Monday, June 1, 2009

Conan's Big Night


Last night marked the first episode of the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
First and foremost, I love seeing Conan and Andy Richter reunited. As he grinned and waved like a madman, it was endearing to see Andy so excited for his friend's big moment. There were the worries that he would lose his crazy schtick he's known for. But as he tug on his invisible strings, it was clear this was the same old Conan, or "Conando." (His spanish wasn't shabby.)
Granted, not every joke killed (Desperate Housewives line), but that didn't matter. A bad Conan joke is still 20 times funnier than any good Leno joke. But I love Conan for all of his little quirks. The dorky faces, the self-deprecating hair humor, the Leno impression.
There's only so much you can tell from the first show, as was the case with Jimmy Fallon and his painful Late Night. And plenty are going to continue to worry that Conan's humor is to obscure to reach the masses quite like Jay's dry and obvious humor tended to do. Maybe Conan doesn't beat Letterman everyday. Maybe there's actually some competition in late night again. But if nothing else, Conan proved he can more than handle taking over the desk that once belonged to his hero, and perhaps the greatest television host of all time, Johnny Carson.