Into the Black

I must be the only person who’s excited that Steve Carell is leaving The Office.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Steve Carell. Loved him on The Daily Show, he was great in Little Miss Sunshine, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin is still a favorite. But his Michael Scott character is by far my least favorite part of The Office.

I generally catch a lot of flack for this. From what I’ve gathered from talking to people, it’s sort of an unwritten rule that if you’re a fan of The Office, you like Steve Carell on it. But I just really don’t. I get that his character is supposed to be unlikable to a certain degree. But I don’t like him AT ALL. I don’t know if it’s the stupidity, the self-centeredness, or the complete & utter cluelessness (or perhaps some combination), but when he’s on screen I just wait for the moment he’s off.

It’s not like I think Carell’s bad in the show or anything. On the contrary, he does a great job. I just don’t like the character. I find Dwight much more likable than Michael, which I think is in large part because Dwight KNOWS he’s an ass. He’s honest about it. Michael is an egotistical jerk who steps over everyone, and expects them to love him despite it.

I think The Office will be just fine without him. They’ve got such a great supporting cast already in place (especially Jim, Pam, & Dwight), and if they decide to bring in a new actor to fill Carell’s position, they’ve got a full year to integrate them and make the transition work. I’ll be very disappointed if they decide to end the show after next season, but I’m fairly sure they’ll at least try to keep it going sans Carell.

This past Friday was Conan O’Brien’s final night hosting The Tonight Show, and it was a sad moment for me. As I’ve said, Conan is my favorite talk show host, and my idol as a comedian. I wish it hadn’t have come to this, but I’m glad that he took the opportunity to go out with a helluva bang. Steve Carell was a fun surprise, Tom Hanks proved why he’s the best guest out there, Neil Young’s performance was great, and going out by playing Free Bird with Will Ferrell, Billy Gibbons, Beck, & Ben Harper was an awesome way to exit (loved the cowbell, by the way.)

But more than that, I loved the speech Conan gave at the end. It was heartfelt, sincere, positive, and above all, classy. It’s clear how much he cares about his staff, and that he was deeply touched by the outpouring of affection from his fans. When he started choking up, I started to tear up.

Even though I wish his ratings had been higher & he had been able to reach a more mainstream audience in his stint on The Tonight Show, I wouldn’t have wanted it to happen at the expense of Conan’s unique brand of humor that I fell in love with 15 years ago. Like he said in his speech, he did it his way, and I wouldn’t have wanted to see it any other way. I don’t know where he’s going to end up, but I know that wherever it is, that’s where my TV is going to be tuned every night. I just hope that it’s as close to September 1st, as possible, because I know I’ll be going through some serious withdrawal by then.

And now, I leave you with a line from Conan’s speech that sums up not only what I love about him, but also the way I look at life, and why cynicism never leads 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.”