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Late Night Wars - Conan's last Tonight Show was TONIGHT a long time ago

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numble

Member
Conan might get rights to characters in return for non-disparagement clause...

TMZ
http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/18/conan-obrien-nbc-triumph-insult-comic-dog-tonight-show/#ixzz0czcggCif

One of the sticking points in the negotiations between Conan O'Brien and NBC is a custody battle -- who gets Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and other characters Conan has created over the years ... sources tell TMZ. But we're told Conan will bag the dog, with strings attached.

Sources say Conan and NBC are "close" on his "Tonight Show" exit agreement -- but one of the remaining sticking points is intellectual property. Conan's characters -- like Triumph, the Pimpbot 5000 and the Masturbating Bear -- are all legally the property of NBC (Triumph's rights are a little tricky and may be the property of Conan's longtime friend Robert Smigel).

Conan wants to take them with him wherever he lands -- and we're told NBC will ultimately give Conan the right to his characters, in return for conceding other points in the exit deal.

As for what Conan may have to concede ... we're told the non-disparagement clause is still an issue. Specifically, how long will Conan be prohibited from trashing NBC? Conan may have to fold on this point in order to walk the dog.

Bottom line -- looks like the Masturbating Bear will live to self-gratify another day.
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S

Sanjuro

Member
I don't think retaining all of the characters sans Triumph on Conan are crucial. Although I do love me some Vomiting Kermit.

xnvo05.jpg
 
riskVSreward

riskVSreward

Member
What the fuck would NBC even do with those characters? It's like they're trying to out douche themselves at every turn. Are they gonna trademark his hair too?
 
aparisi2274

aparisi2274

Member
riskVSreward said:
What the fuck would NBC even do with those characters? It's like they're trying to out douche themselves at every turn. Are they gonna trademark his hair too?
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NBC did the same thing to Lettermen when he went to CBS. They were going to screw him over and keep the Top 10 list, because they owned it, and were pissed he was going to CBS.
 
B

BenjaminBirdie

Banned
riskVSreward said:
What the fuck would NBC even do with those characters? It's like they're trying to out douche themselves at every turn. Are they gonna trademark his hair too?
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When I went to the NBC store, they were selling Conando shirts, so it's clear they want all that stuff for merchandising.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
Raw64life said:
I'll take 20 more years of Conan skits over him not bashing NBC for one week.
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Sure. But a majority of those characters you won't see again anyway. Going up against word that you won't offend them on the air is pretty flimsy anyway.
 
B

Blader

Member
BenjaminBirdie said:
When I went to the NBC store, they were selling Conando shirts, so it's clear they want all that stuff for merchandising.
Click to expand...

But it's not like they'll be selling any of that anymore.

NBC only wants the rights to those characters to spite Conan, pure and simple.
 
W

woodchuck

Member
I'm trying to find a clip of Conan and Max after a show. Max takes the elevator and then Conan runs down the stairs waiting to kill Max. The elevator opens and Max guns down Conan with a machine gun :lol

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
 
N

numble

Member
woodchuck said:
I'm trying to find a clip of Conan and Max after a show. Max takes the elevator and then Conan runs down the stairs waiting to kill Max. The elevator opens and Max guns down Conan with a machine gun :lol

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I remember that...
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
woodchuck said:
I'm trying to find a clip of Conan and Max after a show. Max takes the elevator and then Conan runs down the stairs waiting to kill Max. The elevator opens and Max guns down Conan with a machine gun :lol

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Click to expand...
Yup.
 
C

ConfusingJazz

Member
cubicle47b said:
At 2:51 it looks like the guy from Community. He must have been an intern.
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Its Donald Glover. He is on Community, but before that, he was on the NYC based comedy troupe Derrick Comedy, best known for "Bro Rape"

And the chick from their "Blow Job" video is now the receptionist on The Office.
 
I

izakq

Member
With that non-disparagement clause, I just can't help thinking that if Conan starts up another talk show he'll come out with:

Conan: Now as some of you know, because of the contract agreement terms that were made earlier in the year, I, myself, cannot speak ill of NBC.

Crowd: boo

Conan: Yeah, so here to speak ill of NBC, please welcome *insert character/celebrity*

Then have it in the style of his earlier skits, "Celebrity Secrets".
 
C

Codeblue

Member
That's not a bad trade off, I would rather forget the whole ordeal and see Triumph going to places like Comicon after this is over.

I totally forgot about vomiting Kermit, thanks for bringing that up. That also reminds me of Evil Puppy. The introduction is so nonchalant. No NBC bashing for a while would be worth it on the off chance that any of these characters made a comeback. Hell, I'd like to see the Fed-Ex Pope resurrected at this point.
 
S

Schlep

Member
I wish I could find some of the old skits with Conan, Joel, and Max in pictures (like them going on vacation and such).
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
I'd rather Conan have the rights to the characters. I mentioned this earlier but its not really in Conan's style to be all vindictive and trash NBC, and to be honest, I think he would have stopped once he went to Fox/ABC/wherever anyway so the clause is kind of pointless...though it would be great if things came full circle and just like Carson would write jokes for Letterman, Conan and his writers sent all their NBC-bashing stuff to Dave to use on his show.
 
D

Dyno

Member
Fuck man, you have to stand in awe of Conan's comedic ability. NBC is so afraid of it that it's a sticking point a multi-million dollar contract negociation. They feel compelled to entice/coherse him into not skewering them. Respect!

