LateNightWithConanObrien-related stories
Posted Sep 15th 2009 2:27PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
It's hard to come up with a headline to sum up this new project by Andrew Secunda (Upright Citizens Brigade
and
Late Night with Conan O'Brien). I love the concept, though.
CBS, which is developing the show with Secunda, calls it a multigenerational comedy. The show will be about a couple in love who move in together. From there, we start to get their story in a clever way.
Through the extensive use of flashbacks to their childhoods, we'll see how they developed the quirks and habits that they're discovering about one another now as adults. We'll also see their parents both now and 20 years ago, to see how they shaped their children, and how their own relationships in the past may impact the way their children are today. Why didn't I just say
that in the title?
Continue reading New CBS comedy to tell a relationship story across 20 years
Posted Sep 7th 2009 11:03AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, OpEd, Talk Show, Reality-Free, Gone Too Soon
When
Andy Richter left
Late Night With Conan O'Brien to establish his own career in acting, nobody knew that he'd come full circle and rejoin O'Brien years later. At the same time, nobody knew that creator
Victor Fresco would do much the same thing.
Andy Richter Controls the Universe was one of those quirky shows that most people, who enjoy a dash of nonsense in their comedy, really dug. It was a very playful show about a guy working in a massive company. It featured a small ensemble with great chemistry on-screen, and had a unique look at big corporations.
A few years later, Fresco tapped that well again, and we got
Better Off Ted, another comedy with absurdist tendencies set in a massive corporation with a small cast. Like
Andy, it eked out a second season based more on critical acclaim than ratings. As someone who enjoys both shows, I find myself worrying that
Ted will share
Andy's ultimate fate, cancellation after the second season.
Continue reading Gone Too Soon: Andy Richter Controls the Universe
Posted Aug 4th 2009 1:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Contests and Giveaways, Reality-Free
Does your ride lack a certain something that all good cars should possess, like brakes?
When you drive to work, do the ambulances and fire trucks pull over to the shoulder to let you pass?
Is your vehicle so old that Jesus co-signed the lease?
Maybe it's time you traded that clunker in, not for a bounced government check or another clunker some guy in a $1,000 suit conned you into buying. Maybe it's time you traded it in for two pounds of C4 and 30 spools of Primacord.
Conan O'Brien premiered on last night's
Tonight Show the funniest car related sweepstakes since AMC tried to give away a Pacer: one lucky American will get
to blow up their car on national television.
Continue reading Conan O'Brien wants to pimp-slap your ride
Posted Jul 21st 2009 5:00PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Reality-Free
The world is facing a population explosion of Biblical proportions. People are procreating and reproducing faster than sustenance reserves and housing requirements can keep up with it. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have officially given up adoption for the next three Lents.
Something has to be done that doesn't involve condoms, birth control pills, or taking a hammer to certain parts of the human anatomy.
India claims they have found a solution.
Television?Continue reading India's plan for population control includes ... late night TV?!?
Posted Jul 9th 2009 5:04PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, The Daily Show, South Park, Reality-Free
A lot of memories have surfaced of the good times that pop icon and musical genius Michael Jackson provided the world in the wake of his untimely and unfortunate death. However, an elephant in the room has wedged its wide butt in between the happy memories that range from "Billy Jean" to "Rockin' Robin," other than the eye-bleedingly bad
Moonwalker movie.
Jackson's life outside of the recording studio and in the blood-soaked pages of the supermarket tabloids provided a lot of fodder for comedies and comedians that turned the man into a punchline just as fast as the radio waves turned him into a legend.
Continue reading Remember the good times we had with (at) Michael Jackson('s expense)?
Posted Jun 16th 2009 2:01PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
A lot of dissecting and exploratory surgery has been done on the jokes that David Letterman made about the Palin family. Even after
Dave apologized and
Palin accepted, people still want to perform a comedy autopsy to figure out what Dave's intent was and why Palin was so vocal in her reaction to it.
The problem is it's an unnecessary surgery and it fails to attack the root of the problem while the real cancer spreads like a California wildfire. E.B. White once said about such procedures that, "
Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it." The only reason this frog hasn't died is because someone wants to keep it alive and no one has dared to touch the heart.
This is the side I will debate in the never-ending Letterman vs. Palin "Joke-gate" controversy while our very own John Scott Lewinski will offer a rebuttal later in the day that a public figure's children should always be off-limits.
Continue reading Point/Counterpoint: Letterman's joke about the Palins was just that
Posted Jun 2nd 2009 2:38PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Industry, Celebrities, Reality-Free
You gotta love the ol' rumor mill. It sleeps less than Amy Winehouse.
Conan O'Brien hasn't even finished his first week as the new host of
The Tonight Show and the insiders are already churning out rumblings about Jay Leno's new show.
Some sources close to the network and
The Jay Leno Show told
Kim Masters of The Daily Beast that Leno is slowly growing unhappy with his new time slot and the changes that are being made to the new show by the network. There are even concerns that the stress of the situation is starting to take a toll on the host's health.
Continue reading Some 'uh-ohs' bubble up behind the scenes of The Jay Leno Show
Posted Jun 2nd 2009 2:47AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
Conan O'Brien's return to late night television as the fifth host of NBC's
The Tonight Show (six if you count comedy genius
Ernie Kovacs) felt like a jogger who is pacing himself for a long marathon.
That might sound like a bad review. But compare that to Conan's constant high energy
Late Night and that makes
The Tonight Show a Jack Russell Terrier on at least three Starbucks espressos.
