Interesting…
In a WTF moment of the week, THR reports that NBC has picked up a pilot from Conan O’Brien entitled, “Justice”, which comes from O’Brien’s Conaco production company. This whiplash inducing news comes after the two to three week long Late Night Saga/Wars involving NBC and O’Brien, which resulted in O’Brien stepping down from hosting The Tonight Show and taking a cool $33 million with him. That same deal also stated that Conan and his production company had to work with NBC till September, which means Conan is still kind of stuck with NBC for the time being. The result of this live in arrangement just so happens to be “Justice”.
Will NBC and Conan treat this project with love and not like a drunken one night stand mistake? That remains to be seen…
But the plot of “Justice”, which was written by John Eisendrath, involves an ex-Supreme Court justice who doesn’t like his job anymore and quits the position to start his own law firm. THR also reports that the character in question will be “larger than life”, which brings to mind Dr. Gregory House, if he had of donned the robe of a Supreme Court Justice, that is. O’Brien, Eisendrath, Jeff Ross, and David Kissinger will serve as executive producers.
This scenario can go either way. Path #1) The show becomes a hit and Conan laughs his way to the bank or Path #2) NBC doesn’t pick up the pilot and ends up having the last laugh. Either or. Just my opinion.
So what do you guys think? Is this a bad romance in the making? Or do you hope the two masterminds kiss and make up to carry out this venture?
Source: THR
For anybody here who is too young to recall – or, perhaps, just wasn't interested in late night TV, back then – it might help your perspective on the current Leno vs O'Brien mess if you get some background on the original Leno vs Letterman feud. Here's the full story of how Jay Leno took over the 'The Tonight Show' hosting gig from long-time host Johnny Carson, way back in 1993..http://bit.ly/6FjAQq (complete article – NY Times; 1994)
I vaguely remember that debacle and remember that HBO did a TV movie based on the shenanigans that transpired. It seems that no one really learns their lesson tho, I guess…