I’ve never been a Conan O’Brien fan. I watched the debacle of his beginning 17 years ago on “Late Night” and just didn’t get it. Even when I checked in a few times in the years since, I didn’t get it. And honestly, it didn’t seem like there was much to get. I also watched an episode or two after he took over “The Tonight Show” and didn’t find much there either. Especially in a time when one can get sharp humor on a regular basis from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, Conan didn’t seem that sharp. Moreover, he was trending in the wrong direction (for me, at least) — heading toward the middle now that he was sitting in the old Johnny/Jay seat.

The past two weeks have been different. Mighty different. His anger has helped create some of the finest, funniest television I’ve ever seen.

The other night in a royal screw-you to NBC, he mounted the most expensive comedy sketch ever — cost: $1.5 million, on NBC’s dime. Here it is, if you want to see it (while it lasts; NBC already yanked the bit from their webcast, fearing the royalties they’d owe to the Rolling Stones for use of the original recording of “Satisfaction,” which O’Brien also used to drive up the cost).

This enormous eff-you to the network that was broadcasting the show was shocking. The giddiness, anger, and anxiety surrounding the entire episode was exhilarating. Even Adam Sandler somehow was funny. It left me wondering if I’ve missed other things on this show the past seven months, and then I thought….

Probably not. It’s the liberating anger that made Conan O’Brien and his show funny for two weeks. It couldn’t (and wouldn’t) have gone on much longer.

Next month, the show returns to Jay Leno. Like everyone else in Burbank, I’ve seen Jay around town countless times. He seems like a good guy. On Saturdays there’s a book shop he hangs around at regularly, he always lends his image or his time to good causes, he drops in at auto shows and parades and talks about motorcycles and cars, and he treats everyone around like he’s just another citizen of Burbank. And if I were NBC and one third of my affiliates were going to bolt because the ratings with Conan were half what they were with Jay, I would’ve gotten on the phone with Jay too. And, like most of America, I’ll tune in that first night or two when Jay returns to see what happens. After that, though, I won’t be watching, and no, I wasn’t watching before, either. But those two weeks were delicious.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.