Through the magic of Hulu, tonight I was able to catch Conan O’Brien’s maiden voyage as host of The Tonight Show. Late night TV has never been my meat and potatoes (CT is our resident expert), but Conan is my favorite. I’m interested to
see how his shtick translates for a broader audience, but it definitely works for me.
The premiere episode itself was okay, but was not great. They seemed to be introducing Conan to the audience, so the pacing was a bit weird. It was good to see Andy Richter back, but a special welcome appearance by Pimpbot 5000 would have sealed the deal for me. Even without a monumental first episode, I am definitely looking forward to catching more Conan now that he has the earlier timeslot.
Yeah, I know Pimpbot was put out to pasture, but a man has to dream.
And Conan himself said that some stuff, like the masturbating bear, isn't appropriate for the 11:30 EST timeslot.
There was stuff I liked about the first episode, but the second episode was better. Conan re-found his groove and his first night jitters were out of the way. He did better than Leno did on his first night though.
Conan previewed a bit on Leno's last episode that hasn't aired yet that promised to be hilarious. I'm hoping that'll run tonight.
Conan retired a slew of characters at some point on Late Night. I believe Pimpbot was among them.