(Side note: TV Tattle wonders if Conan is having trouble getting guests since this is Ho's third appearance since June. Or maybe Conan just loves doing stunts.)
conan obrien-related stories
What You Missed Last Night: Conan gets kicked in the chest
A lot of Conan O'Brien's bits go on way too long. This segment is a lot longer than I thought it would be, but it's okay because there are some great payoffs. Stuntman Steven Ho showed up on The Tonight Show last night to punch and kick Conan and to make him jump through a window. This was practiced, of course, but it could have gone wrong. Conan is pretty funny with stuff like this.
(Side note: TV Tattle wonders if Conan is having trouble getting guests since this is Ho's third appearance since June. Or maybe Conan just loves doing stunts.)
(Side note: TV Tattle wonders if Conan is having trouble getting guests since this is Ho's third appearance since June. Or maybe Conan just loves doing stunts.)
Someone wanted Leno to die of AIDS, according to Leno
With The Jay Leno Show starting on Monday, I figured this would be as good a time as any to print my brief chat with Leno at the party NBC held at the TCA press tour. He had just shown up, and he was surprisingly not yet surrounded by reporters; I figured it would be a good time to throw him a couple of questions I was curious about. Little did I know that I'd be doing it while he was eating one of the short ribs they were serving at the party .No matter; you get the hot star of the moment in front of you, you throw him questions even while he's chewing. Jay being Jay, he handled it like the pro he is. Nothing really that newsworthy came out of this little chat, which is why I've held on to it until now, but I figured it would be a fun thing to read on a Friday.
Oh, one fun note: he claims that when he started The Tonight Show, someone said "I hope Jay dies of AIDS in one of his cars." Wow. Wonder how easy that article would be to find on the Web?
Continue reading Someone wanted Leno to die of AIDS, according to Leno
Gone Too Soon: Andy Richter Controls the Universe
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
Subtle Subtitles: Mad Men
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption!
Last week's winner is ac with this: "Yes my clone, wreak havoc on The Ed Sullivan Theater! Destroy them all!"
This week's picture is from the most recent episode of Mad Men:
DVD cover art and release date for Andy Barker, P.I.
I love Andy Richter, but he seems awfully stiff every time I watch him on The Tonight Show. I prefer to remember the guy from his early days on Late Night, his short-lived show Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and his other short-lived show, the hilarious Andy Barker, P.I. Like Danny reported back in May, Andy Barker, P.I. is finally coming to DVD. Shout! Factory will release the entire series on Nov. 17. The two-disc set will include all six episodes, some with commentary by Richter and producer Conan O'Brien, plus a retrospective feature and a doc about the show's amazing writers, including Jonathan Groff (How I Met Your Mother), Josh Bycel (Psych), and Jane Espenson (Buffy, BSG). Click through for a better look at the DVD cover art.
Continue reading DVD cover art and release date for Andy Barker, P.I.
Subtle Subtitles: Conan O'Brien
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption!Last week's winner is Butters with this:
"Let's body slam is out, bitch!"
This week's photo is from a recent episode of The Tonight Show. No Name Steaks in Minnesota sent Conan a bust of his head made out of white chocolate and bacon.
What You Missed Last Night: a Conan made of chocolate and bacon
The Minnesota State Fair sent Conan O'Brien a strange gift, and he unveiled it on The Tonight Show last night. I hope they have a lot of security there because I don't know how that thing is going to last if they don't. And then there's the bacon smell over time...
Well, at the very least, maybe it will finally bring bring celebrities to the studio.
Well, at the very least, maybe it will finally bring bring celebrities to the studio.
Conan's problem is ... his location?
I'm not quite sure I get what Tom Shales says near the end of this piece about his recent visit to the set of The Tonight Show.Shales tries to get to the heart of why Conan O'Brien, after a big start (of course), is losing more and more ground. He is even losing to David Letterman when Letterman is in repeats (overall ratings - Conan still wins the younger demographic).
He makes a lot of good points about how the set might be doing him in (too big), how the interviews are too rehearsed, and that there's too much prepared comedy. Those are all things that Conan and his crew will look at in the coming months, I'm sure. (I also think part of the problem is Conan's personality - I think he's more of an acquired taste than either Leno or Letterman.)
Continue reading Conan's problem is ... his location?
