In case you've somehow missed the barrage of promotion, Conan O'Brien's new post-Tonight Show talk show premieres on TBS tonight.
It's a little difficult to know what to expect from Conan on his new program. Clearly, his level of fame after tussling with NBC and (by proxy) Jay Leno has skyrocketed, so it's easy to forget that his time on the Tonight Show before the dispute was a little dull.
Part of Conan's charm in his later time slot was how his writers made the most of low budgets and third-tier guests. Conan worked in the milleu of disappointment, and the triumph of taking over the legacy of the Tonight Show didn't seem to fit him terribly well. The jokes were less randomly bizarre, less oriented toward shiftless insomniacs and more toward a mainstream that he couldn't seem to connect with.
On cable, who knows where he'll head? That is part of the excitement surrounding tonight's episode. He may not have long to connect with an audience that has the Stewart/Colbert tandem to also choose, but Conan did earn a spot on the DVR to-do list in my household.
All I ask is for the occasional return of the Pimpbot 5000:
