Conan O’Brien’s YouTube channel just shared the memorable running montage that opened his first episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, marking the first time his channel has posted content from his Tonight Show gig.
The Conan O’Brien channel, which differs from the host’s Team Coco channel, is described as “the YouTube home for clips from Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” While clips from his time on The Tonight Show have been uploaded to YouTube by unofficial sources, O’Brien’s official channel has steered clear of posting any content from his seven-month stint hosting that show.
The decision to post the cold open from his Tonight Show premiere comes after Tom Cruise capped off the Olympics closing ceremony in a similar fashion, riding a motorcycle from Paris to Los Angeles.
Producer Ben Winston revealed that he was inspired by O’Brien’s Tonight Show opening. “That has always stuck with me,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Team Coco shared the video on Instagram as well. “When I shot this bit in 2009 I had one burning thought: ‘Influence Tom Cruise in the 2024 Paris Olympics,’” Conan joked of the moment, which aired on June 1, 2009.
O’Brien’s short-lived Tonight Show stint lasted from June 2009 to January 2010, when the infamous conflict between O’Brien, NBC, and Jay Leno resulted in Leno—who had just retired from The Tonight Show and passed the baton to O’Brien—taking back over the show for a second tenure.
In April 2024, O’Brien returned to The Tonight Show for the first time since his own departure to sit down with Jimmy Fallon, who has been hosting the show for 10 years. Notably, O’Brien shied away from any references to his own time hosting the franchise, choosing instead to focus on his days at Late Night, which was filmed across the hall from Fallon’s current studio.
Hopefully this is just the beginning of O’Brien celebrating the highlights of his brief but memorable time behind The Tonight Show desk.
