Thursday, January 21, 2010

THAT'S WHY HIS HAIR IS SO BIG, IT'S FULL OF SECRETS: So, our long national nightmare is apparently over--CoCo and NBC are parting ways. Some interesting tidbits:
  • Conan and the staff have apparently expressed interest in subleasing from NBC the current studio/offices.
  • Conan is apparently getting even more money than his contract termination clause required, both because of the bad PR and because Leno's termination provision was even bigger.
  • Conan's apparently going to put a substantial chunk of his personal settlement funds into a fund to take care of his staffers.
  • There's a non-disparagement/media blackout clause, which prevents Conan from bashing NBC in interviews or doing interviews at all. Sorry--no Conan/Letterman matchup yet.
  • Conan can be on the air in September on another network.
That said, Conan's pulling out all the stops for final shows, with Friday's show giving us Will Ferrell, Tom Hanks, and Neil Young (we assume not performing "Pants On The Ground"), and giving NBC new characters, which "aren't so much funny as they are crazy expensive." (Amusingly, it is quite funny.)

26 comments:

  1. Can we speak for a minute about how completely fucking over the line Leno was last night in attacking Letterman on his marital issues?   Argh.

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  2. Fred App12:37 PM

    Just shows that Leno's reputation as a "nice guy" is really more a synonym for "inoffensive comedy" than a reflection of any real personality trait.

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  3. I desperately need sleep but I am enjoying Conan and Letterman too much...I wish Conan would go to a really big homeless shelter, buy a million dollars in beds/clothes/food but somehow make it a part of a joke.

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  4. isaac_spaceman12:44 PM

    It's pretty personal between the two of them.  It isn't exactly classy for Letterman to say "what we're seeing is vintage Jay" and admitting that he's taking pleasure in the beat-down.  We get it, you guys don't like each other. 

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  5. It will be interesting to see how "non-disparagement" is defined -- where's the line between good humor about the situation and bashing?  Conan is a comedian going to a new job, after all; he's apt to make more fun at it at some point.

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  6. Carmichael Harold1:00 PM

    It may be personal between them, but I think there's a difference between Letterman's talking about Leno's behavior and the echoes to events that had a direct and significant impact on Letterman, and Leno twisting the knife on a story that in no way impacts Leno.  Leaving relative classiness,though, Leno's comment was just hack work, as it was pure ad hominem and not linked to what's going on.   I look forward to him questioning the chastity of Letterman's mother tonight.

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  7. calliekl1:08 PM

    The Bugatti/Rolling Stones thing is awesome. I may watch (or record to watch later) for the first time in years.

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  8. Eric J.1:15 PM

    I wonder if Andy Richter is under a non-disparagement clause.

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  9. AbbyG1:20 PM

    Say what you will about Letterman but his attacks on Leno have all been related to his professional life.  He hasn't made a joke at Mavis' expense.

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  10. Jenn.1:21 PM

    The Bugatti/Rolling Stones thing is awesome.  Just completely awesome. 

    I have to think that any buyout with Andy Richter would include a non-disparagement clause.  But I have to think that those things are very easy to get around.

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  11. I do wonder if he really bought the car.  If so, who gets it now?

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  12. Another interesting question--I assume he went to whoever controls the Stones' copyrights a request for permission.  Interestingly, the typical goal in such a request would be "make it as low as possible" (and heck, they might even have been willing to give it for free), but that subverts the meta-comedy.

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  13. By the way, your header made me think this post was about John Edwards.

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  14. Scott2:24 PM

    Actually, I hope the real Neil Young does perform "Pants on the Ground," because that would be full of win.

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  15. Andrew2:32 PM

    Jalopnik did some investigating and found that the Petersen Automobile Museum loaned the Veyron to Conan: http://jalopnik.com/5453816/update-petersen-museum-loaned-bugatti-veyron-to-conan

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  16. The Pathetic Earthling3:23 PM

    I figured as much.  There's simply no way to get your hands on a Veyron on short notice, even if you have a willing seller.   $1.5M cars don't change hands overnight.

