DUVALL: The Tonight Show problem

I’m with CoCo.

It’s the catch-phrase that’s swept through my demographic in the aftermath of the late-night TV fight that captivated audiences across the country. Conan O’Brien, the goofy longtime host of the Late Show on NBC was installed as the replacement for Jay Leno on the Tonight Show.

No doubt as you’ve heard or seen by now, the whole thing became a mess. Leno’s new 10 p.m. talk show was a flop and Conan hadn’t solidified an audience in the six months he’d been on the job. NBC executives began doing what it seems like all executives in this country do these days — they inserted themselves into a situation only to make it worse.

The result is that Conan got the boot from the Tonight Show and a fat settlement. His fans are left feeling shafted. Leno and his vanilla monologues will be back after the Olympics.

The whole ordeal seemed to strike a chord, one that I’ve been feeling for some time.

Conan, on his final show, offered a few trademark jabs. He — and not too few of his guests during the weeks-long saga — had eviscerated the network. And then, at the end, he offered a heartfelt thank-you to NBC for his 20 years as a writer and on-air host. And he offered some stirring words for his fans, whom he choked back tears while thanking.

This rings of the American dream:

“Every comedian — every comedian — dreams of hosting The Tonight Show, and for seven months, I got to do it. And, I did it my way, with people I love. I do not regret one second of anything that we’ve done here,” Conan told his audience in a rare moment of reality television.

There are a lot of people out there who can relate to losing dream jobs right now. I’m sure Conan would be the first to duck the analogy — he walked away with a multi-million dollar settlement with NBC, far different than the pink slip and sleepless night that most people get when they lose a job.

There’s been this sense in America lately that nice guys are getting screwed. It’s probably because a lot of nice guys actually are getting screwed. We watched it happen to one nice guy on TV for a month. We Conan fans reveled in his acerbic wit when it was directed at the network executives who were bungling the greatest franchise in television.

It was devilishly funny and it was sad. Here was this guy who started out as a no-name writer for Saturday Night Live and worked his way up through the ranks to be among the most visible faces in all of television.

And then they canned him for something that wasn’t his fault.

Strip away the glitz and the showbiz glamor and the money and it’s a story millions of men today are telling to the bottom of a bottle of beer.

Call it the Tonight Show problem.

How do we get out of that tailspin? How do we stop the moping and the forlorn attitudes? How do we rebuild the trust in the institutions that govern us?

When President Obama took office a year ago, he inspired that “we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

A year later, we stand still as divided, still as unsure, even more angry and skeptical. We see an America in decline, one where the good guys get screwed. One where hard work isn’t enough to fulfill the American Dream.

Theodore Roosevelt mused on the topic in a roundabout way that might seem useful to some: “The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.”

Conan offered a more interpersonal take: “Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality, it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

Both men are hinting at what I think might be our biggest problem.

I see it in the shouting on cable news shows. I see it in the boiled over anger at Tea Party rallies. I see it when congressmen shout at the president during a formal address.

Rather than sort out the solutions, we’re sorting out who to blame.

Eric DuVall is the managing editor

of the Tonawanda News.

His column appears Wednesdays

and Sundays. Contact him at eric.duvall@tonawanda-news.com.

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