Can’t wait until November for Conan O’Brien’s red-headed mug to appear on TBS? Fear not. O’Brien, his sidekick Andy Richter, and O’Brien’s writers will be part of a one-hour TBS special  to be taped during a Chicago comedy festival next month.

Early reports state that the working title of the show will be “Team Coco Presents Conan’s Writers Live” and will be taped on June 17. Tickets for the show go on sale this Friday.

So, what will “Team Coco” be all about? According to Richter, “the writing staff will create the personality of the new talk show, so the special will give the audience a taste of what the TBS show will be.”

“Team Coco Presents Conan’s Writers Live” is scheduled to air on TBS on June 27.

Though NBC has been the subject of ridicule due to what is now being dubbed as “The Tonight Show Conundrum”, that doesn’t seem to have phased them as they are ramping up the upcoming awards season with two new hosts.

Last week, the network announced that Ricky Gervais will be returning to host this year’s Golden Globes, making it his second year in a row as the host. On the heels of that announcement, NBC has also named Jimmy Fallon as the host of the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards. From Live Feed:

“Jimmy was the natural choice as one of the most promising and likable young entertainers who will now have the chance to display his many talents on television’s biggest night,” said Paul Telegdy, executive vp of alternative at NBC. “His proven skills as a comedian and host — as well as his openness to new ideas — will fully engage audiences and ultimately deliver a lively Emmy telecast.”

Added executive producer Don Mischer: “Jimmy has many talents. He can sing, he can dance, he does impersonations, and he does it gracefully and with ease. I think he’ll make a terrific host and we are really looking forward to working with him.”

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are again joined by video game guru John Carle to discuss all manner of new and interesting topics. Some of these include Jason West and Vince Zampella joining EA Games, Conan heading to TBS, the oddness of Viva Pinata, the usefulness of the website Game Crush, the fun to be had at the website Girl Gamer, the awesomeness of Michael Ironside, instant Netflix on the Wii, Ryan Reynolds in Paper Man and the future of digital comics on the iPad and other devices.

Plus, the guys made some picks this week, as usual, including John’s pick of Kick-Ass, Matt’s pick of the movie Defendor and Chris’ pick of the new HBO series Treme.

Also, they announced the first winner of The Flickcast Mailbag contest and a new prize for this week’s question: a copy of Defendor on DVD. Remember, to win just send a question on pretty much any topic to mailbag [at] the flickcast dot com and if we answer your question on the show next week, you win. What could be easier than that?

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

This week On the Radar George Lucas seeks to capture the minds of even younger viewers, Image Comics takes a shot at Marvel, and one of the most famous music videos of all time may go 3D.  All that and whole bunch of other fun stuff!

Crispin Glover talks Back to the Future controversy

Personally, I didn’t realize Back to the Future was mired in any kind of controversy, but it is.  Speaking at a promotion for Hot Tub Time Machine, Crispin Glover, who played Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) Dad spoke about the raw deal he was dealt after the first film came out:

“On the DVD to the Back to the Future trilogy, Bob Gale has said something that’s totally fabricated,” Glover told a group of reporters at this weekend’s press junket forHot Tub Time Machine. “He said I asked for twice the amount of money that Michael J. Fox asked for in the first film. In the negotiation for the second film, they offered me less than half of what any of the actors that were being asked to come back in the film—Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Tom Wilson. They had all done studio films, and they’d made a lot more money. I was being penalized.”

Interesting stuff.  Mind you, considering the somewhat lackluster opinions of the second and third film maybe Glover got off easy by not being in them.

Jamie Foxx to star in Kane & Lynch video game adaption?

There hasn’t been a lot of talk about the film adaption of video game Kane & Lynch other than it could star Bruce Willis as Kane.  Now, another big name is being tossed around to play opposite Willis, Jamie Foxx.  Developed by IO Interactive Nu Image/Millennium is set to finance with Lionsgate distributing.  While I’m confident in the actors involved, video games are not well known for the best of translations to the big screen.

George Lucas bringing Galactic Heroes to TV

Ask any “real” Star Wars fan and they will probably tell you that The Clone Wars cartoon is pretty childish.  Well, prepared to consider that more mature entertainment.  Looking to draw in even younger viewers to the Star Wars universe, George Lucas is working on a cartoon adaption of the Star Wars: Galactic Heroes toy line.  You know, those chunky figures with a whopping two points of articulation (usually the arms).  Worse yet, this problem means more screen time with the one Star Wars character that can relate best to 3 year olds-Jar Jar Binks.

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This was a big week for news, especially of the comic book movie variety. Surprisingly, even with all that coming out we still have even more items worth talking about on the radar. Batman beats Superman…again, a Star Wars character makes a bid for a mascot job, MGM is still looking for money, Brian De Palma may get paranormal and what cities will Michael Bay reign destruction upon next?

Batman trumps Superman on the auction block

Looks like Batman wasn’t content with beating Superman at the box office, he had to do it at an auction as well. The 1939 first appearance of The Dark Knight sold for a whopping $1,075,500. This beats Superman’s first appearance in comics which sold for 1 million. Sorry, Supes…but, hey, you did land an awesome writer for your upcoming reboot.

Blockbuster struggles to remain relevant in the digital age

Video rental store Blockbuster continues an uphill battle to compete against digital alternatives.  The brick-and-mortar business reported a “$435 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $360 million in red ink in the year-ago frame. Revenue dropped 18% to $1.1 billion.” As companies like Netflix and Redbox continue to steal market share some believe Blockbuster has some merit left:

“The drying up of retail competition from the ongoing closures of most Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores; major studios aren’t making their new releases immediately available to Redbox; and Warner Bros. will begin a 28-delay before giving Netflix access to new-release DVDs.”

