Thankfully, as of 85 minutes ago (as this is typed), Conan O'Brien is back on television. It was a sad and uncomfortable past few months and this period of time will be remembered more for what Conan did off of television than what Jay Leno did on it. His tour, his musical forays, his Twitter and his entire persona transcended a late-night talk show slot, proving that there is more to life than who hosts which show and what time it airs.

Tonight's debut on TBS felt very natural and did not really seem like anything had changed. The show felt like it was truly his own, which makes sense since there's no standard to live up to. No Jay Leno, no Johnny Carson, no Steve Allen, no precedent. The comedy bits seemed to work pretty well, the guests seemed to be receptive to their roles and, perhaps most importantly, Conan seemed OK with what was transpiring. (It's amazing what millions of dollars can make you seem OK with).

Of course, as nice as it was to see Conan on the airwaves again, there always has to be a negative and that negative is George Lopez. George Lopez is painful. Painfully not funny. Painfully awful. Of course George Lopez had to name drop his predecessor and his time slot within the first 30 seconds of tonight's show, as if that would make him somehow funny by association. So far, the most substantive thing out of his mouth on this show has been that he likes Antoine Dodson's hair straight. Yep, G-Lo likes Antoine Dodson's hair straight. Sadly, Antoine Dodson is a more legitimate entertainer than George Lopez. Even sadder, a better night of television would include Antoine Dodson hosting a talk show and George Lopez being a guest that only gets a few brief minutes to be unwatchable.

A small saving grace for what TBS is doing once Conan's show ends each night is that they're repeating that night's episode again after George Lopez's thing goes off. That means two hours of Conan for one hour of G-Lo, which is a step in the right direction. At least this gives people an hour to brush teeth, have a snack and update blogs in between opportunities to see that night's episode of Conan. The only problem is, Glopez comes on again after Conan goes off again. As if you needed any more reminders of exactly how wide the gap between the haves and have nots is in late night talk shows. Mercifully, there is absolutely no reason to be awake at 1am CST, so maybe George's show will go the same route as Arsenio Hall's, Tom Snyder's (RIP), Jon Stewart's, Chevy Chase's, John McEnroe's and (cringe) Magic Johnson's. It really needs to.

Fingers crossed...