Conan O’Brien is coming back to television (I know, but if I say he’s coming back to “your device of choice” it sounds weird), visiting Bangkok, getting beat up by a child, sword fighting, and showing off his angelic voice in the tease for Conan O’Brien Must Go, a new show on Max (MAX MAX MAX – through repetition, we’ll surely all get used to saying that instead of HBO Max).
Conan going to Max isn’t a surprise. When he closed the book on his TBS show part of our emotional support infrastructure was the promise that something new was coming between Coco and the streamer… eventually. But then he became a podcast impresario and then Warner Discovery disassociated itself from a lot of projects in various states of being and we didn’t know what the hell was going on. Would it be a variety show (as had been speculated early on, conjuring images of a masturbating bear that also juggles while on a unicycle – no easy feat), a more low-fi chat show that borrowed from the concept of the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast? Something else entirely? Nothing? But as it turns out, the actual new show sounds like exactly what we should have always assumed it would be — Conan’s hitting the road.
From the press release:
The four-episode series is currently in production and will feature O’Brien visiting new friends he’s met through his podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan,” where he dives deep with listeners from across the country and the world.
Sending Conan to far-flung places is an idea that led to some truly classic moments in the early days of Conan’s run on NBC with Late Night. Now I’m going to share clips of some marvelous, evergreen comedy of Conan in Ireland, Toronto, and Houston (Texas isn’t exactly far-flung, but that trip is magic on a silver plate). This eventually evolved into Conan Without Borders one-offs with the TBS show where he visited Cuba, Italy, South Korea, Haiti, and other world spots.
As always, Conan’s curiosity, awkwardness, and ability/willingness to make fun of himself in pursuit of finding the stupid/smart sweet spot paid dividends and these specials became a kind of calling card. The teaser trailer above is a mere snapshot, of course, but it’s obvious that Conan is bringing a lot of the same energy to these new episodes while perhaps tapping into the magic of human connection that can sometimes feel absent from our lives and entertainment. That’s great news, plus, as with his globe-trotting adventures on his TBS show, he’s making a major media company pay for it all. Conan, you shrewd bastard!