Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien
O'Brien aboard the USS Nimitz in May 2003.
Born	(1963-04-18) April 18, 1963 Brookline, Massachusetts
Occupation(s)	Late night talk show host (Late Night with Conan O’Brien), comedian, television producer, television writer
Spouse	Elizabeth Ann Powel
Website	Official website

Conan Christopher O'Brien (b. April 18 1963) is an American television presenter best known as host of NBC's late-night talk/variety show Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

NBC announced that O'Brien will take over for Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show in 2009.

Career

O'Brien moved to Los Angeles after graduation to join the writing staff of HBO's Not Necessarily the News. He spent two years with that show, and performed regularly with improvisational groups like The Groundlings. He also acted in corporate infomercials to earn money during this period.

After Not Necessarily the News, O'Brien partnered with Harvard classmate Greg Daniels (who went on to be the executive producer of King of The Hill and The Office) as staff writers on the short-lived Wilton North Report for Fox Broadcasting. He also occasionally served as that show's live audience warm-up person. Wilton North, with former Letterman producer Barry Sand as executive producer, lasted only four weeks, and is noteworthy mostly as the show that bumped the Arsenio Hall-hosted Late Show off the air.

In January 1988, Saturday Night Live's executive producer Lorne Michaels hired O'Brien as a writer. During his 3½ years on SNL he wrote such recurring sketches as "Mr. Short-Term Memory" and "The Girl Watchers," the latter of which was first performed by Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz. O'Brien also wrote the sketch "Nude Beach", a sketch in which the word penis was said or sung at least 42 times.

While on a writers' strike from Saturday Night Live following the 1987-1988 season, O'Brien put on an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow SNL writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel called Happy Happy Good Show.

In 1989, O'Brien and his fellow SNL writers received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series.

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O'Brien as portrayed in the episode "Bart Gets Famous" on The Simpsons.

O'Brien, like many SNL writers, occasionally appeared as an extra in sketches, including a role as a doorman in a sketch in which Tom Hanks was inducted into the SNL "Five Timers Club" for hosting his fifth episode. Years later, when Hanks was a guest on Late Night, O'Brien showed the clip and jokingly claimed their appearance together was the source of all of Hanks's subsequent success.

From 1991 to 1993, O'Brien was a writer for The Simpsons., credited as writer or cowriter of four episodes Of all the episodes he wrote while writing for The Simpsons, he considers "Marge vs. the Monorail" to be his favorite. Years later, in his speech given at Class Day at Harvard in 2000, O'Brien credited The Simpsons with "saving" him, a reference to the career slump he was experiencing prior to his hiring for that show .

Late Night

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Early promotional image for Late Night.

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O'Brien with guest Jack Black.

On April 26, 1993, Lorne Michaels chose O'Brien to be David Letterman's successor as host of Late Night with David Letterman, with Andy Richter signed on to be his sidekick. Premiering on September 13, Late Night with Conan O'Brien received generally unfavorable critical reviews for the first 2-3 years after its debut. The show was reportedly cancelled by network executives, but was allowed to remain on a week-to-week basis when it was realized there was no programming available to replace it. By 1996-97, O'Brien's writing and comedic style was thought to have improved, and he began to develop a growing fan base, especially with high school and college students, as well as the respect of critics and his peers. O'Brien would later poke fun at the first three years of the show when on his 10th Anniversary Special, Mr. T appeared to give O'Brien a gold necklace with a giant "7" on it. When Conan tries to point out that he's actually been on the air for ten years, Mr. T responded "I know that, fool...but you've only been funny for seven!"

Since then, O'Brien and the Late Night writing team have consistently been nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series, though they have not won as of 2006. In 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004 he and the Late Night writing staff won the Writers Guild Award for Best Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series.

In 2001, he formed his own television production company, Conaco, which has subsequently shared in the production credits for Late Night.

As of October 2005, 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien had for nine years consistently attracted an audience averaging about 2.5 million viewers.

Other work

In 2005, O'Brien appeared in The White Stripes' music video, "The Denial Twist". The band had previously been a week-long musical guest on Late Night when they were promoting their 2003 album, Elephant.

