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Conan's Debut Was a Yawn
Paul Drinkwater, NBC / AP Photo
O'Brien's first Tonight Show fell short because the format is so retro, says Caryn James. So will he play it safe—or will he take some risks? Plus, watch highlights.
Conan O’Brien started off his hugely hyped gig as host of The Tonight Show with a hilarious and brilliant little film, a pure Conan absurdity that began with him having checked off everything on his to-do list for the first show, except “Move to L.A.” In an elaborately shot routine, he literally runs cross country, arms pumping in his blue suit as he races past an Amish buggy and the St. Louis Arch, cuts across Wrigley Field and zooms through Las Vegas until he lands in... that old-fashioned cookie cutter called Tonight. It’s almost a letdown, because there’s no way taking over that show can be anything but retro.
No one is even trying to disguise the backward-looking mandate. In fact, Conan’s dash from N.Y. to L.A. was the show’s second element. The first: a vintage NBC intro, the one with the peacock and the quaint promise, “the following program is brought to you in living color.” Conan is taking over a franchise that desperately needs to be shaken up, and that NBC really doesn’t want him to tamper with. The question is: Will The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien be a retro-smart reinvention or just backward looking?
Even on automatic pilot, Conan’s old show was always smarter than Jay’s Tonight—but he’s not edgy, and he grew less edgy over his years on Late Night.
What we can see so far is the weird hybrid of a Conan—pleasant as always, getting more relaxed as the night went on—who has moved into a house he didn’t get to design, just redecorate. (The actual set works pretty well; the variation on the standard desk and couch has glittery deco touches that evoke an old movie palace.)
His first monologue, taken up with applause and introductions, wasn’t quite a monologue yet, although he did have one good joke. ”I’ve timed this moment perfectly,” he said about his arrival. “I’m on a last-place network, I moved to a state that’s bankrupt, and tonight’s show is sponsored by General Motors.”
He introduced some great continuity: his terrific band from Late Night with Conan O’Brien, renamed Max Weinberg and the Tonight Show Band instead of the Max Weinberg 7. But what could be more retro-tired than bringing back Andy Richter, his original Late Night sidekick? (The show went on perfectly well without a sidekick for all those years after Richter left; last night, he stood behind a podium off stage with very little to do).
Nothing on the show seemed as genuinely Conan as that opening sequence, and some other filmed bits were flat: Conan commandeers the Universal Tour trolley. Conan rides around L.A. attracting babes in his ’92 Ford Taurus. (At least that routine slyly positioned him as the non-Leno, the opposite of the car-obsessed guy with the garage-full of curiosities.)
When he drank out of a familiar blue ceramic mug he’d used on Late Night or tugged the imaginary strings attached to his hips to make them swivel the way he did on the old show, those touches were like semaphore signs saying “I’m still Conan.”
His guest, Will Ferrell, was carried out in a sedan chair by bare-chested men in Egyptian headdresses as if he were a Pharaoh—a loopy touch that shows how in synch his humor is with Conan’s. Ferrell’s deadpan theme for the night was his amazement that Conan had made it to Tonight because, “No one thought you could do it. No one.”
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Lee Siegel has written about culture and politics and is the author of three books: Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination; Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television; and, most recently, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. In 2002, he received a National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.
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Caryn James is a cultural critic for The Daily Beast. She also contributes to Marie Claire and The New York Times Book Review. She was a film critic, chief television critic and critic-at-large for The New York Times, and an editor at the Times Book Review. She is the author of the novels Glorie and What Caroline Knew. As a film commentator, she has been a guest on Charlie Rose, Today, CBS Sunday Morning and MSNBC.
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Caryn James is a cultural critic for The Daily Beast. She also contributes to Marie Claire and The New York Times Book Review. She was a film critic, chief television critic and critic-at-large for The New York Times, and an editor at the Times Book Review. She is the author of the novels Glorie and What Caroline Knew. As a film commentator, she has been a guest on Charlie Rose, Today, CBS Sunday Morning and MSNBC.
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Caryn James is a cultural critic for The Daily Beast. She also contributes to Marie Claire and The New York Times Book Review. She was a film critic, chief television critic and critic-at-large for The New York Times, and an editor at the Times Book Review. She is the author of the novels Glorie and What Caroline Knew. As a film commentator, she has been a guest on Charlie Rose, Today, CBS Sunday Morning and MSNBC.
Thank God, I can hear Leno's monologue and hit the pillow by 10:30 PM. There is progress in the world.
Ms. James,
You're missing the forest. Of course the new show is a hybrid - there's a huge continuity factor, for both the network and the host. Retro, yes, but as you said, retro-SMART - Conan's gray matter is the difference.
"Carson is irrelevant"? Are you nuts? Johnny is the rock - mature, reliable, unflappable, comforting, and funny. The ultimate pro. The Jay years, while successful, have been a Clinton/Bush aberration of whiny sychophantic fatuousness. John Stewart is wonderful, but the Tonight Show will never run on that much snark. It's a big country.
To which: the music playing during the cross-country bit was Cheap Trick's "Surrender" - it wasn't just about Conan forgetting, it was about him surrendering, about leaving the comfort of his old show and moving up to accept the mantle. It's a song of celebration, of Conan graduating, leaving some of the neurotic self-obsession of Late Night behind. The montage actually made me feel proud to be an American. That's something "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" never did, even once.
