Farewell Conan: Late Night Talk Show Host Wraps Up After 3 Decades

After nearly three decades of hosting his late-night show on TBS, Conan O’Brien bid farewell on Thursday night. Staying true to form, the host wrapped up the show mixing his smartass humor with a touch of sentiment and also brought back some very special guests.

In November 2020, the network announced that O’Brien’s talk show would be ending in June 2021. The final episode aired on 24 June, running for about an hour, and featured appearances from comedians Will Ferrell and Jack Black.

The finale was nothing short of a trip down memory lane as it also showed clips of previous guests, including Sarah Silverman, Steve Martin, and Tom Hanks, and also the highlights from the show’s specials. But it was Homer Simpson’s appearance that stole the cake, marking the episodes O’Brien wrote for the famous sitcom.

The final show opened on an animated setup with O’Brien being interviewed by Homer. The talk show host famously wrote the episode for “Marge vs. the Monorail,” which was widely praised by fans and is considered to be one of the best episodes of The Simpsons.

Having started his career as a virtually unknown writer for Saturday Night Live, among other shows, Conan was selected to replace David Letterman on NBC in 1993 as host of Late Night. After a rough tenure of unfavorable reviews, the show gradually got back on its feet under O’Brien’s wing.

Later Conan relocated to Los Angeles from New York to host The Tonight Show replacing Jay Leno for a brief amount of time until network politics gave way to the reinstatement of Leno again in 2010. His final stint saw him end up on TBS, where he hosted his namesake late-night show, Conan.

With Letterman’s retirement in 2015, Conan became the longest-serving active late-night talk show host in the United States. However, this is not O’Brien’s final gig as the now-former host is set to launch a new variety show in partnership with HBO Max in 2022.

Thus, a conclusion of a beautiful decade-long chapter is the beginning of a yet new, fresh one. We look forward to seeing what awaits O’Brien in the near future.

Source: YouTube