Here's a pretty good little piece from New York Magazine about David Letterman and Conan O'Brien being peers now that Conan has taken over The Tonight Show. It's interesting and definitely redeeming for someone that has been pro-Letterman since childhood and pro-Conan since he came on the air.

It's just another indicator of how much life has been lived to think about staying up late in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL to watch David Letterman on Late Night on NBC. Having a mother that never enforced a bedtime was a blessing in that regard*. It was equally rewarding when E! Entertainment Television (as it was more-often referred to as before "The E! Network" would show reruns of NBC-era Letterman, even after he had made the move to CBS' Late Show. Even better were the days (usually holidays) when E! would run marathons of old Letterman episodes. Pure gold.

Echoing the sentiment of so many, there was never anything wrong with Jay Leno. He's a funny guy and, more importantly, seems to be a good person. As the article relates, he was very steady and smooth (in the non-edgy way), which worked as a counterpart to Letterman's edge or whatever you want to call it. Leno's "Headlines" and "Jay-Walking" are still pretty hilarious.

Conan is the prodigy. He manages to be extremely funny and sickeningly creative while not offending anyone or scaring off viewers. Anyone that doesn't like Conan's stuff could always just write it off as "Well, it is on at Midnight on a Tuesday". That's not the case anymore. The new Tonight Show has been pretty good so far. Granted, most viewing so far has taken place at work the following day via Hulu (since, you know, people that watched Letterman on NBC are so old they go to bed early or simply can't remember to turn the TV on at 10:30pm). There is definitely a sense of homogenization taking place with Conan, but it's not terrible. Terrible is Jimmy Fallon's effort to replace Conan on Late Night.



* The (assumed) purpose of this was to allow the freedom staying up (very) late and watch whatever happened to be on TV, but being held accountable for the consequences. This included being tired at school the next day and repeating the actions/language of the TV shows. Good job, mom.