Who at TBS made the call on Conan? In this latest contre-temps in the Conan chroniclesFire hose, George Lopez comes across as either a mensch or a schlemiel. Who wouldn't have wanted to be in on a wiretap when TBS president Steve Koonin called the comedian last week and said, "George, I need a favor." Especially considering that Lopez,DVD Ripper like every comedian several months ago, had a field day ribbing NBC and dissing Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno during the kerfuffle at the Peacock.

At the time, Lopez, with more good-natured jibes than, say, David Letterman's pointed zingers, referred to NBC as the Nobody Backs Conan network and suggested that "ain't nobody watching" the carrot-top anyway. Who would have thought, I remember him saying, that "a Mexican talk-show host would have the most job security in town."

Unless we're missing something -- and in Hollywood there probably is a tat for every tit -- within just a couple of days late last week, Lopez "graciously" submitted to moving his show from the coveted 11 p.m. slot to midnight to accommodate the cabler in luring O'Brien back to late-night.

When a similar switcheroo -- and this has to rank as one of the clumsiest screw-ups at a network in years -- went awry at NBC, O'Brien walked away with $40-odd million and Leno took the heat for being a patsy or a yes-man.

Lopez even purportedly picked up his own phone to call O'Brien last Wednesday and again Sunday night to help entice him into the fold. Surely that is going beyond the call of duty for a rival talent.

As for knowing how to structure and close a deal,DVD Ripper hats have to go off to Koonin as well for snagging O'Brien via an ownership stake in his new venture as well as a healthy payday.

Did Lopez get a similar kind of deal or an assurance of such? Stay tuned.

While O'Brien did his usual self-deprecating shtick Monday night during his comedy-tour debut in Eugene, Ore., joking about his new gig, Lopez might have protested too much Monday during his "Lopez Tonight" monologueFire hose. He told his audience he is "100% on board with this move" and that he is welcoming Conan into the fold with his "deep loving embrace." From audience reaction, it wasn't clear whether they sensed a hint of irony in the riff. "Deep loving embraces" in Tinseltown generally translates as "deep pockets were turned inside out."

Lopez went on to say that now everyone can go from "I'm with Coco" to "Everybody can go LoCo.Fire hose" Presumably in watching the back-to-back "next generation of late-night stars" on TBS.

After the twists and turns of the Leno-O'Brien saga,DVD Ripper it's hard not to be suspicious that a deal to secure O'Brien and displace Lopez could have been worked out so smoothly.