A Tall Order ; Conan O'Brien joins the late-night fray ALL Edition

• Published in: Telegram & gazette
• Main Author: Erickson, Pat
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Worcester, Mass GateHouse Media, Inc 25.06.1993
• ISSN: 1050-4184

The 30-year-old O'Brien will be stepping into David Letterman's 12:35 a.m. talk-show slot on NBC. His yet-unnamed show is targeted to start in late August or early September. Letterman launches his "Late Show" on rival network CBS Aug. 30 in the coveted 11:35 p.m. spot. O'Brien's selection came as a surprise to many outside NBC's inner circle. After Letterman decided early this year to leave the network, "Saturday Night Live" executive producer Lorne Michaels was brought in to executive-produce a revamped "Late Night" and help find a successor to Letterman. A roster of comedians was considered. Garry Shandling, star of the HBO talk-show parody "The Larry Sanders Show," was rumored to be a shoo-in. "Everyone who's in comedy who's from a big family says, "I got my training at the dinner table,' " Conan O'Brien says in the July issue of Esquire magazine. "And it's true, that's where I started doing a lot of this stuff. It's just such a cliche that I'm loath to say it. But in my family there was wit - not wit, but foolishness. I think there was wit around the Kennedy table."