The War for Late Night_ When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy - Bill Carter [103]
Conan played the last of several weeks of highlight clips, including probably the archetypal taped remote of the Conan era, when the host covered—and then played in—a game of old-time baseball, circa 1864. He called it his favorite piece of all time.
In the best anarchic spirit of the show, Conan had a work crew come in and rip a section of the set’s backdrop apart, to hand out tiny pieces to members of the final studio audience. Later his brother Neal walked off with the Conan half-moon logo from the set. His dad was there, as was his mom, hobbling with a cane. Liza waited in the hall outside with Missy, Jeff Ross’s wife, and several of the other staff’s family members. Tears flowed.
On the air Conan fought them. In the closing moments, he summoned up thanks for everyone from Bob Wright to Lorne Michaels, whom Conan credited with rolling the dice on one of “the most ridiculous chances in the history of the medium.”
Conan said, “Lorne Michaels single-handedly made my career in television. I don’t know what I did. I must have saved his life at some point. He certainly saved mine.”
Then it was time for Jay:
“Jay Leno 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,’ and 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 are on the same network.”
But OʹBrien brought out the unreserved encomiums for a different late-night host:
“David Letterman invented this Late Night show, and he is one of the most brilliant broadcasters of the last century—and certainly this century and for all time. I have a terrific amount of respect for him and what he did. He set the bar absurdly high for everyone in my generation who does this. Living in his shadow has been a burden and an inspiration for me for years, and I think we need to acknowledge that it all started with David Letterman.”
Conan saved the last heartfelt thanks for his forever producer and friend Jeff Ross, “the man who gets the show on every night.”
Struggling with his emotion to the end, Conan closed with a message, to his fans and anyone else who wanted to know what to expect from a Conan O’Brien Tonight show:
“There are people that have hosted these kinds of shows who are better than I am. Nobody has enjoyed it more than I do. It’s an incredible, amazing honor to do this show for you people. We’re going on to this next gig, and sometimes I read that it’s time for Conan to grow up because he’s going to eleven thirty.” And here he paused for maximum effect.
“I assure you, that’s just not going to happen. It can’t. This is who I am—for better or for worse.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
CONAN ROCKS
When he finally got to work inside the vast, sparkling new studio created for NBCʹs Tonight Show, just inside the Universal gate off Lankershim Boulevard, where the studio had resided for the eighty-five years since Carl Laemmle settled his fledgling film company there, Conan O’Brien could feel his psyche shift down into a familiar gear.
After weeks of pushing, straining, and grinding his way through meet-and-greet sessions with affiliates from Cleveland to Oklahoma City, through rounds of interviews with the supportive but sometimes skeptical press, through the slog of buying a home, moving the staff, relocating his family, nesting in a new office, Conan was finally back to what he called “the organizing principle” of his and his staff’s lives, “the magnet that organizes all the particles”: making a funny show.
The weeks between the end of February and mid-May of 2009 had represented the longest period he had been off TV in the last third of his life. And yet he had never worked harder. People would see him and say, “Hey, so you’ve had a nice