NBC ending Leno's nightly prime-time show

[Whisky Dog]

I heard that Leno bit from 2004 where he was telling the audience how the Tonight Show is an ins ution that you don't own, you just hand it off graciously to the next man, how in 5 years he was going to hand it to Conan and wish him well and move on to better things...

What a little .

Fwiw I hope Conan can go to Fox and that Fox let's him let it all hang out - I hate The bull like miamiheat spots about intelligent humor and such jackassery - I have a complex human brain that can enjoy multiple types of comedy, the last thing I want is every late night show to be the same bs.

Really, there is no such thing as intelligent humor - if it's intelligent and prudent and thought provoking it probably isn't funny. Even the aforementioned Carlin (who I really enjoyed) knew to mix in a bit of intelligent thought with a ton of crudeness and defiance - it's what made him funny.

"That reminds me of a line my 4th grade teacher used to say... You show me a tropical fruit and I'll show you a Guatemalan sucker" - George Carlin

[mrsmaalox]

God, I hate the ing "intelligent humor" police.

Yes.
I suppose the Leno fans believe they are the ones who understand intelligent humor also.

It all depends on what makes you laugh. I prefer Conan, but I didn't necessarily love the sketches (not intelligent enough, I fear). Conan's charm is his quick wit and self deprecating style; he makes us laugh because we relate to his human goofyness. Leno isn't very charming but gets his laughs from pointing out absurdities in everyone else, and that is funny because we all know stupid people like that.

[leemajors]

Really, there is no such thing as intelligent humor - if it's intelligent and prudent and thought provoking it probably isn't funny.

You were doing well up until this. Just look at baseline bum's physics jokes thread for a rebuttal.

[mrsmaalox]

Oh and I suspect that Conan and his staff have the best laughs catering their gags for the intelligent humor crowd. "Okay, now let's run over this giant pumpkin with a big truck for the really smart ones!"

[Xylus]

The difference between Leno and Conan isn't intelligent or stupid humor, it's vanilla or creative humor. Leno has an everyman appeal, or so I'm told, because his brand of humor is completely inoffensive and easy to digest. He has an extended monologue during which he does basic standup, then he goes to jaywalking or headlines (two skits that have lost their zeal over the years), and then on to a couple of boring interviews. He caps the show off with a ty musical guest and calls it a night.

And have you guys watched Jay Leno's primetime shows? He mails it in every ing day.

I've never seen an episode of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno that was even a fraction as joyous and spontaneous as any episode of the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Last night's finale was pretty much one big bittersweet party. It was offbeat, hilarious, and at times sad.

[Whisky Dog]

You were doing well up until this. Just look at baseline bum's physics jokes thread for a rebuttal.

I didn't say humor can't have some intelligent parts, but it also has to have a degree of silliness, crudeness, or the like to be humorous. Just like I said about Carlin - the intelligent thought has to have a twist on it to be funny, it's a recipe that goes together.

[TheMACHINE]

It would have been better if a flying meteor hit Tom Hanks while he was sitting down. hahaha

[gatoloco]

link


Tragedy and Triumph: Conan Characters Caught in Contract Drama



...as has been widely reoprted, the late night comic will relinquish the intellectual property rights to several characters created during his 17 years at the network...we've been particularly concerned about the legal fate of characters like The Masturbating Bear, Pimpbot 5000, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

NBC Universal has stated that it will retain the rights to many of O'Brien's characters, including Triumph. The network claims it co-owns the cigar-smoking dog with O'Brien's former writer and longtime friend Robert Smigel.

Los Angeles entertainment lawyer Larry Zerner told Above the Law that Triumph stands out because Smigel likely created the pooping puppeteer before he was employed as a writer by NBC. Zerner said the character's official Web site is owned by Warner Records, producer of Triumph's Come Poop With Me CD.

Another shocking revelation comes courtesy of The Smoking Gun, which reported on Friday that music accompanying appearances by The Masturbating Bear and Pimpbot 5000 is outside NBC's grasp. According to The Smoking Gun, two members of O'Brien's house band, drummer Max Weinberg and guitarist Jimmy Vivino, took out copyrights in 2004 on theme music for those characters and recurring sketches like "In the Year 3000."

"It's not a good deal for NBC because those characters are so tied to Conan, they really don't fit with anybody else," says Bassam "Sam" Ibrahim, an IP partner at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. "The only goal [NBC] can hope to achieve is to somehow hinder Conan's ability to compete with Leno at another station. They don't want Conan to go to another network with the identical show that NBC has paid for, so they want him to create a new show."

Ibrahim says the IP portion of O'Brien's severance package with NBC surprised him.

"There's usually a decision on the front end over who's going to own IP assets," he says. "It's usually part of the initial agreement. Take [David] Letterman. He owns all of the rights to the skits, the names of characters, and the overall format of his show, so if he ever leaves he can recreate that show at a compe or."

"Conan will tweak his characters so they are clearly distinguishable, although the underlying concept is the same, because NBC can't prevent him from going out and making a living by creating competing characters," Ibrahim says. "They can only prevent him from using substantially identical characters, which he can get around by creating new names."