He has appeared on another late-night talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast (SGC2C), in Episode 77: Fire Ant, in which he and Space Ghost argue between themselves about a number of things, including whether or not anyone actually watches SGC2C. Space Ghost later quips, "Well, that's very stupid, and you won't make it in television," an obvious parody of early reviews of O'Brien's show. After a while, Space Ghost ignores the interview entirely to follow a fire ant that bit him (for about 11 straight minutes). As Space Ghost is crawling out of the studio, O'Brien gripes that "[f]or all these people know, my show is...a...cop...show...on Fox...or something," to which Space Ghost replies, "...Isn't it?"

O'Brien had a brief guest spot on an episode of Robot Chicken, in a quick, SNL-esque sketch called "Randy, the Oblivious Pizza Delivery Guy."

On September 27, 2004, NBC announced the planned 2009 retirement of Tonight Show host Jay Leno. O'Brien was named Leno's successor.

On March 7, 2006, NBC announced that it had ordered a pilot episode for Andy Barker P.I., a new comedy executively produced by O'Brien, who will also co-write the pilot. The show will star O'Brien's former sidekick Andy Richter.

Conan also hosted the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards on August 27, 2006, to widespread critical acclaim. He had previously hosted the Primetime Emmys in 2002.

Partial list of film and TV appearances

• 30 Rock (as himself) - 2006
• O'Grady - 2006
• Robot Chicken - 2005
• The Office - 2005
• Andy Richter Controls the Universe - 2003
• Storytelling - 2001
• Saturday Night Live - 1991, 2001
• Spin City - 1998
• The Single Guy - 1996
• Arli$$ - 1996
• Mr. Show with Bob and David - 1995

Personal life

Early years

Conan O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He is the third of six children in an Irish American family, one of four boys. His father, Dr. Thomas O'Brien, is a research physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, specializing in infectious diseases. His mother, Ruth Reardon O'Brien, is a former partner of the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray. His sister, Jane, is a comedy writer and producer.

O'Brien excelled at English at Brookline High School; while there, he served as managing editor of his school newspaper and interned for Rep. Barney Frank.

After graduating from high school, O'Brien entered Harvard University and, in his three upper-class years, lived in Mather House. Throughout his college career, he was a writer for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine. During his sophomore and junior years, O'Brien served as the Lampoon's president, making him only the second person ever to serve as president twice, and the first person to have done it in 85 years. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1985 with a B.A. in U.S. History.

Family

On January 12, 2002, O’Brien married former advertising copywriter Liza Powel in her hometown of Seattle, Washington, in a nuptial Mass at St. James Cathedral. Elizabeth Ann Powel was born November 12, 1970, is from Bainbridge Island, Washington (near Seattle), and is the daughter of Seattle Dixieland band-leader Jake Powel. They met in the spring of 2000 when Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB), the advertising agency she worked for, redesigned the television commercials for O'Brien's Houston sponsor, Hilton Furniture.

They have a daughter, Neve, born on October 14, 2003 in New York City, and a son, Beckett, born November 9, 2005 in New York City.

Comedy and mannerisms

Main article: "Comedy and mannerisms" of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

On Late Night, Conan has become known for his more active and spontaneous hosting style. His stage habits include, but are not limited to: pantomime, self-deprecation, dramatic expressions, various impressions and use of awkward pauses or responses. O'Brien is extremely popular among some people for jumping around like a mad man, rowing, licking the TV camera, headbutting the TV camera, etc.

One of his trademarks is the "string dance," which is often recreated by his guests who have seen him do the dance. He also does unique impressions of celebrities that reflect his goofy sense of style. His most notable are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Trump.

Trivia

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A promotional poster for Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, featuring Conan and Tarja

• On October 11, 2005, O'Brien first pointed out on his show that he resembled the female President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, after meeting Finnish actor/director Lauri Nurkse in the audience before the show. Since then he has done many comedy bits about this fact.
  Further information: Late Night with Conan O'Brien § Tarja Halonen and Finland

• O'Brien is 6'4" tall (1.93 m), a fact which becomes obvious when he stands up to greet a guest.

