The Onion AV Club interviews Andy Richter

Thanks for posting the article. I probably would never have found that otherwise.

It's hard to say exactly what Andy was getting at. Obviously he admitted that there is a general feeling of trying something new, perhaps more conventional. But I also recall in the article that he said they won't know what they are doing until they go live, which I imagine makes it more interesting and also frightening.

Richter's answers were a bit obtuse, but I think what he's saying is that the writers want to stretch out a bit and not repeat themselves, Conan probably being a big part of this.

It's gonna be real fascinating to see how this whole thing plays out and changes over time. Here is my honest feeling, that the show will start out more conventional than the last few years of Late Night. Remember, the last few years were not nearly as experimental and strange as the early years. I think over time, the Tonight Show with Conan will start to get weirder again. Maybe not 95-2000 levels, but I'm willing to bet strange crap will start happen. It's like politics, sometimes teh pendulum starts to swing back the other way. There is just no way I can see Conan trying to run a more conventional, boring talk show for a prolonged period of time.

Us fans are all worried that the new show will be too straight-laced, and I bet Conan and the writers are worried that their weird stuff won't work with this new, huge audience. Once things get under way I'm sure they will work themselves out. I can't imagine Conan doing a totally generic style talk show. And even if he did, which I don't think will happen, least it will be better than the Tonight Show of the past 16 years.