With the current Hollywood writers’ strike garnering headlines, discussion often turns to the writers’ strike of 2007–08 for the last time. Earlier this week, a clip from “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” filmed near the beginning of the strike sheds useful light on how things were 16 years ago.
It’s a moment in TV history, and a moment in “TV history” in which O’Brien provided a master glass of how to continue to entertain television audiences—meaning, without violating the strike—just With your wedding ring on, and the desire to appear a fool.
When the 2007–08 strike began, many talk shows were not shut down, at least at first. However, in addition Exceptions like “Ellen,” The talk shows that continuing to air new episodes avoids crossing picket lines by not using any type of script. As long as no material had been created by a writer, the show could honor the strike and still create new episodes.
This resulted in a lot of improvisation – riffing, really – by the hosts and performers of these shows. But the need to fill the airtime with something is a huge challenge, especially when a show runs for an hour. Enter O’Brien, known for his particularly creative means of entertaining his audiences.
And in the clip above, shown again by NBC reporter Ben Collins on Tuesday, you can see an inspired example of that. O’Brien manages to fill airtime by attempting to twirl his wedding ring for 47 seconds. “If we do it will be television history,” quipped O’Brien.
Alas, O’Brien was only able to spin it for 36 seconds, despite a heroic effort. When his failure was confirmed, a member of his band played a screech on a muted trumpet, making this memorable comment on the situation:
O’Brien joked, “It’s hard enough losing the ring spin without the writers, but then laughing at me … is the ultimate insult.”
Now watch the clip above.