COMING SOON… "Live From 6A [ECD]" due for release on January 1, 2000. The CD features live performances from "Late Night" such as "Dead Man Walking" - David Bowie, "All This Useless Beauty" - Elvis Costello, "Soundtrack To Mary" - Soul Coughing and more! Advance orders available from Amazon.com.

CONECON 2K Keep up-to-date on what’s happening with the upcoming ConeCon2K which is now expected to be a conetastic 5 DAY event on July 10-14 2000.

Get the details at the new website:
http://members.aol.com/dweezil130/AFCOB/cc2k.htm

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF CONAN? Why not get together with the alt.fan.conan-obrien "peepZ" in the NBC Conan chatroom for some banter. Join the Conan krunk Saturdays & Sundays @ 5pm EST.
http://www.nbc.com/conan/chat/

NBC.COM/CONAN - As with last year's "Ask Conan" after only three columns "Andy's Opinion" is no longer available from NBC's most popular website. Andy was too busy to contribute regularly to the column. They're busy looking into other ways to keep the site fab, and I hope get Conan and Andy involved as much as possible again…

Fab NBC website producer Chris Bodkin is leaving the Conan site to go work for CNBC. We wish him all the best. There will be a new Conan site producer hired in the next few weeks….

MIGHTY MAX WEINBERG - is featured in this week's TV Guide (John Kennedy Jr. on the cover) talking about touring with Bruce Springsteen and Bruce fans reaction to his comic appearances on Late Night. The feature said that Max will return to the show sometime this fall. Read the full story at:

http://www.tvguide.com/tv/magazine/990726/insider0.asp

CONAN TAKES SHOW TO LA - As Conan suggested during our interview with him in February NBC announced on Thursday that "Late Night" will make its first major road trip, travelling to Los Angeles for a week during November sweeps. The show will be taped in NBC's Studio One in Burbank, which once was home to "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,'' the week beginning November 8. There are unconfirmed reports that Conan and Andy will drive the desk to LA arriving in less than 5 seconds.

LATER LATE NIGHTS - "Late Night'' is also being added to NBC's overnight program schedule, with repeats of the show running from 3:05-4:05 a.m. starting September 20th. It replaces repeats of "Sunset Beach'' which I hear will be sadly missed by 3 people.

EMMY NOMINATION - Last week "Late Night" received it's annual "nod" from the Emmy's in the OUSTANDING WRITING FOR A VARIETY OR MUSIC PROGRAM category. The program broadcasts on FOX on Sunday, September 12.

The nominees are:
"The Chris Rock Show'' HBO.
"Dennis Miller Live'' HBO.
"Late Night With Conan O'Brien'' NBC.
"Late Show With David Letterman'' CBS
"Mr. Show With Bob and David'' HBO.

A full list of categories and further information can be found at: www.emmys.org

CONAN GETS PRODUCTION DEAL WITH NBC - (Reuters/Variety) "Late Night'' host Conan O'Brien has inked a multiyear deal to develop and produce programming for the Peacock network.

The goal of the as-yet unnamed production unit will be to funnel creative talent from ``Late Night'' into ventures in all dayparts. O'Brien will create and head up the unit.

"Late Night'' producer Jeff Ross will be actively involved in the operations of the new production arm. As part of the deal, Ross has reupped with NBC and will continue as producer of ``Late Night'' through 2002, the same year O'Brien's current NBC deal expires.

``Conan's distinguished writing background with 'Saturday Night Live' and 'The Simpsons' coupled with the vast amount of talent currently at work giving 'Late Night' its unique voice, along with the up-and-coming comedic talent performing there on a regular basis, makes this the perfect match,'' said NBC West Coast President Scott Sassa in announcing O'Brien's production deal Wednesday. ``We like Conan's style.''

Ross said, ``We have a lot of very talented writers and performers who come through the show. We're hoping to take advantage of that in the future.''

NBC's deal with O'Brien is similar in concept to the arrangement CBS ``Late Show'' host David Letterman has with the Eye network via his Worldwide Pants production company.

That deal resulted in the creation of ``Everybody Loves Raymond,'' which stars comic Ray Romano. Romano caught the attention of Worldwide Pants execs through his appearances on ``Late Show.''

