Long May You Run: Conan O'Brien

Last night, after only 7 months on the air, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien came to a sudden end. I'm guessing his ratings weren't that great, but I also remember the days where they gave shows a chance before pulling the plug. If TV had the same approach it does now back in the late 80s, Married With Children would have only lasted one season. However, Conan certainly knew how to pull off a fantastic show, pulling no punches, making no secret of his disappointment with NBC. For the past couple of weeks there had been a war of words between him, Jay Leno and NBC. And for good reason. Leno was going to retire and give him the Tonight Show, however when Jay's bid into doing a prime time show didn't pan out, the network and Leno wanted to put him back to the 11:35 time slot and basically demote O'Brien back to late night programming. Only after Conan moved his entire family, staff, and life from New York to Los Angeles did they decide this. Nonetheless, Conan did walk out with a settlement deal in the range of 30-45 million dollars, so at least they didn't entirely screw him.

I've been a fan of Conan O'Brien since about 2002, partially thanks to Comedy Central playing reruns of his show in the daytime. I loved his sense of humor; quixotic, yet very dry at times. His show was very entertaining, especially Triumph the Insult Dog, his mock interviews, and he had a good ear for music; I got into bands such as the Black Keys because of him, and he had on Regina Spektor on several occasions. To me, he seemed to be the perfect candidate to replace Leno on the Tonight Show. Leno's really not that funny, in my opinion, and in the events following Conan's departure from the Tonight Show, Leno has proven to be a greedy fuckface. It sucks that Bill Hicks is dead, because he could do "Artistic Roll Call Redux." Well, it took a lot of doing, but he got his show back!

The most poignant part of last night's broadcast was that the musical guest was none other than Neil Young, who first called Conan to be on the final night. He did a very beautiful rendition of "Long May You Run," which seemed fitting. After the performance, Neil and Conan shook hands and Neil said "Thank you for all you've done for new music!" Despite the acrimony between him and NBC, he did say some very nice things about the network, having been employed by them for a good quarter of a century. You could tell that Conan was very emotional during this show, but was able to maintain his feelings and make everyone laugh. However, the closing bit was brilliant as well. Will Ferrell came on stage dressed as Ronnie Van Zandt from Lynyrd Skynyrd (complete with a Neil Young t-shirt), and lead him and the Tonight Show band in a rendition of Freebird that I actually enjoyed (me being a hater of all things Skynyrd). Conan also joined them on guitar, where he proved to be quite a good axeman himself! Beck and one of the guys from ZZ Top also joined in on the fun. It's really a damn shame that it was his final show, but goddamn he nailed it! He went out with a resounding bang that couldn't quite possibly be topped.

Starting March 1, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno will be back on the air (whopee), with the chin that won't shut up basking in his victory. I really hope it gets canceled. Most everyone I know who may have liked Leno at one point will no longer watch his show as a result of this bullshit, and those who hated him now hate him even more. Nonetheless, I hope that Conan will persevere through this mess, get another talk show and blow the lid off of Leno!!!

And, for your viewing pleasure: Bill Hicks' rant against Jay Leno (1993)




Neil Young on Conan: