nbc_issues_half-hearted_respon.html

late night tv is terrible these days. i'm more likely to watch charlie rose than conan or dave

what a disaster for jay leno, conan o'brien, and david letterman

http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/07/jay-leno-nbc-conan-obrien-tonight-show/

NBC Shakeup -- Jay Leno Comes Out on Top

Posted Jan 7th 2010 3:50PM by TMZ Staff

Jay Leno is going back to his 11:30 PM time slot, and it's looking like Conan O'Brien is the odd man out ... sources tell TMZ.

We've learned Jay's 10:00 PM show will go on hiatus February 1. After the Olympics, Jay will take back his 11:30 PM time slot. What has not been decided -- whether Jay's show will be a half hour, followed by Conan, or whether Jay's show will be an hour and NBC says sayonara to Mr. O'Brien.

We're told Jay and Conan have both been told of the changes. As for Jay, interestingly, he'll get what he always wanted -- his 11:30 PM time slot.

Simply put, Conan's Tonight Show is not good. But I don't exactly want Jay Leno back in the spot he vacated, either. I'll just keep watching Stewart & Colbert, half of Letterman, and then Fallon regardless of what happens I guess.

this is retarded

maybe conan could sit on jay's lap

Results 1 - 10 of about 516,000 for "jay leno" "conan o'brien" slash fic. (0.19 seconds)

i hate jay leno so much

maybe we can get The Conan O'Brien Show at 10

totally diff show, no desk, etc

can actually imagine conan and staff figuring out a novel format - maybe have a bunch of ASSSSSCAT UCB folks perform improv for half of it every night - they all wind up working for NBC anyway

IT'S EVERY NIGHT LIVE!!!!

conan writing sketches would actually be better than whoever is currently writing for SNL

I dunno, I used to love Conan, but I think a big part of that show's problem is Conan himself. dude has gotten really lazy about the jokes. so many missed opportunities, or just lame "funny" face mugging at the camera where jokes should be. maybe he should do a kid's show on PBS after he gets fired. i don't remember him re-enacting every joke like he's practicing for charades when he was in the late night slot, but then again I hadn't watched him for years because I could never stay up that late. the only stuff that really makes me laugh is his off-the-cuff joking with Richter. the Tom Cruise wax statue thing was great, but I haven't seen anything on that level since. maybe it is the format of the show, but it seems to me like he isn't into it anymore or something.

Jay Leno: A company man to the bitter fucking end.

I agree that Conan didn't do himself any favors. There was an article (maybe it was in this thread) where his writers suggested jokes to him and he rejected them because he didn't think they were right for 11:30 or whatever. He neutered himself, basically.

conan is at least better than leno

Someone needs to bully Conan, literally put him in a headlock and noogie him, to bring out the overachieving Ivy Leaguer he needs to be to come back to form.

The real winner here has turned out to be Jimmy Fallon, whose show was absolutely terrible for over two months but has really settled into a zone that alternately comforting and hilarious every night. I love that 12:30 shows aren't subjected to the same scrutiny, because it could've gone irreversibly the wrong way really quickly.

Dumb & funny seems to be the order on Fallon: Wheel of Carpet Samples is a lame idea, but it's always funny. And the Post-Apocalyptic Andy Rooney sketches are great.

The Tonight Show is such an institution that it's not even entertaining anymore, regardless of the host.

Yeah, Fallon's show is better than Conan's now. It's weird.

Fallon always looks funnier from the previews (too late for me to watch, though). his guests always seem more interesting to me, too. what is it about 11:30 that kills these guys? Letterman was the same way.

to a lot of older people Conan and Andy are just bizarre. When I went to a taping earlier this year with a friend, he told his parents to watch the show (they're in their early 60s), and they did, and he said they thought it was horribly dirty and their response to Andy was "what's with the gay guy he talks to during the show?"

what a disaster for grandpa etc etc

I only watch Conan sporadically but it doesn't really seem or feel substantially different from his original show to me...?

i thought conan was doing a pretty good job actually, but then im not 70

yes

To be fair, I completely stopped paying attention to it, so maybe it settled in or something.

But the first few weeks were like non-stop Bill Clinton jokes and Kirstie Alley-is-fat jokes and other mega-obvious, boring shit that is like a parody of why Jay Leno sucks, and I guess I was hoping for better shit from Conan.

