Fallon worth talking about

LOS ANGELES — Now that Conan O'Brien has come to rest, presumably for more than seven months, as the host of a TBS talk show, it seems like a good time to take another look at the person who replaced him, and I don't mean Jay Leno.

One year and nine months ago Jimmy Fallon — who, like O'Brien, was touched by the hand of Lorne, and I do mean Michaels — followed O'Brien into the "Late Night" chair previously vacated by David Letterman.

There is a moment early in the career of every major-network late-night talk show host when the people ask, "Why him?" (There are no "hers" in major-network late-night, and no one ever asks why a particular person might be hosting a basic-cable or a daytime talk show; those things just happen.) And yet with a little time, most new hosts begin to take on a patina of inevitability. Conan may have lasted only seven months captaining "The Tonight Show," but he commanded "Late Night" for 17 years, and even a short run in late-night produces a lot of television. More than 350 hours of "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" have aired on NBC since March 2009, with Fallon in or near the center of the frame nearly all the time. Along with Craig Ferguson's very different "Late Late Show," Fallon's show seems to me to have moved to the head of its class, although I admit that talk shows are largely a matter of taste: Different hosts for different folks.

It was an uneven beginning: Fallon booked one of the world's worst interview subjects, Robert DeNiro, as his first guest, and the acknowledged irony — DeNiro was asked questions he could answer in a single word — did not make the interview any better, or funny. But whatever tentativeness Fallon showed has long dissipated, and what he lacks in penetrating insight — if such a thing were even required here — he makes up in enthusiasm.

He loves comedy, movies, music and video games (technology gets the attention here that other talk shows deny it) and loves them like a fan, which means that his questions are sometimes weightless — asking Keith Richards to name his favorite Rolling Stones album cover, for example. That does not mean they don't get interesting results.

Fallon will address his guests as "buddy" or "my friend" or "my man" (as in "My man Dick Cavett is joining us!"). He can sing, and dance more than a little, which not all late-night TV hosts can do, and is an impressive mimic and a good storyteller.