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‘CONAN’ – Monday to Thursday at 11pm from 4th August on TruTV


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Old 15-04-2016, 10:18
NoEntry2k
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This thread hasn’t had much activity recently, not surprising given Conan is no longer on UK television, but having watched the ‘Conan in Korea’ special this week I thought it deserved a bump.

Conan’s other recent trips abroad with the show (Cuba, Armenia, and Qatar) have been enjoyable (and received very good ratings), but for me this week’s ‘Conan in Korea’ was probably the best so far.
I really recommend the clips on YouTube if you can’t source the entire episode, and if you only watch one clip I recommend this one. Conan is allowed to cross the ‘border’ and become one of very few Americans to technically broadcast from North Korea. Fascinating, interesting, and very funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K46Ez-Igc9E
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Old 15-04-2016, 13:12
mavreela
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I would rate them:

1. Armenia
2. Cuba
3. Korea
4. Qatar

The Armenian one was just a lot more powerful, whilst both it and Cuba offered something culturally different. As much as a comedy show can be, they felt important. Whilst North Korea trumps those as a location, it was ultimately just goofing around inside a large shed. And Qatar was a U.S. army base.

But I am really like these special episodes.

It was a little disappointing that when Conan went to TBS he decided to stick to the traditional late night format when he had the freedom to be completely innovative, in a way he never had on NBC. Although it was not surprising given what it, and its history, means to him. So it is good to see he his now taking advantage of the opportunity to actually do something different and interesting.
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Old 15-04-2016, 13:52
NoEntry2k
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It’s nice to know I’m not the only one still watching (as I have been for almost 18 years now!).

I completely agree with you about his move to TBS. I was secretly hoping he was going to use the opportunity to re-invent the genre in some way given the new lease of freedom he had been given. Having said that, it’s somewhat nice to have someone still doing a ‘traditional’ late night comedy talk show, which I continue to watch every week. And I say that meaning no offence to the ‘new’ generation of hosts, I watch Fallon and Corden every week too (and occasionally Colbert).
It’s funny to think that when I started watching Conan he was the new, young, off-the-wall late night host, but now he’s the ‘old man’ of late night (despite still having the youngest audience of the lot) and is now the longest running current host in the genre.

Conan might not have the biggest following (that honour would go to Fallon these days), but I think he’s got the most loyal following. And I think his recent overseas specials have illustrated that might be the case globally, not just in then US.
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Old 15-04-2016, 20:45
degsyhufc
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What's different about the Conan shows (studio based)?

Last time I watched it seemed to be standard stuff. Or do you mean that the newer ones have sketches and other segments and he just sticks to monologue and guests?
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Old 16-04-2016, 12:02
mavreela
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Having said that, it’s somewhat nice to have someone still doing a ‘traditional’ late night comedy talk show, which I continue to watch every week.
That is a very fair point. And on Conan's longevity, it is great that unlike Letterman he was able to move on from what happened at NBC so that he can use clips from the old Late Night shows. With so many notable deaths recently being able to show these really highlight how long he has been in the job, and great to see some of those moments.

His is the only talk show I watch though, for him and the comedy rather than the talk show aspects. After originally watching in the NBC Super Channel days, I decided to watch the Tonight Show for a bit when he took it over and just kept watching him since. It is the perfect sort of thing to watch on my tablet when washing up etc.!

(If you have access to a U.S. app store to download the Team Coco app, it lets you watch full episodes even in the U.K.)
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Old 18-04-2016, 13:53
NoEntry2k
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What's different about the Conan shows (studio based)?

