I know his ratings haven’t been great lately, and he’s been doing new shows less and less over the years, but in my opinion Conan O’Brien is the most entertaining late night host of my era. Full disclosure, and before I get hand written letters telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about: I am not of the Johnny Carson era. I was born in 1984, so by the time I was old enough to understand what late night TV was, Jay Leno was the host of the Tonight Show. I understand that people a little older than me will laugh at my Conan O’Brien take because they grew up on Carson. And that’s fine! While I never really watched him, I’ve read a few books about him, and I understand that Carson IS late night TV. Without him, none of the other shows exist.
And while I have nothing against Leno, outside of watching him because I was being allowed to stay up past my bedtime, I was never enamored. I did love his Headlines segment, and I thought his interviews were funny, but the first late night TV show that was appointment viewing for me was Conan’s Late Night Show on NBC. When I was in college at Point, basically every dorm room on my floor would have Conan on at 11:35pm. His show was loose, it was self deprecating, the characters (Vomiting Kermit, Frankenstein Wastes a Minute of Our Time) were so bad that they were hilarious. And his ‘man on the street’ segments were (and still are) his best work. In no particular order, my favorites:
The Conan/Jordan Schlansky dynamic is one of the best things I’ve ever seen on TV. And the Old Timey Baseball sketch is probably my favorite piece of Conan content ever.
So it sounds like he’s going to be on until the end of his contract in July of 2021 before retiring to HBO Max to start a variety show that will have him traveling and interacting with random people more. I’m not sure how much of that I’ll catch, but Conan from 2001-2009 was as good as it got.
PS: I’ve been writing this blog for about 11+ years, and I honestly think this is the longest I’ve spent on a blog. Not because I had anything particularly provocative or interesting to say, but because I watched about 10 segments in their entirety.
Double PS: The Conan Needs a Friend podcast is dynamite. When you’re taking a short break from listening to terrestrial radio all day (thanks!), I recommend it.
