Albert Brooks - on it again!
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Conan is so much better than Colbert!
Colbert was on his way to last place until Trump came along.
Now it is nothing but "Trump Trump Trump Trump" and enough already!
Colbert, Kimmel and Fallon tell what seems to be the same jokes about Trump, I just don't get the adulation that Colbert gets (though his writers should really get all the credit).
If we had the same media landscape as existed in the 1990s today and Conan and Colbert competed in the same time slot, hand's down Conan would dominate ratings and Colbert's show would have been one of those eight week wonder talk shows (Joan Rivers, Chevy Chase, Pat Sajak and on and on) cancelled due to pathetic ratings.
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I loved his show. There was always plenty of free parking
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@Christopher Chance
LOL! : )
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Blah, blah, blah...another piece of PR about a media format that is forever and ever exclusive of women and many non-whites. The ghetto of daytime tv is a dreary mess of consumerism and log rolling and has wasted some great talent conscripted to shilling stuff and more stuff - brain deadening. Meanwhile, it's 2019 and people are still harping back to the days of Jack Paar and Dick Cavett for evening entertainment (cue the satirical Fred Willard reaction shot). I would enjoy seeing Sandi Toksvig receive the chance to host late night American tv.
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please Conan never ever do this again: stay off the air for so long! I am sick of Colbert where every single segment and interview in his show is about Trump. I'm glad Conan is reinventing himself - or maybe actually he is breaking the molds and becoming himself. Conan and Andy are the best duo in late night.
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Oh, thank goodness. I thought he was undergoing leg-shortening surgery. So his show will be briefer, and he will not be shorter. Whew.
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Let's see, Conan got himself noticed when he lost the Tonight Show amid network politicking. Lots of boo-hooing, as if "we" in the audience were losing something great, with no requirement that the "something great" be identified. Interesting credential! Then he did some inconsequential stuff on second-tier shows for a number of years distinguished mostly by his Trumpian coiffure, which rivals the original in its ridiculous inadequacy to disguise the absence of substance. I can't recall ever being amused or entertained or enlightened by anything I ever saw or heard him do or say. So cutting his "show" in half might be a good start toward dropping it altogether. He's right about one thing, though: "We'll all be forgotten." In Conan's case, I have to ask, "What is there to forget?"
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Wow - you really put him in his place, didn't you ?
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@Dheep P'
Yeah... Just shows you that people that are clearly unpleasant and unkind do not 'get' Conan's humour. Look at his fans... What kind of people do they seem to be. Look at his good friends who are his guests. Look at the pleasant and clearly genuine affection there. It's very simple, really...
People like the above, will never get the 'sweetness' that is Conan. There are PLENTY other types out there for these kinds of people...
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Ahhh, another one of those commenters. If you don't like him, that's fine. If he's not your cup of tea, why do you even need to comment? Conan has, is and will probably always be a source of laughter and entertainment for a lot of people. Conan will be remembered for a long time and then eventually forgotten. You? I don't think many people would give a sh*t about you.
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Now if Albert Brooks had a talk show, that would really be something. Why is he not more famous? Same with Martin Short?
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@Littlebrain Obviously, it's because Brooks is hiding under his nest egg.
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Conan will never say so, but I’m sure he realizes he should have never ever quit the Tonight Show. If he had done just four years of a 12 AM start time before going back to 11:35 when Jay re-retired in early 2014, he would be celebrating his 10th year there this June.
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If you work hard and be really nice to people, amazing things will happen.
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@Hollis I recall Conan saying that- heart-warming advice in a not very kind world. Heeding those words has the ability to make the world a better place. Thanks for
sharing this quote of his!
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@K.C.
Yes, you two above ARE the type of 'kind' and decent people whose hearts are moved by him and appreciate him.
Exactly my point...
Conan is on to something, because when you look at view counts on talk show streaming clips, monologues get 10 to 100 times the views of other segments. So a show consisting mainly of this makes sense commercially, especially as the concept of a broadcast daily "show" morphs into collections of timely streamed clips. Like what's happening with newspapers.
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If he shows up with a new, non-caricature hair style, then we'll know things are getting real with this change. I love this idea of stripping down what he does to something new and I love his travel pieces. I just hope he keeps his bits with Jordan Schlansky and maybe even acts a bit nicer to Jordan for a change.
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@AW Yes, let's mess up you hair Conan maybe even let some grey in to match the messier style!
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Is there room for The Brilliant Andy Richter in the 30-minute format?
