CoCo? No Mo.

First, we here at "Where the Wild Things Were Last Thursday Around 8" would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter, Max Weinberg and the rest of the cast and crew of the recently disassembled Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. As most of my generation would hopefully admit, Conan O'Brien is and always will be our late night talk show host, and even though the format has become something of an afterthought to the coveted 18-39 age demographic that at one time fueled the late night ratings, it has become obvious to me that when Generations X and Y are called upon to show our support, we will do so in droves. Sadly, however, it was too little too late and Mr. O'Brien's far too brief a stint as the host of The Tonight Show has come to an end.

I wanted to wait until everything played out before I made any comments about the events of the past two weeks, because an overly optimistic part of me still believed that maybe - just maybe - NBC, Jay Leno and Conan would come to their senses and do the right thing; which, of course, didn't happen. Mr. Leno will be returning to The Tonight Show and Mr. O'Brien has been cut loose to do whatever he pleases - as long as it happens seven months from now - which, honestly, could be a good thing for everyone involved.

Conan, whom I have adored since I was old enough to stay up and watch Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the mid-90's, is not an ordinary late night host by any stretch of the imagination. Consider some of his most beloved characters like the "masturbating bear," the "horny manatees" and, his most famous co-creation, "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog," and it's obvious to even the casual observer that Mr. O'Brien's unique brand of comedy is not for everyone; which was part of the problem during his seven month tenure as host of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

Older audiences tuning in hoping to hear familiar monologues with made-to-order jokes were not ready for the rubber faced funnyman to hop around the stage string-dancing while doing a horrible, yet uproarious, impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nor were they prepared to give Conan much of a chance, and, hey, I don't blame them. After nearly 20 years of the most watered down late night comedy possible (which, by the way, regularly trumped CBS' much more "edgy" (yeah, right the Top Ten Lists are now "edgy) David Letterman in the ratings war) why would viewers stick around for such a bizarre spectacle of silliness when all they want is to be told the same joke they thought of earlier that day while reading an article about Amy Winehouse? Even though NBC was hoping for Conan to tap into the highly sought after 18-39 year old demographic, it was as if they forgot that historically, that age group could care less about The Tonight Show, and once word leaked that NBC had asked Mr. O'Brien to "water down" his format to meet the needs of a broader audience most of us thought "well, there that goes," and after a few weeks of a very tame Conan, decided their late night viewing would be better spent elsewhere.

I blame myself and the generation I am a part of for the lack of support CoCo had up until his last two weeks of the show - which saw ratings sky rocket into unknown, late night territory - because we, more than any other group of people, should have been ready to watch and accept whatever television show Mr. O'Brien put forth to the general public, but we didn't. Instead, as is the usual with Generations X and Y, we got snarky almost immediately and dismissed Mr. O'Brien's efforts just as quickly; which is surprising when you consider Conan was a writer during the best seasons of The Simpsons and was almost unanimously adored by the same people who refused to watch him at 11:35 when he hosted Late Night with Conan O'Brien at 12:35. It's not that we didn't watch at all, mind you, it's that we didn't watch enough. I looked forward to my daily hour with Conan and crew, but it appears that I am in the minority and that frustrates me to no end.

I don't understand why people are so unwilling to accept the type of comedy that Conan O'Brien excels in; which is to say brilliant but silly at the same time. Especially after decades of Monty Python worship and the recent popularity boost seen by another smart-but-silly show named 30 Rock which capitalizes on the most absurd aspects of humor so keenly it almost seems realistic. Ah, but is that really the case? Turns out, what I thought would be more than stellar ratings after three straight years of taking home multiple Emmy awards and nominations that 30 Rock would be one of the most watched television shows going right now, but, oddly, it's not. Perhaps I am not as intuitive as I once believed, or maybe it goes back to that old political saying when the candidate you didn't vote for wins an election and, astonished, you proclaim "but everyone I know voted for him!" Could the niche that I live in be so tiny that it's co-inhabited by such a small amount of people? I mean, if 30 Rock wins any more Emmy's they are going to have to name the award after Tina Fey, but where are the viewers, and if they don't start showing up soon is NBC going to pull the plug? What about other NBC comedies I adore like Parks and Recreation, Community and The Office? How long will it be before the hatchet men set their gaze upon the best two hours of network comedy going right now? If what has happened with The Tonight Show is any indication it won't be that long before all my favorite shows are feeling the heat from their corporate overloads to do away with their specialized style of humor and open up to a broader audience. I shudder at the thought of Tracy Jordan being reigned in to accommodate the tastes of an audience that, if they haven't started watching already, most likely won't be watching NBC at 9:30 on Thursday's anyway. What about Parks and Recreation? That show, like The Office before it, is building a fan base slowly but surely with some of the strongest writing, performance and comedy I've had the pleasure of watching, but the ratings are down right abysmal by primetime comedy standards. Does this mean I should absorb as much Ron Swanson as is humanly possible over the next few months just in case P&R gets the axe due to low ratings at the end of year? Probably.

