Conan

The decision to put a television in my bedroom growing up probably damaged my frail young psyche or played a part in developing some strange anti-social disorder where I confuse fantasy with reality and will grow up to be someone who wears a lot of weird hats and gloves indoors. However, one incontrovertible result was my obsession with late-night television. This is where I devoured, and subsequently fell in love with, Seinfeld reruns on channel 11 and there were a few years where they played The Simpsons late on channel 30. I flipped between Leno and Letterman and even started to watch a lot of Jerry Springer. Some would say too much Jerry Springer considering I would sometimes remember the more creative chants from the crowd and write them as my away messages on AIM and nod my head in agreement as he gave his final thought. However, it wasn't until I discovered Conan that I had a real reason to stay up. Who cared if I missed an old episode of The Drew Carey Show or didn't catch Jaywalking. But I had to stay up and watch Conan. I would download classic bits like "Seinfeld Auditions" and howl at the recurring "If They Mated" bit. In hindsight, staying up until 1:30 AM probably didn't translate well to my class performance the next day but the constant fatigue and dark circles around my eyes made for a pretty good "Student Zombie and/or Sleepy Kid" costume come Halloween time. Nevertheless, watching Conan that late at night felt like I had stumbled upon some television secret. I can only imagine what it was like to watch him when he first came on the air like some well-funded public access show.

I enjoyed watching Conan on The Tonight Show and was glad he was finally getting the attention he deserved. Still, I think he is at his best when nobody thinks he is the best. He is funniest when he carries his false sense of bravado around and when it seems like nobody is watching, he is able to try out gags that are silly and experimental. Am I glad The Tonight Show fiasco happened? No. But I think Conan is best when he is fighting an uphill battle. Some of his greatest, most ingenious stuff came either when he thought he had no sizable audience in the beginning or when he knew he was on his way out of NBC and started wrecking havoc in defiance (not to mention the rallies, campaigns and TeamCoCo that came as a result).

That's why I think the whole "Hey, it's basic cable"-shtick for his new show on TBS fits him well. Last night, that strange sound coming from offstage during the Lea Michele interview was a perfect example. Conan made some quip about a Meineke muffler shop being next door and he played it off hilariously. That stuff isn't going to happen on The Tonight Show. I really do wish everything hadn't happened the way it did but Conan, without argument, came out on top of the entire situation. He is in the national spotlight more than ever and I hope people follow him over to TBS.

Anyway, the new show:
-I really don't think I can critique the overall show considering it is a nightly talk show and not some television series pilot like the first episode of Lost. It's better to let it find its groove for a week or two and then judge it.
-I thought the cold open was great. Even better than the one he did for The Tonight Show although not as grand in scope as running across the entire country. Handing over a bunch of forks at Burger King instead of Sweet and Sour packets and trying out his monologue as a clown for children was hilarious.
-So he is keeping the beard, eh? That's fine by me.
-"It's 1965, you're 2 years old"..."You're very good looking"
-Has Ricky Gervais ever failed to be funny?
-It will be interesting to see what happens in ratings between Conan and The Daily Show considering A. Jon Stewart just beat Letterman and Leno and B. Stewart and Colbert both made appearances during Conan's summer tour to help out.
-I thought the first show guest lineup was surprisingly B-list overall (Jack White made sense) but tomorrow is Tom Hanks and the next night is Jon Hamm.
-The nutcracker lady walk-through reminded me Vomiting Kermit or FedEx Pope.
-Conan's improvised mid-interview jokes (which I think is his greatest comedic skill and what I find myself laughing out loud at the most) are as funny as they've always been.
-The show has been hyped and a lot of people exploded onto Team CoCo so we will see how this fever pans out. A lot of people started watching him on The Tonight Show but then tuned out until his job was all of a sudden in jeopardy. But, for now, I think this will be good.