bon voyage, conan

Slate on Conan O'Brien:

I'm one of those fans, a member of the demographic most likely to view Conan with love and affection: people who reached late-night-TV-watching age at around the same time Conan's show started getting good, around 1995 or so. If you're like me, you started watching Conan regularly at around age 13 or 14, and continued as a highly regular viewer for the next eight or nine years, your loyal fandom enabled by the fact that, as a teenager and then a college student, you had no problem staying up until 12:40 every night.

That could've been written by me, except I was probably about 12 when I started watching Conan—back when he was a total unknown and cancellation was seemingly inevitable. But the show got better, the critics turned around, and I'm glad I stuck around to see him get through the dark days.

I'm sure you're wondering what kind of parents would allow their impressionable child to stay up well past midnight to watch a show featuring such illustrious characters as Pimpbot5000 (the classic stylings of a 1950s robot combined with the dynamic flair of a 1970s street pimp) and the masturbating bear (which is exactly what it sounds like). But I adored Conan's wacky sense of humor and self-deprecating style; when I wasn't wanting to be a forensic pathologist like Dana Scully, I wanted to be a comedy writer in New York City like Conan. The Scully thing obviously didn't work out and neither did the New York City comedy thing . . . but I got the writer part down so maybe I'm not a total failure after all.

To no one's surprise, the highlight of my youth did not involve getting asked out to the prom by the most popular guy in school or making the varsity cheerleading squad, but driving up to New York with my best friends to attend a Late Night taping. Hilary Swank was the first guest and Conan would say her last name like a dolphin. Swa-a-a-ank.

All this reminiscing because tonight, after 16 years at Late Night, Conan will say goodbye to Studio 6A in 30 Rockefeller Plaza and head west to take over The Tonight Show. It'll be bittersweet for sure—I'm a little sad and kind of nervous about the move, but at the very least it guarantees a vast improvement over the mediocrity that is Jay Leno's Tonight Show (don't even get me started on NBC giving Leno a 10 PM show—the best thing about Conan's leap to the 11:30 slot was supposed to be me not having to suffer through the last few minutes of Leno while waiting for Conan to start).

And speaking of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, don't let 30 Rock go the way of Arrested Development—watch that show!

Anyway, I'll be watching Conan tonight and wishing him the best when he starts his new show on June 1.