Conan was feted by some of the biggest stars in the business, who came to support the man and say thanks to what he did. O’Brien in between big name guests like Tom Hanks, who created the Coco moniker, Steve Carrell and Neil Young, wanted to make sure that his fans, especially the youth who created this movement in support of him, knew that thinking big and being positive would not let you down in the end. O’Brien said, “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.”

He rounded out his last night as host with a rocking version of “Free Bird” performed by Will Ferrell, his wife Dawn, Beck, Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper and his band. O’Brien joined in on the fun, grabbed a guitar, which presumably was from his massive personal collection, and wailed away. Oddly enough, this song became one of my favorites courtesy of the soundtrack for a little movie Tom Hanks was in himself. You might have heard of it, Forrest Gump? Check out O’Brien and his band of merry rocker.

For me, the program was emotional on various levels. O’Brien was the first last night talk show host I grew up with. By the time I was old enough to get it, Leno had already taken the throne from Johnny Carson after his first vicious battle for the spot with Dave Letterman. And Letterman, while funny, was too old for me to get. O’Brien was quirky, awkward, smart and more than anything into “my” pop culture. He opened my eyes to a different level of humor, alongside “The State” and “Kids in the Hall”. He was the antithesis of standard late night programming. And something that has yet to be noted in the nearly thousand pieces that have pontificated over this late night debacle is the amount of exposure his program brought to not yet big names in music and comedy. When Neil Young ended his beautiful performance tonight, and we found out he was more of a Conan supporter than to be expected, he thanked O’Brien for what he has done for “new music”. And it’s true, what Johnny Carson was to comedians in the lates 70′s and 1980′s, Conan was to indie rock bands in the 90′s and early ’00s. He was the only place I would ever see some of my favorite bands get any coverage outside of MTV and knowing what occurred behind the scenes, he had his hand in picking out the majority of the musical quests. He got “us”. We weren’t just an audience to him, we were his people and he ours. Micheal Ian Black explained it best why this whole mess has seemed to really effect my generation. If someone like O’Brien can get screwed by a big corporation, what’s to keep us safe? It was almost a slap in the face to anyone who doesn’t like the average comedian, the anti-Dane Cook in us all. For all us kids, who grew up on bizarre tripped out cartoons, after school specials and found humor in Ween songs, its a real dose of reality that in fact we can not have it all. So from the bottom of my heart and from one pale, red-headed Irish kid to the next, I want to thank you Conan O’Brien. I want to thank you for entertaining us for years, opening my eyes to comedy and music I had no idea existed, backing your staff in your original move to LA and in your contract negotiations and for most importantly, keeping it classy. I know you are going to go on a much deserved and well, legally mandated vacation, but I want to let you know you have a supporter in me for life and I will be waiting with a cowbell for September 1st to come, if only for the better weather. You go Coco. You go.

O’Brien also brought out long lost pal, the Masturbating Bear, who has not been seen since his move to “The Tonight Show”. Ed Helms and Joel McHale, both technical employees of NBC, came out and played along with tearing down the network and McHale offered his hosting gig at “The Soup” to Conan. Hilarity ensued. O’Brien also poked NBC and their money wasting ways with a segment that lasted nearly 30 seconds and cost about $1.5 Million, just for the heck of it. NBC removed the skit, but luckily Mediaite captured it in all its glory. So you have two more nights to see new “The Tonight Show” episodes with Conan O’Brien hosting. I am glad that this has finally come to a conclusion and we can move on with our lives, go back to hating Jay Leno for just not being funny and not feeling bad for multi-millionaires. On a serious tip though, O’Brien has always been one of my favorites, his wit and humor will be missed and I hope he comes back bigger and better. Because if NBC’s firing track records proves anything, if they don’t want you, like Sandler or Judd Apatow, there are millions of others who do.

The Spielster will cover O’Brien’s final episode this Friday.

