As part of his promotional duties before taking over as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" on June 1, Conan O'Brien is barnstorming affiliate stations, cutting promos with local anchors and sitting for interviews. Yesterday he was at Pittsburgh's WPXI before heading to Cleveland.
O'Brien's last episode of NBC's "Late Night" aired two weeks ago, but he had a cameo in a comedy bit at the start of Monday's debut of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." O'Brien said he hasn't seen Fallon's show yet, which has drawn strong ratings but lukewarm reviews, at best.
"I can't watch a 12:30 show, it's all about 11:30!" he joked. "No, I've been traveling around and I don't have a TiVo with me or anything. It's ironic, but I'm now probably too old to watch TV at 12:30. Someone has to break that to Jimmy."
On his plans for "The Tonight Show": "The most important lesson I learned at ‘Late Night' was stick to your guns. Be yourself. Do what you think is funny and you'll be OK. There's a certain style of comedy I have and that's not going to change. The personality I have is not going to change. I'm 45-years-old. I just need to make whatever adjustments I have to make to be really comfortable doing ‘The Tonight Show' in Los Angeles. If I can have fun in that room, we're going to have a big hit on our hands."
On his hopes for a first guest: "I don't need my first guest to be the biggest star in the world. ... I want my first guests to be people I'm comfortable with. People who I'll be funny with. Johnny Carson's greatest interviews and the ones that resonate were never with the big stars. It was always Johnny with Buddy Hackett, Johnny with Don Rickles, Johnny with the woman who collects potato chips shaped like the presidents."
On bringing back former "Late Night" sidekick Andy Richter as the announcer on "The Tonight Show":: "I think it will be a similar dynamic. ... Sometimes when you say ‘sidekick' it means he sits there [on the couch] no matter what. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of flexibility for Andy to sit next to me but also to go out and do remote segments, send him to Mardi Gras. We wanted to create a role and give Andy the most flexibility."
On how he's "thrilled" to have Jay Leno getting a show weeknights at 10 p.m. this fall that has the potential to upstage "The Tonight Show": "I'm happy that Jay's happy. I'm happy the potential for unpleasantness has gone. It's not just me being a good guy. I don't work well that way. There was this perception that was starting to grow that maybe Jay's unhappy and Conan's forcing him out. I was unhappy with that perception. ... Instead of being the guy who's pushing him out of his home, he's moving out of his own house into a bigger house. That relationship is more pleasant."
On his visits to local stations: "I didn't do it before ‘Late Night.' ... Now I'm a known quantity. I think if I'd done something like this in 1993 as a complete unknown, people would have been like, ‘What the hell is this kid doing here? Someone get him some vitamin B-12.'
Posted
Mar 05 2009, 02:53 PM
by
Rob Owen