The
scamps over at The Onion's A.V. Club have come up with an
interesting list of eight projects that were destined to be disasters but ended up being successes. Most of the
list consists of movies like Titanic, Apocalypse Now, and even the Steve Martin version of The Pink
Panther. But they also include two TV projects in the mix: the American version of The Office and...
Late Night with Conan O'Brien.Now, the low expectations for the US Office were well documented. But all you young'uns out there might not remember the "Who the hell is Conan?" stories that were all over the news when O'Brien took the Late Night job in 1993. Also, the first few months of the show were... uh... let's just say they were less than stellar.
I just remember the show was painfully bad when it started, and I was especially cringing at the unfunniness of Conan's sidekick, another relative unknown named Andy Richter. I hated the show so much that I stopped watching. Little did I know that, three or four years later, it would develop into the comedic force it is now. I guess NBC had nowhere else to turn, so they let the show develop. Yet another lesson in patience that current network execs are not willing to learn these days.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-30-2006 @ 1:48AM
Andre said...
I've been a Conan fan for about 7 years now. The guy is sometimes overly repetitive, but he gives off a good vibe by acting goofy and self depricating. I've been watching the Office since the first episode. For some reason I had high hopes from the show. I'd tell my friends about how funny it was, and then they'd ask me what "is that show called again?" Anyways, both shows are great. NBC still has the funniest comedy shows. The only show I don't like is "My Name Is Earl". I tried to watch it, but it just didn't click with me.
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3-30-2006 @ 2:59AM
mark said...
I never saw Conan's first couple of years. But man, I have tapes of probably a full two years of amazing , Timeless, brilliant sketches and remotes from Conan and Andy Richter. Andy's last show was very well done. I did actually not watch Conan for awhile after Andy left because it was so odd that now he had to work through that change and it felt so uncomfortable to watch. To his credit, he has always been worthy and I enjoy and tape episodes still to this day. I'll also note his Golden Globe hosting was him and his writing staff at their best out of the late night comfort zone!
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3-30-2006 @ 11:48PM
Joey said...
I have been a fan of Conan's show since day one. Although Conan himself was extremely raw, there was outstanding writing and sketch comedy right from the start. People just didn't get it. Many didn't want to get it, and just wanted to say "He's no Letterman". Many of the bits introduced in the first couple of weeks of the show have remained staples, including actual items and the "lips". It really annoys me when people say the show was terrible just because they didn't understand where it was coming from.
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