Not if you're going to be a dick about it.Originally Posted by GodHatesFlags
Not if you're going to be a dick about it.
Great show, but when did Eddie Vedder start looking like a skinnier version of Ron Jeremy? Its uncanny.
Andy being mic'd during the monologue was annoying.
But that's really my only complaint. Seriously, it was as good as I could've imagined, and I know it will get more "comfortable" as it goes on.
Too bad a lot of middle-of-the-road Americans seem to be so pro-Leno and thus anti-Conan (despite the ridiculousness of that opinion -- they still get Jay, and an hour earlier to boot... they just have to wait until September). I hope the ratings are strong and STAY strong. I hope a lot of the younger crowd actually are home EARLY enough to watch the new show. Because I want so badly for Conan on "The Tonight Show" to succeed.
That was very enjoyable. An amazing change-up to the Tonight Show host position, it doesn't get much better than Conan. I really hope they do well and I will do my best to watch as many as I can and help the ratings. I missed Conan and was extremely excited for his return. I can't wait to go to the taping this Wednesday.
My only complaint - I would like to see the whole band, not just Max. I miss Jimmy, Pender, La Bamba, et al. They are all still in the band, right? If not, who is? I only saw Max (missed that nebbish drum monster!)
So that's my biggest complaint--a quibble, really!
Overall, as good a start or better than I could have imagined. The one person who I think is going to need to settle in the most is Andy. He's been off the talk show for ten years now, and when he was on, he was in a different capacity. Still, it's going to be great and interesting watching Conan and him develop how this new relationship will work. Conan can't step on any jokes Andy might have, and obviously vice versa. This wasn't even especially bad last night, just something I noticed. The show kept moving, always, which was most important.
Night gathers, and now my snark begins. It shall not end until it gets hacky. I shall take my wife(... please!), hold no lands, father no negative ratings. I shall wear no crowns and win no AST Top 20 Rankings. I shall live and die by my posts. I am the LOL in the darkness. I am the fire that burns against the trolls, the sneer that guards the realms of men from Kyle Cease's Comedy Boot Camp. I pledge my life and honor to the AST's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.
So Will Ferrell's traditional de-pantsing was forgone for the sake of Middle America? That was the most telling difference to me. Middle America hates tradition.
Come on. I like to complain as much as anybody, but really? Did you ever watch Leno's Tonight Show? How could anyone not consider this a 100 percent improvement?
Only main quibble... stop laughing Andy. Please stop force laughing. I'd rather you be a bad ass comedy version of Ed McMahon, not the new Ed McMahon. It sounds so forced and you know it's studio notes, etc, etc... but I hope it relaxes as it goes.
They definitely need to find a good place for Richter, so good to see him on the show.
(and Jimmy Pardo! Congrats.)
Does Pardo warming up the room have any benefit for the home viewer who isn't in a position to see the show live?
ie. shoe-in for being a guest, connections to other projects, etc.
I just wanna know how I get more JP from this.
A 100% improvement makes it 2% funny. The only laugh out loud moment of last night's show was the Doll Museum. Conan was treading in no man's land: trying to be bland enough to appeal to the middle American morons while trying to keep some of the edge that he had during his Late Night years. When you try to please everyone you please no one. He's got to decide, and quickly who his audience is going to be because I don't think he knows. The unfortunate thing is if he picks the pre-denture baby boomer crowd (that's where the advertiser money still is and has been for my entire life) we have no one to fall back on. Fallon seems to be aiming for the WB crowd, Letterman seems content with burned out loyalists, Kimmel, frat boys and Furguson, sexy grandmas? There's really nothing left on late night for the leading edge Gen Xrs who grew up spoiled to death by Letterman.
And Will Ferrell, didn't Steve Martin do the same entrance a years ago on Letterman? I can't remember if it was him or what show it was (maybe SNL?) but I do remember him ending the bit by activating his alarm with his keychain which was much funnier. Ferrell was slightly better than Deniro as a first guest mostly because he didn't fall asleep - but the audience did. Conan would have been better off booking someone who hasn't exhausted of his/her comedy spine fluid over the last decade. I shouldn't say that because Ferrell was pretty good on SNL a couple of weeks ago but to make an entrance of a King when his movies haven't exactly been setting the comedy world on fire seemed a little overdone.
