Classic Late Night With Conan O'Brien

A long, long time ago, back in a galaxy far, far away (New York, 1993), a fellow named Johnny Carson decided to retire as the popular host of the famous late night program, NBC's The Tonight Show. This departure left an opening in the slot for the much wanted position of Tonight Show host and the obvious forerunner for the position was Late Night host, David Letterman. Letterman's show aired directly after Johnny Carson's for many years and when news came Carson was leaving, Letterman's knew his time had come to sit in the big seat. He was ecstatic, to say the least.

Unfortunately for Letterman though, things didn't go quite as planned. Instead of being given the position himself, comedian (and popular guest host of The Tonight Show) Jay Leno was rewarded the position. This news upset David Letterman greatly. So much so that Letterman refused to continue his run on his own Late Night show and refused all further affiliation with the network NBC. The left the position of Late Night up for grabs.

Many well-known names were considered for the role of new Late Night host during that time, including Dana Carvey and Garry Shandling, but, after they turned down the offer, NBC made the bold decision to choose a relative nobody for the part. This nobody was Harvard alumni, former writer for The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien. Conan first auditioned for the role of Late Night host after an urging from Saturday Night Live producer (and Conan's former boss) Lorne Michaels. Conan beat out such hopefuls as John Stewart and Drew Carey.

Since Conan was a complete unknown to the public, and Letterman had left such a high bar to live up to, the expectations of his success as the new King of Late Night were extremely low. The expectations were so low, in fact, that Conan was constantly at risk of being fired. NBC even had him renewing short-term contracts, thirteen weeks at a time, just in case he needed to be let go quickly because of low ratings.

There's more to the story, as I'm sure you all know, but that's really all you need to know to be brought up to speed for the following clip.

Here it is, the first cold open of Late Night with Conan O'Brien on September 13, 1993.

This is one of my favorite old bits from when I was growing up and watching Late Night.

Here's how it works...

Okay, sometimes Conan and Andy get tired of the same old routine of opening monologue, followed by a silly bit, and then the first guest. So everyonce in a while they decided to change things up a bit. Instead of doing some random bit inbetween the monologue and the first guest they would just have an old fashioned staring contest.

He who breaks conscentration first loses...

Videos featured from :
1995
1999
2000 (Andys last show)

On time to time Andy Richter's little sister, Stacy (Amy Poehler), makes a visit to Late Night.

Stacy's a real nice girl, sweet and full of spunk, and loves more than anything to watch her big brother and Conan in action... especially Conan, who she's had a little something of a crush on throughout the years.

... here are a few times that crush has gotten out of hand.

Okay, aside from the first clip of Andy prepairing for Celebrity Jeopardy, these video's are from Andy's first appearence on the show.

I put this here so that you can watch both the clip of Andy prepairing and see the outcome of that preparation.

Not only did our boy Andy win at Celebrity Jeopardy... but he set a new record!

... and here I thought Conan was the smart one...

Andy Richter was Conan's sidekick on Late Night from the very begining. He was the Robin to Conan's Batman, the McMahon to Conan's Carson, the Ace to Conan's Gary, the peanutbutter to Conan's jelly, the... well, you get it.

On September 11th, 1999 Andy announced that he would be ending his 7 year run with Late Night. 9 months later, May 2000, he left the show for good.

Here is Andy's farewell show.

Features:
Conan auctioning Andy's stuff (different episode)
Andy's last staring contest
Andy's last Public Service Announcement (The More You Know)
A ton of classic clips that you won't find any place else
And the tearful goodbye (yes... crying on Late Night)

[Sorry, I can't find Part 3]

We first met Triumph The Insult Comic Dog in 1997 after he covered the Westminster Dog Show for Late Night With Conan O'Brien. And although Triumph was subsequently banned from Westminster after this, he immediately became a Late Night favorite.

Throughout the years, Triumphs popularity has grown enormous; he's pooped on both celebrities and civilians, poloticians and commentators, the old and the young, and so on and so on. He's been sued by Pets.com, assaulted by Eminem, humped the likes of Al Roker and Heather Locklear... he's even been nominated for a Grammy!

Yes, Triumph has done it all. And here are some of his most memorable moments.

Triumph goes to a Bon Jovi concert

Triumph goes to Westminster

Triumph visits Quebec

Triumph goes on Hollywood Squares

Triumph checks out the Michael Jackson trial

Triumph at the American Idol auditions : PART 1

Triumph at the American Idol auditions : PART 2

Triumph at the VMA's/Triumphs altercation with Eminem

Here a few few of Conan's trip out of the USA

Clip Of Conan In Finland

1997 - Conan goes to Cologna, Germany
1997 - Conan goes to Amsterdam
Conan goes to Ireland

The interrupter comes in on occasio---

I know what you're thinking... David Arquette? The guy from Scream? Why would THIS be on here?!

Well, don't be fooled. The David Arquette interviews are some of the best that Late Night has to offer.

I was so amused by these interviews myself growing up, that when in 5th grade and working on my English project, "Celebrity Trash" (where you write letters to various people, and hope they send you some random crap -- aka their trash), I wrote to David Arquette. And the reason was soley because of these interviews and how funny I found him to be.

To this day the episodes still don't fail at cracking me up, but word to the wise... don't write David Arquette, not unless you're looking for a homoerotic autographed photograph sent back to you with a bunch creepy x's and o's scribbled on the bottom... sheesh.

Dave Chappelle was always one of Late Night's funniest guest, and one of Conan's personal favorites.

Click here to see Conan meet with the President of Finland