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  17. Andrew4:05 PM

    <span>These last few Tonight Shows with Conan O'Brien have been pretty awesome- rivalling the writer's strike shows for energy-- and in some ways better than the strike shows because of the input of a whole writing staff. </span>

    In specific, I loved the construction of the masturbating bear segment in last night's show. Just because it was the kind of joke where it starts out as one thing that is legitimately funny and escalates in a random or unexpected way
    <span>
    It starts as a list of things that lasted less than 7 months:Kid Rock's Marriage to Pamela Anderson (5 mo), The plot of "Lost" being vaguely comprehensible (3 mo), Joan Rivers' 17th face (6 weeks), interest in Denise Richards' side of the story (18 hours), Gary Busey's love affair with an Encino parking meter (44 days), The Masterbating Bear's Disappearance from the Airwaves (6 months, 29 days). 
    At this point, you realize that what started out as one bit was actually a misdirection to bring The Masturbating Bear to 11:35 once before it ends up in NBC's IP closet for good. 
    And I agree completely with Adam that Leno's quip was way across the line into mean and nasty without being at all funny. At this point it's hard to believe that Leno was once anything but an unfunny hack. 
    While Letterman's been energized by this situation, producing some of the best humor in a while, I happened to go to the taping of Monday night's Late Show and was surprised that by far, the best part of the show (which was all excellent) was the musical guest, The Heavy (with the Dap Kings horn section). Dave liked them so much he had them encore the song they played (with members of the  CBS Orchestra joining in): here's the full performance with encore: http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=PMZn0ZshOfdkqPhyLc_5uASnrFZKAgkd&vs=Default&play=true</span>

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  18. Bill Simmons talks to NYMag about it.  Excerpt:

    "Conan's show sucked at 11:35. That's the reason the ratings were down — not because of his lead-ins. What's Jon Stewart's lead-in? What's SNL's lead-in? Conan did a watered-down, toothless version of his 12:35 show, and even his die-hard fans weren't crazy about it. These are the facts. Only after they canned him did he show flashes of the old Conan again. Look, he's not Johnny Carson; he's a gawky, super-witty, awkward, hyperactive goofball who isn't going to appeal to everyone. I don't see Fox at 11 working, either. We just saw him fail at 11:35 ... Going head-to-head for the egghead demo with Jon Stewart [at 11] will be better? If he were smart, he'd go to Comedy Central at 12, follow Colbert and Stewart, and just be himself."

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  19. isaac_spaceman5:50 PM

    He said essentially the exact same thing in his podcast with Tim Goodman.  Goodman's response was that NBC was and is terrified of Conan on Fox at 11:00. 

    Funny thing from the contract negotiations -- NBC caved and didn't ultimately insist on a mitigation clause that would require Conan to return whatever money he made from another network during the bought-out period of his NBC contract.  I've read that this was a PR move, but it seems like an obvious business move to me.  Everybody knows that Conan isn't going to get more from Fox (or Comedy Central or HBO) than the $33MM he's getting from NBC, so if he had a mitigation clause, he would have no incentive to negotiate a great deal.  He could just agree to go to Fox for zero dollars and make NBC pay for it.  Since NBC would be powerless to reduce its payment to Conan in any meaningful way, its obvious best option was to drop any mitigation clause and give Conan an incentive to impose the greatest possible costs upon whatever NBC competitor buys his services. 

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  20. They also apparently got the IP from Conan.  Not quite sure why they cared deeply (or at all) about it.  Leno wouldn't/couldn't do most of  those bits, and as Letterman demonstrated, such a restriction is easy to get around.  Conan can do "In The Year 2,999" on his show, for instance.

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  21. How do I like them now?  I like them a lot!

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  22. isaac_spaceman8:31 PM

    Hamstringing Conan is the obvious point there (it's a rational business move, not just vindictiveness, if you ask me).  But you always want to keep your options open in case you want to replace Carson Daly with a masturbating bear or Pimpbot 5000. 

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  23. isaac_spaceman8:32 PM

    Plus, Conan does have lawyers who presumably are aware of the concept of fiduciary waste.  It's a funny bit, and doesn't need to be true. 

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  24. Would anyone notice?

    Let's get to the fundamental question: if Fox wants to get into M-F late night, is Conan O'Brien the economically rational decision?

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  25. Bob in SA10:43 AM

    I don't understand why Jay had to confront Letterman THAT way.  Why doesn't just say the ratings don't lie and when we went head to head I was Number 1 (notwithstanding all the critics who like Dave better than me).  Conan has a very loyal base, but I don't think it is nearly as broad as people "in the knnow" think it is.

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  26. Jenn.4:10 PM

    It turns out that Max Weinberg owns the copyright to the original music for the Tonight and Late Show, including the theme songs for all of the characters.  Basically, it sounds like NBC snagged the characters in order solely to throw up some roadblocks to Conan recreating his show elsewhere.  

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