Bon Voyage Mr. O'Brien

It is with much sadness I am writing today as there are only 5 episodes left of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". Sure, Conan is taking over "The Tonight Show", a staple of late night television for over 50 years and moving on to bigger and better things. For that, I am extremely happy for him and no one deserves it more. The problem is the boundary pushing comedy on Conan's current show won't be appreciated or fully accepted in the relatively older Tonight Show crowd. Conan has become an icon for college students over the past eight to nine years. I'm worried the corporate overseers of Tonight Show will put a stranglehold on Conan's extremely witty and edgy writing staff and force them to mundane monologues and skits that are currently provided nightly by Jay Leno. Since I've been a Conan fan for years, I will give it shot and I will hope for the best. The Late Night show will never be the same, Jimmy Fallon good luck because you have enormous shoes to fill.

"Big Love" to get a 4th season

Great news for those who have become fans of America's most popular polygamist family (myself included), according to Varitey.com, HBO has picked up "Big Love" for a fourth season.

The show is averaging nearly 5 million viewers per episode when DVR viewing, encore runs and video-on-demand deliveries are factored in -- a performance on par with that of HBO's frosh hit "True Blood". Season-four production is set to start later this year with episodes slated to run on the pay cabler in 2010.

Personally, I am very excited. Right now, "Big Love" is HBO's best drama and there are several great story lines being played out this season. My only concern is that the addition of a possible fourth wife could provide unnecessary distractions from more exciting plot points, including Roman Grant and the concerns of happenings on the compound.

How to improve the American TV culture

An interesting article from Brian Lowry at Variety.com challenges current US broadcast television to maybe think more like the Brits. The idea of the more episodes the better may not be the best path going forward.

Via Varitey.com - A creative cure for TV: Less is more