Reflecting on Conan O'Brien's Transition

Conan O’Brien is stepping down from his late night show after nearly thirty years. As a former intern, a super-fan and a student of late night TV, I have THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.

The news dropped the DAY after I received my original Triumph The Insult Comic Dog puppet in the mail. Why am I telling you this? I posted about it on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram, and I was really looking for a good reason to share it on LinkedIn, and because I interned at the show, well… I went with it. 

I’ll get to my personal feelings in a bit - but first, let’s talk about why this is good for Conan, fans and WarnerMedia. 

Conan is not that old, and he has plenty of energy left. In past interviews, he’s said that he could see a future where he sunsets the late night show, and spends more time on his favorite aspect of the show - remote segments. Sound familiar? TBS & Netflix have ordered more and more remote shows (Conan Without Borders) over the past few years, and they have become fan-favorites. These shows take between two and seven days to shoot - so there will be much more time to record remote shows. 

Also - with the shift to a 30 minute show in 2019, Conan said that he was looking forward to spending more time producing extra content. Conan’s hit podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend” has filled a lot of that time. Even during Covid, booking top-tier guests for longform conversations requires schedule flexibility - and the quality and quantity of the podcasts require extra time in the day. The podcast gets far more listens than the TV show had viewers - both on broadcast and digital. 

And for people who like Conan as a TV host, there will still be a Conan-hosted weekly variety show on HBO Max. We don’t know anything about the format yet - but I’d imagine it will feature everything we loved about Conan from the last 28 years. It’s nice that we aren’t completely losing talk-show Conan! For many, this show will be a reason to subscribe to, and stay, on HBO Max. 

The bottom line: This is what Conan wants, it’s going to make more time to shoot content that fans want, and WarnerMedia gets to use Conan across their networks and platforms for years to come. 

Alright - time for a personal reflection on this transition. 

Late night talk shows have long been an important part of my life. I remember my introduction to the format - my family drove from New York to Disney World shortly after 9/11, and we had a portable CRT TV on the armrest to keep us entertained. My parents chose to show us a Best of Johnny Carson DVD (maybe it was VHS?) - and after soaking it all in, I was hooked. My first experience with Conan was on the (first) last night of Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. Not surprisingly, I loved him, and once he took over The Tonight Show, I didn't miss a single episode - and I probably went a few hundred episodes into his TBS run without missing one either. 

Conan’s comedy is right up my ally - Weird, self-deprecating, and purely humorous. 

Conan and his team have created the best version of the late night talk show format - a format that changes constantly to fit the times. They were the first show of it’s kind with a strong digital presence in the mid-to-late 90s. They created an entire digital company (Team Coco) that has long been the best-in-class experience for a talk show. They cut the show in half after seeing trends in media consumption, to allow for a more focused show, and a strong expansion into multi-platform content. 

It is that flexibility and level of entertainment that have kept me following Conan for over a decade. 

So what are some personal Conan highlights? 

Conan had a segment called “Fan Corrections” in which fans submitted mistakes he made on the show, and then “corrected” them to show that there was no actual error. I submitted a video which ended up airing, and in which he invited some Ithaca College (where I went) interns to shred my internship resume on the air. Conan said my name on TV! And aired HORRIBLY out-of-focus video of me on national television - something my friends have never let me forget. I took the recording of Conan saying my name and turned it into my text tone, back when that was a thing.

Just a few weeks later, I was accepted to be an intern on my favorite show.

I had the time of my life working on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank. I got to meet and work with the people I’ve only seen from the other side of the screen. Aaron Bleyaert (who has long been the face of Conan’s digital team) used to host a podcast that took listeners behind the scenes of the show, so by the time I got there, I knew almost everyone I met. Everyone from Chris Hayes the IT guy to Steve Hollander the stage manager to Mike Pond the post engineer to Pierre Bernard the graphic artist. There’s too many names to mention here, but I had no greater honor than working with such an incredible team - even though it was for just a few months. 

My class of interns - like many from the past, was filled with some incredible people that have gone on to do great things. A few of them still work at the show, a few of them became BuzzFeed celebrities and influencers, and others work everywhere from The Walking Dead to CNN. 

I made a few other contributions to the show that made it to air - most notably, SchlanskyGenerator.com. If you know the show, you know Jordan Schlansky - the Associate Producer with the most fascinating personality. Shortly after I left the show, I created a website that randomly showed a new Jordan quote every time the page was refreshed. Conan’s team ended up buying the website from me, they spruced it up, and re-launched it during a desk segment on the show! 

My time as a fan didn’t stop after I worked directly with the show - during my senior year at college, I plastered my wall with a six-foot tall cutout of Conan’s iconic hair. 

I am grateful for the time I got to spend working on the show. We are beyond lucky that Conan created over 28 years of entertainment, and that he will continue his brand of humor in new and exciting ways for years to come.