I think there's just something cooler about the 12:30 slot. Conan's definitely still in the same wheelhouse as his Late Night run, but he's more tame, more old. Regardless of what Cunga's grandparents think, he's not pushing the bizarre as much as he used to. Letterman toned it down when he moved to 11:30 as well. At this point, he's a completely different kind of host than he used to be, but he's been at 11:30 for so long that nu-Dave has grown familiar and welcome.

he dropped an O.J. Simpson joke last night iirc.

xpost

WAX TOM CRUISE FOREVER

Yeah, that shit was funny. But outside of the Wax Cruise and Celebrity Twitter, he's still not a great interviewer and they're using Andy Richter the wrong way and the whole tone of the show is just really sterile. (Still the best of all the late night show bands, though)

conans demise is an overreported meme imo--that being said fallon has been terrific so far--btw those two ferguson and letterman still bringin it i think we are in a late night golden age

(no offense to The Roots, but it still seems to me like they're moonlighting.) xp

tho tbh i still watch the daily show over any of the others so

Morbius is right that Letterman was way, way, way better in the '80s.

well yeah, I think that goes without saying

possibly the most fascinating thing I've ever seen on television was the Crispin Glover interview

also the Alka Selzer and Velcro suits

dudes i watch tv at this time almost exclusively. i gotta get me one o them dvr machines . . . conan was always hit and miss. i agree with johnny fever that since the move his show is more "normal" than it used to be. who knows why this is. but jimmy fallon is not better than conan dudes. all the uber-lame product placements on his show is why he is staying in business. as for jay leno, i have never understood why folks watch him. i don't think i have ever laughed at him.

i know this is probably stupid, but i really really hate Conan's set. Dave's is way better, and hell, i even liked Leno's old set better. this place seems cavernous and way too fucking blue. i like the smaller late late night sets, both Ferguson's and Fallon's set are better than Conan's. i don't get Leno either. never will.

http://21.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvwdveACUP1qzc0kho1_400.jpg

I think Zizek fighting Andy for co-host seat would pull Conan out of the doldrums. Zizek is practically a Conan character already.

How would we go about getting Conan to book Zizek?

conan is a terrible interviewer; this seems like a minor problem but it isn't, he's really selfish and repetitive and the same goes for his humor these days. leno these days has a nervous grasping desperate quality that i find compelling, and he talks to celebrities better. craig ferguson is amazing but kind of high risk/high reward imo. i have a hard time believing that fallon is even watchable. i hate him so much. but if folks itt say he's onto something, i should check it out. dave is basically an immovable force of nature to me right now, like carson must have been.

i kind of feel like a yelper having opinions about all this.

they really, really should stop pre-interviewing people on conan. it's painful watching him steer people towards anecdotes 1, 2 and if there's time 3.

conan is a terrible interviewer; this seems like a minor problem but it isn't, he's really selfish and repetitive and the same goes for his humor these days. leno these days has a nervous grasping desperate quality that i find compelling, and he talks to celebrities better. craig ferguson is amazing but kind of high risk/high reward imo. i have a hard time believing that fallon is even watchable. i hate him so much. but if folks itt say he's onto something, i should check it out. dave is basically an immovable force of nature to me right now, like carson must have been.

i think this is all pretty otm--lenos success is predicated a lot more on his good interview skillz than his "joeks" from what i can tell.

but check out fallon, i dont know if im overcrediting him since i was so sure the thing was going to be terrible, but its eminently watchable and has had the best musical guests of any show by a long shot

Fallon has a giddiness that I find charming. At worst, he can be sort of sycophantic with his guests, but half the time it just seems like he's genuinely humbled to have the opportunity to interview people he admires.

dialing back on the "OMG I AM TERRIFIED I AM FUCKING UP" tone helps Fallon tremendously IMO

I think moving from Manhattan to a movie lot in the middle of nowhere in LA did Conan no favors.

yeah as a official hater of fallon up until now, i think his show is pretty great, and as a dude who used to like conan, fallon is way way better at this point. i am baffled by this.

^ 100% true for me, too.

