A Farewell to Conan

February 20th marked the final episode of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" and the end of Conan's 16-year run on the show he inherited from David Letterman in 1993. This coming Monday, March 2 the "Late Night" mantle will officially be passed to new host Jimmy Fallon; Conan moves on to succeed Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" on June 1st. Only because it aired at such a late hour and, well, I actually have to work during the week did I not watch Conan more often. However, his final week of shows coincided with a week break from school. So, I was able to relive highlights from the show each night as they re-aired favorite segments chosen by fans and "Late Night" staff.

Of all the segments and characters on "Late Night" I have to say that my all-time favorite was Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a puppet performed by one time head writer Robert Smigel, who is perhaps better known for his "TV Funhouse" segments on "Saturday Night Live." Triumph was identified early on as a Siberian Mountain Hound, often had a cigar dangling from his mouth and his most well-known catch phrase is "... for me to poop on!" usually spoken to undo a compliment that preceded it. Triumph's debut was in a skit filmed at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and he also showed up at 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston among other places.

However, my all-time favorite bit (see video in "Triumph and the Star Wars Fans" post below) was a remote filmed on the streets of New York City as devoted "Star Wars" fans waited to see "Attack of the Clones" in 2002. I am not even a hard core "Star Wars" fan but this segment still makes me laugh out loud after at least a half dozen viewings and is an example of Triumph at his finest. As Triumph might say, "This is a hilarious bit...for me to poop on." If you like Triumph as much as I do or, God forbid, more, I highly recommend the "Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" DVD that came out in 2004. Enjoy!

Triumph and the Star Wars Fans

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Super Bowl Sunday and Bruce!

Despite the fact that I was not that enthusiastic about the matchup this year, I of course watched the Super Bowl with a friend in East Bay yesterday afternoon. I mean, it's the Super Bowl after all and I am a guy who likes watching football, sitting on a couch and drinking beer. Even if the game sucked I'd figured I'd see some good commercials plus Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at halftime. Got to love a 3:30p kickoff and the whole she-banga-bang being over by 7pm. I am liking those early west coast starts for evening sporting events.

As it turned out, the game was terrific and I had to grudgingly give the Steelers some credit for the clutch drive at the end and amazing TD catch by MVP Santonio Holmes. And Bruce rocked the halftime show with "10th Avenue Freeze Out," "Born to Run," "Working on a Dream" and "Glory Days." Loved how he changed the baseball reference in "Glory Days" and made it "Had a friend who was a big football player back in high school...he could throw that hail mary, make you look like a fool boy." Great stuff.

I was even more pumped this morning after I got tickets for the opening night of Springsteen's tour on April 1st in San Jose, lower level seats. Heard the new record is great and will be picking it up later this week. Perhaps a review to follow.