Anyone expecting Conan O'Brien to radically change his act for basic cable doesn't really understand Conan. The comedian may be the last of his generation that wants to be the next Johnny Carson and he proved it Monday with a show that tightly resembled his idol's approach.

There was a very funny video opener about what Conan has been doing during his "off time," that was quite similar to the one he showed on his summer tour. He also brought back the string dance, most of his old band, Andy Richter, the Masturbating Bear and fave musical guest Jack White (Conan joined in the performance, something I suspect we'll see more of). Guests Seth Rogan and Lea Michele did their job by offering slice-of-life anecdotes and Ricky Gervais contributed a gag video.

Good stuff - and very ho hum. Conan is unlikely to reinvent the talk-show format, which may make it tough for him to compete against Jay Leno and David Letterman. Maybe that'll be enough. O'Brien is as good as those guys on any given night but not most nights (well, not as good as Dave). I'd lilke to see O'Brien experiment more. He no longer has the network pressure and reins. I suspect TBS will let him do whatever he wants. Let's hope he takes advantage of it and offers us a true alternative.