I know we’re all Johnny Carson’d to death (no pun intended) at this point, and I don’t want to suddenly sound like a Jay Leno basher, because actually I tend to watch neither Leno nor Letterman most evenings. But last night’s Late Night With Conan O’Brien was all the proof NBC should need that they made the right choice in locking-up O’Brien to succeed Leno as host of The Tonight Show in 2009.
This was O’Brien’s first show back since Carson’s death, and even as he acknowledged that virtually everything that could be said had been by others, he gave his own tribute to Johnny via an 11 minute seemingly off-the-cuff monologue that was as touching and heartfelt as Letterman’s Monday night, just in a different way.
O’Brien didn’t try to turn the entire program into a Carson tribute, and considering his place in late-night television as well as his limited relationship to Carson, that was the right thing to do. After the standard opening monologue, he sat at his desk and just talked – to bandleader Max Weinberg, to the studio audience, and to us at home. Like Letterman, he gave personal memories of his few encounters with Carson. The most telling moment, however, and the one which distinguishes both Conan and Dave from Jay, was when O’Brien talked about what he considered the best advice Carson ever gave him.
It was at a birthday party for Bob Wright (the head of NBC) shortly after O’Brien had started on Late Night. He had been asked to do a bit of comedy at the party, and only after he got there did he learn that Carson would be following him. Here’s the way O’Brien described it on last night’s show:
(After the party, Johnny) came over to me … and he said to me, “Just be yourself. That’s the only way it can work.” And I noticed at the time he said, “That’s the only way it can work.” He didn’t say, Be yourself, and it will work. And there’s a distinction there, if you’re listening, and I was listening very carefully. He was being very honest. He was saying, I don’t know you. You may not have what it takes. But the only way to do it is to be yourself. There was nothing fake about it; nothing patronizing, or, Don’t worry, you’re going to be amazing. He, I think, respected the form of these shows enough to just sort of tell me, “That’s the only way it can work.” You know, Good luck to you; I have no clue if it will work for you – but that was his way of saying that.
“Be yourself.” That was the epitome of Johnny Carson. In their own ways, both Letterman and O’Brien have exemplified that same ideal. O’Brien especially never shied away from his brand of humor and performance style, even as NBC was giving him year-to-year contracts and the critics pulverized him in those early days. I don’t want to say that Leno isn’t also, in his own way, being himself: he is known to be a workaholic, a consummate joke-writer and comedian; but there’s something about him, especially when interviewing people, and that giggle of his that rings fake. And never was his over-preparation more disturbing than during his very non-personal monologue tribute to Johnny a week ago, which sounded scripted, maybe even read from the teleprompter, and seemed to make Leno very uncomfortable.
Eleven minutes is a very long time for a camera to stay in one position, not movement, not edits, just staring at one person sitting in place talking, but like Letterman the night before, O’Brien was riveting because it was honest. He was funny without being inappropriate, and rather than just talking about why Carson was so important to television, he spoke about why Carson was important to him. His conclusion to the segment was a bit shaky and overdramatic. “We’ll do the best we can to soldier on” might have been a bit much. But then that’s just what he did. The rest of the show was like any other Late Night With Conan O’Brien with only Jeffrey Tambor making a brief comment about how nice Conan’s words were. The rest of the show was without Johnny, except in the spirit of inspiration O’Brien expressed if not always eloquently, at least meaningfully and with feeling.
In today’s New York Times, Alessandra Stanley wrote about “Carson’s Long Late-Night Shadow.” In response to David Letterman’s comment on his Monday show, “There is only one Johnny Carson,” Stanley states that Letterman is unfortunately in error thanks to the never-ending line of Carson-imitators who continue to come and go. She then spends (read: wastes) valuable column inches lamenting the horror that is Craig Ferguson, new host of CBS’s Late, Late Show. Her point is that in just about everything other than his Scottish brogue, Ferguson is simply attempting to clone Carson from the types of jokes and sketches to his timing, to even his method of delivery (hands-in-pockets, looking side to side, etc).
Why waste time on Ferguson, though. His show will likely get better with time, and if it doesn’t, it won’t be around. The fact that TV executives are too close-minded to try anything other than a Carson Tonight Show clone is a problem that will continue until that surprise hit personality suddenly appears as if out of nowhere. Kind of like O’Brien. (As I said the other day, even Carson Daly’s late night program which started with the casual two chairs facing each other atmosphere has since added the ubiquitous desk.) But wouldn’t it have been better to write a story showing how O’Brien is obviously the next rightful heir of Carson’s mantle: from Johnny to Dave to Conan?
Granted, Stanley acknowledges Conan: “Mr. Ferguson is a reminder that Conan O’Brien has earned his contract to take over the Tonight Show in 2009,” but maybe she should have waited until after yesterday. The story seemed to want to be more about Carson’s legacy than a review of Ferguson’s talents. Stanley should have known that Conan would say something about Johnny on the program, and maybe given the chance, he will expand on the Tonight Show tradition in a way similar to what Stanley seems to want.
“It would be nice if the late Johnny Carson could be remembered a little less reverently,” Stanley writes. “Then perhaps some other talk-show host could shake up a format that has not been altered or improved upon since Carson retired.” Sure, there will hopefully be some new and exciting innovator who will one day bring another network’s late night programming to prominence, but in the mean time, O’Brien’s not doing too bad, and considering that the smartest artists aren’t necessarily the ones who simply revolt against what came before but also have knowledge of it, I’m looking forward to that day when the TV listings say, The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien.
P.S.: You can read the full transcript of Conan’s tribute to Johnny here at Croooow Blog. (Thanks Surfergirl!)
Out of Focus 
This author is a bit Out of Focus himself. Leno continually beats Letterman in the ratings and if anyone does a show closer to Carson’s, it’s Leno and not Letterman at all. Letterman’s humor is more off beat, where Carson’s humor was for a much broader audience. Leno’s show is more in step with Carson than Letterman has ever been. Not to realize this is to be very shortsided about this issue.
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Jonathan: I appreciate your thoughts, but you seem to have completely missed my point. First of all, I wasn’t talking about ratings at all. In regards to the point I was making, the ratings were irrelevant. I also wasn’t ever attempting to say who stays closer to directly copying Carson’s format. It’s not that I don’t “realize” your point; it’s just that in my opinion that point is irrelevant. The spirit of who Carson was as a host, how he presented himself and how he performed is much closer to both Letterman and Conan than to Leno. I still hold that the three hosts various tributes prove that: Leno’s was scripted, very impersonal and he seemed uneasy in what is usually his most comfortable — the monologue — whereas both Letterman and O’Brien were themselves, consulting notes but not scripts, and even laughing when they needed to, as opposed to Leno’s ultra-somber speech.
But hey, if you prefer Jay, that’s great. And I was never saying that Leno does a bad show. But to try to argue that Leno has much in common with Carson other than the network, show title and format just isn’t really true. And certainly, Johnny proved that point himself by making appearances on Letterman and writing jokes for him, something he wouldn’t have done for Leno.
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