It looks like curtains for the Horny Manatee if Conan O’Brien leaves The Tonight Show:
The network owns the intellectual property behind such popular O’Brien characters as Pimpbot 5000 and Conando, as well as recurring segments such as In the Year 3000 and Desk Driving. Sources involved in the settlement negotiations say NBC is keeping the copyrighted and trademarked elements of O’Brien’s shows as part of the deal. That means the bits and characters will likely never be seen after O’Brien’s “Tonight” ends its run January 22.
Matthew Belloni and Nellie Andreeva of Reuters have written a fascinating little five-paragraph piece about the intellectual property angles in play if NBC gives Conan the boot.
But wait, you ask: what about Triumph the Insult Dog?
It’s unclear who controls Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the crass canine puppet that is perhaps O’Brien’s most popular recurring bit. Triumph was originated by writer and longtime O’Brien pal Robert Smigel, whose representatives declined to comment on its ownership.
It’s all very petty by NBC: They’re never going to use those characters, they just want to block O’Brien from having fun with them. That aside, is this news really all so bad? Whatever happens to Conan, it’s hard to imagine that he’d want to set up shop somewhere else doing the same thing with the same characters.