Conan O’Brien’s first foray into late night started on this day 25 years ago. On September 13, 1993, Late Night with Conan O’Brien premiered on NBC and while he wasn’t the standout host he would later become, O’Brien planted the seeds to eventually become that person with the kind of longevity that could be placed on such late night legends such as Carson, Leno and Letterman.
To commemorate this day, O’Brien’s YouTube page posted the very first episode with guests John Goodman, Drew Barrymore and Tony Randall.
In addition, and this might be even better than showing the first episode, O’Brien revealed that he will be unleashing a full archive of his nearly 4,000 shows as a late night host with Late Night and his short run on The Tonight Show and now with Conan on TBS.
This had to have been a very big undertaking. Not only does it take a lot of work to build the site and get 4,000 episodes and thousands more clips uploaded but there are also various legal clearances with NBC and with bands who performed that may or may not make these episodes look differently than their original form. I just hope this means the Walker, Texas Ranger lever is untouched and we get Chuck Norris clips.
Overall, this should be great for anyone who has ever watched and enjoyed Conan O’Brien’s comedy. Whether it’s recurring segments as going into the future to the year 2000 or Old Time Baseball, there won’t be a shortage of material we can go back and watch.
Hopefully, something similar happens with other late night hosts. I wouldn’t mind a site that was entirely devoted to Craig Ferguson’s late night show.