I blame the retiring of pimpbot2000 and masturbating bear.

i thought they kept the masturbating bear, it's just on hiatus

fallon is like "o my god this is fantastic" and conan is all "keep cool my babies" craig's "it's a great day for america" and dave is like "gimme the damn thing"

the tonight show is a lousy and boring model for a show and i bet conan kinda feels trapped in there. i think the same thing would have happened to dave (and it did when he moved to cbs, but probably not as much as if he'd moved to TTS.)

I think if NBC killed The Tonight Show, old people would be sad for about a week and then move on. I say DO IT!

Would much prefer masturbating bear as means by which Conan makes old people sad for a week.

I'm not saying kill the hour for a talk show permanently, but kill the "Tonight Show" brand. They could call it "The Masturbating Bear Hour" afaic, and it would immediately be freer to do its own thing.

nbc is the network manifestation of a middle-aged hoarder

Law and Order and the Masturbating Bear

theres already a Law and Order:SVU tho to cover that possibility

Ice-T: I say we lock up every one of these spunked up Yogis...
Belzer: Hey, those bears have rights!
Meloni: Not with my daughter, they don't.

Sorry. I can't write in their voices very well.
Chung chung!

Regardless of what Cunga's grandparents think, he's not pushing the bizarre as much as he used to.

To be fair to them, they saw the episode where Conan did his "can you come fix my desk, young man? (conan is naked from the waist down)" gag.

leno tonight: "what does nbc stand for? never believe your contract."

"kevin, if we get cancelled we could travel. i hear Fox is lovely this time of year."

they really, really should stop pre-interviewing people on conan. it's painful watching him steer people towards anecdotes 1, 2 and if there's time 3.

― Early Tuesday morning, a distraught Tequila tweeted (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, January 7, 2010 6:06 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^ this. i mean all these shows do pre-interviews, and Conan's too tightly wound to ever be a truly conversational, natural interviewer, but the gears turn way too clearly with him, and his best interview segments are the ones where something unexpected happens and he gets excited to improvise and go somewhere with it.

true, like that time a lady (jeri ryan?) kissed him and conan flipped out, jumped around the stage and threw his chair

think that was rebecca romijn ?

anderson cooper refuses to shut up about this

being treated like a matter of deep political intrigue

talking head just called leno a lame duck

i feel bad for Conan, he was in such a perfect niche all those years. although i guess you can chalk it all up to his own hubris that he thought he could take on the Tonight Show mantle or just felt he had it coming to him. i mean he's well over a decade younger than Leno, if nothing else he could've waited the guy out.

with conan and leno back on their original time slots the biggest loser in all this will probably be fallon huh?

Is Conan keeping his job or not? Nobody's brought Fallon into this equation yet, afaik.

Oh ok, I just read NBC's statement saying they're keeping Conan on the network. Pushing Fallon back to 1am will put him squarely head-to-head with Ferguson in a lot of markets (where the CBS affiliate delays his start time). This surely kills Carson Daly's show, which isn't always bad now that he's moved out of the studio and does a lot of on-location stuff. Unfortunately, he only films about 5 episodes a month and it's constantly in reruns.

NYT sez he stays on for now: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/business/media/08leno.html?hp

xp

i feel bad for Conan, he was in such a perfect niche all those years. although i guess you can chalk it all up to his own hubris that he thought he could take on the Tonight Show mantle or just felt he had it coming to him. i mean he's well over a decade younger than Leno, if nothing else he could've waited the guy out.

― some dude, Thursday, January 7, 2010 11:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

its also that nbc is in such dire straits right now that they cant afford to give conan a year or two to settle in--iirc letterman used to consistently beat leno in ratings and theres no reason to believe that conan couldnt troubleshoot and figure out how to make his show better

letterman used to consistently beat leno in ratings

At least for the last several years they were head-to-head, just the reverse!

I'd pity Conan if I didn't think he was just mildly funny. lol Fallon at 1:05, tho.

yeah, of course, but iirc nbc had to 'wait it out' w/ leno when he first started--letterman was beating him and i think a lot of nbc execs were chomping at the bit to get rid of him. but they stuck with him and something happened and then he consistently beat leno forever and ever

er, beat letterman

Seven months isn't really much time to give someone to settle in at The Tonight Show. But Leno at 10pm was like the Titanic, so I guess NBC is very panic stricken right now.

network TV is the Titanic right now