Name: Conan O’Brien Deserved Better
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Conan O’Brien Deserved Better

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On June 24th, Conan O’Brien’s career as a nightly talk show host came to an end. Not with a big to-do or a year-long lead-up to his fond farewell, but with a small, intimate show at Largo in Los Angeles. In November of 2020, it was announced that O’Brien would be ending his TBS late night series , concluding his tenure as the longest-working current late night host. But even the buildup to O’Brien’s farewell felt anticlimactic. An Irish exit of sorts on cable TV, a decade after landing and quickly losing his dream gig as host of The Tonight Show. O’Brien isn’t disappearing – he still has his wildly popular podcast and will be creating a new weekly variety series for HBO Max – but for a guy who changed late night television and inspired an entire generation of comedy, his goodbye to late night TV feels anticlimactic and, frankly, sad.COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAYO’Brien had long wanted to be a talk show host, even when working as a writer on SNL, and when Lorne Michaels tapped him to produce the next iteration of Late Night after David Letterman left, he candidly told his boss that he wanted a shot at hosting Late Night, not producing it.In some ways the beginning of O’Brien’s on-air career was a sign of things to come – the network was wary of O’Brien’s longevity in the job and would only renew his contract for short bursts at a time, the lingering threat of being fired hanging over his head while trying to carve out his own version of Late Night. But just as Letterman did before him, O’Brien connected with an entire generation, solidifying his “silly and smart” brand of humor with recurring characters and bits that frequently made him the butt of the joke.Speak to any comedian between the age of 30 and 45 and they’ll almost all tell you Conan O’Brien helped shape their sense of humor. In contrast to Jay Leno’s right-down-the-middle The Tonight Show and Letterman’s acerbic Late Show, O’Brien was unafraid to be unabashedly stupid. Whether it was or a character known only as Late Night was full of bits you didn’t really see elsewhere and left you in stitches. But it wasn’t just that O’Brien was funny, it was that he was your kind of funny. As evidenced by NBC’s hesitancy to embrace their new host, older generations simply didn’t get it. It wasn’t until NBC executives heard from their kids in college that they began to understand just how strongly O’Brien was connecting, and despite their best efforts to tank the show before it could even find its footing, Late Night not only survived but flourished.Even when O’Brien was given The Tonight Show, his brand of comedy didn’t shift all that much. From his first episode of that show, it was clear just how meaningful the gig was to him, and he took great pride in spearheading the show that was once held together by iconic Johnny Carson. And then, of course, it all went to shit.To briefly recap for those unaware, O’Brien was ready to move to the 11:30pm timeslot by 2001, but Leno was still drawing huge ratings on The Tonight Show. So with O’Brien fielding offers from other networks, NBC promised him The Tonight Show in five years if he would re-up his contract for Late Night. He did, and Leno somewhat sheepishly announced the deal on The Tonight Show by saying, “Conan, in five years, it’s yours.” But when the five years came up, Leno was still on top and didn’t want to budge. Long story short, NBC forced Leno out, made Conan host of The Tonight Show, and then immediately tried to appease Leno by giving him a primetime slot before the local news and The Tonight Show five nights a week. When that tanked, NBC told O’Brien they wanted to shift The Tonight Show all the way back to 12:05am, airing after a new half-hour show starring Leno. Feeling betrayed and frustrated, O’Brien put out a statement (without telling NBC) that he would not move The Tonight Show that late, correctly assessing that at that point it would cease to be the tonight show. So NBC then made the boneheaded decision to force O’Brien out and reinstate Leno as host of The Tonight Show. In short, they screwed him.As part of his exit from The Tonight Show, O’Brien was legally not allowed to appear on television for an extended period of time, but after fielding a number of offers he signed a deal with TBS for a new late night series, Conan, to debut in 2010. While waiting out his contract restriction, he hit the road on “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour,” which was a funny yet emotionally raw outlet through which he worked out his admittedly complicated feelings following the Tonight Show debacle.When O’Brien returned to television on Conan, many things felt the same. He maintained his “silly and smart” demeanor, Andy Richter was at his side, and endless bits in which he was clearly the fool ensued. But something was a little off. Every now and then you’d get the feeling there was a bit of anger or frustration or resentment just under the surface. It feels overblown to say O’Brien was “broken” by what happened with The Tonight Show, and yet who wouldn’t be a little broken after going through something like that? O’Brien was literally writing and hosting new episodes of The Tonight Show not knowing what was going to happen day-to-day, and while his candor resulted in some truly unforgettable late night television, it’s hard not to take something like that incredibly personally.As evienced by the clips shown during its final week of shows, Conan certainly has had its moments over the last decade, and the launch of O'Brien's travelogue series was a truly inspired creation that came out of his partnership with TBS. But it was always a little sad to see this comedy giant, this influential and funny and kind man who once hosted the most iconic late night show in history, now relegated to cable TV with half the audience and half the budget.To be fair, it doesn’t seem to have bothered O’Brien all that much. In a must-read with Vulture’s Josef Adalian, he explained that he was convinced to sign with TBS mostly because then-Turner Entertainment chief Steve Koonin promised they’d give him full creative autonomy, and that remained true his entire time there. “I can’t say enough good things about TBS,” O’Brien told Vulture. “I don’t know what would have happened if we had gone to Fox. Maybe it would all have worked out, but I’m not eager to get in a time machine and find out.”But in the same interview, he admits he’s “done what I can with that format” when talking about the nightly programs, and is eager to try something else, invigorated by the aforementioned remote segments and the podcast. In truth it's been obvious O'Brien was ready to break from the standard late night structure for a while — not too long before the pandemic, he changed the format of Conan to a half-hour with a heavier focus on the interview segment.I don’t write all this to say woe is Conan O’Brien. His podcast is truly brilliant and is one of the most successful things he’s ever done. And the guy is clearly doing what he wants by ending Conan and creating something entirely different. But as someone who connected with O’Brien deeply back when Late Night was airing, and who felt a sense of pride when my guy got picked as the next host of The Tonight Show, I can’t help but feel a little sad watching what should be a monumental goodbye end unceremoniously in a 60-minute episode following a game show and reruns of The Big Bang Theory. Again, on O’Brien’s accord (and of his design). But still.He’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Everything is fine. O’Brien’s legacy is secure as one of the defining comedy voices of all time, and it’s exciting to think about what he might cook up outside the nightly format since it was precisely those remotes and the podcast that were most interesting over these past 11 years. Perhaps this is more about me than it is about Conan. He seems completely happy with his decision and how, exactly, he’s orchestrated his exit, and here I am demanding we memorialize and eventize his departure when he’s gonna be back, in some form, within a year.Maybe that speaks to just how strongly O’Brien connected with an entire generation, and perhaps his permanent impact (not to mention the many greats he inspired, from Bill Hader to Seth Meyers) is tribute enough."Try and do what you love, with people you love," O'Brien said in the final moments of his last Conan show. "And if you can manage that, it's the definition of heaven on Earth I swear to God."

On June 24th, Conan O’Brien’s career as a nightly talk show host came to an end. Not with a big to-do or a year-long lead-up to his fond farewell, but with a small, intimate show at Largo in Los Angeles. In November of 2020, it was announced that O’Brien would be ending his TBS late night series , concluding his tenure as the longest-working current late night host. But even the buildup to O’Brien’s farewell felt anticlimactic. An Irish exit of sorts on cable TV, a decade after landing and quickly losing his dream gig as host of The Tonight Show. O’Brien isn’t disappearing – he still has...

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Conan O’Brien Deserved Better

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