Stay Tuned for Conan

The summer before I began sixth grade, I started staying up late.  I would watch The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, followed by Late Night with David Letterman.  I preferred Late Night.  It was quirky, while The Tonight Show was, in my child mind, too middle-of-the-road.  But I remember watching Johnny Carson’s last episode, and David Letterman’s first episode of The Late Show on CBS.  I never got into Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.

Shortly after high school, I began avidly watching Late Night with Conan O’Brien.  It was the wackiest show around, and it perfectly reflected the sense of humor my friends shared.  I spent years staying up until 1:30 in the morning watching that show.  In one episode, Conan talked about (fictional) guests he wouldn’t have back.  One was named “Johnny Airhorn”, and he had a helmet with two airhorns mounted on either side.  Whenever Conan would try to ask him a question or say anything, Johnny Airhorn would blast his horns in deafening fashion. Unfortunately, these old clips are impossible to find.

Miraculously, one of my favorites is on YouTube.  I’ve posted it before, but it’s a perfect example of what Conan does so well.  The premise alone is insane, and the execution is perfect.

Tonight is the premiere of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.  Andy Richter is back, Max will be there, and my hopes are high.

Filed under: Comedy, Dana Heritage Project, Television on June 1st, 2009 | No Comments »

What “Code”?

One-of-My-Letters-to-the-Times In The Nation this week, David Margolick writes about two old friends who made a hobby of writing letters to the New York Times, hoping to get published.  One met with repeated success, the other with consistent failure.  Margolick alludes to people “who have spent lifetimes trying to break into the Times”, and equates getting a letter printed as managing to “crack the code”.

I don’t know that it’s really that big a mystery.  I have written maybe six letters to the editor of the New York Times, and three of them have been published.  Two have been about classical music, and another about the expanding exurbs of the Tampa Bay metropolitan area.  I write letters when I am inspired by a topic.  Obviously, I have eschewed inflammatory rhetoric when I have written.  I know letters from crackpots don’t stand much of a chance in the Times.  The Gainesville Sun, on the other hand….

Filed under: General on June 1st, 2009 | No Comments »