For all of us Conan O’Brien fans, we were left wondering, much like O’Brien himself, where his show would end up. Insiders from both teams were implying that NBC wanted to bring back Leno to the 11:35PM time slot, push “The Tonight Show” to 12:05PM (essentially making it the tomorrow show on the east coast) and then pushing the rest of the late night lineup back a half an hour. This time slot shift wouldn’t affect Jimmy Fallon and his show, which is a hit with the younger and DVR loving set, but for Conan it would be a real kick in the face. O’Brien uprooted his staff, crew and family to LA early last year to make the move to “The Tonight Show” and there hasn’t been much thanks from NBC since. Ratings have been a problem for both Leno and O’Brien in their new time slots and Conan poked fun at the late night mess last night with his monologue, discussing other opportunities the late night host can look forward to if he no longer has a home on NBC.

PLEASE CLICK THROUGH FOR UPDATES So who is to blame for this mess? The heads of the network are definitely not owning up to their failures. Jeff Zucker and Gaspin have yet to acknowledge their part in this debacle. Gaspin still believes that if given time, Leno would flourish in his new time slot, but he was “forced” to move him because of affiliates and Zucker won’t admit to having much part in this. So is Leno the problem? During the original “changing of the guard”, Leno seemed pretty pissed that NBC would be holding him to his contract and forcing him to step down from a post he seemed to love, which is why he got his own talk show. And yet, if he had such a strong following, wouldn’t he be doing better in an earlier time slot, with no competition? So is it the new host? Back when the new line up was announced, Jimmy Fallon was quoted as to saying that if he failed at this, there was nothing that he could do after it – that this was that big of a deal. Is it possible to fail at something this big? The late night landscape is literally saturated with programs nowadays so no network program will have the kind of numbers Johnny Carson once brought in. So can O’Brien be blamed for all of this? Did he fail? While O’Brien uprooted his staff, crew and family, it seemed he lost himself in the move. His show changed, became a shell of what it once was so it could appease the masses. Unfortunately, it lost what brought all of us there originally. As a one time fan of O’Brien, his irreverent take on the late night gig was what I loved about the red headed goof. His intelligence shined through his skits, be it masturbating bears, calling into the future or just poking fun at the audience. And with his time slot move came the loss of the Conan we fell in love with. So hopefully this debacle forces him to review what made him who he was to begin with. If forced out of NBC, I will follow Conan to another network and hopefully you will too. NBC needs to learn that bowing to the most common denominator, a self imposed task, does not make quality television. A few other sites think Conan would flourish if he made the move, what do you think?

UPDATED: Check out “Conan Says Bye Bye“ for the latest information on the NBC Late Night Saga.

For more on this story, check out:
NYMag – Vulture – Go Forth to Fox, Young Conan

Television Without Pity – Why NBC’s Late-Night Mess Could Be Great For TV Fans
EW – Letterman Gets Last Laugh?

Jeeeez NBC can you make up your minds? Word on the street, or actually links from the tweets, are saying that the NBC executives are moving Jay Leno back to his original 11:30 PM time slot and that Conan O’Brien might no longer have a home on the network. As of now this is all just conjecture based on industry rumors, but as we have learned recently TMZ seems to have a real strong grasp on what the actual news is in Hollywood, even when starlets aren’t the subject matter. According to Nikki Finke and Backstage, Leno might need to find a new home due to the increasing displeasure of NBC’s affiliates and their lost ratings. And while it seems to be pretty bad for both Leno and O’Brien in regards to ratings, TMZ is reporting that sources are saying its only Conan who will be sent packing.

If Leno gets his old job back, even if the show is only a half an hour, it will reward someone for failing. It will also hinder O’Brien, if he chooses to stay there, mess with the increasingly entertaining Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and piss of a great deal of young and hip viewers. What we definitely know now is that the Leno show at 10PM will be going on hiatus from February 1st on, to welcome the 2010 Olympics to the network and what happens after that is anyone’s guess. But, if I was a betting woman I would assume Conan would be consulting his lawyers now. As a viewer, all of these changes and complete disregard for the necessary changes that need to happen to this network has really started to piss me off.

This is a breaking story and will be updated when new information is available.