“Hello, what’s this? Wire hangers? Expired medicine? Old newspapers! Okay, Homer, stay calm. Just quietly get this stuff inside your house. Homer! You’re not listening!” – Homer Simpson
Happy birthday Conan O’Brien!
Posts Tagged ‘Conan O’Brien
18
Apr
16
Quote of the Day
18
Apr
15
Quote of the Day
“I’ve sold monorails to Brockway, Ogendville, and North Haverbrook! And, by gum, it put them on the map!” – Lyle Lanley
Happy birthday, Conan O’Brien!
18
Apr
14
Quote of the Day
“Maybe it’s time you joined the exciting field of monorail conducting by enrolling at the Lanley Institute.” – Lyle Lanley
“Actual institute may not match photo.” – TV Announcer
Happy birthday Conan O’Brien!
18
Apr
13
Quote of the Day
“We played Dungeons & Dragons for three hours, then I was slain by en elf.” – Homer Simpson
“Listen to yourself, man, you’re hanging with nerds.” – Bart Simpson
“You take that back!” – Homer Simpson
“Homer, please, these boys sound very nice, but they’re clearly nerds.” – Marge Simpson
Happy birthday Conan O’Brien!
“Cartoons have writers?” – Bart Simpson
“Enh, sort of.” – Lisa Simpson
The 81 minute roundtable discussion Conan O’Brien hosted with Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen, and Jeff Martin is now live on O’Brien’s website. (I couldn’t get the embedding to work here on WordPress.) I must warn you: it is very addictive. I started it thinking I’d watch a few minutes and then come back to it tonight when I had more time. Nope. Watched it straight through my lunch.
As a Simpsons fan, it’s a must-see. They talk about the origins of the show, joke about specific memories and episodes, and generally just crack each other up. It’s funny from start to finish, and at one point O’Brien puts this picture up:
Clockwise from lower left: John Swartzwelder, David M. Stern, Mike Reiss, Conan O’Brien, Jeff Martin, Jon Vitti, Matt Groening, George Meyer, Al Jean (facing away from camera). Jean joked that this was a Potemkin village photo in that they brought in all the cutouts and cleaned the place up.
There’s a lot of great stuff in here, but for now just let me note that at the 28:00 minute mark, Kogen says, “I remember when the show was at it’s, well, it’s still at it’s height.” Heh. Caught himself midsentence.
18
Apr
12
Quote of the Day
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but everything on the menu has fish in it.” – Frying Dutchman Waiter
“What about the bread, does that have much fish in it?” – Marge Simpson
“Yes.” – Frying Dutchman Waiter
Happy birthday Conan O’Brien!
18
Apr
11
Quote of the Day
“I actually had some doubts about moving to Springfield, especially after that Time cover story, ‘America’s Worst City’.” – Ruth Powers
“You can see our house in that photo!” – Marge Simpson
Happy birthday Conan O’Brien!
18
Apr
10
Quote of the Day
“Sit perfectly still. Only I may dance.” – Conan O’Brien
Happy birthday Conan O’Brien!
“They’re so sweet when you marry them, but soon it’s just career, career, career.” – Ruth Powers
The National Broadcasting Company has, with characteristic heavy handedness, managed to finally resolve its surfeit of late night comedians. The outcome that was being speculated about from the time of the announcement of Jay Leno’s 10pm show has come to pass. The immediate results of the recent brouhaha are fairly clear. NBC has embarrassed itself on a scale hitherto unprecedented in the annals of American broadcasting. In the process it managed to make a modern day folk hero out of a man to whom it’s been forced to pay a massive eight figure buyout. That is no small feat. The initial cost of that buyout and the smaller severance packages being paid to less famous employees has been reported at $45,000,000. The damages to the brands, of NBC, “The Tonight Show”, and Mr. Leno himself, are as yet unknown.
The Dead Homer Society has no official position on who is a better late night host, Conan O’Brien or Jay Leno. Neither is capable of lifting a 1987 Buick Skylark over his head. And while the future of Mr. Leno on NBC seems assured, the future of Mr. O’Brien is the subject of heavy speculation. As there are four major American networks and three of them already employ late night hosts much of that speculation has centered on the one that doesn’t: FOX. And while we heartily endorse Mr. O’Brien’s return to that widely acknowledged bastion of quality television, it is not in the capacity which so many others seem to think him destined.
The Dead Homer Society hereby nominates Conan O’Brien for the head position at the show that genuinely launched his career: The Simpsons. For many years now it has been plain to all that whatever creative energy once powered that august program has long since utterly dissipated. Not only has Mr. O’Brien not lost his creative spark, but with his comedic stature and gold plated Simpsons reputation he may be the only man who could, in some genuine way, resuscitate The Simpsons.
Such a move would obviously come with its own drama. The show’s current hierarchy is no doubt well entrenched, legally and organizationally. But it is an opening with considerably greater potential than becoming the fourth late night host in a country that seems to do just fine with three. Mr. O’Brien has already proved his dexterity behind and before the camera, and a season or two spent energizing a famous but moribund franchise would do nothing but burnish his sterling entertainment industry credentials.
There was no new Zombie Simpsons last night and because it’s Martin Luther King Day here in the States things are kinda slow. (MLK Day is like a lot of America’s second tier holidays in that we only partially observe it. Case in point: the mail doesn’t get delivered but my garbage was picked up as usual this morning.) But I did find this absolutely excellent New York Times op-ed piece from 1993 (via Warming Glow). It was written by a fresh off The Simpsons Conan O’Brien as a fake review of his opening night as a late night host. It is a thousand kinds of awesome absurdity:
Last week, this writer had the opportunity to watch a test show in Rockefeller Center’s legendary studio 6-A. Frankly, I was not impressed.
The crowd was visibly eager to like the young newcomer, but some seemed puzzled by the radical new set. The backdrop, consisting of 15-foot representations of Mr. O’Brien’s laughing head, loomed over his desk and chair, both carved from illegally imported African ivory. While this was somewhat unsettling, an aura of eager anticipation still hung in the air.
Until, that is, the new Late Night band began to play. Composed of musicians cut by the Boston Pops, the band lurched into an interminable version of "Waltzing Matilda," apparently the show’s theme song. The bandleader, a surly cellist, refused to make eye contact with anyone and hissed at a young girl who tried to clap along.
There is more than a little whiff of Simpsons on things like furniture carved from illegal ivory and a “surly cellist”. I highly recommend the whole thing.
Programming note: Consumed with Spurlock stuff last week we didn’t get around to properly mocking the terribly dull episode that preceded it. So we’ll be doing that this week. The Dead Homer Society, the timeliest blog on the net!
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(The crotch really does wear out too fast.)
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