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Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late night television talk show on NBC featuring varied comedic material and celebrity interviews. From the show's inception until May 2000, Andy Richter served as O'Brien's comedy sidekick. His position has not been refilled. O'Brien replaced David Letterman, long time host of Late Night with David Letterman, when Letterman left NBC to host The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. Since Letterman's new program was similar to his NBC show, most sources consider O'Brien's program to be a new and separate entity, and only nominally (i.e., in name only) a continuation of Letterman's Late Night. O'Brien is currently scheduled to leave Late Night in 2009 to host The Tonight Show, the late night comedy show that precedes Late Night and is currently hosted by Jay Leno. There is great concern and speculation as to who will take over for Conan when he leaves in 2009. Jon Stewart and Richter himself have been among the names that have been thrown around for the position.
Late Night has followed The Tonight Show on NBC since 1982. The Tonight Show has always had more viewers than Late Night; however, for most of its history, Late Night has had a stronger hold on the much-sought-after 25-to-35 age bracket than The Tonight Show, which tends to attract older viewers. However, under Jay Leno, The Tonight Show has come to have the biggest audience of any network late night talk show, including male viewers in the 25-49 age bracket. Beginning in December of 1995, Late Night with Conan O'Brien started to air four shows a week, with a rerun airing on Monday.
The first episode aired September 13, 1993, with guests John Goodman (who received a "First Guest" medal for his appearance), Drew Barrymore, and Tony Randall. The episode featured a cold open of Conan's trip to the studio with constant reminders that he was not expected to live up to Letterman (parodying a popular sentiment in the media). The show's first three years under O'Brien were generally considered mediocre, but by 1996 he had found his comic voice and the show quickly returned to the cult status it had enjoyed under Letterman's tenure. During the 10th anniversary show in 2003, Mr. T observed that fact by handing Conan a chain with a large gold "7" on it:
Conan: But Mr. T, we've been on the air for ten years!
Mr. T: I know that, foo', but you only been funny for seven!
Overview
O'Brien's comic style was influenced greatly by the absurdist farce of Monty Python and the physical comedy and wild vocalizing of Robin Williams. Like his Late Night predecessor, David Letterman, O'Brien's humor also has a streak of biting sarcasm. O'Brien often playfully chides his audience for an underwhelming or overly enthusiastic response to his jokes.
O'Brien began his stint at Late Night after serving as a writer for The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live. The show is a production of O'Brien's company, Conaco and Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video. O'Brien's show also launched the career of Robert Smigel's Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.
Joel Godard, a longtime announcer for NBC shows (including the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the annual Macy's Day Parade), has been the show's announcer and an occasional comedy contributor since O'Brien started hosting the show. Drummer Max Weinberg of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band fame leads the "Max Weinberg Seven"; in a parody of late-night chit-chat, the show gets plenty of comic mileage out of the perceived lack of chemistry between O'Brien and Weinberg.
Late Night began broadcasting in 1080i ATSC on April 26 2005, with a downscaled letterboxed NTSC simulcast. Conan celebrated the conversion to the widescreen HDTV format with jokes throughout the week. Though the show airs at 12:35 AM in most areas, it is filmed in New York at 5:30 PM.
On October 11, 2005, Conan pointed out that he resembles the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, after meeting a Finnish man in the audience before the show. Since then he has done many comedy bits about that fact, including one that promoted Halonen for second term. Halonen's appearance in American popular culture received publicity in Finland. About a week and a half after the initial show, Conan showed actual Finnish newspaper articles which commented on the resemblance, one calling them "like two berries" (kuin kaksi marjaa, a metaphor similar to "two peas in a pod" in English). After the initial publicity received by O'Brien's sketch, Tarja Halonen's re-election campaign started advertising on the Finnish broadcast of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
On November 19, 2005, Conan showed a Finnish newspaper article that talked about the Turku city council proposing to give Conan a summer cottage. The article said "Conan O'Brienille" and Conan said that apparently that's what he's called in Finland, but which actually means "to Conan O'Brien" (-lle is the suffix of the allative case in Finnish). Turku also recently sent a package intended to entice Late Night to visit their city, and included a video ostensibly filmed at nightclub "Giggling Marlin", featuring the town's city council, Aleksi Randell, asking Conan to visit Turku, and throngs of people dressed up as Conan, dancing to Rave music. Conan aired this video on Late Night on January 11, 2006.
On December 6, 2005 Late Night with Conan O'Brien segments began selling on the iTunes Music Store. Most segments were priced at $1.99, as were most episodes of other shows, with "special" best-of's and other longer segments priced at $9.99. O'Brien celebrated NBC's selling of its shows on iTunes by making the joke, which made fun of both the availability on iTunes, and the fact that NBC was in fourth place of the networks, "NBC announced recently that it would begin selling its shows on iTunes for $1.99 each. That's right, if you actually sit through one NBC show, they will pay you $1.99."
On February 9, 2006, O'Brien announced that he would be visiting Finland the week of February 12 while the show was pre-empted for the Winter Olympics. The footage of O'Brien's visit aired on the March 10, 2006 episode.[http://www.nbcumv.com/release_detail.nbc/entertainment-20060302000000-conanobriendebuts.html Video footage of O'Brien's Finland trip is available here.
In 2006, Late Night did a week worth of shows at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
Trivia
- One person who is actively campaigning for the job of replacing Conan when he leaves in 2009 is The Onion veteran Joe Garden.*
- During the May 11th, 2006 episode of his show in Chicago, Conan accidentally messed up the phrase "city of Chicago" and said the words "Shitty of Cicago". The audience roared with laughter while an embarrassed Conan commented, "Looks like we're on Cinemax tonight!".
See also
External links
- Official Website
- Transcript of Conan's monologue during the first show after September 11, 2001 attacks
Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Television talk shows
Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Late Night with Conan O'Brien
"Late Night with Conan O'Brien"