Ross' pre-''Late Night'' credits include a gig as exec producer of ``The Kids in the Hall,'' ``Paul Simon's Concert in Central Park'' and HBO's ``Spic-O-Rama,'' which starred John Leguizamo.

TALK TO ANDY IN NEW CONAN CHAT ROOM: Over at the new-look Conan website you can now chat live with other Late Night fans on-line. The chatroom is hosted by Talkcity, you can sign in as a guest or register as a regular user and the only *real* flaw is that the page is full of advertisements, and there's some annoying pop-up messages while you're chatting…. Plenty of Conan fans to talk to in the other 23 hours of the day though.

This is tres exciting!! ANDY RICHTER will be joining chatters online in the new chatroom on Wednesday May 19th at 1pm EST.

ALSO NEW AT THE CONAN SITE THIS WEEK! New "The More You Know" and "Satellite TV" and "Actual Items." The bigger news is that Andy is going to start contributing to the web site in a major way. Next week, they plan to launch a new item called "Andy's Opinion." Every two weeks, Andy is going to offer his opinion on some random topic. Users will have the opportunity to respond to Andy's opinion via email. Andy, will in turn reply to the user's thoughts. Hopefully this will create an ongoing dialogue between Andy and his fans. Keep an eye on the site this week for a teaser page promoting Andy's Opinion!! We look forward to it!

Check it out at:
http://www.nbc.com/conan/

NBC HAVE OPENED A NEW THEME STORE AT 30 ROCK. The store, "The NBC Experience" is full of much more NEW Conan merchandise than ever before. From logo caps, t-shirts, mugs to notebooks, picture frames and much more.

Also at the NBC Experience, you can have your photo taken green screen and choose which NBC scene you’d like to be placed in like behind Conan’s desk or doing the monologue for example. For $15 you can get a video of you acting green screen. You’ll take the place of Andy alongside Conan on a "Desk Drive".

http://www.nbc.com/shop
Get the mail-order catalog from: 1-800-NBC-8760

VIDEO OF THE WEEK! The Late Night website has the infamous and highly dodgy "Late Night Nipples" sketch in the late night theatre section.

http://www.nbc.com/NBCconan/index.asp?section=theatre

THE REAL Y2K PROBLEM…. 236 days to go to the Year 2000 and the staff of Late Night are still undecided as to what they're plans are for "In The Year 2000". When asked about it in a recent interview Conan told the Yale Herald: "We're still figuring that one out, and we've been thinking about it for awhile. We might take it in a totally different direction, or we might simply retire it. A sketch is good as long as it doesn't get old, so we'll have to see if we can think of something else that we should do with it." At "Neeha!" our opinion is that they shouldn't change a thing. Send your own suggestions to the show by emailing latenight@nbc.com

Read the Yale interview at:
http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxvii/1999.04.16/ae/p12conan.html

COMING SOON……. Simon & Schuster Interactive have announced this week that Deer Avenger II: The Return of Bambo is in the making. The sequel to the popular "Deer Avenger" written by Brian McCann will feature Bambo hitting back at hunters and falling in love with - Jane Doe?!? … Watch this space for further details….

CONAN CAME LAST IN A RECENT SURVEY for Valvoline that asked men which talkshow host they would choose to help them change the oil in their cars. The freckled wonder scored a phenomenal 3% of male votes. The guy who's on before Conan on NBC topped the poll with 29% of votes. Blah.

I'm the first to admit this hasn't been updated over the past few weeks and I apologize for that. I've been on holiday sort of.. and I just got back. I have good news though, I MET CONAN!!!! Yesh! I met the man himself basckstage at the show while I was on holiday, and you can read all about it in the next edition of Neeha! You can also read the exclusive interview he gave to Neeha right here as I just added it to the site.

Late Night Writer Brian McCann, most known for characters such as PimpBot 5000 and the Bullet-Proof Legs Guy is scheduled to appear at the Chicago Comedy Festival May 13-16. He will guest on the Panel of the Comedy Writing for Television seminar alongside Lewis Black of The Daily Show, Ali LeRoi of The Chris Rock Show, Vinny Montello of Rugrats and Jenna Jolovitz of MadTV.

