List of Late Night with Conan O'Brien sketches
The sketch was invented prior to the actual year 2000, but the show's writers decided to keep the named year the same even after the passing of the titular year, in a sort of ironic twist. However, when the sketch was revived on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien", Richter heaped ridicule upon O'Brien for failing to update the name of the skit nine years after the year 2000 had passed. The sketch is renamed "In the Year 3000", with the black robe (referred to as a 'ratty smock' by Richter) being replaced with a more futuristic-looking outfit consisting of a large metallic collar with a series of blinking lights, which Conan said were very expensive to make and Andy said smelled bad. Appearing on "Tonight" June 3, 2009, it was the first "Late Night" sketch to be carried over to Conan's "Tonight Show". The open to the sketch included narration by William Shatner and, on one occasion, George Takei.
The War for Late Night
Carter writes about how the "Team Coco" movement and fans impacted O'Brien following the controversy, "The outpouring of support made Conan feel as if he was starring in his own version of the movie "It's a Wonderful Life", both because he was allowed to see a 'Tonight Show' where he never existed and because the support made him realize he really was 'the richest man in town.'" O'Brien was hurt by the fact that Leno did not communicate directly with him during the fiasco. Carter also says that compared to the eventual payout to O'Brien of $45 million, NBC would have suffered a financial loss of $235 million if O'Brien had left the company in 2004 to host a talk show for another network. O'Brien moved from NBC to host his own late night program on TBS. Carter's work concludes with an interview from comic Jerry Seinfeld, who favored Leno; Seinfeld argues that O'Brien should have remained at NBC.