Personally, I don’t see a rebound at this point and beyond the legit competition Blockbuster still has piracy to content with. Is this the end? We’ll see.

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This week on The Flickcast, Matt and Chris fly solo again as they take on Conan’s last episode and the classy way he handles it as well as the casting of a different Conan in a reboot of Conan the Barbarian. In addition they also talk about the upcoming Powers TV series, The Goon going digital and the amazing success of Avatar. They also discuss some other topics including the new Fox show Human Target, Jackie Earle Haley’s career, Spactacus: Blood and Sand, the nature of modern movies and the greatness of Die Hard.

Chris and Matt also made more picks this week. Matt went with Swimming with Sharks, and Chris picked the cult classic Coogan’s Bluff starring Clint Easwood as a cowboy in the big city who teaches those city slickers a thing or two about justice.

As usual, if you have any comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitterand at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

We all know that this NBC Late Night war is getting out of hand. It’s good to see some are taking it seriously, while still adding a comedic twist to it, though. SNL’s Seth Meyers broke down the fiasco into marital terms that we could all understand, and now it’s time for Taiwan to take a crack at it, using the skills they’re best at: state-of-the-art computer animation.

Finally, the whole war has now been put into terms that us geeks can understand. Of course, we have no idea what’s actually being said in the video, but what we do know is that Jeff Zucker, Jay Leno, and Conan O’Brien turn into Captain America, Superman, and the Hulk about halfway through…and battle. What else could you ask for?

Is this just the Taiwanese News mocking our coverage of the Late Night War, or do they really think that the only way we solve our problems is by putting on superhero costumes and fighting? Check out the insane news report after the jump, and if anybody knows what is being said, please fill us in.

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Once again, the country has been split. This time, it’s not for for land, democracy, money, or rap music, but the coveted prize of NBC’s The Tonight Show. The country’s sides are broken down to “Team Conan” and “Team Leno.” Though the latter should be “Team NBC”, nobody wants to take sides with the network after the decisions they’ve made.

Of course there are people who remain independent, or on “Team Dave”, but they don’t really matter here. With NBC announcing that their letting Conan go, fellow celebrity supporters of O’Brien are standing up and taking as many potshots at the network as they can on national TV. One of those supporters is Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers.

Meyers is not only the first solo host of Weekend Update since Colin Quinn back in 2000, but he’s also the show’s current head writer. Meyers took a moment to explain the “Late Night War” in a pretty marital analogy for everyone to understand, which both enlightened us, and stuck it to NBC CEO Jeff Zucker at the same time. Take a look at the clip after the jump.

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With the newest Late Night War firing up between NBC’s own Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, it seems that the feud has shifted focus to Conan vs. NBC. Earlier this week, Conan put out a statement directed at the network saying that he will no longer be a part of The Tonight Show if it’s moved from 11:30pm to 12:05am. From there, Conan has made his opening monologues over the past few nights directed towards NBC and their actions.

Yesterday, NBC made it official that Leno’s show will be moving to 11:30 after the Winter Olympics come to an end. They haven’t made it clear what the plans for Conan and his team will be, but some rumors have Conan being benched until his contract is up in three years.

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For those unaware, one of the best and most poignant talk shows isn’t on network or cable television — it’s actually only on Funny Or Die. The show? Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifiniakis. The comedic relief from such films and TV shows as The Hangover and Bored To Death hosts a satire of bad local interview shows with some of his Hollywood friends, and each are funnier than the last.

Lately, he has had such guests as Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, Charlize Theron, and even fellow Hangover star Bradley Cooper. His most recent episode had the dynamic duo of late night TV, Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter. Zach has a bit of a problem with Conan, and he doesn’t hide it very well.

Check out the video behind the jump, courtesy of FunnyOrDie.com, and be sure to keep your eye on Zach G and his upcoming endeavors, as he’s on the way to toppling Will Ferrel for Hollywood’s King of Comedy.

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A few months ago, legendary actor known for playing himself (and a certain starship Captain), William Shatner, made a special appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien to read Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin’s resignation speech. It was pretty epic, and you can relive it over here.

Last night, Shatner returned to the show, this time to read the impossibly intelligent tweets of Levi Johnston, the 19 year old baby daddy to Palin’s granddaughter — a development that may have been one of the reasons why she and McCain lost the Presidential election. His tweets are pretty painful, but given his accidental celebrity status, that makes them all the more funny.

Shatner made sure that everybody knew just how poetic Johnston could be, in a tribute poem. Check out the video after the jump, and long live Shatner!

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Granted, most of us here at The Flickcast probably don’t watch Conan O’ Brien and The Tonight Show as often as we should. He’s a funny, talented guy that deserves all the success he has. Unfortunately, time is a precious commodity these days so when I, for example, have time to watch something, its usually more along the lines of a show like Fringe, Dollhouse, Mad Men or Sons of Anarchy. Still, that doesn’t mean we aren’t fans of Conan or his show, especially when he has great guests like the super talented and funny Seth MacFarlane and the politically irreverent Michael Moore .

Recently, Conan had both of these guys on his show and both of them proved to be quite entertaining. As usual, Michael Moore provided several interesting points and managed to crack up the audience a bit with his take on life in post-Bush America. Plus, if his latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, is any indication of how things are, we really need to rethink some things around here.

Next, Conan had on a guest who many, including myself, consider to be one of the true geniuses working in show business today. I’m talking, of course, about Seth MacFarlane. His shows, especially the terrific Family Guy, prove his humor and talent week in and week out. He’s a truly gifted performer. Plus, he’s just so damn funny in person as well.

Check out video clips of both of these guys after the jump. The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brian airs weekdays at 11:30P/12:30C on NBC.

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