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Nanner Split said:
Conan all the way. Jay Leno hasn't been funny in...well, ever.
So it's not just me then... Conan!
No more fence-straddling. Are you on Conan's side or Jay's?
I'm supporting Conan. I think he should have a chance at the Tonight Show, just like Jay did. Jay hosted for 16 years, Conan's only had 7 months. Time for Jay to step aside. He won't- but he should.
Conan all the way. Jay Leno hasn't been funny in...well, ever.
Nanner Split said:
Conan all the way. Jay Leno hasn't been funny in...well, ever.
So it's not just me then... Conan!
Sorry guys, I cannot stand Conan and I've always enjoyed Jay.
Conan.
And I don't care who "deserves" the Tonight Show. I find Conan funny. I find Jay boring. That's all I care about.
Incidentally, many years ago, I thought Letterman was funny. Now I find him as boring as Jay. It's possible that I've changed, but I still blame Letterman. He's changed too.
Leno has provided reliably dull and pedestrian humor for the last 16 years, which is exactly what the suits and middle America love.
I don't find Kimmel all that funny, but watching him eat Jay alive on his own damn show was infinitely satisfying.
Conan will land on his feet, and Jay will have a broken Tonight Show and a lousy reputation amongst his peers. I guess as long as he gets to add a few more cars to his garage, that's all that matters.
MTFBWY…A
I've not seen much of either, but I've enjoyed every clip I've seen of Conan and not liked every clip of Leno. My big problem is NBC. Why did they let/make Leno leave TTS, then get mad when no one watches his new show and give him his old time slot back and not just give him back TTS?
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I seriously think too many people are demonizing Leno when it's NBC's fault. It was their big idea to do it all and they even forced Leno out. It all backfires on them and they want their ratings powerhouse back (Leno) and Conan plays the whole "poor pitiful me" routine. I know I'm in the minority here, but I cannot stand Conan and I'll be glad to see Leno back, I myself think he is pretty funny. Conan just annoys the hell out of me.
My parents have watched Leno for years, and on the off chance that I caught an episode, it seemed like on the rare occasions that something on the show was funny, it had nothing to do with Jay. "Headlines" were submitted by viewers, and "Jay-walking" relied on people on the street. He barely says anything during the celebrity interviews, he just laughs at the guest's jokes. All he ever really does is waggle his head and say "Have you heard about this?" Even my parents skipped his opening monologue because it was too dull. He's figured out how to do the safest, dullest, most lowest-common-denominator type of comedy, and that 's why he's been kept on. If anyone has ever seen the TV show "Extras", Leno's "Tonight Show" is pretty much a real-life "When the Whistle Blows".
Conan's humor is a lot more on the silly side, and I understand that that isn't always for everyone. But it is exactly the type of humor I enjoy, and I'll have to side completely with Team CoCo.
Nanner Split said:
Conan's humor is a lot more on the silly side, and I understand that that isn't always for everyone.
Yeah, perhaps that is the biggest issue at play here. I think that NBC acted prematurely in rushing Conan to The Tonight Show. I think maybe a few more years would have brought down his "energy" so to speak and allowed him to appeal better to the older demographic that does watch The Tonight Show. As far as Leno, funny or not, he was a ratings powerhouse before the move from TTS, which leads me to an old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
Not to say that Leno isn't to blame I reckon, but I think the biggest villain in the whole ordeal is Zucker and the rest of the NBC brainiacs who thought this was a good idea. In the end, I do believe Conan will come out the winner, Leno will have to fight this negative image he's unduly been saddled with (IMHO), and gap tooth over on CBS will keep smiling at his female interns.
I laugh more when I watch Conan, but I do like Jay. I am undecided, but Conan needs to stay.
"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas
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I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report so I don't have to choose between Jay and Conan.
My outlook on life - we’re all on the Hindenburg anyway…no point fighting over the window seat.
Ziz said:
I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report so I don't have to choose between Jay and Conan.
Mielr said:
No more fence-straddling.
Sorry, you have to choose. Stewart or Colbert?
TV's Frink said:
Ziz said:
I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report so I don't have to choose between Jay and Conan.
Mielr said:
No more fence-straddling.
Sorry, you have to choose. Stewart or Colbert?
They should be back on the same show together, seeing as they are both really democrats.
"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas
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EyeShotFirst said:
They should be back on the same show together, seeing as they are both really uber liberal democrats.
Fixed.
EyeShotFirst said:
TV's Frink said:
Sorry, you have to choose. Stewart or Colbert?
They should be back on the same show together, seeing as they are both really democrats.
They should be back on the same show together because the Daily Show is not anywhere near as funny as it used to be.
I haven't watched either Conan or Jay in years, but back in the ninties I absolutely loved Late Night with Conan O'Brien (back when Andy Richter was co-host). Haven't been keeping up with the present situation, but due to my former fondness for O'Brien, and never having cared much for the man with the world's largest chin, I'd side with the redheaded freckled one.
"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape
C3PX said:
I haven't watched either Conan or Jay in years, but back in the ninties I absolutely loved Late Night with Conan O'Brien (back when Andy Richter was co-host). Haven't been keeping up with the present situation, but due to my former fondness for O'Brien, and never having cared much for the man with the world's largest chin, I'd side with the redheaded freckled one.
Conan brought Andy Richter back for The Tonight Show!
As a regular co-host? Sweet! Kind of makes me wish I had cable or an antenna or something hooked up to my TV... kind of.
