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Do Not Feel Sorry For Conan O’Brien

by Steve Krakauer | 10:17 am, January 22nd, 2010

» 4 comments

Another example of the vast sums of money being thrown around is the nightly sketch Conan started Wednesday, where the punchline is finding unique ways to spend NBC’s money. Millions of it. Even if it’s actually not true, the audience response is uproarious, as if wasting millions of dollars for some sort of late night revenge is totally appropriate. As Conan picks up an eight figure check in a few days, maybe it’s funny to him. But how out of touch does he have to be to think that purporting to waste six million dollars because a company spoiled your dream will ingratiate you to the majority of the country?

Or the world. At 8pm tonight on NBC (and dozens of other networks), celebrities and musicians will raise millions to help the people of Haiti, who have been absolutely devastated by a deadly earthquake. The death toll has risen to the six figures, and the damage to the country is nearly unimaginable. Millions of dollars will be raised, and it will just serve to scratch the surface of what needs to be done to repair the damage that now exists across all of Haiti. So from 8-10pm, we’ll see images of suffering, then we’ll get Jay Leno cracking some jokes about how he somehow got screwed by NBC too (he really didn’t – he got what he wanted), some local news, and then a millionaire comedian will make jokes about wasting his company’s money. And many will feel bad for him – it will probably be emotional. He’ll be leaving a job he loved, very publicly, after an embarrassing couple weeks. But think about the bigger picture.

I really like Conan O’Brien. I think he’s enormously talented and absolutely hilarious. In the Team Conan vs. Team Leno or Team NBC debate, I’m on Team Conan. He hasn’t slept with co-workers and cheated on his significant other, like David Letterman. He didn’t passively play ‘company guy’ while behind-the-scenes wrangling to re-assume the reins of The Tonight Show out from under the current host, like Leno. He’s a really good guy.

As a page at NBC, I spent three months at Late Night with Conan O’Brien desk. From the writers to the producers to Conan himself, everyone was gracious, helpful and down-to-earth. There wasn’t an ounce of disparagement toward the kid with the peacock tie. In rehearsal or just in the hallway, his not-safe-for-network-TV comedy had everyone cracking up, keeping the atmosphere loose. He was a perfectionist – if there was a tech problem during the show, or he misstated a guest’s background during an interview, there was nervous energy over his reaction in the post-show meeting. But it came from a desire to do the absolute best show he could. And when Conan went to L.A. to host The Tonight Show, he took a large portion of the staff with him. They moved their families across the country, and Conan did right to secure some severance for them as well. But if you feel bad for anyone, how about starting with the staff?

Conan O’Brien will host a successful show somewhere soon. He’ll go onto bigger and better things, and his large contingent of hardcore fans will follow him wherever he goes, along with likely a growing audience. He’ll be just fine. So please, as we see Conan sign off tonight for the last time on NBC, and those (like me) who have watched him for years feel some sense of sadness over the circumstances that got us to this point, let’s put it all in some perspective.

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Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, late night, Late-Night Wars, NBC, The Tonight Show

Rachel Sklar

Hey Peacock Tie! I agree with your point about how throwing around vast sums of money seems irresponsible right now vis a vis Haiti, the economy, etc etc. There’s just two points here I want to make:

(1) This isn’t about NBC and Leno spoiling a dream. This is about appalling behavior. I don’t think people feel sorry for Conan because he is being deprived of a dream necessarily, or because he will now eat only at soup kitchens. But everyone can relate to being totally screwed by the boss. Everyone can relate to being totally knifed by a co-worker. Everyone can relate to being part of an organization and having that identification and investment, and then being rudely shoved out. Everyone can relate to being rejected. The fact that it played out so publicly, that it repeated history from almost two decades ago, that it happened over such a short period of time (were there ANY attempts to brainstorm out creative solutions?) and involved so many egos made it like crack to watch, But these are pretty visceral reactions here – pride, anger, a sense of fairness. There’s a difference between not winning and being humiliated and bullied and shivved into losing.

