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Buzz-Worthy Video: Conan O'Brien on Zach Galifianakis's Between Two Ferns

BuzzSugar — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:30:54 -0800

This is pretty much my dream scenario: Conan O'Brien and Zach Galifianakis sitting down, shooting the breeze. You know I'm a fan of Galifianakis and his awkward Between Two Ferns interview series on Funny or Die. (His off-color remarks to Natalie Portman still make me giggle.) For this latest installment, he questions the Tonight Show host and his sidekick, Andy Richter.

In the video, poor O'Brien keeps lobbing jokes, but Galifianakis shoots them down. (Watch for the "cricket riding a tumbleweed" button.) Oh, and in a random cameo, Andy Dick stops by, forcing O'Brien to move to the floor.

Check it out, and tell me what you think - funny, or meh? - when you read more.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis from Between Two Ferns

Jessica Crushes on Jen Garner, Jon Gosselin Turns Back Time and a Sneak Peek at Tonight's Glee!

Molly — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:45:00 -0800

Today's PopSugar Rush features Jessica Biel talking about her girl crush on Jennifer Garner, which she says is all about respect. Plus, Glee is back tonight, and we've got a sneak peek! Jon Gosselin tries to turn back time, one Ed Hardy shirt at a time, while Rihanna talks about the effects of speaking out about Chris Brown. Watch PopSugar Rush now!

Conan vs. Jimmy: Whose New Show Is Off to the Best Start?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:00:41 -0700

These past few months have been like late-night musical chairs over at NBC: First, Jimmy Fallon took over Conan O'Brien's old Late Night gig. Then, Conan slid into Jay Leno's Tonight Show seat. (Leno will be back in September with a new primetime show.)

Settling into a new late-night show can take some time, so how do you think these two are doing? Do you think Fallon's gotten more comfortable behind the desk? Or do you think Conan is doing the best job moving his offbeat brand of humor to Tonight?

Photos courtesy of NBC

Buzz In: Which Comedian Would You Have Wanted at Your Graduation?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:30:28 -0700

Sad. The students at UCLA were trying to get new Los Angeles resident Conan O'Brien to give the commencement speech at their upcoming graduation, but he said "no." I think they were on the right track with a comedian (especially one who has done well with this in the past) instead of an actor, like their earlier choice of James Franco.

This got me thinking of my fantasy graduation ceremony, which would feature a Jon Stewart speech. Do you remember his amazingly hilarious speech to the class of 2004 at the College of William and Mary? Here's a snippet:

Today is the day you enter into the real world, and I should give you a few pointers on what it is. It’s actually not that different from the environment here. The biggest difference is you will now be paying for things, and the real world is not surrounded by three-foot brick wall. And the real world is not a restoration. If you see people in the real world making bricks out of straw and water, those people are not colonial re-enactors - they are poor. Help them. And in the real world, there is not as much candle lighting. I don't really know what it is about this campus and candle lighting, but I wish it would stop. We only have so much wax, people.

See? Comedians make good graduation speakers. Who would you have wanted at yours?

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Will You Watch Conan O'Brien's First Tonight Show?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:30:53 -0700

Tonight, Conan O'Brien becomes the fifth man to step behind the vaunted desk at NBC's The Tonight Show, taking over the spot from Jay Leno. A while back, many of you said you were ready for a change and wanted to see what Conan could do in the slot. So tell me: Will you be watching tonight's first show?

Photo courtesy of NBC

Summer Reading: Conan Takes On Tonight

BuzzSugar — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:30:36 -0700

I hope you've got big plans to grill up some food and sip some drinks (ideally with little umbrellas) on this Memorial Day, but if you need some light reading to keep you company, I recommend checking out the New York Times Magazine's take on Conan O'Brien. O'Brien, whom a lot of you have been missing these past few months, steps into The Tonight Show's vaunted hosting seat on June 1, and the Times profile explores whether his brand of humor can work on the legendary show.

Writes reporter Lynn Hirschberg:

O’Brien’s approach to comedy and television is analytical and exact. There’s a split in his psyche: he can be goofy, but he obsesses over the nuances of that goofiness. He’s constantly trying to puzzle out how best to be funny five nights a week for an audience of millions.

To see what makes this piece worth checking out, just read more.

The profile talks about his "Darwinian" approach to crafting a show (and includes some glimpses of early Tonight Show ideas), as well as glimpses of how much serious thought went into O'Brien's last Late Night show back in February. There are also a few revealing tidbits about Jay Leno's move to 10 p.m. after he vacates Tonight - including Leno bragging that, "We can do five of my new show for the cost of one CSI: Miami" and an NBC executive's revelation that he once wanted Oprah to do a five-nights-a-week talk show in primetime and resurrected the idea with Leno instead to get him to stay at NBC.

But my favorite parts of the profile are the ones that really get at what O'Brien's dealing with as he gets ready to take the high-profile spot. In one passage, he says:

"I just have to block that nonsense out. In entertainment, you have to stake out what you think is right, you have to put out that signal, make sure it’s pure and then do it and do it and do it and know that they will come. And if they don’t, you have to pack up your bags and say: 'I enjoyed my time here. Sorry it didn’t work out.' But the biggest mistake would be to alter my signal to make sure that I reach all these different people. Because then you’re lost."

In all, this extended peek into O'Brien's psyche just gets me even more pumped to see what happens when he's behind the desk at The Tonight Show next week. Take a peek and then let me know what you think.

