May 11th, 2012

Set the DVR’s! For the first time in thirteen years, Conan O’Brien will be visiting David Letterman. The reunion takes place on Thursday, May 17.

Brookline native O’Brien, who had been a writer for both Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons,  began his talk show career in 1993, taking over hosting duties when Letterman left  Late Night on NBC. Letterman’s not so amicable exit from NBC came about when the network passed him over and instead hired Jay Leno as Johnny Carson’s successor to The Tonight Show. Letterman jumped to CBS and went head to head with Leno in the late night ratings war until Leno left The Tonight Show in 2009.

When Leno left the show to move to prime time, O’Brien became the new host and he and Letterman vied for the same viewers. But in another not so amicable move, NBC bumped O’Brien and The Tonight Show from the 11:35 pm. time slot to 12:05 a.m. when Leno decided he wanted to return to late night because of his less than impressive prime time ratings. O’Brien, unhappy with the network’s plan and what he felt would be the demise of the show, walked away, leaving Leno to take the helm again.

This will be O’Brien’s fifth time as Letterman’s guest. Given the common bond the two share in their experiences, the audience should probably expect a barb of two to be thrown in Jay Leno’s direction.

It looks like Emmy winning writer-producer David E Kelley could be adding another hit show to his already impressive resume. TNT has picked up ten episodes of Kelley’s medical drama pilot Monday Mornings. The show, formerly called Chelsea General, is based on the book by CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, developed the show with Kelley.

Set to premiere in the summer of 2013, the series stars Ving Rhames and Alfred Molina. Also announced as part of the cast are Jamie Bamber, Jennifer Finnigan, Bill Irwin, Keong Sim, Sarayu Rao and Emily Swallow. The show will air on both TNT and other Turner networks around the world.  “Monday Mornings is a superb drama brought to life with passion by a gifted ensemble cast and some of the best creative minds working in television today,” said TNT’s head of programming Michael Wright.

The show is set at a fictional hospital in Portland, OR. The title, Monday Mornings, refers to the weekly morbidity and mortality meetings the doctors and staff have.

Kelley, who grew up in Belmont, MA, wrote the pilot episode and will serve as executive producer on the series, along with Gupta. Kelley’s array of hit series include Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Boston Legal and Harry’s Law.