Well, Conan's back.
Last week marked the first shows of Conan O'Brien's new late night gig on TBS, the simply titled ""Conan."" And it was, for the most part, everything we've come to expect from Conan over the past two decades. He loaded up on the self-deprecating humor, threw in some great visual non-sequiturs and filled an hour of television with comedy that always managed to walk the fine line between intelligent and ridiculous. The problem is, I'm not sure if that's enough anymore.
Probably the best stretch Conan O'Brien ever had was this past January. I'm sure he doesn't think that—he did get canned from ""The Tonight Show"" in favor of the emotionally hollow comic hack that is Jay Leno—but creatively, it's hard to argue. More so than any other time in his career dating back to the kickoff of ""Late Night with Conan O'Brien"" in 1993, Conan was letting everything out and monologuing like there was no tomorrow. Any material he had previously held back as too mean, too harsh or too daring was in play, and it was brilliant. For the first time ever, Conan had become must-see TV not only for his adoring ""I'm with Coco"" fans, but for America at large. Sure, some of them were drawn in out of morbid curiosity about the train wreck that was the NBC late night lineup, but many of them stayed because Conan was simply firing on all cylinders.
In many ways, heading to basic cable was the best thing that could happen to Conan. Freeing him from network television would loosen the ropes of censorship and allow him to roam free like a wild, red-headed stallion. Conan even made light of his new freedom in one of his new show's early segments, where he went to a TBS executive and tried to figure out just what the channel would and would not allow. Going to another broadcast network like Fox may have given him a bigger audience, but basic cable gives him a better one that is more willing to accept the eccentric and wild Conan.
Except the new TBS ""Conan"" isn't quite as eccentric and wild as the Conan we got in January. It's more the Conan we used to see every night at 12:30/11:30 central, who's more than happy being America's class clown, but has no desire to attempt anything daring. He's perfectly at ease (as opposed to his first few months on ""The Tonight Show""), sharp on improvisation and whimsical as ever. And, yes, he still has the Masturbating Bear. But he's not transcendently funny—and that's a shame, because from what he showed America this January, I know he can be.
Making the matter worse is that Conan's new 11/10 p.m. time slot already does feature a transcendent comic just a few channels over in Jon Stewart. Stewart is not only hilarious every night, but he serves as one of the few media watchdogs around. Conan could be hilarious every night while going places nobody else will tread, but he won't.
Thankfully for fans of both programs, you can stream both ""Conan"" and Stewart's ""Daily Show"" online each day. But doing this is a reminder that Conan's new ""Conan"" should be able to reach greater heights, especially during the show's highly anticipated debut week which drew better ratings than not just Stewart but the network behemoths of Leno and Letterman as well.
It would be easy to say that Conan might have been better off heading to an edgier cable network. When he originally left NBC, my hope was that Conan would jump to Comedy Central and serve as a lead-in for ""The Daily Show"" and ""The Colbert Report,"" creating a nightly murderer's row of talent. He could have even gone to HBO, the dream of all TV personalities who want nothing more than creative freedom.
But the only thing that would change on HBO is Conan could say ""fuck"" without getting bleeped. The problem is that Conan is satisfied now, the anger from last winter is behind him. And while a show from a content Conan is still much funnier than the most inspired show from Leno, it's still disappointing to know that we may never see the brilliant, angry Conan from the Late Night Wars ever again.
Do you miss your angry Coco too? Or do you think his new show is pure comic genius? You should let Todd know at ststevens@wisc.edu.
