WARNING: A long ass emo post on Late Night (what?)
Tonight is the last episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
I'm still in the denial stage. I still think tonight's episode isn't the last, and that there's a new episode next week. I know it's the last episode (and I know he's leaving to much better pastures in LA), but it hasn't hit me.
I started watching this show when I was a freshman/sophomore in high school back in 1998 (wow ten years). My first impressions were that it was an entertaining show. Then it ballooned into something of an obsession. Every night at 11:30 (I live in the central time zone so I watched it an hour early. I always LOL when Conan refers to it as a "12:30" show in interviews) I put the tape in my VCR and taped every episode just like I did with the Simpsons before the advent of DVD. If you look at my video tape collection, there are numerous tapes with the labels "Late Night 1", "Late Night 2" and so on. I don't have the heart to tape over those episodes (plus my VCR doesn't work anyway so I can rest easy knowing no one will.) The show represented high school for me. It's cliche to say, but the show really did get me through some tough times. It taught me to laugh at myself, and I always knew if I had a bad day, the show would soothe my pain.
Some people have asked me why I wanted to be a writer. I always give them the backstory of "Well, I loved reading as a kid...whenever we had story writing assignments, I like writing them... I guess it's in my genes because members of my family writes..." True, but the real reason, the true motivator, why I wanted to be a writer was because of show. When I found out Conan was a comedy writer before he became a host, I thought if that's what it takes to how have a show like that, then I need to be a writer. So, sorry family, I wanted to be a writer because of Conan. Since then I've written a lot. Some failures and some successes. I've written short stories, poetry, TV pilots, and essays. In fact, if it wasn't for this show, I probably would be slaving away at the medical school library studying for the big USMLE exam.
I haven't watched the show on television in years. I've been watching periodically on hulu, but I've never forced myself into watching the show five days a week. But I'm watching tonight. I have work tomorrow, but I wouldn't miss this for anything. I'm going to feel like I'm back in high school. I'm not going to cry because coming June 1 he'll take over the Tonight Show, but I'm really going to miss the show. I know The Tonight Show is not going to be the same as Late Night, nor do I want it to. Evolution is a good thing.
As a parting note, I present my favorite remote EVER. I had a huge economics project due in which I had to do a presentation to elementary school kids about jobs in entertainment. This remote was on the night before the presentation, and it cracked me up. I had to be careful because I was laughing so hard that I thought I was going to wake my parents.
The branch hitting Mr. T gets me every time.
I'm still in the denial stage. I still think tonight's episode isn't the last, and that there's a new episode next week. I know it's the last episode (and I know he's leaving to much better pastures in LA), but it hasn't hit me.
I started watching this show when I was a freshman/sophomore in high school back in 1998 (wow ten years). My first impressions were that it was an entertaining show. Then it ballooned into something of an obsession. Every night at 11:30 (I live in the central time zone so I watched it an hour early. I always LOL when Conan refers to it as a "12:30" show in interviews) I put the tape in my VCR and taped every episode just like I did with the Simpsons before the advent of DVD. If you look at my video tape collection, there are numerous tapes with the labels "Late Night 1", "Late Night 2" and so on. I don't have the heart to tape over those episodes (plus my VCR doesn't work anyway so I can rest easy knowing no one will.) The show represented high school for me. It's cliche to say, but the show really did get me through some tough times. It taught me to laugh at myself, and I always knew if I had a bad day, the show would soothe my pain.
Some people have asked me why I wanted to be a writer. I always give them the backstory of "Well, I loved reading as a kid...whenever we had story writing assignments, I like writing them... I guess it's in my genes because members of my family writes..." True, but the real reason, the true motivator, why I wanted to be a writer was because of show. When I found out Conan was a comedy writer before he became a host, I thought if that's what it takes to how have a show like that, then I need to be a writer. So, sorry family, I wanted to be a writer because of Conan. Since then I've written a lot. Some failures and some successes. I've written short stories, poetry, TV pilots, and essays. In fact, if it wasn't for this show, I probably would be slaving away at the medical school library studying for the big USMLE exam.
I haven't watched the show on television in years. I've been watching periodically on hulu, but I've never forced myself into watching the show five days a week. But I'm watching tonight. I have work tomorrow, but I wouldn't miss this for anything. I'm going to feel like I'm back in high school. I'm not going to cry because coming June 1 he'll take over the Tonight Show, but I'm really going to miss the show. I know The Tonight Show is not going to be the same as Late Night, nor do I want it to. Evolution is a good thing.
As a parting note, I present my favorite remote EVER. I had a huge economics project due in which I had to do a presentation to elementary school kids about jobs in entertainment. This remote was on the night before the presentation, and it cracked me up. I had to be careful because I was laughing so hard that I thought I was going to wake my parents.
The branch hitting Mr. T gets me every time.