Last time I watched it seemed to be standard stuff. Or do you mean that the newer ones have sketches and other segments and he just sticks to monologue and guests?
For me, the difference between ‘Conan’ and the other ‘new generation’ of late night talk shows is that Conan is more about the sketch comedy. The comedy bits are traditional comedy sketches, all be it quite absurdist humour sometimes. The ‘new generation’ (Fallon, Corden etc.) focus more on playing games with celebrities or singing with them in a car. Although they do have traditional comedy sketches too, but even these are usually celebrity based.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticising (I like both Fallon and Corden), there’s just something nice (and familiar) about having Conan’s more traditional style too.
I also think Conan gives longer and slightly less structured interviews too, compared to, say, Fallon who interviews some guests for as little as 4 minutes and only about their latest project they are there to promote.
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Old 18-04-2016, 20:54
degsyhufc
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I must admit that one of the weak points about Corden in the interviews.
I've just accepted he's gone down the Norton route with all the guests on the sofa and jumps between them but it can be very choppy. Sometimes he shows a clip of something one guest is plugging and when it's finished he jumps to another guest on a different subject without any Segway.

Saying that, sometimes the combination of guests works very well and can be really entertaining, so hit and miss, just like Norton is these days.


What I would say is I don't know why they bother with stupid filler when they could have more time with the guests.

It's a 40 minute show, they have the monologue, then an item (sketch/collaboration/game/audience interaction), usually 3 guests and possibly a musical guest.


Not seen Conan for a while, the last were the Robin Williams tribute and TBBT special.
Watched a couple of the 30 minute Fallon shows which cut out everything apart from the monologue and guests.

Colbert is probably the best for interviews from the US shows I watch.
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Old 19-04-2016, 12:43
NoEntry2k
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I must admit that one of the weak points about Corden in the interviews.
I've just accepted he's gone down the Norton route with all the guests on the sofa and jumps between them but it can be very choppy. Sometimes he shows a clip of something one guest is plugging and when it's finished he jumps to another guest on a different subject without any Segway.

Saying that, sometimes the combination of guests works very well and can be really entertaining, so hit and miss, just like Norton is these days.


What I would say is I don't know why they bother with stupid filler when they could have more time with the guests.

It's a 40 minute show, they have the monologue, then an item (sketch/collaboration/game/audience interaction), usually 3 guests and possibly a musical guest.
I don’t mind the ‘all guests being interviewed at once’ approach, it gives us a bit of variation. But as you’ve said, sometimes it works better than others.
But whereas Graham Norton is interviewing them for about 40 minutes, James Corden only does so for about 12-15 minutes. The guests don’t have the time to relax as much. And this is multiplied when you consider Graham Norton is actually interviewing them for nearly 2 hours (which is then edited for broadcast), but James Corden really only does about 12-15 minutes with them.

Conan doesn’t interview guests for as long as most British talk shows, but the interviews are longer than most other US talkshows (with the exception of Stephen Colbert who sometimes does a 10-15 minute interview with a guest).
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Old 07-07-2016, 09:57
NoEntry2k
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I thought this might interested Conan fans... Paste Magazine has done its annual ranking of the current late night hosts, and Conan O’Brien has topped the list. Here it is in full:

10. Andy Cohen
9. Chelsea Handler
8. Trevor Noah
7. Jimmy Fallon
6. James Corden
5. Larry Wilmore
4. Jimmy Kimmel
3. Seth Meyers
2. Stephen Colbert
1. Conan O’Brien

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articl...hosts-jul.html

And just a reminder, Conan will be taking his show to Comic-Con again this year from 20th July.
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Old 20-07-2016, 15:27
NoEntry2k
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Conan @ Comic-Con starts tonight. Line up is as follows:

Wed: The Cast Of "Silicon Valley" - Thomas Middleditch, Kumail Nanjiani, Amanda Crew, & Zach Woods

Thu: The CW Heroes - stars of "Arrow," “Supergirl,” & “The Flash” — Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, & Melissa Benoist. Plus Nick Kroll and "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Sat: The Cast Of "Suicide Squad" - Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara, Jay Hernandez & Adam Beach.

Sun: The Cast Of "Game Of Thrones" - John Bradley, Liam Cunningham, Nathalie Emmanuel, Conleth Hill, Faye Marsay, Kristian Nairn, Iwan Rheon, Issac Hempstead Wright, and executive producers David Benioff & D.B. Weiss.
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Old Yesterday, 20:43
ohglobbits
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Conan will only be weekly from now on. http://www.avclub.com/article/conan-going-weekly-247993
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