My Two Cents – Farewell to Conan O’Brien

photo: nbc

“This week is gonna get interesting.” – Conan O’Brien

Well, the time has come. Actually, it came and went and I’m just a few days late. In the blink of an eye, I went from not caring too much about late-night television, to hearing rumors, to DVRing all the shows every night. What turned into a late night addiction became something more to me. I realized I had been missing out on something wonderful for the last seven months. I used to watch The Tonight Show when Jay Leno was the host but never stuck around for Conan after. I’m an old lady and I need my sleep! I didn’t really know his style except for when he wrote on Saturday Night Live.

Since I cover the ratings for this site, I have seen the steady decline of Leno’s show and constant rumors of his cancellation. But then all of a sudden, it happened. Out of nowhere, my e-mail inbox was going crazy with press releases and Twitter was overflowing with the news. Conan was out, Leno was back, Jimmy was sad and Carson Daly was still alive. (I heard that last joke from someone … I just don’t remember who.) The final show date was set and I joined Team Coco. As did most people. Facebook groups popped up everywhere and t-shirts were made quickly, as well as a rally outside of Conan’s studio. But you know most of this already, so now I will just tell you how some of Conan’s friends said farewell to him.

The best farewell, by far, is already posted here on thetwocents in the form of a video by Ed Helms. But it’s so great it has to be posted twice. Helms came on as a surprise guest with a piano and sang “Conan’s Song,” a different version of The Hangover‘s “Stu’s Song.” It goes a little something like this: “What do peacocks dream of when they take a little peacock snooze? Do they dream of screwing Conan, who bumped his melon and lost a few screws…but don’t you worry your pretty feathered head… you’re gonna get rid of Conan whose career is surely dead. But we won’t have to miss our best friend Conan…he’ll be on Court TV during his trial with NBC … Conan, Conan, Conan, Conan…but if he gets murdered by crystal meth tweakers … who cares he’s sh*t out of luck.”

Stars like Martin Scorsese, Colin Firth, Adam Sandler, Robin Williams, Pee Wee Herman, Barry Manilow, Neil Young, Ben Stiller, Tom Hanks and Will Ferrell all came by for his last week (there were more but these are the ones I can remember off the top of my head). Will Ferrell was his first guest – and his last. These stars—his friends—stood by him. Sandler, in particular, who had been fired by NBC, wrote a song to make Conan cry about his situation (it was reminiscent of Opera Man). Joel McHale of NBC’s Community and E!’s The Soup offered to let him take over The Soup if nothing else panned out. That would actually be really funny! Williams flipped off “the city” screaming “what are you thinking?!” It was truly hilarious. He even suggested Conan run for Governor!

The audience of his final show was honestly excited to be there. They gave him a standing ovation upon his entrance to cheers of “CONAN! CONAN!” and laughter was at an all-time high. Conan also put to rest the rumors that his antics all week to spend NBC’s money had been real. Obviously, they were all fake. Come on people, seriously? He did a montage of his favorite moments from his show and okay, I got a bit teary-eyed. This guy … he got stuck in a Jay Leno-NBC war and didn’t deserve what happened to him. But okay, back to the final episode. He said he had to have a final “exit interview” done by an NBC employee – and out comes Steve Carell! His first actual guest was Tom Hanks. Did you know Tom Hanks came up with “Coco?” Hanks started a “COCO” chant before he finished his interview. Neil Young performed, Conan saying he was personally called by him and asked to come on the show to support him.

He took a serious moment to thank NBC for being his home and family for most of his adult life (remember, he started back as a writer for Saturday Night Live when he was younger). He got choked up doing this and is truly grateful for his short run hosting The Tonight Show. He also thanks his fans for the rallies, the signs, the camping out, and the goofiness shows of support. After his emotional speech, goofy Will Ferrell came out with The Max Weinberg Band to close the show. Conan even took to the guitar and Will took to the cowbell!

Conan ended his show with a smile, doing what he loved.

Following his final show, Jimmy Fallon opened Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with a short tribute to Conan in his old studio, which is now home to the Dr. Oz Show.

Preliminary ratings have Conan going out on top, nearly tripling Letterman’s viewers. He also was on top for most of the week. But Conan also remembered there were more important things going on the world, every night reminding people about the destruction in Haiti and reminding them to donate to Ben Stiller’s organization (stillerstrong.org) and during his final show, which was taping during the Hope for Haiti telethon, he had the website flashing throughout the show (hopeforhaitinow.org).

The terms of Conan’s separation contract says he can’t host another show until September and speculation is he will head over to FOX. He joked he’d be happy hosting in a 7-11 parking lot.

Video of his final show and his emotional goodbye are available here.

“To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” – Conan O’Brien

Farrah Kaye – Associate Editor
farrah@thetwocentscorp.com

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