First off I want to say that Conan’s first night at the helm of “The Tonight Show” was a success. He introduced himself to America (he likes dolls and self-deprecating humor), while also finding time to reassure his devoted followers that he knew to leave well enough alone.
Conan appeared a little weathered at the start of the show, as if he’d been writing jokes until air time, but he still looked better than Andy Richter. Richter, who opened the show in place of the immortal Joel Goddard from “Late Night,” looks like he gained about twenty pounds and just happy to be getting a steady paycheck (There will be more Andy bashing later).
When Conan walked on stage it seemed to be business as usual, with an abbreviated version of the string dance, some random tangents, and a little bit of adlibbed physical comedy. The back and forth with Andy was strained but watchable, although the lack of banter with Max was upsetting. One can only hope that the true star of the E Street Band gets adequate camera time tonight.
I loved the shot he took at his network being in third place and being sponsored by General Motors. A corporate hack following the directions of Jack Donaghy (watch 30 ROCK!!) might not have been so reckless, but Conan showed that his balls didn’t get lost on the transcontinental flight. Part of this risk was accompanied by an overall theme throughout the episode, which was that he’s not an establishment comedian, but rather an outsider with a relatively unknown past that the audience doesn’t know and should stick around to get acquainted with.
My favorite part of the episode was the remote he shot with the tour guide. This kind of improv humor is what comedians do great, and these segments were my favorite part of “Late Night.” Leno didn’t do a ton of remote segments, and maybe that’s why the few he did were enjoyed so much more. Maybe know that Conan is uber famous his remotes won’t be as effective and they’ll become more sporadic, but I hope, and am inclined to believe that he’ll keep up the steady output at a very high level of comedic genius.
The biggest downer of the night was that Conan’s usefulness as a lead would be wasted on Jimmy Fallon, who had a commercial air during “The Tonight Show” that left me with a bad taste in my mouth that I was only able to wash away with a handful of late night skittles from my brother. I also munched on cookies and pepperoni, for a real trifecta of health based snacks.
I loved the awkwardness when Conan addressed having Jay Leno as his lead in the fall. Couldn’t really gauge how he felt about the whole situation, but he handled it gracefully. The reality of the situation, though, is that Conan needs to establish a base during this period or people won’t stay up past the local news in the fall if they’re simply content with Leno.
On that note, I think Conan’s numbers will spike for about a month, but then he’ll start losing ground to Dave Letterman and the “Late Show,” until CBS finally overtakes NBC in late night television. Speaking of Dave, he sort of toned down his comedy after leaving the 12:30 time slot. From time to time you see him push some of the edges, but not really. Hopefully Conan doesn’t become trapped like that.
There was also an advertisement for “The Listener,” which won’t be on in the fall. That doesn’t really have anything to do with Conan, but I thought you should know not to get emotionally invested into this summer show that will not survive long.
Conan was very deferential during the interview, which was fine since Will Ferrell was hilarious. Ferrell will actually be on the Discovery channel tonight, as he takes part in an episode of “Man vs. Wild.” The trailer looked hilarious for it, and I recommend people tune in tonight.
I don’t think last night’s show is a good indicator of how interviews will go, so I’m not reading too much into the rapport Conan had with Ferrell.
Skipped the musical guest because I’m not a Pearl Jam, and instead caught part of the movie “Brick” on one of our numerous HBOs. It’s a great movie that is essentially a 1940s crime drama set in a modern High School, which has the effect of blowing one’s mind.
Anyway, I’m excited for tonight’s Conan, but I’ll have to DVR it since I barely could stay up last night. Apparently I’m not on college time anymore, except for the weekends when I have a few drinks…
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