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Late Night with Conan O'Brien
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Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the second installment of the Late Night franchise originally established by David Letterman. Hosted by Conan O'Brien, it aired from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009, replacing Late Night with David Letterman and was replaced by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am Eastern/11:37 pm Central in the United States. From 1993 until 2000, Andy Richter served as O'Brien's sidekick; following his departure, O'Brien was the show's sole featured performer. The show's house musical act was The Max Weinberg 7 and led by E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg.
In 2004, as part of a deal to secure a new contract, NBC announced that O'Brien would leave Late Night in 2009 to succeed Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show. Jimmy Fallon began hosting his version of Late Night on March 2, 2009.
Upon Johnny Carson's May 1991 announcement of his 30-year hosting tenure on The Tonight Show ending in a year, NBC released a statement that Jay Leno (Carson's guest-host since 1987) would become Carson's replacement, not David Letterman. Though revealed two weeks after Carson's retirement announcement, the decision to go with Leno rather than Letterman had reportedly already been made for a long time, primarily by two of the top executives in NBC's Entertainment division: its president Warren Littlefield and his close collaborator John Agoglia. NBC later said that Letterman's high ratings for Late Night were the reason they kept him where he was. Letterman was bitterly disappointed and angry at not having been given The Tonight Show job; and, at Carson's advice, he left NBC after eleven years on Late Night. CBS signed Letterman to host his own show opposite The Tonight Show. Letterman moved his show to CBS virtually unchanged, taking most of the staff, skits, and comedy formats with him. However, NBC owned the rights to the Late Night name, forcing Letterman to rename his show Late Show with David Letterman.
Keeping the Late Night name, NBC set about building a whole new show in the 12:30 a.m. time slot, from which the network had been making some $20 million to $30 million a year towards the end of Letterman's tenure. NBC brought in Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels to produce the new show, including selecting its host. After auditioning some lower-profile comedians, such as Jon Stewart, Drew Carey, and Paul Provenza, Michaels and the network started going after more established names like SNL star Dana Carvey and The Larry Sanders Show star Garry Shandling. Both eventually declined offers to host it, with NBC reportedly making several approaches to Shandling.
Months into the process, Michaels auditioned Conan O'Brien, an unknown The Simpsons writer who had formerly written for Saturday Night Live. Reportedly, Micheals had originally considered hiring O'Brien as a producer for the new show, however, O'Brien then persuaded Michaels to give him a shot at being the host. Despite having "about 40 seconds" of television-performance experience as an occasional extra on Saturday Night Live sketches and briefly appearing in comedy bits on The Wilton North Report, O'Brien auditioned for the show on April 13, 1993. His guests were Jason Alexander and Mimi Rogers; the audition took place on the set of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. NBC offered the show to O'Brien on April 26, and O'Brien made his first meaningful television appearance later that day when Leno introduced him on Tonight. In 2009, on the final episode of his 16-year run, O'Brien stated that he "owed his career to Lorne Michaels".
O'Brien's Late Night debuted on September 13, 1993, with Andy Richter chosen as O'Brien's sidekick. The premiere episode featured John Goodman, who received a "First Guest" medal for his appearance, Drew Barrymore, and Tony Randall with cameos from George Wendt and Bob Costas. The episode featured a cold open of O'Brien's walk to the studio with constant reminders that he was expected to live up to Letterman. Tom Brokaw makes a cameo, welcoming O'Brien to NBC but, doing as those on O'Brien's walk had done, warning him that he had "better be as good as Letterman, or else...", before menacingly crushing saltine crackers in front of O'Brien, appearing to be representative of the fate that awaited the new host if he failed to meet expectations. After seeming to be unaffected by the comments, O'Brien arrives at his dressing room and cheerfully prepares to hang himself. However, a warning that the show is about to start causes him to abandon his plans.
The show's first musical guest was English rock band Radiohead, who performed during the second episode. American singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman was the show's second musical guest.
O'Brien's inexperience was apparent, and the show was generally considered mediocre by critics in terms of hosting. The Chicago Sun-Times' Lon Grankhe called O'Brien "nervous, unprepared and generally geeky", and Tom Shales wrote "As for O'Brien, the young man is a living collage of annoying nervous habits. He giggles and titters, jiggles about and fiddles with his cuffs. He has dark, beady little eyes like a rabbit. He's one of the whitest white men ever." (O'Brien wrote for The New York Times a satirical review of the first episode the day it aired titled "O'Brien Flops!", in which he told readers "Frankly, I was not impressed".) The originality and quality of the comedy, however, led by original head writer Robert Smigel, was widely praised. Although O'Brien benefited by comparison from the quick critical and commercial failure of the fellow new late-night The Chevy Chase Show, NBC only offered short-term contracts, 13 weeks at a time and once for six weeks, as widely reported by the press at the time. O'Brien was reportedly almost fired at least once in this period, but NBC had no one to replace him. According to Smigel, "We were basically canceled at Conan, and then they changed their minds in August of '94, gave us a reprieve."
