Forum MVP acududeman Posted January 18, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 It has been interesting watching this late-night drama unfold. I have always liked Conan, and my guess is that he will come out stronger (and wealthy!) after the current mess shakes out. Bring back The Masturbating Bear! On the other hand, I have never been a Jay fan. He's too vanilla for me (read: boring). I think karma will bite him in the ass and his "new" late-night show will never regain its former luster. That's my .02. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugdog Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Yeah, I'm on Team Conan...Jay's a douche...his act is tired. Conan has more natural talent and from what I can tell a quicker wit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest deadheadmike Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Conan all the way ... Jay got what he wanted , save face , be a pro and say goodnight !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP gr8fulpair Posted January 18, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Jay would do much better hosting a car show on TLC - he wasn't funny delivering his own material and he's even less funny delivering someone elses. Conan is hilarious and much more quick witted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP found Posted January 19, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 CONAN THE BARBARIAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP chuckvegas Posted January 19, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 I think the votes of NBC's executives have been tallied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 I've always thought Letterman is the best by a long shot... But it seems to be generational.. Geriatrics seem to like Jay.. Boomers and early forty somethings Letterman.. Youngsters Conan.. For the record I think Jay Leno is unwatchable..both his variety show and formerly and soon to be again Tonght Show..NBC has mad a fiasco out of this and is putting a cherry on top of the screw up bringing Leno back.. The irony is that BEFORE Leno got the tonight show he was an excellent stand up comedian..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP acududeman Posted January 19, 2010 Author Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 I've always thought Letterman is the best by a long shot...But it seems to be generational.. Geriatrics seem to like Jay.. Boomers and early forty somethings Letterman.. Youngsters Conan.. For the record I think Jay Leno is unwatchable..both his variety show and formerly and soon to be again Tonght Show..NBC has mad a fiasco out of this and is putting a cherry on top of the screw up bringing Leno back.. The irony is that BEFORE Leno got the tonight show he was an excellent stand up comedian..... I agree that fan support for these 3 is largely generational. I have always liked Letterman, and I also like Conan (BTW, I'm 44yo). Leno does seem well suited to the geriatric crowd. I think Leno would have been wise to take a page from Seinfeld's book and gone back to his roots (and best skill-set) and hit the live stand-up comedy circuit. He's got to have enough money for a small village by now anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jawdoc Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 I see a parallel with another semi-controversy. It will be interesting to see what time will bring us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP Dstone5553 Posted January 20, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 A recent study found the only people that found Leno funny were people born before 1950. Just shows you how powerful the Baby Boomers are cause he got the best ratings. Seriously...not a single person found Leno funny who was under 60 years of age. Of more than 500,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwpolk Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 I too find Leno to be unwatchable. In order, I rate the late night talent as follows - Furgeson Letterman Conan / Kimmel Leno The above is based on current day performance. I think Letterman is 2nd only to Carson in creating history and everything he has done since 82 has been brilliant - but right now Craig Furgeson has it dialed in. I fully believe it is generational and on these lines, Letterman appeals to alot of us because we grew up with him. He was young when we were in college and we grew older with him. Leno filled a chair where people grew up with Carson and they are now generally older. Leno's softball humor and interview style appeals to a certain demographic. As for the current battle, I have have been glued to the unfolding drama. I have enjoyed watching Leno squirm (if he is in fact squirming) and reveled in Letterman's glee over it all. I also think the situation is custom fit to Conan's humor. Having said that, a new view of the world has started to unfold for me over the last 24 hours.... I think it IS Conan's fault and I AM blaming him. He had a 12.30 job before, He was offered an 11.30 job but it involved moving. (not the only one in America to make a move for a job change). Bottom line, he has not performed in that job. I am not saying that he is not good, I am saying he has not been able to pull the ratings plain and simple. If this is any other job, say restaurant manager or a sales position, he loses the client base for the business and he is gone. If he was on tour and the arenas were empty, the tour would be cancelled. In this case, they even offered him his job but a half hour later....thats a half hour earlier than it was in NY and when you get away from the hype of it all, it is actually only Conan standing in the way. If 7 months ago he was offered this job in a new line up that had him coming on at midnight after a half hour of Jay, do you think he would have taken it? Lots of people go to LA to "make it". Conan was given the shot of shots. He flamed out but unlike so many, he has a $40mil golden parachute and a face saving way to walk away from something that ended up being a failure. Again, I don't love Jay but I call em as I see em. I have enjoyed the drama - I think its GREAT Conan is going to get $40 million and if I were CBS I would grab him and pay him to sit in the bullpen until Letterman steps down in 2 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP acududeman Posted January 20, 2010 Author Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 I too find Leno to be unwatchable. In order, I rate the late night talent as follows -Furgeson Letterman Conan / Kimmel Leno The above is based on current day performance. I think Letterman is 2nd only to Carson in creating history and everything he has done since 82 has been brilliant - but right now Craig Furgeson has it dialed in. I fully believe it is generational and on these lines, Letterman appeals to alot of us because we grew up with him. He was young when we were in college and we grew older with him. Leno filled a chair where people grew up with Carson and they are now generally older. Leno's softball humor and interview style appeals to a certain demographic. As for the current battle, I have have been glued to the unfolding drama. I have enjoyed watching Leno squirm (if he is in fact squirming) and reveled in Letterman's glee over it all. I also think the situation is custom fit to Conan's humor. Having said that, a new view of the world has started to unfold for me over the last 24 hours.... I think it IS Conan's fault and I AM blaming him. He had a 12.30 job before, He was offered an 11.30 job but it involved moving. (not the only one in America to make a move for a job change). Bottom line, he has not performed in that job. I am not saying that he is not good, I am saying he has not been able to pull the ratings plain and simple. If this is any other job, say restaurant manager or a sales position, he loses the client base for the business and he is gone. If he was on tour and the arenas were empty, the tour would be cancelled. In this case, they even offered him his job but a half hour later....thats a half hour earlier than it was in NY and when you get away from the hype of it all, it is actually only Conan standing in the way. If 7 months ago he was offered this job in a new line up that had him coming on at midnight after a half hour of Jay, do you think he would have taken it? Lots of people go to LA to "make it". Conan was given the shot of shots. He flamed out but unlike so many, he has a $40mil golden parachute and a face saving way to walk away from something that ended up being a failure. Again, I don't love Jay but I call em as I see em. I have enjoyed the drama - I think its GREAT Conan is going to get $40 million and if I were CBS I would grab him and pay him to sit in the bullpen until Letterman steps down in 2 years. Yeah, it certainly must help take the sting out of his firing to walk away with $40m.....that's pretty awesome. My take on the drama is that The Tonight Show needs to be put out to pasture. It probably should have been put to sleep after Carson retired. I observed that Conan never felt fully comfortable trying to conform to The Tonight Show mold. It's too staid and polite for him. He was forced to dial back his wackiness, which is the very source of his brilliance. I'd like to see him walk away from the Big 3 networks, take 9 months off the count his new found money, and resurface on Fox or some other channel with his own show.....The Conan O'Brien Show. Hopefully the dickhead attorneys from NBC will allow him to resurrect his old favorite sketches from yesteryear. He'll land on his feet......he's way too talented not to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP acududeman Posted January 21, 2010 Author Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Yeah, it certainly must help take the sting out of his firing to walk away with $40m.....that's pretty awesome.My take on the drama is that The Tonight Show needs to be put out to pasture. It probably should have been put to sleep after Carson retired. I observed that Conan never felt fully comfortable trying to conform to The Tonight Show mold. It's too staid and polite for him. He was forced to dial back his wackiness, which is the very source of his brilliance. I'd like to see him walk away from the Big 3 networks, take 9 months off the count his new found money, and resurface on Fox or some other channel with his own show.....The Conan O'Brien Show. Hopefully the dickhead attorneys from NBC will allow him to resurrect his old favorite sketches from yesteryear. He'll land on his feet......he's way too talented not to. For any of you who missed The Tonight Show this evening, right on cue the Masturbating Bear made a cameo appearance. Friday can't come soon enough for the suits at NBC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP Dstone5553 Posted January 21, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 I think it IS Conan's fault and I AM blaming him. He had a 12.30 job before, He was offered an 11.30 job but it involved moving. (not the only one in America to make a move for a job change). Bottom line, he has not performed in that job. I'm not super into this but I think most people think Leno screwed him by staying and taking a lot of the guests that would have gone to Conan. I saw a couple of his shows and the guests he had were pretty weak. If Leno had gone, like he had promised to do, Conan would have had great guests that the Tonight Show always has--that Leno had the luxury of having when he got that slot. Leno pretty much comes out as the dweeb in this, no matter how you look at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwpolk Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 I'm not super into this but I think most