“They’re so sweet when you marry them, but soon it’s just career, career, career.” – Ruth Powers

The National Broadcasting Company has, with characteristic heavy handedness, managed to finally resolve its surfeit of late night comedians.  The outcome that was being speculated about from the time of the announcement of Jay Leno’s 10pm show has come to pass.  The immediate results of the recent brouhaha are fairly clear.  NBC has embarrassed itself on a scale hitherto unprecedented in the annals of American broadcasting.  In the process it managed to make a modern day folk hero out of a man to whom it’s been forced to pay a massive eight figure buyout.  That is no small feat.  The initial cost of that buyout and the smaller severance packages being paid to less famous employees has been reported at $45,000,000.   The damages to the brands, of NBC, “The Tonight Show”, and Mr. Leno himself, are as yet unknown.

The Dead Homer Society has no official position on who is a better late night host, Conan O’Brien or Jay Leno.  Neither is capable of lifting a 1987 Buick Skylark over his head.  And while the future of Mr. Leno on NBC seems assured, the future of Mr. O’Brien is the subject of heavy speculation.  As there are four major American networks and three of them already employ late night hosts much of that speculation has centered on the one that doesn’t: FOX.  And while we heartily endorse Mr. O’Brien’s return to that widely acknowledged bastion of quality television, it is not in the capacity which so many others seem to think him destined.

The Dead Homer Society hereby nominates Conan O’Brien for the head position at the show that genuinely launched his career: The Simpsons.  For many years now it has been plain to all that whatever creative energy once powered that august program has long since utterly dissipated.  Not only has Mr. O’Brien not lost his creative spark, but with his comedic stature and gold plated Simpsons reputation he may be the only man who could, in some genuine way, resuscitate The Simpsons.

Such a move would obviously come with its own drama.  The show’s current hierarchy is no doubt well entrenched, legally and organizationally.  But it is an opening with considerably greater potential than becoming the fourth late night host in a country that seems to do just fine with three.  Mr. O’Brien has already proved his dexterity behind and before the camera, and a season or two spent energizing a famous but moribund franchise would do nothing but burnish his sterling entertainment industry credentials.