The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

I think Jay Leno's Tonight Show was considerably better. Conan does a decent job on the show, but somehow Leno's style worked better, and Conan's style worked more on his Late Night program. While they can be funny at times, Conan's jokes and routines (with the possible exception of in the year 2000, which I believe has now been renamed in the year 3000) aren't as funny or as clever. Admittedly, it can work sometimes, and his interviewing style is passable, but I prefer Leno and can't wait for Jay's new talk show to debut in the fall. My final verdict:passable. Just barely. His off-beat wit is Conan's saving grace.

I stayed up late this past Friday to watch Conan's last Tonight Show. It is his last due to the poor management of the NBC Network more than anything else. NBC has done nearly everything it could possibly do to end it's late night reign that it inherited from Johnny Carson. This might put the final nail in that coffin. Conan now has the record as the shortest tenure as Tonight host due to the nonsense of self-destruction going on at NBC.

I found this last show with Will Farrell to be a very good show. Conan bowed out with a style as defiant as anyone- his last appearance was on stage with the band, grinding on a guitar like a hard rocker behind Will Farrell singing a defiant song. This is indeed appropriate. He lost a short battle to keep Tonight to the consummate Leno the same way that Letterman did when Carson left. The decision here has everything to do with politics & nothing to do with talent.

Cross reference http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1445990/usercomments-1

NBC has really messed this up, as the ratings for both Leno & Conan's Tonight had gotten better since the feud started. NBC as Leno quipped recently, doesn't care about ratings and as soon as both these shows started to soar, they acted quickly, way too quickly against their own financial interest.

I believe you will see Conan Tonight on FOX in September, unless he gets a better offer from the Home Shopping Network. I mean, Conan can sell & with his punch I am sure he could move Ginsu Knives better than most folks. If Conan does get started in September, watch for Leno & Letterman to both take a ratings hit.

I have one suggestion for TNT, since your trying to build your Late night ratings, try & talk Conan into doing Conan Tonight like Carson originally did the Tonight Show, for 90 minutes. This would give TNT the opportunity to smash into the ratings of Leno & Letterman.

For almost 8 months, Conan O'Brien tries to take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno. NBC had hoped to keep them both and settled on a flawed strategy. By the end, Jay would take back his show and Conan would be let go. It is better that Conan finds a home on TBS which gives him more freedom than The Tonight Show.

The start was rough as Conan tries to fit the show's traditional mould. He loses a lot of his irreverence as he tries to appeal to its older demographics. It's all a mistake and it doesn't help to have Jay doing another talk show at 10pm. The whole situation was untenable but it does lead to one of the most hilarious network public infighting in TV history. Conan's ingenious comedy is unleashed against Jay. Whatever shortcoming Conan had during the early months is overcome by Conan's good-natured takedown of the network brass. It got so great that even Kimmel from another network goes on Jay's show to take him down. Conan's humor is more niche than a watered down Jay and is probably never going to work. Conan is by no means an edgy comedian but even that is not white bread enough for that show. It's a show of bland humor geared towards the broadest of common denominator. This is a car wreck waiting to happen but it was spectacular while it lasted.

To quote a line from Seinfeld, "that's gold, Jerry. Gold!" Is it possible that in only ONE night, Conan O' Brien has surpassed 17 years of Jay Leno? Yes, it is very possible. Conan's first episode as host of the Tonight show was, to say the least, hilarious! He began the show by running from New York to L.A. to host the show. That's right. Watching Conan run across the country was funnier than Leno's monologue. Then, he began the show by doing his usual monologue in the set Universal built just for him. It's different from Leno's set since it's a more traditional talk show set with a little New York flavor. However, he did keep Leno's lighting which I thought was interesting. Conan followed the monologue by showing two hilarious remote pieces. One was Conan giving a tour of Universal Studios and the other was him driving his 1992 Ford Tarus around town. Then, the show lost some steam during the interview segment. The guest was Will Ferrell. I like Ferrell and he was funny but you couldn't ignore the fact that a show owned by Universal, being shot at Universal was promoting a movie by Universal. The show went from 30 minutes of hilarity to 30 minutes of promotions.

Either way, it was a great episode. And I hope there's more great episodes to come. We've been waiting 5 years for this and it lived up to expectations. The best part is that Conan didn't really change a thing. It's classic Conan!

No offense to the late Johnny Carson, or Jay Leno for that matter. But I think Conan O'Brien is the funniest talk show host of all time. Better than Letterman, Kimmel, and Jack Pahr as well. There's not a minute of the show that my abs are not still recovering from my last gut-wrenching outburst of laughter. Conan knows what's funny, and he's got a wit that is unmatched by any comedian I've ever seen. And of course Andy Richter does a GREAT job as Connan's Ed McMahon. He should definitely go back to sitting on the couch. McMahon did it right? Leno is a decent comedian, but he didn't have the charisma and fast paced sense of humor like Conan does. He made Tom Hanks, Will Ferrel, and Julia Louise Dreyfuss ten times funnier than what they actually were. And of course CoCo and Coop was hilarious as well. I have to say that I had HUGE expectations for Conan in his Tonight Show debut, and he's surpassed them with an enormous surplus. The Tonight Show is my new favorite show. And I think that if NBC doesn't fold under pressure, it will soon blow David Letterman out of the water with ease.

PS: I've watched Jimmy Fallon too. It has potential. He just still seems pretty uncomfortable being the leading man on an unscripted show.