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Good question.

I would leave Conan in NYC, if I had a choice. The NY crowd might help him retain the "edge" that LA might obliterate.

I would leave Conan in NYC just so he keeps Max and the band. Conan did, however, buy a house in california a few weeks ago so im pretty sure he is moving.
 
I would leave Conan in NYC just so he keeps Max and the band. Conan did, however, buy a house in california a few weeks ago so im pretty sure he is moving.
NBC is building a brand new studio on the Universal backlot.

Max is supposedly moving west as well.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Leno's new show was from his garage. There's plenty of space in that museum for a proper soundstage and audience seating.
 
I may be alone here in preferring Letterman to Leno -- I like Letterman's quirkiness and Leno's style just seems stuck in the previous decade to me -- but I do think this is an idiotic move on NBC's part.

Not because I think Leno's bad; he isn't. It's just that this smacks of gutting out the 10 o'clock hour. What, exactly, is the whole point of changing anything? Why not just keep Leno at 11:35 and Conan at 12:35?

There really is no point...unless you consider the fact that replacing hour dramas with yet another talk show at 10 o'clock is just plain cheaper for NBC. That is the sole and only reason they are doing this.

And that, to me, is just one more step in ghettoizing prime time. It was bad enough when worthless reality shows started taking over so much of the schedule. It got worse when the ads proliferated so much that they started not only running during the credits, but running up and down the screen during the shows as well.

And now this. How much longer until NBC figures out that it can run 30-minute infomercials for Toyotas even cheaper than it can run Leno's show?

Dramas have been moving to the cable channels for a long time. In a way that's good. They might as well go where they're appreciated. The only problem I have with that is, there haven't been too many cable/syndicated dramas that have really enticed me. Would TNT or TBS have produced a Jericho? I have my doubts.

Not that there aren't some decent cable-made dramatic shows. But the last off-network, original show that really got me hooked was Babylon 5. And how long ago was that??
 
Leno can't stay as the host of The Tonight Show because they signed Conan to that spot. If they break contract they have to pay off Conan. The reason dramas are going to cable is because they can be more risky. Network is still considered "family friendly". I agree that Letterman is better. NBC really doesn't have a choice. They either let Conan go to another network or let Leno walk.
 
If NBC didn't do this, it is likely they would have dropped a night of programming. Can you imagine the crap local stations would have run?

I don't watch any network dramas except Prison Break (which I'm close to dropping). I Tivo several cable ones.
 
Why don't they just bring back old shows that people liked. They were better written and I'm sure people would rather watch the classic shows.
 
Leno can't stay as the host of The Tonight Show because they signed Conan to that spot. If they break contract they have to pay off Conan. The reason dramas are going to cable is because they can be more risky. Network is still considered "family friendly". I agree that Letterman is better. NBC really doesn't have a choice. They either let Conan go to another network or let Leno walk.

But I'm sure Conan could probably argue to his lawyer that what he was essentially promised was the primetime latenight talk-show host position at NBC, which has historically started at 11:30 PM. He wasn't promised the 11:30 PM timeslot by NBC. He was promised the "big" job, and NBC didn't live up to expectation if they're giving Leno a 10:30 PM slot. Essentially, Conan was deceived, IMO.
 
Conan was promised "The Tonight Show" and that is the 11:35 time slot.
 
Yes, but it was always intended to be the prime-time talkshow timeslot. If he signed the contract believing that he was going to be NBC's premier talkshow host, rather than remain behind Leno, he may have a case. Sure, he has "The Tonight Show", but what that should actually represent is what's important, not the name of the show, or the actual time-slot.
 
I agree, Abstract, that this is kind of a slap in the face to, as well as a violation of the intent of the agreement with, Conan.

Why don't they just bring back old shows that people liked. They were better written and I'm sure people would rather watch the classic shows.
Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Bionic Woman, despite good reviews, didn't work out. However, I do recall that a few years back during the previous writers' strike, ABC tried a revamped version of Mission: Impossible, and it actually got decent ratings.

And MacNut, while it's true a lot of the edgier dramas are on cable, remember that Twin Peaks resided on ABC, and that was about as weird as it gets.
 
Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Bionic Woman, despite good reviews, didn't work out. However, I do recall that a few years back during the previous writers' strike, ABC tried a revamped version of Mission: Impossible, and it actually got decent ratings.
I don't mean remakes, I want them to bring back the actual original shows.

And MacNut, while it's true a lot of the edgier dramas are on cable, remember that Twin Peaks resided on ABC, and that was about as weird as it gets.
How violent was Twin Peaks. Look at shows like The Shield, that is a violent show. It would never make it on network.

Fringe is a show that is weird and is on Fox.
 
I guess it varies depending on whether you're talking about language, violence or weirdness. I still remember being shocked by early episodes of Heroes in which we saw the cheerleader with her insides opened up or other characters with the tops of their heads lopped off and their brains scooped out. I was shocked because it was on NBC, not TNT or something. But the networks will be pickier about things like language. Go figure.

As for bringing back the actual old shows...that's asking a lot, considering a lot of shows are already on TV Land, American Life, etc. You'd either be depending on the audience that's too cheap (or can't afford) to pay for cable, or you'd have to come up with shows that don't appear on-air at all anymore. I admit I can think of quite a few: The Prisoner, Babylon 5, Nowhere Man, Ellery Queen, Mike Hammer, Mannix, Night Gallery....

OTOH, I have no desire to see ABC butcher Nowhere Man with animated bugs, squashed credits and material edited out to allow for extra commercials.
 
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