Carsons Comedy Classics

Will Ferrell will be the first guest on the couch for the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on June 1. Ferrell, who helped usher O'Brien out of New York on the final Late Night with Conan O'Brien will help welcome O'Brien to his new home in Los Angeles. In addition Pearl Jam will be the inaugural band on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Pearl Jam will perform songs from their upcoming studio album.
Conan O'Brien, the dominant late-night host at 12:35 a.m. (Et) for the past 14 seasons, will succeed Jay Leno as host of the preeminent series on late-night television, NBC's The Tonight Show on June 1, 2009.
The Tonight Show continues to be the most dominant late-night institution in television history. Since it first premiered on September 27, 1954 with Steve Allen, The Tonight Show has had just four permanent hosts, including Leno. Allen, host of the then titled "Tonight,

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For this evening's final episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the host has promised a special episode. James Taylor is set to be the last musical act and Leno's successor, Conan O'Brien, will be his final guest.
There will also be something that's billed as "The Extreme Tonight Show Montage." Leno teased reporters last week that, "I have something really unusual and different planned -- something really out of left field that we're going to end on."
While we wait to see the last episode, it's hard not to recall how Leno's legendary predecessor, Johnny Carson, finished his run 17 years ago this month.
Carson had been considering retirement for some time, so long in fact that, when the announcement came in 1991, viewers were stunned. The final several weeks of shows were very special as guests and old friends stopped by to say farewell and beg him not to go.
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When Johnny Carson said goodbye to the Tonight Show after 30 years, he said, "I can only tell you that it has been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you. And I hope when I find something that I want to do and I think you would like and come back that you'll be as gracious in inviting me into your home as you have been. I bid you a very heartfelt good night."
Less than a month later, it was announced that Carson had made a deal to develop a new project for NBC. Unfortunately, it never came to be and the king of late night didn't return to television on a regular basis. Perhaps wisely, he felt he'd never be able to top what he'd already done.
Thankfully he did make a few brief appearances in the next couple years.
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