THE NBC CONUNDRUM

 

The Good

The Bad

The Unknown

The True Heir To Late Night

Since 2004, it has been common knowledge that Conan O’Brien, host of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, will be taking over the Tonight Show, which is currently being hosted by the extremely unfunny Jay Leno. This is apparently going to be taking place at the beginning of March 2009.

I have no problem with this. I am a huge late-night talk show fan. I am a night person and have always enjoyed these shows. I always try to catch an episode of Letterman and Conan, and if ever given the opportunity, I would be a late-night talk show side-kick. Not as funny as Andy Richter, but just as jolly.  As a fan of Conan O’Brien, I have to say it is great to see him take over The Tonight Show.

As sad as this may sound, Conan O’Brien, will always be linked to my youth. I have so many great memories of the old Crew hanging out in the basement watching Conan O’Brien every Friday night. I can even remember where I was when NBC announced that Conan O’Brien was going to be David Letterman’s replacement on Late Night (in the bathroom at the top of the stairs with the TV way too loud so I wouldn’t miss a second of A Current Affair and so I could try to overcome my porn addiction [which is now called a "healthy sexual habit"]). So, in a way I have to admit, it’s pretty cool to see O’Brien go from a late-night talk show host that, for the first two years of his career was only given a contract for a week at a time, to taking over the The Tonight Show.

He made everything funny except Jingle All the Way.

The only real problem I have with all of this is Conan O’Brien’s replacement on Late Night. NBC was wise to not promote Carson Daly from Last Call; however, they still made what seems to be a very bad decision by giving Late Night to former Saturday Night Live cast member – and awful movie actor – Jimmy Fallon. I personally don’t understand what NBC was thinking with this. I imagine the choice was made in large part by Late Night and Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels because the much funnier Darrell Hammond, Fred Armisen, Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Tim Meadows, Kevin Nealon, Phil Hartman,  and Horatio Sanz, were all too busy to take the part.  

I have personally never found Jimmy Fallon to be very funny. His career post-SNL has been pretty bad. His attempt at a comedy record was even worse. I may be wrong about Fallon and I will admit it is possible that 10 years from now we could be having a conversation about Fallon replacing O’Brien on The Tonight Show, but I wouldn’t count on it. In my opinion, NBC has made a mistake. Right now there is an individual available that is very funny and in my opinion could take over Late Night and not miss a beat.

I think this is the same cover as K-9 with James Belushi.

The person I am referring to is currently the host of E’s The Soup, Joel McHale. McHale is an extremely funny person and has had a couple of years on The Soup to perfect his ability as host. This is unlike Jimmy Fallon who has not been heard from since……..let me think……what was the name of that Farrelly Brother’s movie?… Fever Pitch? Yeah, Fever Pitch. I think the only other thing Fallon has done is that Taxi movie with Queen Latifah.

Only time will tell if Fallon has what it takes to keep Late Night successful. No one was willing to believe that Conan O’Brien would be able to fill in for Letterman when he first started either. So maybe I am wrong, maybe Fallon has the ability to take over Late Night. I do know one thing, if he doesn’t, the man that replaces Fallon should without a doubt be Joel McHale.  

With side-kick HAB.

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