There was a time, way back before I can remember, when fledgling shows were given a chance to develop an audience and a voice, tone, structure and style over a period of time with the hopes that critical acclaim, or sheer force of will, would draw in an audience - any audience really-, but those days have passed us by, and the almighty "instant gratification" is what's required for networks to give shows breathing room to develop. Without that patience, and faith a little show about nothing named Seinfeld would have never been given the chance to flourish in it's second and third seasons the way it did after it's first season was, well, less than a stirring success. Now look at it, it's one of the most successful television shows of all time and when it debuted it registered as nothing more than a "blip" on most viewer's nightly radar. What about The Simpsons? The longest running animated sitcom in the history of the world went head to head against The Cosby Show when it first started gaining in popularity, and even though it didn't win week in and week it out, Fox never panicked, and let the show do what it was doing, and lo and behold, 20+ years later The Simpsons is still on the air and Bill Cosby is nowhere to be seen (well, on television at least).

That all being said, and as sad as I am to see Conan O'Brien leave The Tonight Show in order to make way for Jay Leno, I am not surprised at all by what transpired and, in fact, once I heard of the plummeting ratings for Mr. Leno's show and Mr. O'Brien's show, I knew something was going to happen. I just had no idea that the lead in (Mr. Leno's show) that continued to see it's ratings dwindle to the point of embarrassment, causing viewers to tune into other nightly news broadcasts on other networks in the process, would be the show getting the star treatment. From my perspective it all seems backwards. If the problem was a drop in ratings due to Mr. Leno's unsuccessful nightly experiment at 10:00, why did the network think it would be best to pander to Leno and not O'Brien? I suppose it would be best to look at Mr. Leno's overall success at 11:35; which, as much as I loathe the man right now, was substantially impressive. For all his faults, Mr. Leno does indeed strike a chord with the older demographic of viewers who love his "headlines" and his "Jay Walking," and I can't really say they are any more to blame than I am for having a strong affinity for watching Mr. O'Brien' s oft repeated "In the Year 3000" sketch. To each his own. Still, the logic behind the decision boggles my mind if it's based on traditional network maneuvering.

Jay Leno's show was getting hammered in the ratings. This led to more and more viewers changing the channel away from NBC on a nightly basis, and those same viewers were not changing the channel back to NBC to watch the evening news; which means those same viewers were most likely not watching The Tonight Show, which accounts for it's ratings failure, or at least that's how I see it. From what I understand, a "lead-in" show with high ratings is a sure fire way to ensure that any show following it will have a large "carry-over" audience that boosts ratings. This is why the show following American Idol every week always has ridiculously high ratings (even if it's terrible). The same can be applied to shows following Monday Night Football, The World Series or any other high profile event that is sure to draw in an audience almost despite itself. So, with that in mind, wouldn't it have made sense to do away with Leno instead of O'Brien? Evidently not.

Evidently, the powers that be over at NBC are much more committed to making Jay Leno happy than they are making Conan O'Brien happy, but to be fair they tried to come up with a solution that both men would agree to, the only problem is one of them didn't. I thought, after watching Mr. O'Brien for fifteen years or so that he would have accepted the shift, made light of it and continued on. I had no idea Big Red would show the gumption and integrity he did when he penned his now infamous letter declaring he would not accept the move to 12:05. It's what most of us would dream of doing in the face of such corporate mishandling, and it's something that I applaud Conan for doing. He showed guts and determination and a boat load of forethought. Mr. O'Brien knew it wouldn't be The Tonight Show as he had come to understand and adore it, but some bastardized version of the most successful franchise in television history that would be nothing more than a hamhanded attempt to fit too much TV into an hour and a half. ~sigh~ Still, I wish it hadn't happened and that I had Conan's goofy face to look forward to tonight and for many years to come.

I'm sure Conan O'Brien will end up on one station or another in September when he is literally free to go where he wants, and I hope, deep down, that the people who didn't tune in to NBC to see him nightly will follow him to whichever network he lands on. I know it's wishful thinking on my part, because who knows what will happen in the next seven months? I don't. I'm the guy who thought he was going to have at least a decade to settle in at 11:35 every night and watch one of the funniest, most endearing men on television do his thing, and look where that's got me.

In closing, Mr. O'Brien will be back and better than ever and he will have my support and the support of millions of people just like me who thought what happened to him was tragically absurd. I wish he and his crew the best over the coming days, weeks and months that I am positive will be incredibly difficult. As always, I will forever be a member of "Team CoCo," and to cop a phrase from Mr. O'Brien himself, "please, don't be cynical... work hard and be kind and you will achieve things you've never dreamed of." Truer words have never been spoken.

Thanks for the years of laughs, Mr. O'Brien. These next seven months are going to be a bear... a "masturbating bear" if you will.