I know I am.

Conan knows it, too. Hence the photo of Dave on his wall, and the Worldwide Pants jacket he sometimes wears.

Leno stole Headlines from Letterman

you're right, didn't he call his segment "small town news" or something like that? leno stole that from him completely and i think dave actually felt badly for jay and let him have it, because he quit doing it.

i wish he hadn't quit using monty/vicky/smitty/stephanie. she only hands stuff out when dave's in the crowd now.

That's why Conan is considered the newer, hipper version of Dave the way Dave was for Johnny. He's completely classy, he respects the best, and he's not a celebrity kiss ass. He goes home after the show to be with his family and I've heard he doesn't go out much and reads a lot. He totally reminds me of a younger Letterman. I think Conan will restore the Tonight Show to what it once was. #1 in ratings and #1 in quality, albeit in nearly 5 years.

And he just humiliated Leno again tonight by delivering a funny, great, off-the-cuff [no cue cards] speech honoring Johnny and displaying the photos on his wall - Jack Parr, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson and....David Letterman.

His speech was great! Conan is a top notch class act, Leno should be ashamed.

Once again, any argument for Leno over Dave can be answered by one simple fact: It was dave that Johnny sent jokes to over the years. Johnny knew it....Conan Knows it...it is no contest.

Leno is almost painful to watch with many guests...he's a schlep and a hack. I can't for the life of me understand how anyone could think he's better with guests. Dave will be tops until he hangs it up, and Conan will then take the mantle. Leno forever will be a footnote of suckitude.

I hate to break it to you....but yes you are.

And that's exactly the reason NBC took him over Letterman in '92; and the same reason we're getting Conan in '09 instead of someone edgier.

Surely you're not insinuating that Conan's got unintentionally "lame-ass jokes" and conducts "forced, pedestrian" interviews?

I thought the reason NBC made the announcement about Conan taking over in '09 was to stop Letterman from making Conan an offer to possibly take over the Late, Late Show?

No, I'm just suggesting that Conan represents the "safe" choice for NBC - much in the same way Leno represented it in '92. Keep in mind that Jay really softballed his material once he got the Tonight Show gig...anyone who's seen him on the road will tell you he can be quite funny. One wonders if Conan will be asked to reign it in as well when he gets that earlier time slot.

Amen to that. Does anyone watch "Late Night" at 10 on Trio?? Leno was on last night, but I don't know the year. Larry Bud as well. Anyway, Leno was so annoying as a guest. Just simply not funny. Letterman's baby blue suit was much funnier, but then again, anything would have been funnier than Leno. He looked as though he was TRYING SO HARD TO BE FUNNY. It was not natural at all. Letterman's setups were so planned. You could tell Leno had given Letterman the cue sheets, which is probably normal, but the seques were horrible.

Yep, suddenly Jay was "Mr. Niceguy" and "Mr. Safe Joke". I always thought he was catering to the Middle America fanbase Carson left him.

People talk about how much Letterman has mellowed with age and he has. But what he did was go from "Young smartass" to "Old curmudgeon". He's still got that edge that Jay abandoned years ago.

I too didn't think Craig was as bad as the masses seemed to think... at least when he started. I haven't really watched him in a couple years, so I don't have a position on how he was when he left. I enjoyed him, but I guess that's because I fell in their key demographic... hell I'm an easy audience member.

I enjoyed Letterman years ago as far back as I can remember... latley... not so much. Given the opportunity, I'll switch to Leno for the Monolague & Interview (although Letterman does seem to get more A-listers), simply because I find him more entertaining... and his show comes in HD.

Throw another signature on the long list of Conan lovers for me. I was itching to hear what he would do about Carson, and I thought he handled it quite well. Made it personal, interesting, and entertaining; and not so damn depressing which is what you usually see after an event like this.

About him taking over the Tonight Show... all I'm worried about is how long his fuse will last. He is about 42 allready isn't he? Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but how long can he keep it up? We all have that funny friend, that seems to always be on, but you hang out with him/her for a weekend; you wanna choke them at the end of it.

The other side to that is: he's been doing his thing for 11 years now... still going strong. I guess he'll always have something to keep the fuel burning. Right now I'm watching him do his 'trump' and no matter what he'll pull a laugh out of you. Of course I have faith in him... he's the only one for it in my mind. Anybody would take him over Leno... it's Beef Tenderloin to Rump Roast.

I agree...Letterman is a good interviewer.

One thing I will mention about Dave that always trips me out...

Dave always seems uncomfortable when he has on Minority guests. I swear, I've been obsverving this for years.

I know I don't have the most popular opinion, but the host who I thought really pulled off both the monologue and the focus on the guests very well was Tom Green, who's short lived MTV talk show will always be remembered by me. When his show first started, I did as I do with most talk shows, and that's watch the first half or so of the show, then turn it off if there are no guests on that I want to watch, but I started to watch the show with the guests and Tom Green made EVERY interview interesting, whether he was talking to some body who had celebrity status or some fruitcake guest they brought on for grins and giggles.

I am not saying Tom Green could ever fill Carson's shoes, nobody can do that, but I would sure as hell rather see Tom Green on late night again before I would ever want to watch another minute of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien. Hopefully after Conan takes over the Tonight Show in 09, Tom Green has pulled his crap together and comes back with the material he did so well on his MTV talk show and takes a shot at getting Late Night. Not very f'n likely, I know, but I can always hope.

I think some interviews that stand out with conan are his interview with tom hanks where he drops a ton of fake snow on him and gives him the skeleton remains of hooch for christmas.

Or the latest brian williams interview on conan this week. That is some great off the way interviewer/interviewee relationship going there.

Then of course there's this

I was a big fan of his talk show too.

When Carson retired and they slapped Leno in his place I've always thought it was because he was NBC's lap dog....hell, I thought it was downright criminal. I don't watch The Tonight Show anymore and haven't a handful of times since.

The difference is Conan O'Brien knows he's not very funny and kind of a dork and runs with it. Jay thinks he's funny but he's not really. Anyone watch his interview with Clint Eastwood last night? It was horrible.

Jay WAS funny...40 years ago when he told those monologue jokes the first time.