Thursday, March 5, 2009

An Appreciation to Late Night Television - The Conan Years

While the juggling of late night shows was going on back in 1993, one new, timid voice joined their ranks - Conan O'Brien. Plucked from relative obscurity (yet having some credentials, including editor of teh Harvard Lampoon, SNL and Simpsons writer), Conan didn't fit the mold of standard host. The big three at the time (or 4 if you want to include Arsenio) all had backgrounds in stand up comedy, and at the very least, had been in front of a crowd before. Not so much with Conan. As a result, his show started out awkwardly.





It started off a little rough...



But eventually it turned the corner...







For whatever reason, I decided to like Conan O'Brien from the very beginning, and would defend him to everyone who bashed him. Even when he was painfully unfunny. And slowly but surely, he rewarded me by winning everyone over.

And now he is about to make the same move as Letterman, to an earlier time slot and presumably a different type of audience. Will he succeed? Only time will tell. He has promised to bring his same brand of "stupid" humor, but I'm not sure if that's going to fly on a different coast, in a different studio, with different eyes watching. Let's hope that's the case.

Next, the horrible rest...


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