NBC continuing to fail

[ZarakiKujata]

Um apparently Conan's contract never specified a specific time for his show, so NBC and Conan may be tied up in court for years.

[Kaslo]

Um apparently Conan's contract never specified a specific time for his show, so NBC and Conan may be tied up in court for years.

Yeah but really, The Tonight Show wouldn't need a timeslot clause in the contract since it has been in the timeslot for SOOOOO long. It's like contracting that SNL will start at 11:35 on Saturdays. It's so implied from long practice that it doesn't need to be expressly listed. All NBC did by not putting in there is allow themselves a court process by excluding it, of which they will probably still lose.

[The Blackrose]

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b...e-reports.aspx

It's over. However, I've heard that NBC is required to pay up to 60 million for Conan's No Compete to stick. So he's free.

[Shojin]

Isn't he in California? Non-compete isn't recognized in Cali and any agreements are automatically void.

[Akiyama]

Colbert Report had a nice shoutout. He had Morgan Freeman (his Januaray 11th) guest say "Conan! The 11:30 slot is yours." in his 'most trustworthy voice', Haha. Dunno if this is olde. D:

Still a shame with how NBC is fucking Conan up the ass. I guess $30mil is a nice pay off though.

[Insanecyclone]

Well any news on where conan may go?

[Talint]

Leno decides it's time to go after Letterman.

I hope Letterman enters full out rage mode now, because a pissed off Letterman is absolutely beautiful.

[Cleverness]

I actually laughed at Leno's opening monologue, jesus christ. Rest of the show did suck though, as expected. Conan had me in tears, I really hope next week, since it looks like he doesn't give a shit anymore, he brings back some of the oldschool gags like masturbating bear before he finishes on the 22nd.

And gonna have to wait till Monday I think to hear any rage from Letterman, gawker says he doesn't tape on Fridays. But man oh man, shit is gonna get GOOD.

[Kiehl]

Curious about how much the bag he "pitched" will actually sell for.

Current price: 999,999

Any guesses?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=320475391533

[Cleverness]

I giggled seeing it was going for a million, and then it's being mailed for $30 Standard flat rate. For that bidding price can hop on a plane and give it to them in person.

[6souls]

It's just been brought to my attention that, while they were Harvard undergraduates, Jeff Zucker '86 called the cops on Conan O'Brien '85. (I never saw previous reports about this.) According to articles in both the Harvard Crimson and Yale Daily News, then president of the university's Harvard Crimson daily newspaper, dispatched the police to the Harvard Lampoon office after O'Brien, who was president of the campus humor magazine, organized a prank on his college rival -- stealing an entire print run of the Crimson before it could be distributed. "He only forgave me when I gave him The Tonight Show," Zucker told a Yale gathering back in 2005. The Harvard Crimson described the incident this way in a 2004 article about Conan landing The Tonight Show courtesy of Zucker: "O’Brien cut his teeth in comedy as president of The Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine. In fact, O’Brien first met Zucker, his current boss, one day when O’Brien and the Lampoon editors stole all the copies of that morning’s Crimson. Zucker, then Crimson President, called the police and met O’Brien face to face while he was being arrested." In 2001, Conan told The New Yorker this about the incident: "College pranks are supposed to be clever, but our rivalry with the Crimson had degenerated into us stealing something, Jeff calling the police, and the police making us haul it back," said O'Brien. (Other Lampoon pranks on Zucker included "a fake phone-sex ad with Zucker’s dorm-room phone number. Zucker did not find any of this particularly hilarious.") So what's to glean from this Harvard history lesson? Yes, Jeff Zucker was a thin-skinned prick who didn't understand comedy or know how to handle creatives even back then.

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/no...medium=twitter

http://harvardlampoon.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Lampoon

http://www.thecrimson.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Harvard_Crimson

Bonus:

Spoiler: show

The Naked and the Well Read



When the order came to take Hill 19 the Sergeant ground his cigar stub into the fine white sand of Tojaida Island and bared his corn-yellow teeth. “Not that it’s ours to take,” he said, rubbing his thick, calloused hand over the stubble of his square jaw. “You mugs understand we have no property right in the hill, or any moral claim to the area it encompasses.” He shifted his packed, hard body and spat into an overturn C-ration can.

“But is it correct, from an ethical standpoint, to allow physical force to be the deciding factor in disagreements between nations? What would Thoreau say?” It was Dough-Boy, the freckle-faced infantryman with the crooked, midwestern smile and innocent grey eyes that blinked whenever you poured pencil-shavings in them.

