"People act as if there's a tear in the fabric of time and space that separates 11:30 and 12:30," the former host of NBC's "Late Night" said this week in a conference call to discuss his transition to hosting "The Tonight Show" starting Monday.

Noting that David Letterman had brought a number of bits with him from his stint on "Late Night" when he moved to an earlier time slot on CBS in 1993, O'Brien suggested that in the age of the DVR, time-slot changes mean less, "especially now that people don't watch their episode of 'Lost' at the exact time they're supposed to watch it."

As long as the show's funny, "you can experience it at 11:30 or you can watch it on your computer the next morning while you're eating your oatmeal," he said. It's not that "you'll ignite anti-matter if you bring 12:30 into 11:30."

As far as specific bits go, "I think people have focused on the masturbating bear, and I say, 'Well, how about the self-pleasuring bear?' I've had people actually say to me, 'Well, it's too bad, because you could never do Triumph [the Insult Comic Dog] at 11:30, and I tell them, 'That's funny, because Triumph's been a guest on Jay Leno's 'Tonight Show,' like, three times."

O'Brien himself will be Leno's guest as the current "Tonight Show" host ends his 17-year run on the show tomorrow night.

"Obviously, I was very honored to do it. And if nothing else, it gets me on 'The Tonight Show' 48 hours earlier," he joked.

"My attitude is, this is Jay's night," he added. "I feel like I'm going to have plenty of opportunities to make a jackass of myself in that hour."

As for what to expect when he officially takes over, "I really want to do anything that I think is funny."

And while he sees no reason that Triumph, for instance, "can't file reports for us," he does anticipate a certain amount of reinvention.

"It would be a shame to just dust off the 'Late Night' show and move it to 11:30," he said. "That doesn't feel right."

For those who've generally been in bed by the time Conan comes on, here's his take on the differences between the departing Leno - who'll be back next fall in a 10 p.m. weeknights show - and the tall redhead who's replacing him:

* "He has like a 220-car collection, and I have my Ford Taurus."

* "Jay established himself in comedy as probably one of the best standups of all time, so I think that Jay himself would admit that his real love is . . . the jokes," he said, while "I love a good joke, but . . . I probably like the ideas" more.

* Looking back on his 16 years on 'Late Night,' if asked for his favorite things, "I'd show you a bunch of funny images, you know what I mean? Jay has those, but he might be more attached to, you know, jokes he's told and comments he's had about the news."

* "Even more than the joke, I love responding to how the audience responds to a joke. . . . I like it when things go off the rails a little bit."

Some weekend picks

It's been a busy year for Sarah Chalke.

Not only was the "Scrubs" star a major suspect in the ongoing mystery of CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" - where she turned out to be yet another red herring - but now she's a "Maneater."

Based on the best-seller by Gigi Levangie Grazer, whose book "The Starter Wife" became a Lifetime series starring Debra Messing, "Maneater" is a tougher sell.

Chalke plays a shopaholic blonde named Clarissa who, when her parents stop behaving like ATMs, targets a rich guy ("Crusoe" 's Philip Winchester) for marriage.

Things fall apart in reverse-storybook fashion, and everyone involved in this two-night miniseries learns some lessons. But it requires all of Chalke's considerable charm to smooth the rough spots in this far-fetched story with its not always sympathetic heroine.

* "Pushing Daisies," 10 p.m. Saturday, Channel 6.

Fans of this ABC-canceled series may want to set a DVR to capture the last few unaired episodes, starting this weekend and continuing through June 13.

Saturday's episode reportedly includes Richard Benjamin and George Segal as the pair who long ago kidnapped Olive (Kristin Chenoweth). I can't wait.

* "Into the Storm," 9 p.m. Sunday, HBO.

Brendan Gleeson and Janet McTeer replace Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave as Winston and Clementine Churchill in this sequel to "The Gathering Storm."

Set against the backdrop of World War II, Churchill's character quirks don't amount to a hill of beans, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to see what yet another actor does with them, or to spot the bits of timeless oratory that's been tucked inside dialogue here and there. *

Send e-mail to graye@phillynews.com.