UPDATE, January 22, 2010: Conan O'Brien: Last 'Tonight Show'
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Friday was Episode #2725 of Late Night with Conan O'Brien -- the last one.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Conan O'Brien said goodbye to New York and NBC's "Late Night" by passing out shards of his stage, enjoying one last rub from Will Ferrell and promising fans he wouldn't grow up for an earlier time slot.
O'Brien is heading to Los Angeles, where NBC will fulfill a promise it made five years ago to make him "Tonight" show host. That new gig begins in June.
O'Brien took a sledgehammer and ax to his stage set this week, giving fans souvenirs. On his last show, taped Friday evening and aired at 12:35 a.m. ET, a construction vehicle was used to tear down a pillar of lights, which was cut up offstage.
Most of his final "Late Night" after 16 years was spent airing highlights and visiting with Andy Richter, O'Brien's former sidekick who left the show in 2000.
This was a Conan love fest. O'Brien walked out to an extended standing ovation. The audience was enthusiastic to say the least. O'Brien expressed his sincere appreciation.
Throughout the show, O'Brien was humble.
Surely, O'Brien has gained a lot of confidence over the years. Obviously, O'Brien is not the shaky, inexperienced unknown he was when he took over Late Night from David Letterman when he moved to CBS in 1993. Sixteen years later, after polishing his stage presence and solidifying his comedic persona, O'Brien still manages to keep his ego in check. The self-deprecating humor still works.
Once O'Brien takes over the Tonight Show, will that change? Will he go Hollywood? I hope not.
For the final show, special surprise guests were promised.
John Mayer sent in a taped "goodbye" segment. He wrote a song for O'Brien, "LA's gonna eat you alive." After singing briefly, Mayer said to O'Brien, "Good luck, loser."
Most of the show consisted of old clips, but there was a short new filmed piece. Since Abe Vigoda can't come with them to LA, O'Brien released him from a cage back into the wild. He sobbed and cried out in agony as Vigoda wandered off. It's so hard to say goodbye.
I'll miss Abe. Remember the lighting of the Vigoda at holiday time?
After that O'Brien introduced a clip that he called "his own personal favorite."
He said, "I've told the staff when I leave this earth, just show this 'cause this pretty much says who I'm all about."
He visited a reenactment of an 1864 baseball game. He interviewed participants and then joined the team, the Wabash Mashers. While it is a funny piece, I was surprised to hear that was his favorite of all. It would be impossible for me to pick a favorite.
After ripping a large beam down from the set, a surprise guest made an appearance -- President George W. Bush entered as the band played "Hail to the Chief." Actually, it was Will Ferrell. Ferrell as Bush referred to O'Brien by the nickname he gave him, "Cone Bone." He praised O'Brien's show, "humortastical wonderment."
Then after a bit more back and forth, Ferrell ripped off the presidential suit, to reveal his familiar "sexy leprechaun" outfit. I don't know how I could have forgotten that. Ferrell wore it on the show a number of times.
The first and only guest to join O'Brien over at the desk was Andy Richter. I knew Richter would be there. That was a given. One of the first things he said to O'Brien was something like, "I told you you'd never last without me."
Richter was gracious, saying how proud he was to have been a part of the show and how proud he was of O'Brien for all he's accomplished. Very sweet but not sappy.
Then there were clips and more clips.
The musical guest was The White Stripes, performing "I Can Tell We're Going to be Friends."
O'Brien ended the show and his 16-year run on Late Night at his desk. He delivered a rather lengthy thank you speech. He gave credit for the show's success to the many people working behind the camera. He thanked his writers, mentioning a number of them by name, and the executive producer, Jeff Ross.
He thanked each member of the Max Weinberg 7, allowing them to take a final bow. He thanked announcer Joel Godard. I was surprised Joel didn't get any screen time on the final show.
He thanked the fans.
He thanked his wife and two children for keeping him sane.
He thanked his parents, who were at the show. O'Brien said, "They taught me from day one: It's fine to be funny, but if you have no character, none of it's worth a damn."
He thanked his brother, Neal. Neal has watched every single episode of the show. O'Brien said Neal would call him the next day and say how great the show was even when it wasn't.
O'Brien gave special thanks to David Letterman.
Transcript
O'BRIEN: David Letterman invented this late night show. And I... he is, I believe, one of the, probably one of the most brilliant broadcasters certainly of the last century and this century and for all of time. I have a terrific amount of respect for him and what he did. He set the bar absurdly high for everybody in my generation who does this. And living in his shadow has been a burden and an inspiration for me for years. And I think we need to acknowledge it all started with David Letterman.
O'Brien thanked Jay Leno, too, though not quite as profusely. Unlike with Letterman, O'Brien focused on how Leno has conducted himself rather than his talent. Nonetheless, he said some nice things and was quite gracious in his thanks.
O'BRIEN: In the same vein, I'd like to say something about Mr. Jay Leno. Jay Leno is, from day one, has called me constantly and offered his support. Every night, at the end of the Tonight Show, Jay Leno says, 'Stay tuned for Conan O'Brien.' He has done that since 1993. The Tonight Show under Jay Leno has been a powerhouse. His success turned into success for us. I owe that man a great deal. I'm thrilled that we get to be friends for all of our time in television and that he will continue to be my lead-in. And I'm thrilled that we're on the same network. And so my thanks to Jay Leno for all he's done for me.
O'Brien became very emotional, his voice cracking, when he thanked Lorne Michaels.
O'BRIEN: Let me say something about Lorne Michaels. There are many young fans of the show who don't know really... what... my personal history and how I came to host this show. In 1993, Lorne Michaels took the greatest, one of the greatest and most ridiculous chances in the history of this medium when he plucked a completely unknown writer with no television experience and bad skin, I'll tell you about him later, and threw him on television. And Lorne always told me, 'I have ultimate faith in you.'
Lorne Michaels single-handedly made my career in television. And, I don't know what I did. I think I must have saved his life at some point. He certainly saved mine. So my thanks to him.
His tribute to Lorne Michaels was very touching.
The emotion really swelled up and his voiced cracked once again during his final words.
O'BRIEN: And then we're here. I don't what I did to deserve the opportunity to do this. There are people that have hosted these kinds of shows who are, I'm sure, better than I am. Nobody has ever, ever enjoyed it more than I do. It's an incredible, amazing honor to do this program for you people.
And I want to say something about... we're going on to this next gig, and sometimes I read that it's time for Conan to grow up 'cause he's going to 11:30, and I assure you, that's just not going to happen. I can't. This is who I am, for better or worse. I don't know how.
Let me as a last note just say that, let me just say that this is... I really... So many people that have loved the show over the years, you do this at 12:30, you throw it out there, you don't know what it means to people. And, you know, this just has meant the world to me. And I love you very much. Please come hang with me at the next gig. We're gonna have a really good time. We're gonna really knock it out of the park. Goodnight and God bless you. We'll see you.
That was a classy and sweet sign-off.
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