Late Night
Late Night was an Emmy Award winning American talk show that aired weeknights on NBC. It was also shown in many countries other than the US. Hosted by Conan O'Brien since 1993, the show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, as well as musical and stand-up comedy performances.
A traditional show lineup was as follows:
- Opening monologue, featuring jokes about recent events in the world and entertainment.
- First comedy sketch, which can vary among any number of subjects, and can include segments filmed outside the show. Some popular recurring sketches are In the Year 2000, New State Quarters, Frankenstein Wastes a Minute of Our Time, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Celebrity Secrets, Conan O'Brien Hates My Homeland, Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage, If They Mated, and many more. Often right before the sketch there will be a short period in which Conan relates a humorous story of something that happened to him recently (like a fan encounter, for instance), when Conan will continue an ongoing joke (such as pulling on the Walker Texas Ranger lever), or he will interact with the band.
- First guest.
- Second comedy sketch. A shorter sketch than the first one. If there is a continuing joke from the beginning of the show, Conan will use this time to "check in" on that.
- Second guest.
- Third guest, usually musical or other variety type guest, such as animal expert or comedian doing standup.
O'Brien has become known for his more active and spontaneous hosting style and offbeat humour. His stage habits include but are not limited to mime, self-deprecation, dramatic expressions, various impressions and use of awkward pauses or responses, and moving his hair and scalp back and forth. He commonly makes light of his own appearance including his hairstyle, his pale skin and he jokes about his height.
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Thanks to Noelle for her contributions to this section!
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show on NBC, which premiered on June 1st, 2009. It is the replacement for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and part of NBC's long running Tonight Show franchise. The show's host, Conan O'Brien, previously hosted NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, which followed The Tonight Show for 16 years.
Many members of the Late Night cast and crew made the transition to The Tonight Show: The Max Weinberg 7, the house band from O'Brien's Late Night, serves as house band on O'Brien's new show under the new name, Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band, albeit with a new member, percussionist James Wormworth, who previously filled in for Weinberg on drums on Late Night when he left to tour with Bruce Springsteen; Andy Richter, who served as O'Brien's Late Night sidekick from 1993 to 2000, takes Joel Godard's place as the show's announcer and is also involved in comedy pieces; Jeff Ross, who served as O'Brien's Late Night executive producer in New York, has assumed the same role for Tonight. The opening and closing themes from Late Night with Conan O'Brien were also carried over to Tonight in a slightly altered form.