The Last Show with Conan O'Brien

I never did care for Jay Leno. I didn't watch the Tonight Show when he was host no matter who the guests where. To me he's just not funny. Instead, I've always been a Letterman fan. If I was up, I'd watch Letterman, then switch over to Conan, who I grew to love as well. I think NBC was horrible to Conan, and I don't respect Leno any more than I did before after taking the Tonight Show back, caring only about his own ass. Much had been made originally about whether Conan's brand of comedy was going to work at 11:30AM where many critics assumed his sophormoric humor was not going to fly at the earlier hour or would eventually be toned down altogether for more middle-of- the-road. But the way I saw, what didn't seem to work was not so much his move to a new time-slot, but to LA. Conan never seemed like an LA guy to me. He seemed to lose much of the edge that made his comedy dangerous (Triumph the Dog, the Masturbating Bear, the Year 2000, the Moving Lips interviews), maybe because he was on earlier, but I also wonder if was because he wasn't in NY anymore. The Tonight Show being in LA always seemed to have a more laid back feel. After all, Letterman at the same time-slot still seemed able to maintain his acerbic personality and spontaneity that felt more Big Apple. Either way, Conan's exit last night was one of class, appreciation, and surprising generosity to his former employer. His parting shot addressed to the younger generation about his disdain for cynicism and his belief in the possibilities of hard work was as moving and sage bit of television as I've seen in a long time.