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In the Year 2009: Conan O’Brien Talks About Taking Over The Tonight Show
by Troy Rogers
 When
Conan O'Brien began his post-primetime talk show
career 14 years ago, late night television was
in a similar transition period as today's TV world.
After 30 years behind the desk of The Tonight
Show, the now legendary Johnny Carson stepped
aside to pave the way for Jay Leno. When David
Letterman departed the NBC airwaves around the
same time, it was Conan O'Brien who stepped into
the vacated Late Show time slot. 14 years after
the last major late night talk show re-shuffle
and re-alignment, Jay Leno is stepping aside for
his own self-titled NBC show at 10pm while Conan
takes over The Tonight Show.
With the Conan O'Brien era of The Tonight Show only hours away, the former Late Night host takes a seat behind the legendary desk on Monday, June 1 to begin a new chapter of his TV life. However, prior to the start of his Tonight Show run, Conan will walk on to The Tonight Show set early on Friday, May 29 when he takes a seat in the “other” chair as Jay Leno's final Tonight Show guest.
Leading up to his run as the new host of The Tonight Show, and early guest appearance to receive the talk show torch from Jay Leno, we joined a few top outlets for a conference call with Conan O'Brien to get the scoop on his thoughts about taking over the show, his thoughts on the transition, what he'll be bringing to his new time slot, and how he feels about Jay Leno in the 10pm slot will impact The Tonight Show.
Interestingly, in the spirit of Conan O’Brien’s humor, if there’s anything to be learned from the evolution of late night television, it’s that life at large is nothing more than a series of talk show hosts. Think about it.
Conan O’Brien on what
he'll bring to The Tonight Show:
 "You
know, late night television in general, each
show has evolved differently over time. My late
night show, the one I just wrapped up in February,
we usually prided ourselves on having a lot
of comedy, a lot of produced comedy. So I will
probably try and continue that tradition. I
think that’s what I’m comfortable with. That’s
what I come from, the comedy world.
"So I imagine I will continue to try and go probably a little heavy on the produced comedy, and that’s something I feel probably is one of my strong suites. We’ll probably continue to do that. The Act One, I think that will vary in length. I think some nights, as it did on the last show, some nights the Act One could be twelve minutes, sometimes it could be eighteen minutes. So it really depends on what you have that night. I don’t want to try and do it to any certain length. I just want to do every night what feels right given the type of comedy I have that evening."
Conan on being Jay Leno’s
last guest and the transition to take his spot:
 "It’s
[the transition] gone very well. Look, there’s
no denying that the media, and for good reason,
they like conflict. It’s a better story. And
we hung out at the Town Hall Theater at rehearsal
for awhile just trading stories about guests
and jokes and things like that. We’ve always
gotten along really well and he’s been very
kind to me about this whole transition. And
I think one of the really nice things that’s
helped is Jay’s staying with the network and
going to ten o’clock has made the transition
particularly easy for both of us. He’s happy,
I’m happy, and that’s been actually kind of
a godsend. So when he asked me to be his last
guest, obviously I was very honored to do it.
And if nothing else, it gets me on The Tonight
Show 48 hrs earlier than I normally would be
on the show. It was nice of him to give me a
little bit of a head start [laughs]."
O’Brien on bringing over
the Pale Force:
"Yeah, that is something I’d love to keep doing.
Jim Gaffigan is a funny guy. One of the things
I always loved about Pale Force is that I love
the conceit that I didn’t know what was going
on. I really loved that Jim would come on and
say, ‘I’ve got a cartoon.’ And I’d be all excited
and [ask], ‘Am I heroic in this one?’ - ‘Yes,
yes, you’ll be quite pleased.’ And of course
I’d always be disappointed with how I was portrayed.
You know, things like that are really not time
slot specific. I really want to do anything
I think is funny and to me that’s the most important
thing. So a piece like Pale Force, I think,
would work really well at 11:30."
Conan O’Brien on the
pressure to be number one and the excitement
to have this opportunity:
 "The
truth is, I don’t know. In my career, for example,
my whole experience at Late Night I never once
said, ‘I’m gonna do X, because that’s going
to be a huge rating.’ I always did the thing
that I thought would be funny and then good
ratings seem to come from that. So foremost
in my mind is really try very hard every night
to give people a funny show, think of new ideas,
and try and establish that The Tonight Show
with Conan O’Brien, the tradition at least,
continues that 'Well, you have to tune in and
check out what’s happening on The Tonight Show
because they did something last night that was
really funny and I don’t want to miss something.'
My hope is that if I do that, the ratings will
follow. That’s my hope. I don’t know how to
do it the other way, which is I don’t know how
to say, ‘You know what’s going to do really
well with woman 35 to 49?’ That’s as if I do
a sewing segment or something like that. I think
if you try and do it the other way, you just
lose yourself."
Conan O’Brien and his
thoughts on how Jay Leno at 10pm will impact
his audience:
 "You
know, it’s a good question, and nobody has the
answer. I’ll be completely honest with you,
I could try to B.S. you and say, ‘Nope, I can
tell you exactly what’s going to happen. It’s
all going to be fine.’ I don’t know. This move
is kind of unprecedented in television. But
what I keep going back to is that at the end
of the day nothing changed for me, which is
it’s June 1, 2009 I’m hosting The Tonight Show.
Don’t worry about what anyone else is doing,
or what time they’re at, I have to do my thing
and do it to the best of my ability and hope
that good things come from that.
"So, as opposed to what this does to broadcast television in general, I have no idea. I do know that broadcast television, network TV, the whole thing is changing so quickly. I mean, you and I have both seen it change in the last couple of years before this move. So I don’t know where we’re going to be three years from now. The Tonight Show might be a pill you take that you get at the drugstore and people swallow it with a vodka and tonic and say, ‘Good monologue, Conan.’ Then go to sleep [laughs].
"So I have no idea where we’re going, but it should be kind of exciting to see what happens."
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