Did you watch the first Conan last night? It started out with him not being able to get a cab in New York and therefore deciding to run all the way to L.A. He even ran across the field at Wrigley on his way. They chose "Surrender" by Cheap Trick as the music for the bit, which always beings back memories of Cory doing the gun-waving dance for Carl in Over the Edge. Gypsy of the road!

It was cool, until the audience "woo"d when they saw him arriving in California--that's when it hit me that our coast has lost Conan. Sniffle.

Pretty good ending to it, though, as he reaches the studio, and the door's locked. So he sadly walks away off screen...only to return in a bulldozer and blaze right through the wall.

Andy Richter is back! But he's the announcer, which means Joel Godard is gone. I looked up info on Joel and there isn't much. I read that he actually used to be an announcer for Carson, but imdb doesn't indicate that. (Also, wasn't Ed McMahon always Johnny's announcer/sidekick?) He's an enigma wrapped in a cliche about different entities figuratively "wrapped" in each other. Unlike Conan's original show, Andy stays over at the mic and really doesn't do much. Get him back on the couch!

I was wondering about guests on the first show--you don't want to have someone upstage the host. Sure enough, Will Ferrell was carried onto the set by Roman-like slaves. They did a few other pre-taped skits, and then Pearl Jam closed it out. It's so weird to see this band that you followed when they started, when you and they were basically kids, and here's the host of The Tonight Show, which pre-dates all of us, being completely honored that they'd play for him. Their new tune sounded like "Gut Feeling" by Devo. And I couldn't watch the screen because the delay between sound and picture was at least a full second. It seems like that happened any time there was sound other than what the main microphones at Conan's desk was picking up. Or there'd be an echo. The fact that the delay/echo only happened some of the time, and wasn't always the same when it did happen, led me to believe it wasn't my TV. Anybody else have this problem?

These late-night hosts always have some connection to me. Conan: Red Sox fan. Leno: Red Sox fan. Fallon: Honorary Red Sox fan. Letterman: Was my neighbor, meaning he lives a few towns from where I was born/raised, and he'd come into my town's coffee shop, and he once drove right past me in a fancy convertible right near the Danbury Fair Mall. Carson: Raised in Nebraska and went to U of N, where I also went to college.

So now the two late-night shows I care to watch are on at the same time (until Fallon improves). I'll see how that goes. Maybe it's time to get a DVR, and just watch Dave at 11:30 and Conan on tape delay. Nah, I'll just wing it. It's not that big a deal.