Conan put aside the puppets and characters for his opening night on the Universal Studios lot for a very enjoyable transition to the new
Tonight Show that's sure to get better in the months and years to come.
Continue reading Conan eases back into late night with The Tonight Show
Posted May 29th 2009 11:07AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Early Looks, Reality-Free
Have you been anxiously awaiting the return of Conan O'Brien and company to late night television? Are you tossing and turning each night because you are lacking your nightly dose of string dancing? Do you find it impossible to get through the day without knowing if Conzie will return to television as the Conzie we all know and love and are thinking of seeking professional help?
Thankfully, I've got the cure. Seek professional help. Make sure he prescribes some strong brain juice for you too, something you have to inject with a syringe.
A recent
Ain't It Cool News report says that test shows of Conan's new
Tonight Show are underway this week. And the reviews are overwhelmingly positive if you're a big fan of Conan's old
Late Night show.
Continue reading Tonight Show test shows new show is just like the old show
Posted May 27th 2009 1:08PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Interviews, Celebrities, Reality-Free
The world's armchair TV executives proudly proclaimed that the only way Conan O'Brien's cavalcade of foul-mouthed puppets and surreal pop culture mechanes could work every night at 11:30 p.m. is with a potent injection of Ritalin (
present executive included).
O'Brien noted, however, that television has broken the time barrier.
"I think especially now, people don't watch an episode of
Lost when they are supposed to watch it," he said during a recent conference call. "DVRs changed everything. The Internet has changed everything. People are getting it off Hulu and watching shows on their iPhone. What's most important to me with
The Tonight Show is it needs to be funny so people can experience it at 11:30 or watch it the next morning while they're eating their oatmeal."
Continue reading Conan talks to reporters about "feeding the dragon" on the new Tonight Show
Posted May 1st 2009 11:03AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, TV on DVD, Reality-Free
The DVD shelves have become a heaven of forgotten shows that barely saw the light of day.
Get ready to welcome one that got less sunlight than your goth cousin gets in a year.
The Late Night Insider blog, the underground blog of the former
Late Night with Conan O'Brien, reported that O'Brien and former and returning sidekick Andy Richter are recording commentary tracks for a new
Andy Barker P.I. DVD.
Continue reading Andy Barker P.I. coming to DVD
Posted Apr 24th 2009 12:04PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Reality-Free
There are a lot of great traditions in the world of late night. Every host has to endure the wrath of
Mother Nature's cruel comedy by letting an animal crap in their lap. Every host has to invite
a nutball celebrity who is guaranteed to shoot up or snort something in the green room five seconds before their interview.
But one lesser known, some would say downright boring, tradition has gone by the wayside. Maybe that's because the choices are usually something boring. There was
Johnny Carson's face mug,
Conan O'Brien's Eisenhower mug and some boring old mug that's so dull, they couldn't even sell it in the gift shop to tourists who would buy a bag of puke if it had the
Last Call with Carson Daly logo on it.
All of that changed when CBS' Craig Ferguson revived this grand tradition by jamming a cardiac needle of adrenaline into its heart with his mug.
Continue reading Craig Ferguson officially has the most badass mug in the history of late night
Posted Mar 4th 2009 10:07AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, News, The Daily Show, Reality-Free
If you asked the average TV watcher what celebrity makes the funniest late night interviews, news anchors would probably be the furthest answer from their minds. It would also just be after physicists, felons convicted of violent crimes and Joaquin Phoenix.
Lately, however, one dedicated newsman has become the most entertaining guest on the late night talk show circuit with the kind of timing, humor and comedic gravitas that even some so-called "professional" comedians have trouble displaying. It could with the greatest of ease turn his own news program into the most hilarious show on television, if the news he reported didn't make us want to jab a corkscrew in our eyes.
That man is NBC's Brian Williams.
Continue reading Brian Williams is funnier than you will ever be - VIDEO
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 1:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Conan O'Brien's final
Late Night ended on a bold note, one that didn't involve animals doing things that would get humans arrested or Abe Vigoda being the best damn Abe Vigoda he can be. In fact, the only way it was remotely funny is if you are one of those douchebags who heckles a comic for building a serious moment or still thinks yelling "Do 'Freebird'!" in between songs at a concert is funny. You know who you are.
It was a serious and heartfelt moment for a show that some naysayers claim is already too silly and asinine for its audience. He put these stuck-up snobs in their rightful place and taught all who watched an important lesson about being true to yourself, especially in the face of those who say it's a big mistake.
And this from a show that features a bear that masturbates on cue. Suck on that, Hallmark Channel.
Continue reading The curious case of Conan O'Brien - VIDEO
Posted Feb 20th 2009 6:03PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, OpEd, Reality-Free
The last week ever of
Late Night with Conan O'Brien was bound to include a few shockers. And while I'm still hoping that one of them won't be the failure to launch of Andy Richter's homecoming, another bigger staple came to an end and was probably followed by a long nap and an anthill of shame and loneliness.
Conan held a going away sketch for one of the show's most popular and least marketable characters, the Masturbating Bear.
If you haven't seen this infamous character "in action," feel yourself (not that way sicko) among the fortunate because it's one of the most hilarious and personally shameful moments you will ever experience in your life. Greater even than your prom, your cousin's drunken wedding and your first college beer party where you woke up with one less eyebrow combined.
Continue reading The Masturbating Bear... who loves ya baby? - VIDEO
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