The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien: The Final Show Tale of the Tweets
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and I actually know one person for whom this may actually be the case), you know that Conan O’Brien hosted his final Tonight Show on Friday, January 22, 2010, just seven months after taking over from Jay Leno.
While it is true that some of Conan’s troubles were caused by poor ratings (and yes, many of us on Twitter didn’t watch him between week one and this last week), Jay Leno orchestrated this shake-up and Conan was forced to give up his lifelong dream. And ask yourself, is $35 million to sacrifice your actual lifelong dream – one that you’ve actually been living! – enough? It’s not as easy an answer as you might think.
Insert your own caption here. Too many jokes. (Photo from scrapetv.com)
Anyway, I didn’t put together this post to get into a diatribe (see what I did there?) against Leno, though I’m tempted. This whole situation was a confluence caused by Leno’s Machiavellian behind the scenes deviousness, NBC’s poor programming decisions, and the failing broadcast tv/affiliate model.
Which brings us to Friday night. Conan’s last Tonight Show. And the Twitterati were out in full force. I haven’t done a Tale of the Tweets in a while, so away we go:
Live-tweeting the last Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Hashtags: #teamcoco #teamconan #boycottleno
What is this? A football game? Conan! Conan! Conan! Conan! #teamcoco #teamconan
Coming soon: The Andy Richter Show with his sidekick, Conan O'Brien. I would actually watch that. #teamconan
Uh oh. Conan's last show has broken Twitter. #twitterfail #teamconan
The resemblance between Conan and Tilda Swinton is actually pretty uncanny. #teamconan
Ooh here comes the Crazy Expensive Segment! #teamconan
Smithsonian fossil spraying beluga caviar on an original Picasso = $65 million. #teamconan
I'll be using "dear internet" for all correspondence until further notice. #teamconan
Sad but true: I'm seeing most of the bits in the retrospective for the first time. #teamconan
RT @akmcquade: Good montage. That *totally* looked like a sucky show worth cancelling. #teamconan #conan #sarcasm
Went to taping of Late Night w/Conan years ago. And it was on a boat. Yup. Conan was on a boat late night waaay before SNL.
Whoa! Pulling out all the stops tonight. Steve Carell for the exit interview = GENIUS!!! #teamconan
As it should be. Awesome! RT @jquintong: Cool ... "Dear Internet" is a trending topic.
Ditto. RT @jquintong: Almost wished Steve Carrell did the exit interview in his Michael Scott character.
Win! RT @ElizabethFinn: Dear Internet, Jay Leno sucks.
I'm glad that Tom Hanks has stayed awesome for all these years. #teamconan
Flask wins every time. RT @AndrewBucholtz: Well played, Andy, well played. Nothing like a classy pocket flask.
I did watch that show with Tom Hanks when he coined the "Coco" term. #teamconan
Well, I'm guessing that Jay Leno won't be booking Tom Hanks any time soon. #teamconan
Make it so. RT @josh_sternberg: Imagine a cooky Conan variety show on HBO where guests and Conan can be themselves. I'd enjoy that.
RT @Jenndwag: #muttonchops That is all. #TeamConan
I hate that phone a friend AT&T ad. The capital of Peru is so not a million dollar question on WWTBAM.
Saw Neil Young at Jazz Fest last year (with @KellyMari75) and he rocked it. He just earned more awesome points tonight.
I cannot wait to catch up on all my shows during the Winter Olympics.
You can see the tears in Conan's eyes. #classy #teamconan
Is this a new Will Ferrell character for an upcoming movie?
Is Free Bird trending?
Dear Internet: please get Free Bird to trend.
MORE COWBELL!!!! (come on, couldn't help it).
RT @ElizabethFinn: Dear Internet, MORE COWBELL!!!!
A toast to Triumph. RT @joshuaduboff: I miss Triumph. #teamconan
What a blast watching tonight's great Tonight Show with #teamconan.
I did! RT @tdhurst: RT @rscottjones: I wonder how many people watching/supporting Conan actually watched his first Tonight Show.
And Conan absolutely killing the guitar? Tremendous. #teamconan
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The show was one of the best hours of late night television I've seen in years. Funny, smart, classy, entertaining and just the right amount of sad. And Conan's final remarks bear repeating (I pulled this transcription from http://momsword.org. Thank you thank you thank you!):
"Before we end this rodeo, a few things need to be said. There has been a lot of speculation in the press about what I legally can and can't say about NBC. To set the record straight, tonight I am allowed to say anything I want. And what I want to say is this: between my time at Saturday Night Live, The Late Night Show, and my brief run here on The Tonight Show, I have worked with NBC for over 20 years. Yes, we have our differences right now and yes, we're going to go our separate ways. But this company has been my home for most of my adult life. I am enormously proud of the work we have done together, and I want to thank NBC for making it all possible.
Walking away from The Tonight Show is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Making this choice has been enormously difficult. This is the best job in the world, I absolutely love doing it, and I have the best staff and crew in the history of the medium. But despite this sense of loss, I really feel this should be a happy moment. Every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second. I've had more good fortune than anyone I know and if our next gig is doing a show in a 7-11 parking lot, we'll find a way to make it fun.
And finally, I have to say something to our fans. The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational.
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."
Remember that, my friends. And let's hope that amazing things are in store for Conan, which they certainly should be. He got a raw deal.
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