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Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the second installment of the Late Night franchise originally established by David Letterman. Hosted by Conan O'Brien, it aired from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009, replacing Late Night with David Letterman and was replaced by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am Eastern/11:37 pm Central in the United States. From 1993 until 2000, Andy Richter served as O'Brien's sidekick; following his departure, O'Brien was the show's sole featured performer. The show's house musical act was The Max Weinberg 7 and led by E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg.
In 2004, as part of a deal to secure a new contract, NBC announced that O'Brien would leave Late Night in 2009 to succeed Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show. Jimmy Fallon began hosting his version of Late Night on March 2, 2009.
Upon Johnny Carson's May 1991 announcement of his 30-year hosting tenure on The Tonight Show ending in a year, NBC released a statement that Jay Leno (Carson's guest-host since 1987) would become Carson's replacement, not David Letterman. Though revealed two weeks after Carson's retirement announcement, the decision to go with Leno rather than Letterman had reportedly already been made for a long time, primarily by two of the top executives in NBC's Entertainment division: its president Warren Littlefield and his close collaborator John Agoglia. NBC later said that Letterman's high ratings for Late Night were the reason they kept him where he was. Letterman was bitterly disappointed and angry at not having been given The Tonight Show job; and, at Carson's advice, he left NBC after eleven years on Late Night. CBS signed Letterman to host his own show opposite The Tonight Show. Letterman moved his show to CBS virtually unchanged, taking most of the staff, skits, and comedy formats with him. However, NBC owned the rights to the Late Night name, forcing Letterman to rename his show Late Show with David Letterman.
Keeping the Late Night name, NBC set about building a whole new show in the 12:30 a.m. time slot, from which the network had been making some $20 million to $30 million a year towards the end of Letterman's tenure. NBC brought in Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels to produce the new show, including selecting its host. After auditioning some lower-profile comedians, such as Jon Stewart, Drew Carey, and Paul Provenza, Michaels and the network started going after more established names like SNL star Dana Carvey and The Larry Sanders Show star Garry Shandling. Both eventually declined offers to host it, with NBC reportedly making several approaches to Shandling.
Months into the process, Michaels auditioned Conan O'Brien, an unknown The Simpsons writer who had formerly written for Saturday Night Live. Reportedly, Micheals had originally considered hiring O'Brien as a producer for the new show, however, O'Brien then persuaded Michaels to give him a shot at being the host. Despite having "about 40 seconds" of television-performance experience as an occasional extra on Saturday Night Live sketches and briefly appearing in comedy bits on The Wilton North Report, O'Brien auditioned for the show on April 13, 1993. His guests were Jason Alexander and Mimi Rogers; the audition took place on the set of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. NBC offered the show to O'Brien on April 26, and O'Brien made his first meaningful television appearance later that day when Leno introduced him on Tonight. In 2009, on the final episode of his 16-year run, O'Brien stated that he "owed his career to Lorne Michaels".
O'Brien's Late Night debuted on September 13, 1993, with Andy Richter chosen as O'Brien's sidekick. The premiere episode featured John Goodman, who received a "First Guest" medal for his appearance, Drew Barrymore, and Tony Randall with cameos from George Wendt and Bob Costas. The episode featured a cold open of O'Brien's walk to the studio with constant reminders that he was expected to live up to Letterman. Tom Brokaw makes a cameo, welcoming O'Brien to NBC but, doing as those on O'Brien's walk had done, warning him that he had "better be as good as Letterman, or else...", before menacingly crushing saltine crackers in front of O'Brien, appearing to be representative of the fate that awaited the new host if he failed to meet expectations. After seeming to be unaffected by the comments, O'Brien arrives at his dressing room and cheerfully prepares to hang himself. However, a warning that the show is about to start causes him to abandon his plans.
The show's first musical guest was English rock band Radiohead, who performed during the second episode. American singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman was the show's second musical guest.
O'Brien's inexperience was apparent, and the show was generally considered mediocre by critics in terms of hosting. The Chicago Sun-Times' Lon Grankhe called O'Brien "nervous, unprepared and generally geeky", and Tom Shales wrote "As for O'Brien, the young man is a living collage of annoying nervous habits. He giggles and titters, jiggles about and fiddles with his cuffs. He has dark, beady little eyes like a rabbit. He's one of the whitest white men ever." (O'Brien wrote for The New York Times a satirical review of the first episode the day it aired titled "O'Brien Flops!", in which he told readers "Frankly, I was not impressed".) The originality and quality of the comedy, however, led by original head writer Robert Smigel, was widely praised. Although O'Brien benefited by comparison from the quick critical and commercial failure of the fellow new late-night The Chevy Chase Show, NBC only offered short-term contracts, 13 weeks at a time and once for six weeks, as widely reported by the press at the time. O'Brien was reportedly almost fired at least once in this period, but NBC had no one to replace him. According to Smigel, "We were basically canceled at Conan, and then they changed their minds in August of '94, gave us a reprieve."