I have never understood the appeal of The White Stripes and I never will.Their performance last night on the last Late Night with Conan O'Brien was the only bad spot in a rather good last episode. It had the usual mix of old sketch footage and visits from old friends (Andy Richter, Will Ferrell), and even had Conan releasing Abe Vigoda from his cage and sent back into the wild. He also tore down part of the wall near Max Weinberg and gave the pieces to the audience.
My favorite part of the show was actually the many thank yous that Conan gave at the end, so many that the show actually ran over several minutes. He thanked everyone from the crew and the band to David Letterman and Lorne Michaels. You always get thank yous on these last shows, but you can tell he was very sincere. I don't think this last show has the impact that Letterman's did, because he was actually leaving the network and going someplace else. Conan will still be at NBC, only an hour earlier. But this was a good last episode.
Conan did a good Late Night. I thought he was a terrible interviewer and that walk to his monologue was an annoying 25 seconds of TV every night, but his show was one of the most consistently funny late night shows over the years, especially the outside segments he did and his ad-libs.
Not sure how he'll do at 11:35. Last night he said that he wasn't going to become more mature because he was taking over The Tonight Show, because that's just not who he is. That got a big round of applause from the audience, but keep in mind that Conan did retire bits like The Masturbating Bear and the Pimp Robot. I'm sure we'll still see Triumph though.
I'm looking forward to seeing what he's going to do starting June 1. With Conan on Tonight and Fallon taking over Late Night and Leno at 10pm (not to mention the possibility of Jimmy Kimmel moving to another time slot at ABC), 2009 is going to be an interesting year for the late night landscape.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-21-2009 @ 3:41PM
Harry said...
Really?
"I have never understood the appeal of The White Stripes and I never will."
That's how you start the review? What a great way to start to sum up the end of such a wonderful show and focus on what matters... Sheesh.
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2-21-2009 @ 3:58PM
KidA said...
Conan's a terrible interviewer? Really? I completely disagree. Conan has an incredible ability to turn even the most boring interview or guest into something interesting and funny. Something Leno has never been able to do.
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2-21-2009 @ 4:05PM
Ian said...
To be honest, it was a weak last show. Too many clips. It was nice that Andy Richter was there, but they didn't really reflect their relationship together. It might had made more sense if they introduced a reel of Conan & Andy clips in the few minutes they had him on, instead of going to a clip reel of stuff mostly from after he left. I was at least expecting a final In The Year 2000...
The thank yous at the end of the show were very touching. Including Letterman and Leno was classy. The only thing missing was any mention of Jimmy Fallon wishing him luck like Letterman did on his last Late Night.
I'm rooting for Conan to succeed on The Tonight Show.
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2-21-2009 @ 4:37PM
Adam said...
Conan's interviews were the best because he always tried to add something fun to them by cracking jokes or having silly planned comedy bits. Compared to the lame questions you get from Leno it's quite refreshing.
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2-21-2009 @ 4:41PM
Gill said...
A terrible interviewer? That's one of the most asinine things i've ever read on this site.
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2-22-2009 @ 11:49AM
jenn said...
couldn't agree more with Gill....
conan is by far the smartest of the funny guys and it has always served him well in interviews.
2-21-2009 @ 8:30PM
Jay said...
and the White Stripes are the best thing to happen
to music in the last 10 years. Although, I really
like the Racontours too (yes, I know).
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2-23-2009 @ 3:30PM
Justin said...
Not that I'm hating on The White Stripes, but clearly you only listen to mainstream indie because that's the most asinine statement.
But the performance was terrible. It's time to face facts: Meg White has very little talent other than the two obvious talents every fanboy sighs over.
2-23-2009 @ 7:09PM
Coindude said...
I think the masturbating bear had to go, and it's gonna need a bit more cleanup. Conan can be hilarilous, but plz Conan don't sink to the ridulous for laughs, you know how to do master mind comedy w/o the goofness. Best of luck to him and crew!!! Thanks for the many years of laughs!!
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2-21-2009 @ 7:32PM
ac said...