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I always thought it hilarious, back in the 90s, when he'd say, "oh man do we have an awful show tonight." and Andy Richter would say, "yeah—it really sucks."
It tickled me.
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Why do guys like this have late night talk shows when they talk, but never say anything?
Unsophisticated, sophmoric humor, very white male fraternity in-group, and so rarely genuinely funny. How is he not Jay Leno?
Bring back David Susskind, Dick Cavett, Jack Parr, as someone else suggested, reruns would be fine, or how about one of the many very funny and brilliant, black women and men out there.
I really honestly never understood the attraction with this guy and the 70's style rock band he had on the old show.
Would be nice to see some guests who are not movie stars hawking their latest....
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@eyton shalom His band, originally the Max Weinberg 7 and after they left NBC, the Basic Cable Band led by Jimmy Vivino (with the same members, except James Wormworth replacing Max) was a spectacular band with spectacular musicians. They could certainly play 70's style rock, but they could play anything and everything else as well.
Dick Cavett shows are repeated on cable. The Susskind shows were probably erased as were most or all of the Parr Tonight shows. Sometimes some of Parr's once-a-week shows show up on various sites - I've seen his interview with Robert F. Kennedy a number of times. I agree that these were far more intelligent hosts who had intelligent conversations with guests who were not just there to promote something, but those days are long over. The country has been much too dumbed down since then. Having said that, one of the reasons those shows were successful was that before cable, there are only a few choices, so even the lowest-rated shows achieve a large share of the audience.
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@eyton the reflexive anti white male stuff is so 2018.
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@eyton shalom Conan went to Harvard. No fraternities there.
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This interview shows why Conan is a comic genius and still relevant and funny. The quips about death are quite important. There's a certain stoicism there, in the philosophical sense, where Conan has already killed off his old persona and is aware of the shortness of a show business career, career in general, or life in general. That, along with his penchant for taking risks and innovation, have allowed him to be continually reborn and still be a laugh maker in the youtube era, which is how I now consume most of his content. We have to remember that Conan was growing up in the Carson, Leno, Letterman era and he absorbed that model and template of host. But at this point, like he said, the format is evolving and he's evolving with it. Take a look at Seinfeld. Doing short bits in cars with comedians and coffee has been a great post script to his previous life. I'm sure we'll see a similar transition for Mr. O'Brien.
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@Joshua
Well said friend... See, there ARE intelligent 'nice' people out there... : )
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I am sad to see the house band go. They were a great band.
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@Topher Stott It sure was. But Jimmy Vivino plays with The Beatles tribute band, The Fab Faux (with Will Lee from the Letterman band), with a late 60's era tribute band, The Prisoners of Second Avenue (with Rich Pagano, who is also in the Fab Faux), fronts The Black Italians (with Mike Merritt and James Wormworth) and puts together many ad hoc groups. Jerry Vivino fronts his own jazz/pop group often in both Los Angeles and in New Jersey. Mark Pender and Richie Rosenberg play in La Bamba & The Hubcaps. And Scott Healy has a 10-piece jazz group. So all these great musicians can still be seen and heard.
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Love ya, Conan!!! The funniest and most creative person on tv, for sure.
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I never got the Conan shows but I did not watch them much compared to Dave on NBC and later CBS and now Netflix. And Dave was never a genius like Johnny or Steve or even Jack P. He always had trouble with women unless he had a crush like Julia R. So,Conan probably will fail with the new effort and we won't miss him.He will be a gifted writer regardless and his best work has been his travel shows kind of like Perry Como did.Hey now,how about once a year Conan Specials from Montauk to Montenegro?
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Maximum amount of fun? Yes, please!
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I hope Conan makes a lot,more funny meaningless TV before we all die.
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Am excited for the new show version where Conan will get to be himself and use his unique comedic sensibilities- all us 50 somethings get to that point where we couldn't care less what people think and just decide to do our thing. My husband and I have been pouring over old Conan shows- he is funny, brilliant and unpredictable- minus the Trump humor most comedian's are leaning on for "inspiration". I always enjoy his show more when he laughs with us- glad fun for him will be in the equation.
Best of luck Conan and look forward to the new format! We've loved you since your sweaty debut- when we said Conan who? What's a Conan? Can't wait!
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Conan is easily the smartest, funniest entertainer in late night TV, and his ability to laugh at himself helps transcend political divides in a time when unity is desperately needed. I wish him well in his latest venture and look forward to laughing with him (and at him!) for years more to come.
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@Kirby
There you go... Excellent Avatar, BTW... :D
I love this man! He can make any task look amusing. Currently binge watching his shows on Netflix.
