Watch How Conan O’Brien Filled Airtime Without Scabbing During the 2007-08 Writers’ Strike (Video)
thewrap.comexceptions like “Ellen,” the talk shows that continued airing new episodes avoided crossing picket lines by not using scripts of any kind.
So long as there was no content created by a writer, the show could honor the strike and still make new episodes.This resulted in a lot of improvisation — riffing, really — by these shows’ hosts and performers.
But the need to fill airtime with something is a huge challenge, especially when a show lasts for an hour. Enter O’Brien, who became known for particularly creative means of entertaining his audience.And in the clip above, resurfaced on Tuesday by NBC reporter Ben Collins, you can see an inspired example of that.
O’Brien manages to fill airtime by attempting to spin his wedding ring around for 47 seconds. “If we do it this will be television history,” O’Brien quips.Alas, O’Brien was only able to get it to spin for 36 seconds despite a heroic effort.
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