By Jen Connors

“Welcome to my second annual first show,”  Conan O’Brien lamented during his inaugural opening monologue of his brand new cable talk show after nine months off the air. Conan premiered last night on TBS with a bang, literally: during the course of the hour-long show, Conan found himself being shot by a group of network assassins in three different pre-taped segments. With first guests Arlene Wagner, Seth Rogan, Lea Michele and Jack White, Conan kicked off on a network-bashing, fun-loving note.


Entering the cheap-looking, sparse set after longtime sidekick Andy Ritcher’s introduction, O’Brien was met with a chant of his name and a standing ovation from the audience that had followed his journey from network television to basic cable. Forced out of NBC after a mere six months of hosting The Tonight Show, O’Brien has been contractually obligated to remain silent about his time at the network since his final show last January. Mentioning his “high highs and low lows,” Conan took his lowest hit this Halloween when a mask with his likeness was released. The worst part of the mask, according to the host, was the fact that it was named the “ex-talk show host” mask. Ritcher quipped that they were very authentic and that, “inside, it smells like tears.” After playing with the interactive blue screen moon and scaring off Arlene Wagner, a nutcracker museum curator, Seth Rogen was brought out to discuss the strange details of his engagement and Proposition 19 in California. Following Rogen was Lea Michele to discuss the GQ photo controversy, which you can also read about here. O’Brien’s solution to making the photos seem less sreamy was to insert a completely unedited photograph of him from high school. Jack White closed the show by performing a rockabilly number recorded on O’Brien’s “Legally Obligated from Being Funny on Television” tour.


Overall, I think cable television will be a good place for Conan. I think he’s going to be a little disoriented for the first couple of weeks trying to find his place in cable, but that’s to be expected. He has gone from being a smaller fish in a big pond to a shark in an ocean, which will take some getting used to. By keeping the same writing team, the same characters and most of the same band, the show is still reminiscent of his Late Night days, just on a smaller scale.

Conan airs nightly at 11PM on TBS (FPU channel 11).
`