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Conan Says Bye To 'Late Night' After 16 Years

NBC

O'Brien is getting "The Tonight Show" five years after NBC announced that he was the anointed one to replace Jay Leno. He calls it a dream job, a sacred trust that has been a part of NBC for 56 years.

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2009

Conan O'Brien jokes that he might get emotional when his last "Late Night" show airs tonight on NBC.

"It will be my 2,725th show, but who's counting?" he said during a visit to NBC affiliate WFLA, Channel 8, on the Friday before Super Bowl XLIII.

"I'd like to say that it will be just another show because I try to be more cynical than sentimental," he noted.

"But I probably will cry or babble incoherently because I came into this job relatively unknown," he said. "And now, after 16 years, I'm known - but only to people who stay up past midnight. My parents still think I'm in real estate."

O'Brien's visit to Tampa was part of a 40-city media blitz to tout his new gig as host of "The Tonight Show."

He begins that job in June, replacing Jay Leno, who steps down May 29. Leno's new 10 p.m. NBC weeknight talk show begins in August. Meanwhile, "Saturday Night Live" alumnus Jimmy Fallon takes over "Late Night" on March 2.

"It's all very confusing, like one giant game of musical chairs," O'Brien said.

O'Brien is getting "The Tonight Show" five years after NBC announced that he was the anointed one to replace Leno. He calls it a dream job, a sacred trust that has been a part of NBC for 56 years.

O'Brien recalls how tough it was to replace David Letterman on "Late Night" in 1993 after Letterman bolted for a CBS job.

"I was 29 years old, and no one outside of the die-hard fans of 'The Simpsons' had ever heard of me," he said.

The tall, lanky red-haired Irish Catholic from Boston had written skits for "Saturday Night Live" and scripts for "The Simpsons," but he had no on-air exposure. Critics slammed the Harvard grad and former Lampoon editor. Even NBC wasn't sold, giving him a series of 13-week contracts until he made "Late Night" his own.

His early deer-caught-in-the-headlights nervousness evolved into a self-deprecating goofiness. Less topical than Leno or Letterman, O'Brien relied more on skits, crazy characters and gags than celebrity chats.

"There was a sense that we could get away with a lot because all the grown-ups in charge at NBC had gone to bed," he said.

"I am looking at this as a chance to shake things up and try some fresh things," he said. "But basically, it's still me. Johnny Carson once told me that it's all about the person behind the desk. My sense of humor will continue."

He's also keeping Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and bandleader Max Weinberg.

He said he is going to miss the flavor that Manhattan gives to "Late Night," but relocating to Los Angeles will give him new material. "I'll be a fish out of water in Hollywood," he said.

The show will originate from a studio at Universal that once housed the Jack Benny comedy series as well as the original "Knight Rider" series. "I prefer to call it the Jack Benny Studio," O'Brien said. "We don't mention that 'Knight Rider' thing."

As part of the countdown to his departure, O'Brien has been showing vintage skits and talking to favorite guests. He took an ax to his desk Monday. He "retired" gags such as "Masturbating Bear" because "11:30 p.m. is no place for a compulsively self-pleasuring animal. Say hello to the more acceptable Bear Frantically Trying to Find His Cell Phone in His Fanny Pack."

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