Maybe Conan will create a new NBC executive character.
 
S

Slayven

Member
Ninja Scooter said:
I'd rather Conan have the rights to the characters. I mentioned this earlier but its not really in Conan's style to be all vindictive and trash NBC, and to be honest, I think he would have stopped once he went to Fox/ABC/wherever anyway so the clause is kind of pointless...though it would be great if things came full circle and just like Carson would write jokes for Letterman, Conan and his writers sent all their NBC-bashing stuff to Dave to use on his show.
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Besides you know somebody on the inside is writing a book that would air all the dirty dirt.
 
I

infinityBCRT

Member
ruby_onix said:
Jay never wanted to leave his 11:35 show (aside from that period of time when they were making the written plans). He refused and threatened and caused a mess a year ago. NBC convinced him to move to primetime. He failed there. They had to find a new solution. Maybe daytime, maybe a car show. "Somebody" suggested that he take back his 11:35 show from Conan, even if $40 million contracts and NBC's word had to be broken to do it. Only fools think that "somebody" wasn't Jay Leno himself. Jay plays the victim card and says NBC is screwing him (even though he's getting everything he wants), and NBC lets people believe it. But that's only because Leno means that much to them.
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In 2004 Conan started to get offers from Fox and possibly ABC. NBC had just finished a contract extension with Leno until 2009 so they brought the idea to Leno that he step down after the contract ended so that Conan wouldn't leave and create a competing show. Leno said he would leave the Tonight Show but (in his public statement) he wasn't going to retire. As Leno's contract neared its end, he likely had offers to go to Fox and/or ABC and thats when NBC freaked out (especially considering he still had the #1 show) and had to figure out a way to keep Leno because there was nothing in his contract preventing him from starting a competing show. So NBC (just as they did in the early 90s) was forced to make a choice: let Leno walk and create a new show, let Conan walk and create a new show or try to keep both happy. And we all know they picked the latter which only was to delay the inevitable.

Once the Leno show failed they had to find another way to keep him from walking across the street to FOX or ABC and the only way was to give him a 11:35 slot (Aside: it was also the tipping point with Letterman-- he wanted 11:35 or he was walking from NBC after Leno already had Tonight... they actually tried to do a similar thing as they did with Conan by giving him 18 more months on the Late Night show before giving him Tonight but he ended up walking because he smelled BS). If NBC didn't offer Leno Tonight there was a huge chance the franchise would have been submarined by Leno's new show.

NBC really dropped the ball on this one-- if they had put a non-compete clause for a few years in Leno's contract at the end of 2009 or for the Jay Leno show than they really wouldn't have to worry about Leno creating a hit new show hot off the heels of "Tonight". And if they knew Leno had no intention of retiring or had a desire to go to another network (which they should have), they should have let Conan walk in 2004.
 
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DMczaf

Member
I started watching Conan during the summer of 1998 right after 8th grade. I remember my friends thinking I was crazy when I tried to describe the show.
 
R

rareside

Member
TMZ has a live stream on their home page of Conan supporters outside Universal.

I won't link to it, because it's TMZ, but it's amazing that such a crowd came out despite the rain.
 
M

Mike Works

Member
woodchuck said:
I'm trying to find a clip of Conan and Max after a show. Max takes the elevator and then Conan runs down the stairs waiting to kill Max. The elevator opens and Max guns down Conan with a machine gun :lol

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Click to expand...
That clip's on that Japanese site that people are linking in this thread (YouKu or something like that).

It's in one of the three "fond memories" videos or whatever they're called. Just search for "O'Brien" and it should be on the second or third page.

Sorry I can't find it for you, but I'm at work.
 
D

DrEvil

not a medical professional
Why are they all standing at the Universal City redline stop? The Tonight Show studio is up the street about 400 metres... they're in the wrong place... Unless the crowd is that huge.


And apparently Conan is making an appearance in an hour or so.


I can't believe how much rain there is in LA.. I've NEVER seen that, wow.
 
D

DrEvil

not a medical professional
Mike Mitchell (Creator of the Coco Poster) said Conan will be making an appearance at the rally... I imagine TMZ will have it on their stream.
 
J

JGS

Banned
infinityBCRT said:
NBC really dropped the ball on this one-- if they had put a non-compete clause for a few years in Leno's contract at the end of 2009 or for the Jay Leno show than they really wouldn't have to worry about Leno creating a hit new show hot off the heels of "Tonight". And if they knew Leno had no intention of retiring or had a desire to go to another network (which they should have), they should have let Conan walk in 2004.
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If I were Leno, I would have never signed a non-compete clause after being with them for another 5 years. Watching the video of the Tonght Show announcement (not the press conference one), it seems clear to me that Leno was ready to go after 5 years. He felt he would be tired of the format. However, I am convinced (sort of) that Leno is obsessive compulsive and likes sticking with the same thing.

There was no reason for them to fret over Conan leaving unless they thought they were going to lose Jay not the other way around. They thought they were going to lose Jay anyway, so they did not want to lose Conan. I do not believe that NBC suggested Leno leave to make way for Conan. There was no smart business reason for a decision like that.

It's probably true that NBC did not know that Leno was not retiring from talk show television, their bone headed move was letting that sway them one way or another once the ink was dry on the (2009) contracts. They are letting the employee run the show.
 
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