Go, Conan!
A limerick in honor of Conan O’Brien’s Solomon-like decision about the Tonight Show — not to “seriously damage what [he considers] to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting,” (I wrote it both as a fan and as a recovering lawyer.)
Go, Conan!
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Dear Conan, I’m glad you refused.
By your Network, you’ve sure been abused.
You’re right to be teed.
You’re a class act, indeed.
NBC’s breach can not be excused.
Update: I haven’t seen Conan’s contract. But here’s NBC’s argument, as I understand it: NBC can legally air The Tonight Show with Conan at 12:05 a.m. after a new half-hour Leno show, because O’Brien’s contract doesn’t specify a time. I don’t buy it.
Following NBC’s argument to its logical conclusion, NBC could air The Tonight Show at 4:00 a.m., or even at noon. In fact, by NBC’s reasoning, Conan could have stayed at his old 12:35 a.m. slot and Jay could have kept his original 11:35 p.m. Tonight Show slot. All NBC would have had to do would be to change the names of the shows: Conan’s to the Tonight Show, and Jay’s to the Jay Leno Show. Sorry, NBC, this doesn’t pass the straight-faced test.
One more point: Rumor has it that Jay’s contract specifies a 10 p.m. time, and that (the argument goes) this weakens Conan’s position. I disagree. Conan O’Brien was being promoted to a show that already existed in a specific time slot, whereas Jay’s show was being created from scratch. So they are not analogous situations.
Update 2: Is this a slam dunk for Conan? No. But as a “recovering lawyer” who litigated my share of contract disputes, I’d rather take Conan’s case to a jury.
Tags: Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Late Night TV, Law Humor, Media, NBC, Team CoCo, Team Conan, Television Humor, Tonight Show
So on target once again, not to mention articulate, entertaining and funny.
(btw, don’t miss Maureen Dowd’s column in the NYTs today-1/13/10)- I still remember one of his first shows- Can’t believe how long it’s been—it was right after a major peace achievement with Israel and (I can’t remember now-but it was major news) In any case, his line during one of his first shows was something like…”Who ever thought I’d become the host of a late night talk show? I mean, that’s even more unlikely than peace in the middle east!”
thanks for entertaining us with wit, humor and on-target limmericks!
Thanks so much, Debby. I really appreciate your enthusiasm for my humor!
And I just checked out Dowd, as you suggested. Very interesting column about Jeff Zucker. Thanks!
And Leno’s just not that funny!
I’m with Coco!