Thorsby mentioned on national late night talk show

Published 7:46 pm Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The town of Thorsby was among numerous cities and towns in Alabama that received about 3 minutes of fame on Conan O’Brien’s nationally televised late night talk show “Conan” on Monday, Jan. 17.

O’Brien and Raisin, an acoustic guitar player and singer played by show writer Brian McCann, sang a “simple little song” that was written to help viewers remember where they can find TBS on their local cable provider anywhere in the country.

Before the comedy sketch of the TBS song began, O’Brien said finding TBS takes some getting used to because he used to work on a channel that was on the same place everywhere.

“Thanks to the whims of local cable providers,” said O’Brien, “finding TBS on your dial can vary wildly from town to town. I didn’t know that.”

Raisin began with Alabama and listed numerous cities and towns, eventually naming Thorsby on channel 3, as the name and channel were shown on the screen.

“I like the way our name stayed on the screen at the end,” said Dearl Hilyer, mayor of Thorsby. “It gave Thorsby good publicity and the song was very creative and interesting.”

The song ended up being not so simple, as O’Brien said.

The sketch ended with Conan saying as he looked into the screen, “no excuses, Alabama.”

A clip can be found on YouTube.