Late Night with Conan O'Brien: Difference between revisions

Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late night television talk show on NBC featuring varied comedic material and celebrity interviews. From the show's inception until May 2000, Andy Richter served as cohost alongside Conan O'Brien. O'Brien is currently the sole host of the show and is scheduled to leave in 2009 to take over The Tonight Show. Various sources have hinted towards comedy writer Robert Smigel as the replacement for Conan's 12:30 slot, with NBC possibly trying to repeat the success they had with Conan of ushering in another relatively unknown writer to the Late Night circuit, although nothing has been confirmed.

Late Night has followed The Tonight Show on the NBC network since 1982. The Tonight Show has always had more viewers than Late Night. However, Late Night has always had a stronger hold on the much sought-after 25 to 35 age bracket than The Tonight Show, which tends to attract older viewers.

In 1993, O'Brien replaced David Letterman, long time host of the Late Night with David Letterman, when Letterman left NBC to host the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. Since Letterman's new program was similar to his NBC show, many sources consider O'Brien's program to be a new and separate entity, although it is technically a continuation of Letterman's Late Night.

O'Brien's comic style was influenced greatly by the absurdist farce of Monty Python and the physical comedy and wild vocalizing of Robin Williams. Like his Late Night predecessor, David Letterman, O'Brien's humor also has a streak of biting sarcasm. O'Brien often playfully chides his audience for underwhelming or overly enthusiastic response to his jokes.

The show's first three years under O'Brien were generally considered mediocre, but by 1996 he had found his comic voice and it quickly returned to the cult status it had enjoyed under Letterman's tenure. During the 10th anniversary show in 2003, Mr. T observed that fact by handing Conan a chain with a large gold "7" on it:

Conan: But Mr. T, we've been on the air for ten years!
Mr. T: I know dat, foo', but you only been funny for seven!

O'Brien began his stint at Late Night after serving as a writer for The Simpsons.

O'Brien's show also launched the career of Robert Smigel's Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.

Drummer Max Weinberg of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band fame, leads the "Max Weinberg Seven."

• Actual Items
• Car Chases
• Celebrity Secrets
• Celebrity Survey
• Conan O'Brien Hates My Homeland
• Conan on the Aisle
• Conan Sings a Lullaby
• Desk Drive
• Frankenstein Wastes A Minute of Our Time
• The Hole In The Floor
• In the Year 2000
• New Characters
• New College Mascots
• Holiday Pictures
• If They Mated
• "I'ma Gonna Go To Hell When I Die"
• Krunk
• Kids' Drawings
• The Walker, Texas Ranger Lever
• New Reality-TV Formats
• New Stamps/State Quarters/Euros
• Patterns
• Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage
• Pleasing the Affiliates
• Reality TV Small Talk Moment
• Satellite TV
• String Dance
• What in the World?

• The State of the Show Address - An elaborate parody of the President of the United States' annual State of the Union Address delivered in place of the show's opening credits and monologue on the same night the President gives his speech.

• Central Time Zone New Years Countdown - Aired each New Year's Eve, Late Night is the only show to do a countdown to midnight for the Central Time Zone of the USA. At the stroke of midnight, O'Brien is joined by a group of revelers costumed to represent various midwestern locales including Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, Illinois), a Green Bay Packers 'cheesehead' fan, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (Kansas), and Prince (Minneapolis). Because the next two New Years Eve holidays fall on weekends, O'Brien will be unable to do this special show again until December 31, 2007.

• Abe Vigoda, an actor who sometimes appears on the show
• Cactus Chef playing 'We didn't start the fire' on a flute
• Chinese Fabio
• Cloppy, the Late Night Horse
• Cobb, the Living Ear of Corn
• Coked-Up Werewolf
• Eyeballs O'Shaughnessy
• FedEx Pope
• Frankenstein of "Frankenstein Wastes a Minute of Our Time"
• The Guy Who is Protected From Three-Inch Bees
• Hannigan the salesman
• Jerry Butters, the 4 AM timeslot talkshow host
• Jesus
• Joel Godard, the Late Night Announcer
• Leonard Diesel, Vin Diesel's Brother
• Little Jay Leno
• Mansy, the Half Man/Half Pansy
• Masturbating Bear
• Pierre Bernard, graphic designer, of "Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage"
• Pimpbot 5000
• Preparation H Raymond
• Robot on a Toilet
• Shoeverine, a Wolverine-like character with shoes instead of metal claws
• They Might be Slipnuts (formerly known as Slipnuts, a band that 'just happened' to be actually booked on the same show with Slipknot, and later with They Might be Giants)
• The Trekkie, wearing a costume of Mr. Spock from Star Trek. Protests any non-Trek sci-fi movie or television series.
• The World's Fastest Menorah, the World's Fastest Baby Jesus, Bungie Jumping Baby Jesus, and the Rocket-Powered Fruitcake, rivals to the Christmas Tree outside the show's building, Rockefeller Center. The tree stump left from the tree when it was cut down is also a Late Night monument.
• Vomiting Kermit

• alt.fan.conan Newsgroup
• Conan O'Brien fansite with Forum
• Downloadable Conan - complete shows
• NBC's Official Page