There’s already a thread hating the show (before it aired), but I thought we should have a neutral discussion as well. Anyone else watching? Thoughts?
Yeah! Why do I remember a similiar skit to open his “Tonight Show” run? I also like his joke about naming the show to make it harder to fire him. His single joke doing 3 months of events was cool.
His opening piece for the Tonight Show had him running across the country from New York to LA, I think?
Also liked the joke covering 3 months of events… 
What would be really funny: if every time Conan says “basic cable” TBS flashes a banner at the bottom of the screen saying “We’re paying him $10 million.”
Everything Andy Richter says is funny, though. Somebody really should give him a show.
The best thing about Andy is that he can totally crack Conan up every time.
All in all, I thought it was a competent premier. It definitely has more of a Late Night sensibility than a Tonight Show one. I always though Conan was far too restrained on his brief Tonight Show tenure.
I loved the opening bit with him getting shot Godfather-style, screaming while in a full body cast with only his mouth and hair exposed and working in all those odd jobs.
Also, did he really hold a “first guest” contest?
It was an online poll. And yes, it was totally rigged. I remember there being only a couple of real celebrities on it. Jack Nicholson (who hasn’t been on a talk show in 30 years) was winning. I had a feeling the set it up trying to Jack, but if that failed, then they had the joke guest as a back-up.
Did he keep the beard? I think he looks better with it. Less Howdy Doody time and grown up.
Conan should do good this week. Reports say he’s got A list folks lined up for week 1.
I thought it was…okay. I’d hoped for the best (really liked him on Late Night), expected the worst (didn’t think he was so hot on The Tonight Show) and got…okay. Not bad. Maybe even pretty good.
The most surprising thing was that there weren’t more surprises/hoopla/fireworks. The opening set piece was nice, some okay jokes in the monologue…and then there was standard guest fare and a musical guest I skipped. I dunno, I thought there’d be a little more. It just felt like a slightly bigger Monday show.
All that said, I thought he looked and felt noticeably more at ease here than he did on Tonight, and the tone felt more natural. The set is still too big (but better than the Tonight set, which was waaaay too big), and I still think he should move back east to New York or maybe Chicago (that would be interesting). Overall an underwhelming but promising start.
ace: he did keep the beard, and I like it too.
I’m happy Conan’s back.
I had mixed emotions watching the show, though. After seeing his stage show this Summer, which proved Conan and crew could definitely entertain outside of the comfortable late night format, it was a little jarring to see him doing the same old talk show on what appeared to be a scale model of his Tonight Show set.
I actually loved the set; very nice without being too stuck-up. Also liked how close he was to the audience.
I think Conan is selling himself short too. He really didn’t need to chain himself to this show five nights a week. It makes it impossible to do anything else.
He should have insisted on a 4 night a week gig like Letterman.
At least, he should take a few weeks off in the summer. So he could get in a movie or something. Or do another live stage show. That really went well this summer.
I get a “been there, done that” vibe with this show. Heck, even Andy went off and did a sitcom and movies. His bandleader has left to work with Springsteen full time. Conan is just marking time, sitting behind that desk year after year. <shrug> I know it’s darn good money. But, geez doesn’t he want to do something new? I think he’d be very successful developing & writing his own sitcom and starring in it.
He did.
well, that was a smart move. At least that gives him some free time to work on other projects.
I thought the set design was interesting - it looked a lot like the old Tonight Show set, back in the Johnny Carson days. Complete with multi-colored curtains and retro couch and desk. Put the band on the other side of the studio, and it would be a very close knock-off. I like it.
Jack White was awesome, and the number they performed was awesome.
All in all, a competent opening show. It’ll only get better as Conan explores the boundaries of what they can get away with on cable.
He had three shows in between Late Night and the Tonight show. Two of them were pretty funny, actually.
I think that is why he did do 4 nights a week.
I liked it. I appreciated that they didn’t do some kind of blow-out star-studded special event thing with it. It was just like a pretty good episode of the old Late Night show. If that’s what the show is going to be like on a regular basis, I’ll tune in.
The moon gag made me giggle.
His opening bit for Late Night involved him almost hanging himself, if that’s what you remember.
Is there a story behind Max Weinberg’s absence?