Conan O'Brien Joins Crowd Tasked With Filling Big Shoes

June 2, 2009 — -- Indeed, they're big shoes to fill. Good thing Conan O'Brien reportedly wears a size 12 and a half.

In his first stint as the host of "The Tonight Show," the former "Late Night" host lived up to the legacy of Jay Leno and the rest of the household names who've held court at 11:30 p.m., staying true to his own brand of awkward humor while honoring the "Tonight Show" franchise.

After a montage that showed him running across the country, from his former New York City digs through Chicago's Wrigley Field, past the Rockies, under the famous Las Vegas sign before finally reaching Los Angeles, O'Brien arrived in his studio to raucous cheers. Attempting to quell the crowd, he cracked, "Well at least we know the applause sign works."

O'Brien's still as self-depreciating as ever. "I'm on a last place network, I moved to a state that's bankrupt, and tonight's show is sponsored by General Motors," he joked later in his monologue.

He waited until after a segment that showed him hijacking a tram tour of his new workplace, Universal Studios, to nod to his predecessor. O'Brien called Leno "a man who took very good care of this franchise for 17 years ... a very good friend" and said he's looking forward to Leno's new prime time show being his "lead-in once again."

Once his first guest came out, the show took a tone from familial back to familiar O'Brien territory.

"No one thought you could do it, not one person," said Will Ferrell, on the show to promote his new movie, "Land of the Lost." "And you're here."

O'Brien joins a long list of public figures charged with taking on a seemingly larger-than-life legacy. Some slide into well established roles with style and grace; others skid and end up with a foot in their mouth.

Like O'Brien, Leno took a similar "put your own stamp on it but don't screw it up" approach when he inherited "The Tonight Show" from Johnny Carson in 1992.

"I like to look back at the history of hosts and say, 'Gee, it's my turn not to drop the ball,'" Leno told The Los Angeles Times in 1991. "It's like being given the crown jewels. You hold on to them and make sure nobody steals them. Then you pass them on to somebody else."