Letterman beating O'Brien with old shows
NBC must be doing a lot of regretting these days for moving Jay Leno to 10 p.m., and not just because it screws up the perfect headline alliteration with his former competition. It seems that David Letterman's Late Show reruns are getting higher ratings than Conan O'Brien's brand-spanking new Tonight Show episodes.
The margins aren't very wide, but it must hurt when a rival is kicking your lily-white hide and he's not even throwing any punches. It's like getting your ass kicked by a one legged Stephen Hawking.
Continue reading Letterman beating O'Brien with old shows
Leno says he's not destroying the TV drama
Leno has heard all of the complaints (many of them from YOU, the one reading this right now) about how he is taking away the 10PM slot that could go to one-hour dramas, and he doesn't want to hear about it anymore.The comic and Jay Leno Show host says that he is not only employing 22 Writers Guild members on his show, he says that if he didn't do this show then there's no guarantee that NBC would put dramas in that slot because most of them fail and they could just put in reality shows like The Biggest Loser or news shows like Dateline in the slot.
Continue reading Leno says he's not destroying the TV drama
Triumph visits a hotel for dogs
Now this is the type of Tonight Show sketch I love. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog visited an expensive hotel for dogs (yes, they really exist) recently and covered it with his usual Triumph-ness. (Warning: dog sex jokes follow.)
Continue reading Triumph visits a hotel for dogs
Shark Week + tree bark = ... hilarity?
Usually I post videos that I think are funny, interesting, clever, or maybe important. This one I'm posting because it's unfunny, silly, and only important because it shows what the Tonight Show is like now (unfortunately).
Last week Discovery had Shark Week. Last night, Conan showed up a preview of Bark Week. Yeah, a week dedicated to tree bark. This is one of the reasons I can't get into the Tonight Show. It seems like they're throwing every lame idea for a video into the show. Conan and Andy are funny guys, but there's so much on this show that just kills it (and I still hate Conan's mugging after every video and joke, and his painful introductions to bits).
Last week Discovery had Shark Week. Last night, Conan showed up a preview of Bark Week. Yeah, a week dedicated to tree bark. This is one of the reasons I can't get into the Tonight Show. It seems like they're throwing every lame idea for a video into the show. Conan and Andy are funny guys, but there's so much on this show that just kills it (and I still hate Conan's mugging after every video and joke, and his painful introductions to bits).
Leno won't have a desk; NBC exec calls Conan promos "premature" - TCA Report
As you'd expect from a low-rated network with a lot of shows to promote, NBC held the critics captive at their TCA session by waiting until the end of the day before unleashing Jay Leno on the crowd of cranky critics. But first, in order to address some the questions Angela Bromstad and Paul Telegdy couldn't answer, late-night chief Rick Ludwin took questions for fifteen minutes.Ludwin, for his part, was ready to answer those questions, even admitting that putting out a press release calling Conan O'Brien "The King of Late Night" after the first week of his Tonight Show reign was "premature." That's an understatement, but an admission, which is sometimes hard to get out of people in the Zucker regime. (Dan Fienberg of HitFix theorized to me afterwords that Bromstad and Telegdy briefed Ludwin on what we want to know based on their disastrous exec session. Very logical thought.)
Jay snuck up behind Ludwin as the exec was wrapping up, then took to center stage to take our questions. Nothing that he said about the program hasn't been said already: There will be no desk; he wants to get the guests out of the interview chair; he's going to conduct a "Green Car Challenge," where guests race fast electric cars; he will be going into the local news with one of his tried-and-true comedy bits, like "Jaywalking" and "Headlines."
That's the executive summary. More detailed tidbits are after the jump.
Continue reading Leno won't have a desk; NBC exec calls Conan promos "premature" - TCA Report
NBC execs don't seem to know much about NBC - TCA Report
We just got done with the NBC executive session, where primetime entertainment head Angela Bromstad and alternative programming (read: reality) chief Paul Telegdy took the reporters questions. Of course, many of the questions had to do with The Jay Leno Show and Ben Silverman's departure. What the gathered reporters got out of the two executives was evasiveness, referrals to other executives, and a general sense that the two of them either don't know or don't want to provide answers about their own network.
When the question of Leno and CBS's Nina Tassler's assertion that NBC would declare victory no matter what numbers they got, Bromstad tried to pass us to the session for Leno's show later in the day. Telegdy did the same. But we wouldn't let them off the hook. An example exchange, for instance, went like this:
Continue reading NBC execs don't seem to know much about NBC - TCA Report
Conan O'Brien wants to pimp-slap your ride
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
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