I agree with Caradog but feel compelled to add -- the Washington Monument was not in the skit. I can only imagine that when Conan ran past the St Louis Arch, it looked like the Washington Monument through a curved lens. Ms James is possibly just artistic rather than geographically challenged?
Well said.
I'm so happy to have Conan (and Andy) back.
And that set is unbelievably beautiful.
Yup. Conan was solid last night. Very funny. He'll massage the format over time, I'm sure, but it was ridiculous for anyone to assume that he would show up on the first day and immediately do something wildly different. Here's what I think: for the first time in almost my entire life, The Tonight Show might actually be worth watching.
I found Conan to be very endearing last night--and it was much better than I anticipated--the opening was very funny. In fact, the only low point of the show was Will Ferrell, who has never been funny and is keeping his streak alive.
I expected very little from last night, and was pleasantly surprised--go Conan!!
Will Ferrell has never been funny? Really?
I have tried to watch Jay over the years and just couldn't do it. If Gonad is to succeed he must change the game or the reigning Kings (Stewart/Colbert) will banish him to an isolted place of drivel, ohh, he is already there....sorry.
I found O'Brien's Tonight Show debut to be nothing short of embarrassing. I suffered it (in silence) for ten minutes before fumbling for the remote and putting myself out of my self-induced misery!
However, in fairness to the Tonight Show, I was never an O'Brien fan. I always see him as a chronic misfit in his role as stand up comedian and host; someone best suited for a
behind-the-scenes role; the job he had before Lorne Michaels (who wouldn't recognize humour if it hit him directly between the eyes) suggested him to the NBC execs.
With the competitive environment as hot as it is (and will become), it does not portent well for this show.
Boy, do you sound Russian!
Maybe this is kind of like Kruschev telling the West "We will bury you."
Loved Jay, so I was a bit worried about Conan, but I liked it. If it were completely different in the begining, it would be too jarring. I can see it getting more and more edgy as he grows more comfortable in the job.
Ms. James,
Your opinion, like so many of the "blogs" here on the Beast, is specifically written to be "edgy" and "different," and it shows.
Conan definitely wasn't at his 100% best, but all three of the Conan-out-of-the-studio segments were hilarious and classic Conan. Despite some awkwardness, and what was obviously a forced attempt at some topical humor like Jay used to do, I thought he was hilarious, as did most people. The Will Ferrell interview was mostly a bust, Ferrell didn't seem to bring his A-game tonight and Conan was obviously a bit uncomfortable in his new surroundings. Pearl Jam was alright, but it was a new unfamiliar song and Vedder's mike needed to be turned up.
But Conan himself did pretty great. If this is his jumping off point, I can't wait to see where he goes.
I thought the "moving to LA" segment was terrific. His sidekick was irrelevant and awkward and everything seemed to go down hill after a couple of good jokes in the opening. Then I became bored and switched channels.
They should of chosen Craig Ferguson.
You should of paid closer attention in English class.
In Linguistics, form follows function.
"Should of" is just as correct as "Should have".
Anyway, you know what is being said.
Stop being a b*tch, Krista.
If one were to try to extrapolate from a first-night's performance, oy vey. But like the first day on any job, it's not fair. Still, with all the prep time he had to start things off with a roar, it was pretty much a whimper. The opening gets a B , the Universal Studios romp and the drive around town, C-minus, the interview with Ferrell, C-minus, the music a C.
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The show was too much Conan, too many taped segments, and too silly. David Letterman will always get my vote, but then I'm a dinosaur and of little consequence to the advertisers.
The show had it's moments. Some great and some pretty awful.
The intro with Conan running across country was pure genius,
and him forgetting the keys was a perfect ending.
Andy Richter is 110 times better than Conan interacting awkwardly
with Max "No Personality" Weinberg.
Will Farrell singing to Conan was pretty funny, telling Conan his
chances of succeeding are a "crap shoot"
They had a few months to create that Tour skit,
and that's the best the writers could come up with?
The Universal Tour was so long and so tedious, going around
in "circles" "circles" on the tour bus was NOT funny at all.
The grocery shopping seemed out of place and didn't make any sense.
The skit that never ended. Sheeesh.
The stage looked very modern, but very cold compared to Jay's
show, where the band was off to the side but seemed to be a part of the show.
The Weinberg Band seems like their segregated in some weird pod
looking cubicle that doesn't seem integrated with the rest of the set.
He looked a little rusty. Good thing I have a DVR. There's moments in most shows that are only good in fast-forward. The monologue was boring too, but he'll get back into his groove soon enough. At least I know Pearl Jam is releasing a new album soon.
He stopped at the Dairy Queen in my hometown while filming that opening bit. The locals said he was a very nice guy and you know we don't usually like you East Coast elites.
Is Skitch Henderson still music director on the Tonight Show?
Jon Stewart couldn't shine Johnny Carson's shoes. The reason why everyone loved Carson was that he made fun of everyone. Not just conservatives.
I told my friend earlier that only old people didn't like Conan last night, this article proves my point.
Leno was never funny and Conan is even less so.
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If this is to be a comparison of Leno Vs. Conan, than all we have to do is look to the WGA strike shows of 2008. When the writers went on strike and Jay and Conan decided to write their respective shows entirely themselves, it was clear who had the funnier show. Jay was practically unwatchable, while Conan's show was actually funnier that when he his team of writers. Conan's debut was no worse than any one of Jay's best shows.
Thank you.
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