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O'Brien 'Likes Visiting These NBC Affiliates'

News Channel 8 photo by PAT BRAMMELL

Conan O'Brien taped promotional commercials and schmoozed with WFLA staffers, such as meteorologist Steve Jerve, the only person in the building who is taller than O'Brien.

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By WALT BELCHER

wbelcher@tampatrib.com

Published: January 31, 2009

TAMPA - Conan O'Brien expects new viewers will discover his humor when he takes over "The Tonight Show" in June.

"Yeah, like my parents, who are usually asleep when I'm on," he says. "They think I'm in real estate."

In town to help NBC promote Super Bowl XLIII and his new gig on "Tonight," the lanky, red-haired comic spent Friday afternoon at The News Center, which houses NBC affiliate WFLA, TBO.com and The Tampa Tribune.

He was interviewed by News Channel 8 anchor/reporter Stacie Schaible and Cyndi Edwards of "Daytime" taped a future segment.

He answered questions submitted to TBO.com with jokes.

His favorite movie?

"It's a TV movie, 'Kill Dozer,' about a meteorite that hits bulldozer and turns it into a killer."

How does he manage his hair?

"With mayonnaise, concrete and wood struts. There's $80,000 of work up there."

He taped promotional commercials and schmoozed with WFLA staffers, such as meteorologist Steve Jerve, the only person in the building who is taller than O'Brien.

In the "green room" for guests of "Daytime" (near the building's elevators), he joked that the loud whirring sound of the elevator motors is "like being in Sing Sing where they are executing someone in the next room. It's like an old Jimmy Cagney movie."

"I like visiting these NBC affiliates," says O'Brien, who plans to visit 40 markets before his "Tonight" debut on June 1.

He doesn't have a ticket to the Super Bowl, but he will be at an NBC Stars party during the pregame show Sunday. Then he will head back to New York before the game starts. His last episode of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" is Feb. 20. His successor, Jimmy Fallon, will debut as host on March 2.

Leno's last "Tonight Show" is May 29. O'Brien takes over June 1.

It's been nearly five years since NBC announced that O'Brien would take over when Leno stepped down.

"Johnny Carson once told me 'that sure is a long engagement before a wedding' and he was right," O'Brien says.

How will the "Tonight Show" change when he takes over?

"I have my own style; good or bad, it's me," he says. "Shows are always an extension of the host and my job is to make the 'Tonight' my own. I have a child inside me and sometimes I do silly things. I can be topical, but silly works, too."

Is O'Brien worried that Leno's new 10 p.m. talk show will hurt "Tonight"?

"I'm happy that Jay is staying at NBC," he says. "I like Jay. We are friends. I don't want a situation where Jay is unhappy. I spent maybe five minutes thinking about it when I first heard about it, but I'm still getting to host the 'Tonight' show, the one that Johnny Carson had, and the one I grew up watching with my father."

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