(2) I’ve been watching these shows for mentions of Haiti, for the use of these giant platforms to raise awareness and money. I wish Conan had used some of that money for the mouse-car to send air-drops of food to Haiti, though of course it’s not so simple. Conan did, however, repeatedly push StillerStrong.com, with all proceeds to Haiti relief. I don’t recall seeing any such call to good works from Leno (I could have missed it, though, since I have not watched all of each show this week, though I’ve tried). I do think that it bears noting that as well as you saying, let’s put things in perspective, O’Brien said that too.

But I agree – there’s other stuff in the world and I’m relieved that this is winding down because it’s totally messing with my late-night TV habits. I miss my Jon Stewart and Charlie Rose.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

Another point which may be lost on some is that it’s the Tonight Show that we’re talking about. It’s quite possibly the most revered institution in television history and I can’t even think of what might come second, perhaps the CBS Evening News or Today, but the Tonight Show is in a class by itself. One doesn’t even have to watch it, for them to respect it.

A while back, you did one one of those “Kill, marry…” things on the podcast and you pitted the sale of NBC, up against the shuttering of Vanity Fair and something involving Conde Nast. I pointed out in the comments that NBC would have further reaching ramifications because every little town in America has an NBC affiliate and though I didn’t say it at the time, but we all grew-up watching their programming.

As for the Haiti thing, I realize it’s a popular meme in blog comments, but though Conan’s “money-wasters” are a faked joke, there’s really not much of a legal way for him to channel the funds to Haiti relief and though I may sound callous, but it’s not like there isn’t another natural disaster that kills thousands every few months.

Heck, last night I bought the family a couple of DiGiournos. Oftentimes, we order out for pizza on the nights that everyone has an odd schedule, but I had twenty minutes and wanted extra-extra pepperoni on mine. There’s no doubt that I could afford the thirty bucks for takeout, but I opted for the ten dollar solution and though I’m a regular contributer to the Red Cross, I’m not going to send the change from last night’s dinner to Wycliff Jean.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

OK – So, I’m just adding this for the sake of snark and I really hope it doesn’t bury my valid point about the Tonight Show being a revered institution that’s much larger than any single host, but…

The other night I needed some Woolite, but I didn’t feel like going into a big store and instead I popped into a Dollar General, where I was only given a generic option. Now, I could send the two dollars that I saved to Anne Meara’s kid, but then I wouldn’t have it, the next time there’s massive flooding in Bangladesh.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Bruce/1407671449 Dave

I definitely don’t feel sorry for Conan. As the article notes, he’s walking away with millions of dollars, he’s free to go create his own new show, and he’s got more sympathy, attention, and free publicity than any performer could ask for.

“But everyone can relate to being totally screwed by the boss…”
I don’t see much similarity between “everyone” and an entertainer in a volatile business who gets paid an enormous severance package for being screwed by the boss.

Comparing Conan to the average Joe who gets shafted at work is like comparing a mega-million-dollar baseball player on strike to the truck driver walking the picket line, simply because they are both “union workers.” Conan won’t be standing on the unemployment line or eating cat food.

TV shows are routinely cancelled, retooled, changed to a different time, etc., and performers replaced, to suit ratings or network heads’ desires. Is there any network TV actor, comedian, producer, writer, etc. who *hasn’t* been screwed, backstabbed, etc.? It’s probably the same in many other media businesses.

As far as Conan being deprived of his “dream” job, I agree with Mr. Krakauer- hard to relate to. Hey, when I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut and my sister wanted to raise unicorns, but things just didn’t work out!

Which raises another question: I’ve heard many longtime Conan fans say his Tonight Show wasn’t as good as his previous work later in the evening, maybe because he was making his act less edgy to appeal to a more mainstream audience than he’s used to. So although the Tonight Show was his dream job, maybe it wasn’t the ideal job for him. And he can’t blame his sagging ratings on Leno alone.

The fact that Conan may be mentioning a Haiti charity more than Leno doesn’t seem relevant to me. Every performer does what he feels is best. Other performers may be giving more money than Conan, but just not talking about it as much.

If Conan is really interested in Haiti, too bad he didn’t have all those people at his midtown rally send e-mails to legislators, or collect money from passersby to Haitian relief, or something like that. Would have done some real good, and wouldn’t have put a dent in the multi-million $ severance package everybody knew he would get.

Off to get some store-brand cat food for dinner…(OK, not really!)