I may be the only one on this list who’s been watching Conan consistently since 1993, so this clearly marks the end of an era for me. The format change is unfortunate not just because the band was so good, but also because Conan’s bookers have always been excellent at getting musical acts on the show.
Back in the early days of his “Late Night," the people in my college dorm would opine that, given that Conan’s interviews were by far the weak link in the show, they should get rid of those and reformat it into “The Conan O’Brien Variety Hour” and just have comedy sketches and musical guests. So it’s very interesting that, 25 years later, it’s basically the reverse that’s happening. (In a manner of speaking — I’m interested to see how much time is allotted for comedy sketches in the new format.) I suspect during the three months off, they’ll build a new, smaller set for the show, and a number of former staff members will be clearing out their desks. > On Oct 4, 2018, at 9:18 PM, 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV > <[email protected]> wrote: > > I'm a few days behind, but outlets were reporting that the Basic Cable Band > was playing its last episode of Conan tonight, so I tuned in mid-way. > > Jimmy Vivino and the band are/were tonight's musical guest, and former > Tonight Show/Conan writer/performer Deon Cole was a (the?) guest. > > Before they played, Conan announced that the band will not be part of the 30 > minute version of the show. While this makes economic sense, and is > consistent with the previous announcement that there wouldn't be musical > guests, I hadn't heard anything about this before tonight. Nor that tonight > was the last hour-long late night edition of Conan. > > I didn't catch this segment during the broadcast (link below), but the show > will keep with the already announced start date of January for the new > format. In the meantime, there will be another Conan Without Borders episode > (Japan), an 18-city tour, a podcast (not Serious Jibber-Jabber), the launch > of the online archive, and other projects. > > http://teamcoco.com/video/conan-highlight-catch-conan-s-new-podcast-live-tour-more > > <http://teamcoco.com/video/conan-highlight-catch-conan-s-new-podcast-live-tour-more> > > With TBS baseball playoffs mucking up the schedule starting now, I can sort > of see why stop the hour long now. But three months seems like a long time > to be away. I know back in 2010 the online stuff was an important way to > keep O'Brien in the spotlight, but the space is a lot more crowded now and > there won't be as much excitement as there was in the aftermath of Late Night > Wars II > > All that said, the archive sounds promising, and almost Carsonian. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
