Conan O'Brien

Next on my list of celebrity autographs is acutally one of my first ever successful through-the-mail replies, Conan O'Brien.


For those of you who don't know Conan, he was a writer for Saturday Night Live from 1987-91, and then he was a writer on The Simpsons from 1991-93.


Later that year, he replaced David Letterman as the host of NBC's "Late Night" when Letterman switched to CBS after being denied hosting duties on The Tonight Show (then held by Johnny Carson).


Foxtel's Comedy Channel used to show "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" from Monday's to Friday's, straight after The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Although, as Late Night was beemed off the satellite, Tuesday night would show Monday's episode, Wednesday would show Tuesday's episode, etc, and even worse, Monday night would show Friday's episode.
It was a bit confusing, and the jokes were a bit outdated (especially on Monday nights) but the show itself was terrific, with many awesome sketches, such as:
Triumph The Insult Comic Dog


and, In The Year 2000 (which co-starred O'Brien's side-kick Andy Richter)


Despite initial poor ratings, Late Night soldiered on, and it was this under-dog status that really made O'Brien stand out. Even when Andy Richter left, and the show seemed to be at it's lowest ebb, O'Brien really started to own it, and people started tuning in. Big time.
On a side note, when I visited New York City in 2005, I did the tour of NBC Studios, and stood in the Late Night studio. Unfortunately, O'Brien was on holidays in Norway at the time, so I never got to meet him (that would've been cool).

Late Night was such a hit that O'Brien went on to host The Oscars, whilst in Australia, the Comedy Channel switched The Tonight Show and Late Night (until they were told to switch it back to the normal format).

Then, in 2009, O'Brien got his wish to finally host The Tonight Show (once Jay Leno left). He moved everything from New York to Los Angeles, including the Max Weinberg 7, and he even got Andy Richter back to introduce the show each night.


Sadly, NBC didn't like O'Brien's version of the show, and after only 7 months he was forced out (with a hefty severance package), and replaced by the returning Jay Leno.

Conan O'Brien then started his "Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour" of 30 cities across the USA, and the latest word is that O'Brien has now signed on to host a new late night talk show TBS in November 2010. Hopefully the Comedy Channel picks it up...

Anyway, back to the autograph. Here it is, a nice b&w 8x10 of Conan O'Brien on the set of Late Night.

:D