Photo courtesy of NBC

Have You Been Missing Conan O'Brien?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:30:51 -0700

It wasn't until I saw this new logo for The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien that I truly realized how close we are to getting Conan back on the air. His last Late Night aired way back in February, making way for Jimmy Fallon's version, and now his own transition to The Tonight Show is just about a month away.

All of that got me thinking: Has it been hard to get through these months of late-night TV without Conan O'Brien's goofy humor in the mix? Or have we adapted just fine to life without him?

Photo courtesy of NBC

TV Tonight: Conan O'Brien's Last Late Night

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:30:36 -0800

A little more than 15 years ago, Conan O'Brien took over NBC's Late Show desk, filling the seat once occupied by David Letterman. Tonight, he'll say his farewell to studio 6A and start preparing to take over for yet another comedy icon.

O'Brien will start hosting The Tonight Show in June (while Jay Leno moves to primetime), while Jimmy Fallon will take over Late Night on March 2. Tonight, though, is one last chance to celebrate O'Brien, who brought his signature brand of humor (not to mention memorable props like Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog) to the post-midnight time slot for more than a decade.

Details of O'Brien's last show are mostly under wraps, but at the TCA press tour in January, he said he didn't want "a big salute to me":

If this were my last show ever and I were getting into a space ship and going to Mars and you were never going to see me again, I'd probably really load up the "Look at all I've done and aren't I something" clips, but I'm departing for a brief period of time and then re-appearing in this terrific, fantastic dream job . . . We have a lot of hard-core fans that can recite to me bits that we've done 13, 14, 15 years ago. I want to make sure that I don't let them down, but I also want to make sure I don't overdo it.

That sounds like a good approach to me - though I personally wouldn't mind one last "In the Year 2000" bit. What are some of your favorite Late Night with Conan O'Brien memories, and will you be tuning in for tonight's final episode? You can relive one of my favorite bits, from back when Conan visited San Francisco in 2007, if you read more.

Photo courtesy of NBC

The Office Spinoff Lives! Plus More From NBC

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:34:20 -0700

It's the last day of sessions here at the TCA press tour, and it's NBC's turn to hawk its wares. Just a few minutes ago, NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Ben Silverman took the stage to clarify a few things about The Office spinoff (and not-spinoff), the network's plans for late night, and more. Some highlights:

First and foremost: The show in which Amy Poehler was recently cast is not a spinoff of The Office. "Amy's character will never appear inside The Office world," Silverman said. Though the shows will be stylistically and creatively similar (in that Greg Daniels and Michael Schur will be behind both of them), "the show is not set up to emanate directly from The Office."
There is still the possibility of such a spinoff, though. When Daniels and Schur were developing concepts, they came up with two, Silverman said: One that would start inside The Office and one that was completely outside of it. When it looked like Amy Poehler could be available, they put all their energy into pursuing her for the non-spinoff show, which made it the top priority. But the true spinoff could still exist, "maybe involving characters that are already inside The Office," Silverman said.
As for details on either show? Not so much getting into those (including a title, a concept, or any other basics) - though there was a promise that Daniels, Schur, and Poehler would release more details soon. The one nugget of info is that because of Poehler's pregnancy, her show - which had been pegged for the post-Super Bowl time slot - will likely premiere in March instead. No idea what's going after the Super Bowl just yet.
This season will feature "26 to 28 awesome episodes of Heroes" - which we're finally getting some glimpses of. "This 'Villains' storyline that [Tim Kring] has introduced is just awesome," Silverman said. "It's really compelling - just big, fun, accessible stuff."

Some more - including about the Jay Leno/Jimmy Fallon/Conan O'Brien transition - if you read more.

Jay Leno's last show as the host of The Tonight Show will be May 29, 2009, with Conan O'Brien stepping into the chair on June 1. Conan's stint on Late Night will end sometime in the first three months of 2009, while the target for Fallon to appear on air is sometime around March or April. Fallon will prepare by doing online mini-episodes for a few months before the show launches.
Meanwhile, NBC still hasn't ruled out finding a way to get Leno to stay, despite a story last week that quoted him saying he was "definitely done next year" with NBC.
Silverman's co-chairman, Marc Graboff, said NBC was committed to airing Friday Night Lights no matter what - even if much of the audience has already watched on DirecTV or another way. (Graboff and Silverman also didn't accept that "another way" of downloading unlicensed versions of the show online might flourish, though, saying they'd be able to control it. We'll see about that.)
Last year, NBC tried sci-fi Mondays with Chuck, Heroes, and Journeyman. This year, it's all about "a kind of male hero sandwich," Silverman said, with the Christian Slater-starring My Own Worst Enemy taking over the old Journeyman slot. Before Enemy premieres, though, the Friday night series Life will get a couple of airings after Heroes to try to reset the season and attract an audience.
Little switcheroo in the Thursday comedy schedule: The new series Kath and Kim will follow My Name is Earl, with 30 Rock returning to the spot after The Office at 9:30.

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Better Together Than Apart

BuzzSugar — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:15:27 -0700

Be it TV or movies, some pairs and trios create more magic together than they do apart. Sometimes a person's entire career is thanks to someone else with whom they do great work. And sometimes a new pair is born right before our eyes - like the combination of Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr., arguably the key factor in Iron Man's success. I've rounded up a few folks who I love together more than apart. To start my slideshow, hit "Start."

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