“Difficult to say,” the Sergeant replied, pulling a cigar stub from its wrapper. “Kant would subscribe to the deontological theory of moral imperatives.”

“Check!” interrupted Grease-Monkey, the cherub-faced mechanic and former professor of Linguistics at Cornell. “He’d want us to examine our motives in a neutral environment, not the biased circumstances of war.”

Bull, resting his muscle-bloated body on a rusted oil drum, had been shoved to the breaking point. His broad, featureless face exploded in fury as he jumped to his feet. “Talk, talk, talk … all we do is talk. Me want to clobber the enemy, not talk!” As he worked his massive mandibles the others rolled their eyes.

“Reminds me a little of Benjy, the simple-minded Christ figure in Faulkner’s The Sound and Fury,” muttered Stir-Fry, the platoon chef.

“Philistine,” said Germ-Jockey, the seasoned medic.

“Leave ‘im alone,” ordered the Sergeant. There was a long, embarrassed silence as the rage melted from Bull’s boulder-like head. “Hey, like … like me sorry me got mad,” he grumbled, like a friendly grizzly bear endowed with the miracle of human speech. “It’s just dat I didn’t do the readin’ this week.”

The platoon burst into gentle laughter as the Sergeant gave Bull a manly but affectionate kick in the head. “Hell, that all? Jesus, Bull, you can catch up. It’s only eighty pages of Flaubert and we’ll help you with the French.” The Sergeant’s words stretched a broad, moronic smile across Bull’s acre-wide face and helped the platoon temporarily forget the horrors of jungle war.

“Alright … alright,” shouted the Sergeant, shouldering his book bag, “load up and remember … no shooting. We have a moral obligation to preserve all life, regardless of the demands placed on us by an arbitrary government.”

“Even if they shoot at us first, Sarge?” asked Slim-Jim, the munitions expert and beef jerky magnate, as he unloaded his rifle. “I mean, some interpret Ghandi’s later writings as …” The Sergeant interrupted his discourse with a powerful right to the solar plexus. “I’m not takin’ any revisionist up the hill with me,” he added, turning his back on Slim-Jim’s wheezing form, “so you can sit here and stew while we’re gone.”

At the call to “fall out,” the small platoon lined up and began its rigorous but sensitive trek through the dense jungle.

- Conan O'Brien '85

[The Blackrose]

Isn't he in California? Non-compete isn't recognized in Cali and any agreements are automatically void.

I'm not a lawyer, so the mileage may vary, but NBC's HQ is in New York. So chances are he's playing either by NY state law or by federal law when it comes to such things. However, if he could get a Californian court to hear the case, then yes, he probably does have a shot at it.

[Kaslo]

I'm not a lawyer, so the mileage may vary, but NBC's HQ is in New York. So chances are he's playing either by NY state law or by federal law when it comes to such things. However, if he could get a Californian court to hear the case, then yes, he probably does have a shot at it.

The contract can also stipulate who's law the contract is interpreted under.

[Shojin]

I'm not a lawyer, so the mileage may vary, but NBC's HQ is in New York. So chances are he's playing either by NY state law or by federal law when it comes to such things. However, if he could get a Californian court to hear the case, then yes, he probably does have a shot at it.

But couldn't he still work IN California? If Cali doesn't recognize any agreements he should be allowed to as long as he doesn't work in any other state? At least that's how I thought it worked. I'm sure he'll end up doing something.

[Tyche]

I'm just guessing that his lawyer's know how to draw up a contract. Call it a hunch.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

Would be cool if he took a late night show to HBO or Showtime so he could get away with more stuff. I don't think he would ever get too raunchy but seeing masturbating bear and Triumph bits I'm sure Conan has some stuff he'd like to try that would never fly on NBC

[Naafeih]

I'm just guessing that his lawyer's know how to draw up a contract. Call it a hunch.

If that were true, they would have gotten the 11:35 time slot in writing. Can't believe they fucked that up.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

Adult Swim offer to Conan

http://www.bumpworthy.com/bumps/2052


fucking AWESOME

[ZarakiKujata]

Would be cool if he took a late night show to HBO or Showtime so he could get away with more stuff. I don't think he would ever get too raunchy but seeing masturbating bear and Triumph bits I'm sure Conan has some stuff he'd like to try that would never fly on NBC

I doubt it would work on HBO, and it wouldn't be a nightly thing the way it is now.

[Kaslo]

If that were true, they would have gotten the 11:35 time slot in writing. Can't believe they fucked that up.

But that wasn't needed in the contract. The Tonight Show has always been at 11:35 it is something that is just implied in the term Tonight Show now.