Goodbye Leno/Hello Conan

[Kirby]

Did anyone watch the final Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night? I have never been a huge Leno fan, but over the last several years as Dave Letterman has become more and more of a cranky old man I found myself gravitating more towards Jay Leno.
It was a good farewell, nothing like Johnny Carson's, nor should it be, but it was pretty cool that he brought out all of the kids that were born to the staff and crew members over the last 17 years. That's a nice tribute to the people that work so hard on the show.

I'm really looking forward to Conan taking over, I hope he can keep a lot of the irreverence that he had at Late Night.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

Leno was awful. I will be flipping between Dave and Conan depending on the guest. I will skip Fallon and watch Craig Ferguson.

 

[Kirby]

Craig Ferguson rocks! I'm glad I don't have to choose between him and Conan anymore.

 

[Bisz]

I cough most of the show. I much preferred Leno, Letterman never appealed to me for the reasons you mentioned, he's just seems sour and cranky, I much prefer my comedians to be up-beat.

 

[Mr Light]

I can't wait to finally have Conan back on the air. I never found Leno remotely funny, but it was nice to see these "best of" clips this week.

 

[Terengo]

I cough most of the show. I much preferred Leno, Letterman never appealed to me for the reasons you mentioned, he's just seems sour and cranky, I much prefer my comedians to be up-beat.

Sometimes, especially when Letterman obsessively repeats a phrase in a weird distorted voice, I thought he was actually a little bit insane.

 

[T'Baio]

I'm really looking forward to Conan. I was never a huge fan of Leno, too homogenized apple pie America for me, and Dave has bored me for years. With everything going on in my life the last few years, I haven't been staying up late enough to watch Conan...so I eagerly anticipate a timeslot I can catch him in.

 

[TGTheodore]

Leno was awful. I will be flipping between Dave and Conan depending on the guest. I will skip Fallon and watch Craig Ferguson.

I agree. Can't stand Fallon. Especially as a talk show host.

And as an accomplished cranky old man myself, I still get a kick out of Dave!

--Ted

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I loved Leno's farewell at the end. What a touching tribute to all of the people who made his show and success possible.

 

[Mr Light]

Ugh, I've been forced to watch the first 30 minutes of Jimmy Fallon and he is so painfully unfunny. I liked him fine on SNL and all (even if he couldn't stop laughing at how amazingly funny he was) but he just does not work as a talk show host. So not funny. Of course I find Leno completely unfunny as well... just so bland and inoffensive.

 

[Loupjo]

I prefer Conan O'Brien to Leno so that's a positive. A negative point is that I prefer Letterman to Leno so I never really had to chose which show I watched. I would watch Letterman unless Leno had some really special guests that I wanted to see. Now I might find myself tempted to trade in Letterman for O'Brien from time to time.

Not that i dislike Leno. I think he's okay but he seldom comes up with anything that really makes me laugh out loud.

I agree though that Letterman's routine can get boring. I don't watch everyday but just a couple of time a week. This greatly improves viewing as Letterman jokes get old a lot slower.

 

[TheBrew]

Two words why I will be watching Conan's premiere:

Pearl Jam

 

[Mr. Adventure]

It was weird because his last episode felt like the flattest of Leno's work, like it stressed all of the worst qualities and devoted way too much time to Jaywalking (is that segment *that* popular?). Conan's appearance was merciful, maybe it was all planned just to make Conan look better, and if so that was a success. A boring performance by James Taylor later and the episode ended on a decent note with Leno showing how much of a family his crew had become over the years. Certainly not on par with Carson's farewell by a longshot.

 

[nx1701g]

^ Jaywalking was very popular. They had a special on during prime time once made up entirely of Jaywalking scenes.

Leno's monologues were sterilized by NBC many times. I prefer him live.

 

[Kirby]

A boring performance by James Taylor.

Is there any other kind?

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Leno's monologues were sterilized by NBC many times. I prefer him live.

A reason why I'm not sure I want Conan in the 11:35 slot. Conan and Letterman were much better off with the liberties they were allowed in the 12:35 timeslot.

Depsite Leno's bashers, I'll miss him on the Tonight Show. I didn't start watching late night shows until just about the time he debuted. So I've always associated the program with him most of all. (That said, I usually stick with The Colbert Report at 11:30.)

 

[Mr Light]

Colbert is God, but I watch him at 1:30am or 10:30am I didn't have high expectations for Leno's "last" episode because he's coming right back with the exact same show in September. It's just a little vacation, really.

 

[bigdaddy]

Goodbye Leno... Hello Leno in prime time...

Goodbye NBC... Hello USA.

Craig Ferguson rocks!

 

[gblews]

I loved Leno's farewell at the end. What a touching tribute to all of the people who made his show and success possible.

If you are referring to the end with all the children who were born from staff members in Jay's 17 years, I thought that was touching.

I'm not a Leno fan, he stopped being funny years ago and most of his bits were stolen from either Letterman or Howard Stern, so I'm not sorry to see him go.

Good luck to Conan.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Growing up, I thought Johnny Carson was a show for geezers. Leno I ignored for years, but later watched and kinda enjoyed.

The NBC affiliate where I lived didn't even show Conan O'Brien at all for years.

I liked Conan O'Brien, but I always thought he had more of a "regular people won't get the joke" appeal (one reason his tenure on the SIMPSONS was the best era of that series). He's not a Jay Leno. I dunno how he's gonna translate to 10:30/11:30 viewers.