Further info available from: www.comedytown.com

SESAME STREET – The episode that features Conan is tentatively scheduled to air on May 11.

WIN A TRIP TO SEE THE SHOW!! –NBC.COM has a competition on right now offering the chance of winning $10,000 or a trip to see Late Night (or the Tonight show)

CONAN BEATS DAVE IN THE RATINGS -- "Late Night" had a conetastic sweeps period, accomplishing a once-unthinkable feat: beating Letterman among adults 18-34 for the first time ever during a major ratings book.

THE 15TH ANNUAL COLLEGE BANDSEARCH WINNERS are Crackpipe Wisconsin who beat hundreds of entries to become this year's coveted Grandprize winners. They're scheduled to perform on the show on Friday, March 5th. Catch a sneak preview of them on www.nbc.com/conan. Previous year's winners have been Blightobody (1994), Skastafarians (1995), Sleeping Giants (1997), and Domo (1998).

"NEE-HA!" CONAN INTERVIEW... I interviewed Conan for "Neeha" this week, his Conan-ness tells us about his day "My typical day starts usually with me getting nervous and crying. Then I get over that and I come into work." Read this exclusive interview in the next issue!!

RATINGS... Late Night maintains it's 2.6 average across the US... Friday night hit a high for this week at 3.2 million viewers, and a 12% share of the ratings. More than double the viewers of it's ABC competitor Late Late Show.

MAX CHAT @ NBC’S MYLAUNCH…. Max the Mighty took part in a live web chat from NBC on Thursday (Feb 11) afternoon. He discussed his planned hiatus, the Bruce Tour, and confirmed the long-time rumor that a MW7 album was in production. The eponymous album is expected to be released sometime this summer. No mention at all on whether or not each track would last more than 30 seconds.

You can read the entire transcript of the Max Chat in the interview section of Late Night With Conan And Merv at: http://www.ios.com/~damone/gconan.html

CONGRATULATIONS TO JERRY VIVINO… the MW7 saxophone player’s wife just gave birth to a baby girl. Luckily for her, she won’t be named Conina Vivino.

CONAN AND ANDY @ THIS YEAR'S USCAF… Among productions planned for next month’s HBO-sponsored U.S. Comedy Arts Festival are: Andy introducing a reunion of the original "Ben Stiller Show'' with Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. Conan will moderate a reunion of the SCTV cast with Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas and Andrew Alexander. The event takes place March 3-7 in Aspen, Colorado.

BUY WEIRD CONAN STUFF @ AUCTION… Among the usual collectible autographed photos and magazines that went up for auction on the www’s popular Ebay site this week were: A piece of a broken light bulb which the seller, Doubledown Enterprises, claims could once be found in Conan’s kitchen! "It's a 60 watt bulb," he announced proudly, trying to entice you to part with your cash. Wait—I know you’re excited but, there’s more!! Oh yesh there’s more. Perhaps more disturbingly, you could also bid for "a piece of his hair", allegedly plucked off a napkin by the seller, who claims it to be one of his most prized (or maybe disgusting) possessions. He picked up the lust-have piece-of-pompadour after spotting Conan eating at a very well known restaurant, Burger King.

ROSIE'S O'DONNELL had also auctioned a Conan lip print and autograph framed-print from his appearance on her show last Monday. This item attracted 15 bids and raised $210 for the "For All Kids Foundation" charity.

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MAX TO LEAVE ON MARCH 1: It’s been revealed that Max Weinberg will take a hiatus of around six months from Late Night from March 1^st to tour with Bruce Springsteen…

He will be replaced by drummer James Wormworth, a long-time friend of Jimmy Vivino, who has worked alongside the Vivino brothers, Al Kooper, Hubert Sumlin, John Sebastian, Johnnie Johnson, and members of the MW7 on several albums.

Jimmy Vivino will be taking over as bandleader for the duration of Max’s absence.

