Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter a comedy duo once again

Television has produced its fair share of celebrated duos: Batman and Robin, Starsky and Hutch, Lois and Clark.

But perhaps none have elicited late night laughs the way Conan O’Brien and his favorite couch-potato Andy Richter have. And the awkward, two-headed comedy duo is back – this time on TBS, when O’Brien’s new show Conan debuts Nov. 8.

“This decision was made without my authority,” Conan said in a statement. “I will get to the bottom of this.”

Richter, on the other hand, expressed his excitement to rejoin his redder half in a statement of his own.

“I’m thrilled to be going back to work with Conan,” Richter said. “However, I’m mostly looking forward to getting out of the house again.”

Richter left Late Night after seven years to chase independent fame. While respected by critics, his three television shows since leaving Late Night were considered commercial failures.

Meanwhile, Conan’s fame grew. After hosting Late Night for 17 years, he took over for Jay Leno on The Tonight Show in 2009, and Leno moved to primetime.

When Leno’s ratings began plummeting in the new time slot, NBC wanted to move Leno back to late night, which meant Conan’s show would air at a later time. Conan wasn’t happy with the proposal, and released this statement:

“I sincerely believe that delaying The Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting.”

So Conan then reached an agreement with NBC that allowed him to pursue employment with another network, which he has now done at TBS.

And Richter will be ridding his coat-tails once again.

While it’s uncertain how exactly Richter will be used in Conan’s new show, there’s one thing that already looks different between the two: Conan’s ruddy beard.

See the duo sit down for a question and answer session:

Photo by Dan Perry via Flickr.