By Max Kyburz

Following months of relentless touring and tweeting, Conan O’Brien returned to late night television this past week. If you ask me, it’s been long overdue.

It’s been a long year for the ultra-pale, ginger haired funny-man. It began with a threeway scuffle between Conan, NBC executives and Jay Leno. As promised, Conan had replaced Leno as the host of the long-running Tonight Show, while Jay took an earlier slot with The Jay Leno Show. Because of the poor ratings of both shows, NBC execs declared they would bump both shows one time slot over, spawning a frenzied backlash.

O’Brien felt cheated by his longtime network home, as The Tonight Show had been running at 11:30pm for decades. To change it would be sacrilege, but money talks. As a result, and with a swarm of fans backing him up, Conan resigned from the show.

This, however, did not stop Conan from maintaining his status as an integral pop culture figure. He hosted this summer’s Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee amidst his successful Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour, a nationwide traveling variety show co-starring Andy Richter, members of the Max Weinberg 7 and a motley crew of celebrity guests.

It’s all been leading up to that pivotal walk on to the new set. As a longtime fan, it was a most jovial moment to see Conan regain his throne as the king of late night.

This week’s shows were filled with old friends and classic gags, with some polite jabs at NBC here and there. For someone who had been royally screwed, his complacency was quite calm. I say good; better to enjoy new success than bitch about the old times. After all, his debut beat out both Leno and Letterman this week in the ratings, and I hope NBC is kicking themselves so hard their peacock feathers shed.

Now all that’s left is to make Conan’s show two hours instead of one. Nobody really likes George Lopez anyway.