I'm With CoCo

I was a huge fan of Johnny Carson when he hosted the Tonight Show. I remember being 6 or 7 years old, having a small black and white television with the single telescopic antenna, with two knobs, one for VHF, and the other for UHF. Both knobs additionally had internal knobs so that they could be 'fine tuned' to really get that extra sharp and crisp analog 1978 signal.

(The Other Things In My Head picture is very nearly what I had for a while....take a look...)

In Alaska, the NBC affiliate put The Tonight Show on at 11 PM. Perhaps it was due to the tape delay system that was used before same day satellite technology was affordable. Or maybe it was just an act of remote disobedience to a far away master. (Alaska can have that affect).

At 10 PM there was the nightly news for 30 minutes. Then re-runs of 'Soap' at 10:30 PM. And then, every night, 11 PM, Johnny Carson.

I love Johnny Carson. I can't find one single reason why I have such an affection for him. I can say that I felt he was honest and loved his audience. I believe that he loved his job. He always seemed to be good at being the butt of a joke, so long as the audience got a laugh. He would ask people questions, but more than that, he got them to tell stories that they normally likely wouldn't tell otherwise. Perhaps that was the alcohol in the coffee mugs? Perhaps it was the back stage shenanigans? Who knows. I don't care how the magic was made, I was just happy and eager to watch. I would even watch the re-run shows when he went on vacation.

When he retired, I was sad. I remember watching the last Johnny Carson broadcast, and remember crying. How silly was that? Crying for a tv show? But he was more a bit of my family. He was there every night to make me laugh, and unless I was feeling really energetic, he was the last thing I saw before I drifted off to sleep.

I didn't like Jay Leno. I never did. I just don't find him funny. I'm sure he has talent, he got the show and ran it for 17 years. Someone obviously liked him. I just didn't. I didn't in the same way that David Letterman, although sometimes funny, just never did that much for me either.

I stopped watching The Tonight Show for many many years. I really never stayed up that late anymore, and certainly not late enough to see much Conan O'Brien.

Having found myself unemployed, and drowning my sorrows in self pity and frustration, I bought a new tv, and a digital cable box with a DVR.

How did I ever live without a DVR? Honestly. It changed me. Probably not for the better.

I can't stand commercials. I would rather record something while I'm sitting, and then play it back an hour later. Sometimes I'll deliberately pause it, and leave the room for 20 minutes, so that I can come back, and have a buffer so that I can forward through the commercials.

A funny thing happened, I started to record Conan. He was now new to The Tonight show. Because NBC doesn't cut the show off exactly, I started to record Jimmy Fallon too, so that I didn't miss the end of Conan. I found Conan funny. Funnier than I remember. I started watching/DVR'ing the show from Day 1. Although I now regret not doing it every single night. I thought he was a worthy replacement for Jay Leno. No one can ever replace Johnny, though. I will also admit that Jimmy Fallon is a lot funnier than I expected, although he seems to have good days and bad days much more to the extreme than Conan. Still, Conan seemed to keep in the spirit of Johnny Carson. I respect him for that. I also really respect him for not wanting to change the show to a later time just to save his own skin. The show must go on. It still sucks snot.

NBC, I'm mad at you.

Jay Leno, I'm disappointed in you. Isn't it time for you to retire? You screwed Davis Letterman, and now you're screwing Conan. C'mon, man. Don't you have a shred of decency? Sense of shame? Do you know how to bow out gracefully? Egads. I'll never ever ever ever follow anything you do.

Zucker, you're an ass-hat. I don't wish you harm, but I do wish that you end up unemployed too.

I'm not sure if I'm going to go with a scorched earth policy. I'm not entirely decided.

Though, I'm seriously contemplating ignoring NBC entirely.

Yes, that means I'd have to give up Heroes. (Although, not sure I'd miss it that much).

It means that I'd have to give up the LOCAL news team that I really like. (KGW).

But I can't think of a better, more satisfying way to punish them.

But then do I also give up MSNBC? No Keith Olberman? I think Travis would be most unhappy with me if I banned Keith from the TV.

If they get rid of Conan, which seems that they will, I can't find a good reason to give them my loyalty in return, though.

Conan, I'll follow you wherever you go, just so I can stick it to NBC. Please don't be gone too long.