Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Wise To Break The Rules

  • The Monologue:
    • Supposedly Harry Reid issued some sort of apology, but I don't really understand his honky dialect.
    • Israeli archaeologists discovered an 8,000-year-old building in Tel Aviv and tools that could be as old as 100,000 years. Fox News' Sarah Palin thinks that's impossible since the world is only like 6,000 years old.
    • Israeli archaeologists discovered an 8,000-year-old building along with its mailbox which read, simply, "Dole".
    • Israeli archaeologists discovered 100,000-year-old tools. They turned out to be Gateway computers, running Windows 98,000 B.C.
  • Random Pop Culture:
    • Good for Conan. I forgot to set my DVR tonight to see what he did, but I'm sure it will be news in the morning.
    • Didn't see much of anything tonight. I'll watch Idol tomorrow. It doesn't get to must-watch-the-night-it-airs status until the voting starts.
  • Random Music Video:
    • 51 years ago today, on January 12, 1959, Berry Gordy borrowed $800 from his family and formed Tamla records. On April 14 of the next year, he would incorporate the company as Motown Record Corporation. I could go Supremes or Michael Jackson, but I'm going to Motown's greatest song writer singing one of my favorite songs ever.

6 comments:

angie said...

I didn't tune in to Conan until about, oh, 12:05am or so, but the conversations with Brokaw and the other guest were pretty funny. I don't normally like Conan (and it wasn't necessarily Conan that I thought was so funny last night), but last night I laughed a lot.

I don't remember -- did Leno announce he was retiring and then NBC announced Conan as the successor? Or was it more that NBC was pushing Leno out and he originally went along with it?

Josh said...

When Conan signed his last contract, it included a stipulation that he get the Tonight Show in 2009. When 2009 rolled around and Leno was beating Letterman, NBC tried to have their cake and eat it too so they kept Leno and moved him into 10PM.

angie said...

So, at the time of Conan's last contract negotiation, NBC basically flipped Leno the bird? If so, then I have a lot less sympathy for Conan. That to me says he tried to screw over someone else and now it's coming back to bite him in the butt.

If at that contract time, NBC was willing to add the stipulation because Leno had already announced that he was retiring, then it's a different story. But it sounds like that wasn't the case.

Josh said...

I just looked it up on Wikipedia, so who knows, but it said that Conan was given the show after Leno announced his retirement. I haven't heard any TV critics say anything other than that Conan is a victim (albeit a well-paid one), so I'll take his side, although I can't stand Leno anyway, so I'm biased.

angie said...

Yeah, but he might be getting the victim sympathy because all the critics like him better than Leno anyway. I don't think Leno is particularly funny, but I really don't find Conan funny. So I don't know that I have an opinion, really. Other than dumb moves on the part of NBC.

Betsy said...

For Smokey, I think "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" or "Quiet Storm." Possibly "Ooo Baby Baby," but I don't know the song as well as I wish I did.