Nine months, $40 million and legions of Team Coco fans later, Conan O'Brien is still not over it.
Or, at least, for the purposes of kicking off his new late-night show Conan, he isn't. Monday's premiere was all about sticking it to his former colleagues at NBC by reminding viewers that he was dumped one last time. Hopefully, that was the last time.
In the many interviews O'Brien gave between jobs, he relived his unceremonious exit from NBC's The Tonight Show over and over. More recently, he also expressed the desire to move on, to crack jokes that don't involve himself as jilted late-night host, or his former employer. (Getting the Masturbating Bear back in action for his basic-cable debut was a welcome move!)
First Guests for Conan O'Brien's TBS Show Revealed
But inevitably, and perhaps to rally the Conan faithful over to his new 11/10c home on TBS, O'Brien did anything but downplay his ousting. While it didn't approach the alternately pissed-off and genuine sayonara of his final NBC show, O'Brien came out swinging -- it's a testament to the host and the Conan writing team that there are still laughs to be wrung out of the debacle. In a self-deprecating opening sketch, O'Brien was gunned down in a Godfather tollbooth-massacre homage, unemployed, rejected by Don Draper and Burger King, shown the basic-cable light by Larry King, and then gunned down again.
The monologue that followed was also devoted almost entirely to his year of transition: "Thank you. Thank you and welcome to my second annual first show." ... "People ask me why I named the show Conan. I did it so I'd be harder to replace." ... "And things are going well already. I'm happy to report that we're already No. 1 in TBS' key demographic: people who can't afford HBO." ... "I'm going to be honest: It's not easy doing a late-night show on a channel without a lot of money and that viewers have trouble finding. So that's why I left NBC."
Long-time sidekick Andy Richter joined him in admiring an unlicensed Conan-esque Halloween mask ("He's kind of an Asian Val Kilmer ... Inside, it smells like tears!"). Ricky Gervais recorded a special message congratulating him on the new show — but also recorded several just-in-case-that-doesn't-work-out-either messages as well. It was all amusing, if not terribly hilarious or inspired.
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Finally, the night's guests showed up — Seth Rogen, Glee's Lea Michele and Jack White of the White Stripes -- and the whole thing felt, well, like your standard Conan O'Brien-hosted late-night talk show.
That's not a bad niche, by any means. O'Brien is quirky and zany and smart, and his appeal has always been more edgy than broadcast's other latenight hosts. (NBC stuck with Jay Leno because his appeal was broader.) Whether or not O'Brien will change up his game in any significant way, only time will tell, but we're more than fine with settling back in to Conan 1.0.
And as Rogen so helpfully pointed out (by saying s--- several times), cable's got laxer standards for which O'Brien no doubt already has plans.
What did you think of O'Brien's debut on TBS? Too soon to judge? What were you expecting? Were you happy to see his beard still intact? At 11/10c, Conan competes head-to-head with Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart — which will you continue to watch?
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Nine months, $40 million and legions of Team Coco fans later, Conan O'Brien is still not over it.
Or, at least, for the purposes of kicking off his new late-night show Conan, he isn't. Monday's premiere was all about sticking it to his former colleagues at NBC by reminding viewers that he was dumped one last time. Hopefully, that was the last time.
In the many interviews O'Brien gave between jobs, he relived his unceremonious exit from NBC's The Tonight Show over and over. More recently, he also expressed the desire to move on, to crack jokes that don't involve himself as jilted late-night host, or his former employer. (Getting the Masturbating Bear back in action for his basic-cable debut was a welcome move!)
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