Hopefully Conan will settle in because he's our last hope. I'll chalk last night up to nerves. I can't imagine what it must be like to want a job since you were a child and to actually live to achieve it. It must have been a surreal night for him but now he's going to have to earn it and he needs to start by creating a new hipper audience for the Tonight Show. There are just too many amazing comedians out there right now that are ripe and seasoned to create a revolution on network tv. Bring them to the masses Conan. You have nothing to lose, NBC is already in the basement ratings-wise so this is the time to take some chances.
I did not see the show last night but I assume it was rather good.
Yeah, you please no one except the several million people who watched and enjoyed thoroughly.
You really are an angry robot.
Yeah, angryrobot, you need to take several steps back here and realize that not everyone in the world is a Mr. Show and Human Giant watching, Comedy Death Ray attending, UCB devotee like us. To Middle America, this will be a new, hipper, edgier Tonight Show. Do you honestly think it would have been a good idea for Conan to come right out of the box with a quirky, Conan-in-'93 type show? He has to edge people into watching this show a little bit. I personally think this is a great step forward. This is THE TONIGHT SHOW; it's the most watched late night talk show in America, and now Conan is going to be the host of it every night. I honestly don't see how anyone can complain here.
If you watched the MTV Movie Awards (which I'm sure you didn't), you'll see we live in a world where "Twilight", "High School Musical", and Transformers movies are what are popular right now with young people. So we're really going to sit here and gripe about how this show wasn't as mind-blowingly awesome as it could have been? Let's all get some perspective here.
And I like it when Andy laughs, so there.
I only made it part of the way through the monologue because I am an old man. I liked the pre-monologue running montage and what I saw of the monologue BUT...
I hated Andy's forced laughter, Andy and Conan kept stepping on each other's improv and Conan had way too much energy, though I'll chalk it up to being the first show. He was moving so much that it was distracting and he really has to stop clapping his hands. Did they mike his hands separately?
Stay Free!
Adult Education: A Useless Lecture Series
The people in my neighborhood
Stand-up clips
A new children's consignment store in Brooklyn For the kids. In my house. Not a joke.
I hate to get all Scammy Davis Boogah Jr. here, but what's it like living inside Andy's brain? How do we know it's "forced" laughter? Maybe Andy just thinks Conan is funny.
Nah.
Okay: For the Tonight Show it can get a pass.
As far as "great tv", it does not pass. As far as Conan standards it does not get a pass.
The doll museum was good and the Norman Bates part of the tour was amazing. But in 45 minutes of television I expect more than two funny parts. Actually The "Hollywoo" part was terrible except the part where the "D" gets destroyed. That was simple funny that I liked... (which tv maroons will think was real and they'll be outraged at this young kid from new york who disrespects Hollywood history... you know THOSE people, the ones who think Colbert is sincerely republican...)
But be honest here: Andy Richter flopped. There is no way him being mic'd helped the show. Just from that episode I would say it would be better to have Max mic'd up.
And finally:Octomom's water just broke? That doesn't even make sense!
Does it have potential to get better: OF COURSE! Conan was great on his own show so I can't imagine they don't find a groove in their new time slot... but let's sllllloooow down the praise here. That was not a home run, at best it was a solid single.
Also I just got the Dana Gould DVD and it did not meet my super high expectations.
You realize that the essay you wrote was about 1 show, right? A show that is by virtue of being the big deal first show is not what the show is. And especially weird since you can't really say much about what a talk show is based on one show.
How about you don't start with this idea that Conan is going to dumb it down for middle America because they don't get it and watch a few episodes and actually see what the show is.
What doesn't make sense about it? It cracked up everybody on the tram and myself.
I will agree that the Doll Museum portion of the pre-monologue bit made me laugh the most. HOWEVER, I enjoyed the show. I didn't really think Richter got in the way, and if he did, so what? This is the first time he's done this sort of thing in years, and even then, it's a different situation. He and Conan are both trying to figure out how it should work. I thought Ferrell was fine. I had expected a lot of "Conan's in LA now" pieces because he said there would be in the several articles that have come out in the last week or two. I thought most of the piece of him driving around was pretty funny, and I enjoyed the Universal Studios tour.
I am slightly worried that the sound system for bands has SNL disease.
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