"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape
NBC needs to be patient with Conan. Leno was consistently second to Letterman for about two years before people warmed up to Jay. People will get used to Conan in that timeslot if NBC doesn't overreact.
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This is my email reply to someone who asked me about this same thing last week. I cut & pasted it, so if it's jacking up the board, let me know and I'll remove it.
My Thoughts on the late night mess;
I’ve never been a Conan fan. If I had to guess, I’d say I’ve probably watched portions of maybe five or six shows of his – first & last Late Night, first few Tonight Shows, and bits from a few others. His style seems to be a touch narcissistic, which I don’t really dig. For me, I feel he’s tarnished the Tonight Show because he comes across as though he’s bigger than the show and its 60 year history.
He didn’t take over as host of the Tonight Show - so much as he just moved his old show into the earlier time slot and called it the Tonight Show. On the few episodes I watched – I couldn’t really tell the two apart, other than a set change. Because of that, I’m not terribly concerned with where he ends up.
Leno, on the other hand, I’ve been a big fan of since his stand-up days in the late 70s\early80s. I made a point of watching him whenever I could. I’ve spoken to him a few times in person, at a motorcycle hangout we both used to frequent in the 80s, and he seems like a nice guy. I’ve also read his autobiography and again, he seems like a nice, genuine guy.
That said, when Leno was hosting the Tonight Show, I watched maybe twice a week – almost never for the guests, just for the monologues and features – Jaywalking, Headlines, Mr. Brain, etc. I think he’s much more interesting and much more humorous.
The New York Times did a lengthy piece on all of this last week. One of the things they pointed out is that the promise of Conan getting the Tonight Show was actually a contract demand made by Conan, under threat to leave for a competing network or be paid-out. It’s not really poor Conan being mistreated by NBC. It’s Conan’s ego not being able to deliver ratings and viewers. To me, his open letter to “people of Earth” feels like more of the same – ego disguised as humility.
Here is the article; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/business/media/08leno.html?ref=media
Aside from the poor ratings of both shows (Conan’s Tonight Show ratings are the lowest in the show’s history), here are two passages that help explain how it got to this point,;
“The exact terms of Mr. O’Brien’s contract are not known, but he is rumored to have built into the deal he made five years ago to stay at NBC a guarantee that he would host “The Tonight Show” or NBC would owe a penalty of as much as $45 million.”
“For Mr. Leno, who made no secret that he was unhappy about being moved from “The Tonight Show,” the change represents something of a vindication, even if his crown has been tarnished by his 10 p.m. experience.”
I'm siding with Conan. Whether he got the Tonight Show promised to him under threat of leaving or not, the promise was given and is now being taken away. Anchorhead, you complain that the Tonight Show is too much like his old show, what did you expect it to be. The only reason the Tonight show under Jay didn't "look like his old show" was because Jay didn't have a show. Jay certainly didn't run the show the way Carson did. All of the hosts change the show to fit their own styles. Just what would Conan have to do to make it THE Tonight Show?
NBC wanted to move the Tonight Show out of its traditional timeslot, the slot its been in since before I was born. Conan could have agreed to it and kept "The Tonight show", but instead he refused because he thought the changed timeslot was not in the best interest of the Tonight Show. What NBC would have done to the Tonight Show is wrong. As for Leno being forced out of the Tonight Show, if Leno really wanted to keep the Tonight Show he should have been more vocal back then and refused to leave. If NBC had to choose back then between Leno and Conan, which do you think they would have chosen? Leno agreed to the 10 PM show, no one put a gun to his head to do it. It failed. What the NBC is doing now is just wrong and Leno could have ended this by just walking away and let Conan continue with the Tonight Show.
Ferris, give Conan a chance. He may grow on you. When he first took over Late Night from Letterman, I thought he was terrible, but he grew on me. I like him, I believe his concern for the Tonight Show and its legacy is legit.
Lord, how I miss Carson.
Warbler said:
Ferris, give Conan a chance. He may grow on you. When he first took over Late Night from Letterman, I thought he was terrible, but he grew on me.
Even Conan jokes about the fact that the first three years of "Late Night" weren't very good.
I just wish he'd bring back Abe Vigoda one more time. :P
Warbler said:
Anchorhead, you complain that the Tonight Show is too much like his old show, what did you expect it to be.
I expected it to be more intelligent interview, less frat-boy humor. As I mentioned earlier, I've never cared for Conan's syle. Too much Conan, not enough guest.
The only reason the Tonight show under Jay didn't "look like his old show" was because Jay didn't have a show.
Yes Warbler, as I said earlier, I've been following Leno's career since the late 70s. I started watching The Tonight Show years before that and did so every night. Back then there were only five TV channels. Three national, two local. The tonight Show was a staple for me. I grew up with it. I used to tape the audio of the show by putting a small cassette recorder next to the speaker, and I'd listen to it again the next day. I formed my taste for certain comedic styles through those 70s Carson years.
For me, Conan isn't really the style I lean toward. He can be funny, for sure, but not someone I follow. And the way he's handled himself through all of this certainly isn't making me a fan.
I watched this last night. It was interesting to hear Leno explain it all.
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/leno-deconstructs-his-own-predicament/?hp
It also makes it clear, again, that Conan's jabs at Leno - "you can do anything in America, as long as Jay doesn't want to do it also" - really appear self-serving, as well as incorrect. Jay didn't want any of this - he didn't want to be forced off the Tonight Show, didn't really want a prime time gig, and he's not telling NBC to move Conan out of the 11:30 slot. Conan has been less than truthful and unnecessarily snarky through all of this.