Casualties Of War

Is the Masturbating Bear dead?

As a deal nears for Conan O'Brien's exit from NBC, one of the heavily debated points is over the characters and recurring comedy bits originated during his 16-plus years on "Late Night" and "The Tonight Show", which are unlikely to follow the host when he leaves NBC.

The Peacock contends they own the intellectual property behind such popular O'Brien characters as Pimpbot 5000 and Conando, as well as recurring segments such as In the Year 3000 and Desk Driving. Leaked info from the settlement negotiations say NBC is keeping the copyrighted and trademarked elements of O'Brien's shows as part of the deal. That means the bits and characters will likely never be seen after O'Brien's "Tonight" ends its run this Friday.

While the vast majority of the characters O'Brien introduced are said to owned by NBC, it's unclear who controls Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the crass canine puppet that is perhaps O'Brien's most popular recurring bit. Triumph was originated by writer and longtime O'Brien pal Robert Smigel, whose reps declined to comment on whether Smigel or NBC owned rights to the character.

In 1993, David Letterman got into a dustup with NBC when he departed "Late Night" for CBS' "Late Show." NBC attorneys attempted to prevent Letterman from taking intellectual property originated on "Late Night" to the comic's new home. Letterman responded by dropping certain bits and renaming other recurring segments -- "Viewer Mail" became "CBS Mailbag" and frequent guest Larry "Bud" Melman began referring to himself by his real name, Calvert DeForest. Letterman mocked the dispute on his first "Late Show" when NBC anchor Tom Brokaw interrupted the monologue and stole cue cards in the name of securing NBC's intellectual property.

O'Brien, who began as a writer on "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons," originally relied more heavily on the cleverly scripted bits and outrageous characters. Losing those assets could hurt him as he looks for another home, although his "Tonight Show" had featured fewer of the characters than "Late Night". Allegedly, he was not interested in taking his NBC characters with him. But saddest in this is that some very funny bits will be mothballed prematurely so that you can have another 20 years of "Jaywalking".