The red hair, the meowing, the bear who really enjoys himself; it’s all back on television where it belongs as Conan O’Brien just completed his first week with his new TBS late-night show, “Conan.” I became a Conan fan right
The red hair, the meowing, the bear who really enjoys himself; it’s all back on television where it belongs as Conan O’Brien just completed his first week with his new TBS late-night show, “Conan.”
I became a Conan fan right around the end of high school and developed a true love for his show during my college years (2001-2005). He seemed to really find his comfort zone around 1998 and everything just went right from that point on.
He basically turned himself into a nerdier Letterman. That may seem to be an odd description because just looking at Dave through the years, he’s never exactly been mistaken for James Dean. But Letterman has had a presence and a “too-cool-for-school” persona that has totally worked for him. He’s my all-time-favorite late-night host, though the show now is admittedly not what it used to be.
What Conan did so well was take bits and pieces of the anti-establishment model that Letterman helped promote and performed them not as a slick talk-show host, but as a squeaky-voiced, awkwardly-talks-to-girls, does-all-his-homework, funny kid.
He wasn’t polished. He wasn’t suave. He certainly wasn’t Hollywood.
Which was perfect, because just about every guest who sat next to him was all those things. Watching him interact with them made the audience feel like it was them sitting behind that desk, talking to the world’s most beautiful people.
The recurring characters that took off, like “Triumph: The Insult Comic Dog,” gave the show an additional bevy of material and an opportunity for plenty of pieces outside the studio.
It was all combining for a great product, especially as CBS countered with Craig Kilborn, who never re-captured the magic he had on “The Daily Show,” (which has now been eclipsed so severely by Jon Stewart that many completely forget there even was a show prior to his arrival).
After it was announced that Conan would be the next host of “The Tonight Show,” something seemed to happen to his show. I can’t quite put my finger on the difference, but even as he was doing hugely high-profile gigs like hosting the Emmys, his show began to get a little bit stale — at least in my opinion.
I actually began to watch Craig Ferguson (who I think is such a natural talk-show host that it’s amazing this is his first shot) and Jimmy Kimmel (whose show has gone from horrific in its infancy to now hilarious on a nightly basis) instead.
When Conan took over on “The Tonight Show” following Jay Leno’s firing/scheduled departure/completely botched hand-off by NBC, I must admit that while I was happy for him, I really wasn’t watching.
So it may have been hypocritical, but I was one of the outraged millions that felt his ousting from “The Tonight Show” after six months in the chair was ridiculous. I was really angry that Leno had taken his old position back, though in any other job field it would seem completely logical. If one guy isn’t getting the job done as well as the previous guy, the decision seems obvious.
But in a profession that at least appears to have a touch of artistry to it, I felt Leno should have stood up for someone who was like him and allowed Conan an opportunity to succeed, rather than just playing the ratings card.
What we should have understood better seems to be that he never saw Conan as “someone like him.” At this point, Leno has much more of a corporate mindset than a creative one.
(If you couldn’t tell, I’m not the biggest Leno fan.)
But now that’s all in the past and Conan has put himself out there as the face of TBS, a network desperately seeking a star it can call its own. If the first week is any indication, Conan has much of the swagger back that was completely absent from his brief “Tonight Show” era.
He’s no longer playing to the masses, just simply playing.
