Thank You, Conan
On his Tonight Show farewell, Conan O’Brien asked people not to feel sorry for him. Some have replied that they have 32 million reasons not to, as per the pricetag NBC offered as a consolation after parting ways with America’s adopted ginger kid.
As if you can put a dollar value on the best piece of late night television real estate. After seven months, O’Brien’s dream–lived vicariously in every other comic–ends thanks to the failed experiment of his former bosses in cahoots with his Tonight predecessor.
The “Johnny Carson Effect”–NBC’s dilemma over Carnack’s heritage versus actual viewership–carried the legend to his final years before he was forced-out by Helen Kushnick and the rats over at GE in favor of Leno. In another generation, the Jay Leno Effect could be used to describe a network’s panicked betrayal, or the unraveling of a comic’s would-be sterling reputation.
Or, The Jay Leno Show/Tonight…with Conan O’Brien maybe just a footnote in television history.
But Tonight isn’t like The Late Show, or Jimmy Kimmel. When David Letterman retires, there’s no John Stewart or Craig Ferguson waiting to harness the desk at the old Ed Sullivan Theatre. The Tonight Show has a lineage. It’s the only late night show worthy of a torch being passed thanks to the trails blazed by Carson, and his approach to showcasing talent now considered household.
Letterman’s show is the what-might-have-been had Carson been able to choose his successor. Dave–not Jay–was the public widow when Carson emerged from the curtain of seclusion when he died in 2006. And while Letterman’s show has proven to be worthy of the network that overlooked him for Leno, the best he’ll get–no matter how great–is late night’s left hand blessing.
In March, Leno returns to Tonight, after he does his good will tour starting with Oprah. Meanwhile, those who have pledged their allegiance to Coco will have to wait for him to pop-up, perhaps as early as September.
If you include Lopez Tonight, there could be as many as five late-night variety shows vying for audiences next fall, only two decades after Joan Rivers, Pat Sajak, Arsenio Hall and Chevy Chase tried desperately to grab a piece of the Tonight audience, to no avail. Even Merv Griffin couldn’t compete with Carson.
Tonight is the Ferarri Letterman said all drivers want to drive. As Conan mentioned in his farewell, he got to live that dream for seven months. Seven months longer than even Letterman himself, who was forewarned by his closest allies when NBC offered him Leno’s version of Tonight, with the caveat that he take the show 18 months afterward.
Letterman, offered the chance to own his own version by CBS and compete with Leno, avoided the possibility of NBC reneging on the offer had Leno enjoyed a resurgence.
Conan was promised Tonight six years ago, and now has suffered a similar fate Letterman was spared.
He has his followers and outcries of support, as well as boycotts against Leno’s return. Will Farrell best exemplified this front by parodying Ronnie Van Zant while blending in his famous cowbell routine from his SNL days during an all-star rendition of Freebird, with Conan, sans blue tie, playing lead on his Gibson Les Paul with the childlike smile he lit the gremlin audiences for much of the past two decades.
Appropriately, Conan took the high road in his departure, and offering his thoughts on cynicism vs. kindness, reassuring this aspiring entertainer with the best advice he needed to hear.
Thank you, Conan. We’ll see you again soon.
Tonight will never be the same. But that’s not your fault.