• During O'Brien's first rocky year as host of Late Night, his predecessor, David Letterman, was very supportive, making an amicable appearance as one of O'Brien's first guests and later filling O'Brien's audience with the stand-by audience from his own show. Letterman also invited O'Brien to guest on The Late Show. Years later, when NBC announced that O'Brien would take-over The Tonight Show (a job previously coveted by Letterman), Letterman openly congratulated O'Brien on The Late Show.

• Also during his first rocky year, O'Brien was a guest on The Howard Stern Show, where Stern and his crew mocked him by throwing a going-away party for him, brought on by newspaper reports that NBC was already looking for someone to replace O'Brien. After the joking subsided, Stern said that O'Brien was more talented than his competition and that he was improving.

• O'Brien is an avid guitarist and music listener. He frequently features little-known musical acts on his show not because of an inability to book big-name acts, but to give talented, lesser-known artists some exposure.

• The first musical act on Late Night was Radiohead (who appeared on the second ever taping) to perform the huge 90's hit, Creep. O'Brien has stated every time the band returns to the show that they are one of his favorite acts, and points out that he is a huge fan.

• While attending Harvard, O'Brien was roommates with Damon Krukowski, who later became drummer for the indie band Galaxie 500. O'Brien had previously bought himself a drumkit, but had only recently given up playing it. He lent it to Krukowski, whom he knew would get more use out of it. O'Brien's drum kit can be heard on many of Galaxie 500's early recordings. Conan has even drummed with The Max Weinberg 7 on at least one occasion on the show, in a sketch in which he and Max Weinberg, whose parents were under the impression that he was the host and had come to see the show, switch places.

• Following an interview in which Michael Bolton, angry over jokes O'Brien had made, threatened O'Brien should the two ever play celebrity softball together again, O'Brien announced that the two were enemies and proceeded to make fun of Bolton for a week of his show. The interview with Bolton's threats was apparently genuine.

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Conan O'Brien and his 1992 SHO

• O'Brien appears as a character in the 1999 film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, voiced by Brent Spiner. O'Brien mentioned, when South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were guests on Late Night, that he loved the appearance and only wished he had done the voice. O'Brien is later seen in Hell in the episode "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?". In 2006, he voiced himself in a short South Park scene as part of the opening of the 2006 Emmy Awards. In the segment he hides in Stan Marsh's closet (A reference to the episode Trapped in the Closet, which was nominated for an Emmy), and then leaves saying "there's somebody else in there!".

• O'Brien said on his talk show that he drives a green 1992 Ford Taurus SHO. The car was featured in a Late Night segment about classic cars in which O'Brien attempted to get it appraised. In a later segment, the car was "sold" to Brad Pitt, who drove away in the vehicle.

• O'Brien claimed on an episode, prompted by the band playing a Kool & the Gang song during his walk to his desk, that "Celebration" is the worst song ever. O'Brien jokingly threatened to walk off the set if the band ever played the song. The very next night, the band played "Celebration". O'Brien opted to stay.

• O'Brien is lampooned on the comedic site Conan vs. bear, an on-going gag in which artists create depictions of him fighting or competing with bears in various ways.

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Eisenhower Mug

• O'Brien keeps a mug full of pencils or pens at the left most corner of his desk that is shaped like the bust of World War II General Dwight D Eisenhower. The original was given to him by Robert Smigel of SNL because of Conan's obsession with US Presidents. It was on his desk while writing for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons. He/the show now have several of them which are sometimes altered for sketches.

• He has an affinity for Abraham Lincoln. He frequently interviews authors that have written about Lincoln, such as Doris Kearns Goodwin and Sarah Vowell. O’Brien and Andy Richter once ate at the Lincoln Restaurant, a Chicago diner known for its giant Abe Lincoln-head sign and its Civil War-themed omelets. Pictures taken during their visit hang prominently near the establishment’s cash register. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening mentions on many Simpsons DVD commentaries (including some O'Brien penned episodes) that comedy writer Lincoln infatuation has something to do with having attended Harvard.

• Recently, O'Brien joined several members of the Max Weinberg 7 as he played acoustic guitar behind musical guest Bruce Springsteen for the song, "Pay Me My Money Down". He also contributed backup vocals for the performance.

External links

• Interview with Conan on NPR's Fresh Air (September 8, 2003)
• Part One and Part Two of an interview with The A.V. Club
• O'Brien on The Charlie Rose Show from Google Video