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In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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Conan O'Brien to mark 10 years of late night television
Friday August 15, 2003
LOS ANGELES (AP) Ten years ago, comedian Conan O'Brien took to
the late-night airwaves on NBC as ``just a guy who was in the phone
book who was chosen to replace David Letterman.''
Critics teed off on the red-haired rookie and audiences were
unimpressed. NBC wasn't sure, either, and O'Brien recalled the
network initially suggested week-to-week renewals.
``I thought the reviews were fair when they went after me as a
performer and a late-night host because I just didn't have the
confidence and the chops yet, but I thought that they were unfair
when they attacked the comedy because I always thought the comedy
was good,'' he said recently.
The first three years were the toughest as skepticism persisted,
O'Brien recalled.
``We were put in a very difficult position,'' he said. ``Going
through that gauntlet, going through the thousand-mile-long
spanking machine that we went through helped us earn the right to
be there. I honestly wouldn't change anything. It worked out. I'm
lucky to be here.''
NBC will air his 10th anniversary special in primetime on Sept.
14 and his show is nominated for an Emmy for best variety and
comedy series.
In 1994, Letterman was a guest on O'Brien's show after moving to
CBS and O'Brien has been indebted ever since.
``It was a great thing because I think it got people to come
back and look at the show again who thought, 'Well, that thing's
dead, he's an idiot,' and walked away,'' he said. ``They came back
and maybe said, 'OK, I still don't love him but maybe, and Dave
seems to like him.' It may have helped keep me on the air.''
O'Brien, 40, wouldn't mind someday succeeding Jay Leno on ``The
Tonight Show,'' which airs an hour earlier than O'Brien's show.
``It's a little like saying my ambition is to be pope, because
so much weird stuff has to happen for you to become pope and so
much of it is out of your control,'' he said. ``Jay may want to do
it 10, 15, 20 more years and then I'm not going to succeed him if
I'm 50 or 60.''
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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