Conan O'Boren

Conan O’Brien, TBS at 10 p.m, November 16, 2010

                Conan O’Brien has been the red haired night in shinning armor for many a late night television viewer but his switch to TBS feels like it may be the death of all things Coco. After a recent viewing of O’Brien’s new late night show on the Law and Order-centric t.v. station TBS all hope for the 10 p.m. timeslot was lost.

                Things started out with a positive bang as O’Brien’s monologue was rife with his witty humor and the enjoyable and timeless puppet dance but things got awful, fast.

                Prior to the first commercial break the gangly ginger was beaming oodles of positive praise for his new television home but all the words that left his mouth seemed forced and unnecessary. Adding to the awkwardness was Richter. The duo is generally dweeby and strange yet always in sync and hilarious but things were without a doubt off on November 16. After the initial commercial break O’Brien and his loveably chubby sidekick Andy Richter started making things uncomfortable.

                Once the show returned from commercial break Richter and O’Brien announced a multiple car and air freshener give away. What? Really? Why? Were obvious questions running though the heads of loyal fans. Along with the announcement came an on air commercial for the Chevy Cruze. Richter was flailing about in and around the car, a feeble attempt to liven up the outrageously dull experience. The decision to do a car give away was quite possibly the worst decision ever made-- the moniker of all things sold out and used.

                If only things would have gotten better from there, than and only then would the give away have been forgotten. But they didn’t get better, at all.

                It is understandable that talk show hosts will inevitably get a dud of an interviewee that makes his interviewing skills look atrocious and the overall experience strange-- think Joaquin Phoenix and Letterman. O’Brien’s Phoenix was Harrison Ford.

                Aside from the peculiar petting of his chair and random incoherent answers to O’Brien’s sparse questions it was as if Ford had recently been removed from frozen carbonite and brought back to life in a strange world.  This odd encounter could have been comic gold but O’Brien and Richter seemed apprehensive about straying too far off the prompted questions.  Imagine the disappointment when Indian Jones and Conan fail to produce anything enjoying.

                Luckily for the viewers there was a quick reprieve from the atrocity unfolding on the boob tube in the form of a commercial break. The break gave viewers the opportunity to weigh the options of staying up to hopefully see something humorous in this mess on TBS or fading into sleep, sleep won.