LATE NIGHT IS TO BE HONORED at The Museum of Television & Radio's 16th annual William S. Paley Television Festival on Friday, March 12. The festival, which salutes the makers of diverse programming, offers the public an appreciation of the medium’s commitment to quality. Thirteen events consisting of episodes of shows followed by Q&As make-up the festival, each saluting a program-chosen for its artistic merit, cultural impact, or historical significance-or an individual whose work has had a major impact on television.

Big Red Vs. Big Bird… Revealed during the desk chat on Tuesday it's true, the TV you've been waiting for all your life. Brought to you in association with the letter "C" and the number "9": Conan appearing on Sesame St. No date is set as yet for the show to be aired. Keep an eye on your local TV listings, or check out http://www.pbs.org for the most up-to-date listings.

Conan in a Kilt…….. A rumor has come across the web to me that Conan is one of several American TV hosts who have been enlisted to support "ScotsFest 99" and will wear a kilt on Late Night. The tartan (plaid) that will be worn is called the "Pride Of Scotland" and it's not said to be linked to any particular clan or family name. ScotsFest, from January 23 to February 28, is a yearly festival of all things Scottish held in the USA.

Ratings for Lateline…. The season premiere of "Lateline" that featured Conan and Andy has failed to shine in the battle of the primetime ratings. The show clocked up a 6.6 share of the ratings, making the total viewing audience of 6,600,000 homes. Unofficial figures reported today reveal that two thirds of the audience that night were Conan fans.

Robert Smigel sent a letter to the New York Times about the controversy that followed Alec Baldwin's appearance on the show. The letter never ran, but you can read his thoughts on the episode at:

http://www.salonmagazine.com/media/lehm/1999/01/14lehm2.html

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Conan and Andy appeared in the NBC Season premiere of Al Franken's "Lateline" last Wednesday evening (January 06). Jeff Foxworth's character records some comedy bits for Late Night. According to the New York Times: "The episode gives O'Brien's "pudgy" late-night sidekick, Andy Richter, a chance to romp around the fictional news studio clad only in briefs. For his part, O'Brien manages to keep both his clothes and dignity pretty much in place." He's not "pudgy" he's just "huggable". These people are sooooo rude!!

CONTROVERSY RULES AS PEOPLE JUST CAN'T SHUT UP ABOUT BALDWIN'S KILLER COMMENTS!! It won't be forgotten by anyone who saw it. And anyone who taped it is in luck because NBC have vowed never to screen the episode ever again. An NBC spokesperson told the Washington Post: "The skit was obviously a joke and meant to be taken as such, however, in retrospect, there are sensitivities, given the climate in Washington, and we won't re-air it."

LA BAMBA SWANKS IT UP AT THE WHITEHOUSE.... Richie Rosenberg, better known as MW7 trombone player LaBamba, was playing at the Whitehouse on Friday night (12-18). Maybe you noticed he wasn't sitting in with the band as usual. Playing a benefit there alongside his band The Hubcaps, he backed up performers like Vanessa Williams, Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, and ERIC CLAPTON. The show will air on TNT Network tonight (Sunday).

BRIAN McCANN'S DEER AVENGER GAME STALKS RETAIL..... The recently released "Deer Avenger" game rocketed to Number One at Wal-Mart this week. Written by Brian McCann (bullet-proof legs and more…), the parody of the best-selling title, Deer Hunter (TM) has debuted at number one at America's largest mass market retailer - Wal-Mart. The game was also given "Four Hooves Up" by the American Deer Association.

E STREET BAND TOUR... WILL MAX GO AND WHO WILL DO THOSE OUTRAGEOUS PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS IF HE DOES...?

(AP) Bruce Springsteen fans are ecstatic about the news that the Boss man will be reuniting with the E Street Band for a tour this summer. But Conan fans are also wondering how this will affect drummer Max Weinberg’s role as musical director on the show.

The Late Night people have no comment, and representatives for Springsteen have said that they will have no details on the tour until the first of next year. Unlike most shows, Late Night With Conan O’Brien does not take a multi-week break during the summer; at the most they take off a week or two at a time. Therefore, touring during breaks in Conan’s schedule is not an option.

It's most likely that Max will take a leave of absence for the tour. But who will replace him on Late Night?

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