Some possibilities--such as the self-pleasuring pea --have already been bandied about. Ibrahim says that any court will give the comedian wide la ude because of First Amendment rights to expression.

[dbreiden83080]

Epic last show from Conan.

NBC and Leno are a bunch of s. They lost like a 100 mil to let Conan go to likely Fox who is beating them in the ratings.. Idiotic..

[Clandestino]

Epic last show from Conan.

NBC and Leno are a bunch of s. They lost like a 100 mil to let Conan go to likely Fox who is beating them in the ratings.. Idiotic..

Conan never even got close to Letterman while leno kicked lettermans ass in ratings..

what are you smoking. less people will watch conan more than ever bc he will be up against leno and letterman?

[Shastafarian]

Conan never even got close to Letterman while leno kicked lettermans ass in ratings..

what are you smoking. less people will watch conan more than ever bc he will be up against leno and letterman?

[TheMACHINE]

Conan never even got close to Letterman while leno kicked lettermans ass in ratings..

what are you smoking. less people will watch conan more than ever bc he will be up against leno and letterman?

i guess you ignored the fact the The Jay Leno Show was the reaosn people stopped watching NBC at 10pm causing them to stop watching the 11pm local news which also hurts The Tonight Show.

[Clandestino]

In his final months as host of The Tonight Show, Leno beat Letterman in the ratings by a 1.3 million viewer margin (5.2 million to 3.9 million), and Nightline and The Late Show were virtually tied.[18] Once O'Brien took over Tonight, however, Letterman closed the gap in the ratings.[19][20][21] O'Brien initially drove the median age of Tonight Show viewers from 55 to 45, with most older viewers opting to watch The Late Show instead.[22]

[BlackSwordsMan]

leno's show was so ty they didn't watch o'brien

[B-Hath]

Leno's show was terrible, so nobody watched the local NBC news after Leno, so nobody watched Conan after the local news that nobody watched. So much would have been solved if Leno hadn't been a anic ass and not retired.

[ace3g]

NBC never gave O'Brien a chance, what were Leno's ratings when he first started the Tonight Show, its hard to build momentum in 7 months especially when the guy replacing Leno (Conan) uses a completely different style of comedy.

Like I keep saying its hard to find good writers that can host/perform/act. Conan was that guy, not to mention a smart individual who graduated magna laude in 1985 with an A.B. in History and Literature at Harvard.

[tp2021]

Oh my god, at Fox, Conan will be able to do whatever he wants; waaayyyy more than he could when he had the Late Night timeslot at NBC.

[exstatic]

Oh my god, at Fox, Conan will be able to do whatever he wants; waaayyyy more than he could when he had the Late Night timeslot at NBC.

Conan may not even GET a show on FOX, and for the same reason he was booted from NBC: the affiliates. Right now, they get to program whatever they want after the local news, and they get 100% of the ad revenues. That means cheap reruns of network shows. With FOX programming, they only get a fraction of the ad revenues. It would be a tough sell to have them trust a guy who already failed in that time slot. Conan won't get any better lead-ins at FOX than he had at NBC. FOX is 3/4 of a network at best, and their affiliates are WAY more ornery and independent than NBC's.

[Whisky Dog]

Conan needs to take his show to HBO.

[EmptyMan]

They need to change the entire setup of the actual shows.

10 minutes of standup, advertisements, a skit, advertisements, boring interview with vanilla big name hollywood actor which is basically an advertisement, advertisements, music, end.

It's gotten stale over the last few decades.

At least Conan doesn't appear to be on script the entire time like Leno. And LOL at thinking Leno's stuff is intellectual. It's just as dumbed down as anything else.

[Jacob1983]

Conan would be awesome on HBO but I don't think they would want to have a 5 night a week show on their network. That would be weird to see on HBO. I would watch it but I'm not sure if a lot of people would.

[Scola]

Can't feel too bad for Conan, hes getting a major $$$ settlement out of this and will probably land another job on Fox. Leno is okay, I guess hes the most mainstream. Conan tends to be a bit more on the edge with his humor and not everyone gets it but I kinda of like it. My favorite is still Letterman, Letterman > Conan > Leno

There was a pretty good podcast on this mess by Bill Simmons on his BS Report, check 1/14 :
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/...ive?id=2864045

[TheMACHINE]

Conan may not even GET a show on FOX, and for the same reason he was booted from NBC: the affiliates. Right now, they get to program whatever they want after the local news, and they get 100% of the ad revenues. That means cheap reruns of network shows. With FOX programming, they only get a fraction of the ad revenues. It would be a tough sell to have them trust a guy who already failed in that time slot. Conan won't get any better lead-ins at FOX than he had at NBC. FOX is 3/4 of a network at best, and their affiliates are WAY more ornery and independent than NBC's.

i disagree. Conans lead in will be better. Fox is pretty much the highest rated primetime network right now. Conan will most likely be shown at 11pm directly after the local news which is directly after awesome FOX primetime shows. Jay Leno killed Conan's lead in by losing to other networks at the 10pm slot thus lowering ratings for the 11pm NBC news.

[MiamiHeat]

[MiamiHeat]