Conan O'Brien is ready for 'Tonight'

Conan O'Brien is more than excited to take over "The Tonight Show" -- but in case it doesn't work out, or people get oversaturated with comedy talk shows once Jay Leno begins his prime-time gig in the fall, O'Brien has a backup plan.

"I think at some point my show is going to have to morph into a detective show," O'Brien jokes. "... Andy Richter and I will be solving crimes. It's going to be 'Murder, She Wrote' with a slightly younger demo."

It probably won't come to that for O'Brien, who's taking over "The Tonight Show" from Leno starting Monday, June 1 after 15-plus years as the host of "Late Night" (he'll also be Leno's final guest on Friday). In a wide-ranging chat with reporters Tuesday, O'Brien talked about the transition between hosts, the difference between 11:30 and 12:30 and the lineup for his first week on the air. Here are some highlights.

How has the transition gone, and how does it feel being Leno's last guest?
"It's gone very well. I know that -- look, there's no denying that the media, and for good reason, they like conflict. It's a better story. But one of the things that's been really nice is that Jay and I have always -- I mean, really going back to 1993 when I got started -- we've always personally gotten along really well.

"And I just saw Jay -- we did this upfront show in New York. We hung out in the Town Hall Theatre at rehearsal for a while, just trading stories about guests and jokes and things like that. We've always gotten along really well. And he's been very kind to me about this whole transition. And I think one of the nice things that's really helped is Jay staying with the network and going to 10 o'clock has made ... the transition particularly easy for both of us.

"Because he's happy, I'm happy. That's actually been kind of a Godsend. ... When he asked me to be his last guest, obviously I was very honored to do it. And if nothing else, it gets me on 'The Tonight Show' 48 hours earlier than I normally would have been. It was nice of him to give me a little bit of a head start."

How much of "Late Night" are you bringing with you?
"Being on the Universal lot [home to the new 'Tonight Show' studio] is such a gift, and being in this strange culture. People laugh when they just think of me being in Los Angeles, that it's an opportunity here to think of new ideas.

"It would be a shame to just dust off the 'Late Night' show and move it to 11:30. It doesn't feel right to do that. So I think we're really hoping to come up with new things as well. So I'd like to keep the best of the 'Late Night' show -- a couple of pieces here and there that really work for us. And I see no reason why Triumph the Insult Comic Dog can't file reports for us, and ... then I think this is really an opportunity to do something new. I think people would be disappointed ... if I didn't re-invent myself to some degree."

What can you say about your first week's guests? [The lineup includes Will Ferrell, Tom Hanks, Pearl Jam, Gwyneth Paltrow, Green Day, Sheryl Crow and Ryan Seacrest.]
"Will Ferrell has always been an amazing guest for me. And we have a good -- it's always kind of a happening when he's on the show.

"Tom Hanks is one of the great talk-show guests of all time. I mean, he's this movie legend who also happens to be a great raconteur and incredibly likeable, and I've known him for years. So having him on is a dream come true for this first week.

"Gwyneth Paltrow ... she was the third guest when she first came on in 1993. She was in a move with James Caan -- I can't even remember the name of the movie ['Flesh and Bone']. But she was -- no one knew who Gwyneth Paltrow was. And here we are all these years later, and she's this great movie actress and style icon. So having her on made a lot of sense.

"And then Ryan Seacrest and I are lovers."

Is there really a difference between the comedy you can do at 12:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m.?
"I think it's a valid question. But I do think that sometimes people act like there's a tear in the fabric of time and space that separates 11:30 and 12:30. You know what I mean? For example, if you look at David Letterman, [he] was on at 12:30 and was very successful there. And then he came to 11:30 and you look at it, so many of those things he brought with him. And they work fine. ... He had re-invented himself as well, but he brought things with him.

"...I sometimes think, What's the most important thing for 'The Tonight Show'? 'The Tonight Show' needs to be funny. And I think if 'The Tonight Show' is really funny, you can experience it at 11:30 or you can watch it on your computer the next morning while you're eating your oatmeal.

"I think sometimes, especially in 2009, people can overstate the idea that that there's a comedy barrier that separates 11:30 and 12:30, and that you'll ignite antimatter if you bring 12:30 into 11:30. Do you know what I mean?

So it's not just the idea of, "Oh, he can't do the masturbating bear at 11:30"?
"Yeah. I think people focus on the masturbating bear. And I say, 'Well, how about the self-pleasuring bear?' And, you know, I've had actually people say to me, well it's too bad, because you could never do Triumph at 11:30. And I tell them that's funny, because Triumph's been a guest on Jay Leno's 'Tonight Show' like three times. And they say, Oh. So yeah, I think a lot of that's sort of overblown. I look at the stuff that I've done -- I did comedy I really liked when I hosted the Emmys, and that was in primetime.

"And that was all stuff that had a Conan-y feel to it. And it worked fine. I made slight adjustments here and there. ... You know, I tell people if you looked at my last week of shows, where we aired montages -- the stuff we've done over the years, I would say 90 percent of it was stuff that I think could have been done at 11:30, or 10 o'clock at night or 9 o'clock at night."

Any lessons you're taking from Leno's "Tonight Show" tenure into yours?
"I think the reason Jay's show worked so well is that he did it his way. And Johnny Carson did it his way, which was quite different from Jack Paar, who did it his way, which was really different from Steve Allen, who did it his way.

"I think the golden rule with 'The Tonight Show' is a host has to put his stamp on it. That's the only way it's going to work."

Related:

Jay Leno's last guest: Conan O'Brien

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