people think Leno screwed him by staying and taking a lot of the guests that would have gone to Conan. I saw a couple of his shows and the guests he had were pretty weak. If Leno had gone, like he had promised to do, Conan would have had great guests that the Tonight Show always has--that Leno had the luxury of having when he got that slot. good point. thinning out the talent pool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP chuckvegas Posted January 21, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 It does seem that Conan and his people (and he did a good job of cushioing their transitions) will not go hungry anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neutrino Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 I hardly ever watch any of the late night network programs, so I don't have much of an opinion on Leno/Conan However, when I have watched Leno, I find one thing he does to be really annoying. When he tells a joke, he seems to feel the need to follow it up with some kind of explanation as to why it's funny. Either he knows it isn't all that amusing, or he thinks the audience is just too stupid to get it without his follow up. Good commedians shouldn't need to explain the punch line!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP FunkyBass13 Posted January 24, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 Conan is much, much funnier of a writer than he ever was as a host. Leno hasn't been funny in over a decade. I haven't had the need or even the urge to watch The Tonight Show since Carson left. Also, if you look back at both Leno and Conan, they were both much funnier BEFORE The Tonight Show. The 11:35 time slot really isn't geared towards anything that can be construed as edgy. It was set up for older people to fall asleep to after the 11pm news. Look at Letterman: When he brought his 12:30am schtick to CBS, it didn't get the ratings. Now that he is a shell of his former self, his ratings are much higher. When Leno took over The Tonight Show, he was actually still a good comic. Everyone who has held the 11:35 time slot since Carson retired has had to "tone down" their material to appeal to a much gentler audience and that includes Letterman on CBS. I would much rather watch Colbert at 11:30 than Leno, Conan or Letterman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP VincentPuleo Posted January 24, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 Conan is just naturally funnier than Jay Leno. The Simpsons were the best when Conan wrote for it... Did you guys see the last episode? They played Freebird Will Farrel sang, it was epic. Had no idea Conan played guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP Dstone5553 Posted January 24, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 I agree with Vincent even though I get Funky's points. Conan is a great writer but he's also a great host--and Letterman is still Letterman and he's still worth watching, even though I don't get much of a chance to. And I thought the way Conan went out was pretty cool. Hope he gets that 11:30 time slot and America figures out which ones have the talent--Leno's humor is ridiculously simple and lame. I have no idea what kind of guy he is but the fact that he was ever given the keys to that show is bewildering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jazz-man Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 I think Conan has been a good writer but I find him not funny at all. Way too forced and lacking the natural quick wit for a comedian. Late night TV is something I don't get to watch since I have to get up at 5 Am on workdays and the other days my son is with me (he's 7) so I don't get to stay up that late. It's few and far between for me to watch late night TV but when I do it's Letterman, always has been since way back when. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP acududeman Posted January 25, 2010 Author Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Well, I am so glad that I tuned in to Conan's show Tues-Fri of last week. The shows were off the hook, and I laughed my ass off on several occasions. The Free Bird send off with Will Farrell was very cool, especially seeing Beck, Billy Gibbons, Weinberg, Farrell and Conan up there playing together.......surreal. I think Conan is extremely talented as both a writer and a performer. I wouldn't waste my time watching if I didn't enjoy his brand of humor. He's a fortunate dude to get paid $33m to take a 7-month vacation........ He'll be back with his own unconstrained format/show come September.......and I'll be pumped to check him out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP found Posted January 25, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 lacking the natural quick wit for a comedian.. riiiiiiiight... we must be watching the same show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty the Scoob Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 I've always liked Conan, and I really like that he stood up for his staff and for the institution that is the Tonight Show. I haven't seen him in the earlier time slot but I liked his previous edgy show. I'd love to see him on Comedy Central or something where he could really cut loose. I agree with whoever said it above, the best years of the Simpsons were when he was writing. Jay is what he is. He's meant for the AARP crowd. Nothing wrong with that, finding his niche enabled him to have a great life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forum MVP Dstone5553 Posted January 26, 2010 Forum MVP Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 The Free Bird send off with Will Farrell was very cool, especially seeing Beck, Billy Gibbons, Weinberg, Farrell and Conan up there playing together.......surreal. You forgot Ben Harper--he was tearing it up with the rest of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.