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I've been listening to the new podcast and watched a bit of the travel series. Liking the changes a lot. Feels more like Conan on his own terms and not trying to compete with the tonight show.
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Maybe this time we'll see the "funny" side of Conan instead of the creepy or relentlessly deadpan version that haunts late night broadcasts and awards shows. Feh.
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Conan can do no wrong in my book. I’ve been an avid fan of his for years and can’t wait for his new half-hour reboot. I also highly recommend his Netflix series Conan Beyond Borders, especially the episodes where he travels to Mexico and Korea. Both are absolutely hilarious!
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Conan has been an interesting figure for me. I watched his late night stuff growing up and thought of him as somewhat of a role model.
When I was fired from my first job in The City, Conan lost the Tonight Show around the same time. Watching the way he handled what could have been his undoing and taking control of misfortune to create something new and beautiful really helped me out of a dark place.
I now have a career I could never have dreamed of because my friend Conan was there to give me an example of how to reinvent in the face of crisis.
I can't wait to see what he'll do next, because I know that, if nothing else, it will be authentic.
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@Mike H
Beautiful story man...! And, it shows the powerful inspiration for 'Good' that he has (not the least of which was his famous goodbye quote mentioned above)
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His recent podcast episode with Marc Maron had me in stitches
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Reminds me of the final season of Larry Sanders. They got rid of the desk too. I think that was the final straw. Hey now.
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@Xoxarie: The difference between “Larry Sanders” getting rid of the desk and Conan getting rid of the desk is, “Larry” was in the late-night-king soup of the 1990s and had worked all his professional life for that desk. He could never polish that particular, er, network move. What I love about this move is that Conan sees it as a barrier, not a reward. It’s obvious he wants this.
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Conan, If you can't get Robert Caro as a guest, can you get historians to talk about Robert Caro and his books?
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Here's why Conan is the best late-night host:
1) He steers clear of preaching. I don't need some entertainer to tell me what I should think about politics. The exception who proves that rule was Jon Stewart.
2) He's consistently self-deprecating. It's sort of a corollary to #1 -- because he's not trying to tell me how to think or vote, he doesn't need to be anything more than a clown.
3) He doesn't waste all of his time on Trump. I think Trump is an idiot, but he's such a clown himself that I think he's pretty low-hanging fruit.
4) He's not mean-spirited (aside from his abuse of Jordan Schlansky, which is part of the gag). Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert both will just make fun of people's looks (e.g., Steven Miller, Steve Bannon). Yes, they're funny-looking, but the fact that you can point that out doesn't earn you a desk and a mic.
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@Chris it's not that others just make fun of people it's that they do so while at the same time providing real sustantive commentary on our politics and society in an entertaining way. Yes especially Stewart was good at this as is Colbert. I was never a fan of Conan precisely for that reason - not much substance there.
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@Will Goubert
Now see... This strikes me as an HONEST response from someone who simply just doesn't find him that funny and wants more substantive commentary in their humour. Nicely said and fully understandable, and without superficial arrogance. Thank you!
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@Chris
Extremely well said mate!
I hope there's room for Andy, a terrific comedian in his own right.
I look forward to see what they do with this new format.
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@Chris Morris Yes, please include Andy!
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Would love it if this new format didn't waste any time on boring celebrity interviews and just did Conan bits. Conan still has the best bits in late night, by far.
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Weirdly, Conan isn't at all funny or interesting.
I really don't know why anyone at all pays attention to him.
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@OnKilter Did Conan write this one?
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@monty diamond
Hey, that's funny! You know, that is PRECISELY something that he would do : )
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Conan usually seemed to love the music portion of his show, going so far as to play with the band at times. He loved when his musical heroes would perform on his show, or even his current favorites. It seems unlikely the loss of the live band was his idea. I wish you had asked him about that.
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I laughed out loud at the comments about Tom Hanks. Conan, you are wonderful!
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There's nothing new under the sun. In 1986 David Brenner hosted a late night talk show for King World. While he retained the desk and had a small band, the show was 30 minutes long and Brenner did the show in a sweatshirt. It was a great show, under-supported by the production company.
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Conan is best when he's like this. So stoked for this version of Conan 2.0!
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Now if Calvin Coolidge were hosting a late night comedy/talk show... that is something I would stay up for.
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Like this carrot-top holds a candle to Clark Gable.
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@bill Carrot top? really? You don't like redheads? I thought this sort of thing was over when I was ten years old.
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