Team Coco gets last laugh with debut of ‘Conan’

I’m with Team Coco, extremely happy that he’s back to television.


Team Coco, for those who don’t know, is Conan O’Brien, late night talk show host.

For 17 years he hosted “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” the 11:35 p.m. talk show that followed “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and then for seven months he took over “The Tonight Show” until Leno ruthlessly stole it back.

Following a large settlement to essentially kick him off NBC, and a nine-month waiting period, Conan is back on late night, as host of the simply titled “Conan” on basic cable station TBS. The show, which immediately makes Leno’s and David Letterman’s show obsolete, debuted Monday, Nov. 8.

His return was spectacular, beginning with a filmed piece simply titled “Last season on ‘Conan.’” Filmed as a highlight of the “previous” season, it started with Conan telling NBC officials by phone that he was not going to move his show half-an-hour later, as they had requested to put Leno back to 10:35. “What can they do to me?” he joked after hanging up the phone.

“Godfather”-style, they gun him down, like Sonny Corleone. He doesn’t die, though, and after driving his wife nuts at home, he’s forced to get a job. Unfortunately, he finds he’s not suited for work as a fast-food waiter or a clown. But then someone suggests basic cable. Before he knows it, he’s back on television.

Thank god. Late night just isn’t the same without Team Coco.

I started watching him when he debuted in 1993. He was an awkward redhead nobody had ever heard of before, despite successful writing gigs on “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons,” and his first few months were painful to watch because he looked uncomfortable in front of the camera.

But then he got confident, found his groove and redefined late night with characters and skits like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the Masturbating Bear and “In the Year 2000…” In college, my friends and I ignored Leno and Letterman, but gladly watched Conan. He spoke to us with his self-mocking humor.

When NBC announced five years ago that he was going to become the new “Tonight Show” host, I thought somebody at the network was really smart. That person must have left when NBC made the stupid decision to get rid of him.

In the end, though, it worked out for the better. On basic cable, Conan is free to be more edgy and do things the older “Tonight Show” audience didn’t appreciate.

And when he draws the younger audience away from “The Tonight Show,” the audience advertisers care about, he’ll have the last laugh, along with plenty of other laughs he’ll provide to his loyal following.

UPDATE: Since this column was published in November of 2010, I've become addicted to Jimmy Fallon's show. I still like Conan, but Jimmy is the funniest late-night guy on television. Check out his Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Charlie Sheen impressions.