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By Verne Gay -- Newsday -- April 28, 1993 -- Section: section "A stick and pencil with a head" is how one friend describes Conan O'Brien, the 6-foot-4' 4" comic who will try to replace David Letterman as host of NBC's "Late Night" this summer. per verne, the writer Oh yes, the 30-year-old Boston Brookline, Mass., native with a shock of carrot-red hair, is also a gifted comic writer. He spent nearly two seasons with "Saturday Night Live" and most recently with "The Simpsons," Fox's animated hit. "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening said yesterday that O'Brien "always kept the " "staff entertained . . . and if he can make a bunch of bitter, self-hating comedy writers laugh, then I'm sure he'll have no trouble making the rest of America laugh." But height and writing ability, of course, are not the usual prerequisites for hosting a late night TV show. Letterman, who become host of his first NBC talk show at 32, had spent a decade in front of audiences (once as a weatherman). It is for this reason that NBC, by choosing O'Brien, has made one of the most unexpected and potentially risky talent decisions in the history of modern show business. Numerous calls to O'Brien's home in Los Angeles yesterday were unanswered. As O'Brien entered the office of "The Simpsons" yesterday, the staff cheered. Starting next week, O'Brien will meet with NBC affiliates. Friends of O'Brien's said yesterday he was "shocked" that he got a job that many TV industry observers expected to go to veteran comedian Garry Shandling, the star of HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show." "[O'Brien's] very concerned that he not just go out on a big partying binge now," said Greg Daniels, co-producer of "The Simpsons" and a longtime pal. "He's concentrating on putting on a funny show this fall." NBC officials said O'Brien's first show will air in August. O'Brien steps into a tumultuous world at NBC, still reeling from the loss of Letterman and still trying to figure out just how, exactly, it will compete in the late-night TV wars of the '90s. Numerous industry sources say that Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of "Saturday Night Live" who was charged with finding Letterman's replacement, approached O'Brien about the job two months ago. Top West Coast executives at the network wanted a big star to replace Letterman. Discussions were held with Shandling, but there were complications. Foremost, Shandling's agent, Brad Grey, reportedly wanted to produce the show and own a piece of it. NBC, however, said that was not part of the discussions. Shandling also wanted to finish taping "Sanders" (which would take until August), and then tape the new late-night show in Los Angeles. Again, NBC said no. It wanted Shandling on the air sooner, while Michaels, who did not return calls yesterday, refused to produce the show out west. Shandling pulled out of the talks with NBC Monday. That left O'Brien. During his audition in front of an audience in Burbank's "Tonight" studio about 10 days ago, he said, "Look, I've got this big fat red meaty Irish head, and in three years it will really look weird, so I've got this small window of opportunity to do a late-night show." His performance was a hit. Hit or not, no one ever predicted that this gangly Harvard graduate would someday replace Letterman. He grew up in a big Irish family; his father, Tom, is a doctor, and his mother, Ruth, is an attorney. (None of the other six brothers and sisters are in show business.) After Harvard,he got a writer's job on HBO's Los Angeles-based "Not Necessarily the News." But friends say he wanted to work in New York. O'Brien got a job on "Saturday Night Live," where he wrote "Dieter, the German talk show host" for Mike Myers and some skits for frequent guest host Tom Hanks, including the famous "Girlwatchers" skit. But O'Brien wanted to be a performer, and Michaels would give him only occasional bits on the air. He left the show after only a year and a half for "The Simpsons." He wrote a handful of episodes, including one in which Homer is a monorail conductor and another in which Bart has a crush on a teenage girl. Copyright 1993, Newsday Inc. |