I think Conan is one of the best interviewers on late night. He injects comedy into the interviews and makes sure he has fun with his guests. Take Jim Carrey: On Leno he is purely unfunny and bombs at his jokes. On Conan he is hilarious playing off both Conan and Max in the interview. The only other good interviewer on TV late night is Letterman, who actually throws hard ball questions and little fluff.
And Ian In the Year 2000 isnt going anywhere. It will make the transition to 11:30.
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2-21-2009 @ 9:25PM
Todd said...
My long well thought out remarks disappeared so I will summarize: The White Stripes song sucked horribly!
What are the chances we will see Andy on at least a semi-regular basis now? I assume he is based out of LA with his acting career.
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2-21-2009 @ 10:28PM
bruce said...
I too don't understand why anyone likes the white stripes, let alone the popularity they seem to have. They're absolutely horrible. They've always been horrible. Horrible singers, horrible songwriters, bad musicians, I just don't get it. I'd rather watch a lame Billy Joel cover band play Pianoman.
I've long suspected there's mass delusion in music popularity. All it takes is for some certifiably cool people to publicly indicate they like a particular band, and then everyone else wants to listen to that band, too... and only a small minority of people will have the independence to say the band actually sucks. Are you willing to disagree with Those Who Are Cool?
It's the reason Pink Floyd has been popular all these years. They're one of the worst musical acts of all time, absolutely horrible, but everyone knows at least one popular kid back in high school who really liked them and insisted that the music is not only good, but REALLY GOOD when you listen to it on drugs (and cool people use drugs - seriously). So if you didn't like Pink Floyd, not only were you indicating you have different tastes than Those Who Are Cool, but you're implicitly indicating that you don't use drugs, which makes you twice as uncool and twice the outcast.
Let me guess, that horrible, pathetic excuse for a song that the White Stripes played on Conan's last show sounds really good if you're stoned or on LSD, right?
Here's a secret - drugs do a lot of positive things, but making bad music good is not one of them. They do allow good musicians to write even better songs, but that has nothing to do with the drug use of the listeners.
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2-22-2009 @ 12:52AM
WhatI said...
For those who don't know - the song the White Stripes did was a new arrangement of "We're Going to be Friends", with different music - same lyrics. Yes, that is the song Conan has used the music from to sing his "lullibies" - a very popular recurring skit on his show - no one seemed to have a problem with the music then... Anyway, the White Stripes have known to be close to Conan, more than any other band, and I'm sure they asked him what he'd like them to sing. He may not have been expecting the different arrangement - but I'm sure he appreciated it immensely - and it's also very likely that it was done as a one-time-only version of the song because of the special occasion. Sure, it may have been a bad choice to have them play as a popular choice - but this was a personal choice for Conan and it should be respected as such.
2-22-2009 @ 12:37AM
Jimmy said...
I didn't catch the show, but I have to stand up for The White Stripes. They're awesome.
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2-22-2009 @ 8:59AM
Jimmy said...
I just caught the performance on youtube. I liked the rendition, but Meg was clearly off. It would have worked better with Jack playing by himself.
2-22-2009 @ 1:54AM
Interjected said...
Alright, I don't feel there's a need to stand up for the White Stripes, because there are valid points stating that they are terribly overrated. However, I do enjoy some of their songs and last night's performance was a version of my favorite song by them.
The thing that was good about it was that it seems from what we saw that Jack and Meg White are quite good friends with Conan, and besides the fact that they are his favorite band, it was a touching tribute to their friendship.
I'm not saying it was their best performance or that they are the best performers, but I will say that it was fitting to have them on over pretty much any other musical guest. So there's no need to bash them for any lack of talent they have.
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2-22-2009 @ 11:01AM
GumbyPokedPokey said...
Sassone is a deaf douch
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2-22-2009 @ 12:17PM
Pingles said...
I have always liked Andy Richter but his presence on the final show seemed a bit uncomfortable.
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2-22-2009 @ 4:02PM
JoshM said...
Terrible interviewer? What? It's like with every article Bob Sassone writes, there's something I completely disagree with.
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2-22-2009 @ 5:42PM
Vincent said...
The White Stripes are an amazing band. Keep in mind they hadn't played live in about a year and a half after having to cancel their last tour due to injuries. Besides that, I fail to see why the opinion of this no-name author should be considered to have any more weight than mine or yours.
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