For the past three months, there’s been a serious rift in late night television. How can talk shows even be tolerable with Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon being the only ones on NBC at night? No Conan at night is like a McCartney-less Beatles. Thankfully that resting gave him plenty of time to get things done, like write jokes, build a set, or get a haircut, everything but actually move to California. The beyond enjoyable intro piece hilariously entails one of the most epic cross country sprants (that’s We Rate Stuffian for sprinting) since Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. After quickly realizing that no cab is going to pick him up, Conan up and takes off down the street; next thing we know he’s running though half of the major monuments across the USA, into Universal Studios where he finally remembers that he left his keys in New York. Not to be thwarted, he steals a bulldozer, crashing his way though the building and ending the piece. You’d be shocked at how funny it is just to see Conan running just about everywhere, but it’s really hilarious, and it was the perfect sketch to start off this historical show.

I was pretty glad to see Andy Richter back as some sort of sidekick again. Not that I watched Conan when he was on it or anything, but from his parts in Arrested Development alone I figured he would be a pretty good addition. Being old comedy pals and all, the duo began playing off each other quickly, leading to some solid comedic interaction, and you can tell that they were enjoying it. Richter does seem to have a little bit of that Fallon syndrome of laughing at his own improv, though, which when his mic was on bothered me more than it should’ve, but it was better to have him than to not. Otherwise the new set still has that darker blue hue to it like on Late Night, as opposed to Jay Leno’s brighter, orange feel to the Tonight show. It didn’t feel too different or too much the same, and just seemed fit Conan perfectly.

After such a quality intro, they somehow managed to top it with a skit that was solely based on the Universal Studios Lot Tour. It was easily just a four minute piece on Conan giving the tour, with frequent improving of freak outs and general misinformation, which pretty much culminates with the tour leaving the lot and Conan buying everyone something from the 99 cent store. While this was easily one of the funniest pieces I’ve seen come out from Conan’s team in a while, it was also one of the most unscripted, absurd pieces too, which makes me really think America’s ready for him to be The Tonight Show host.

Will Ferrell was, as always, a pretty entertaining guest. As if coming out carried like some sort of Pharaoh Bender wasn’t a big enough spectacle, the ending song was great icing on the Ferrell comedy cake. Man, between almost singing on American Idol, on the MTV Movie Awards and on the Tonight Show, you’d think Will’s ready to record an album. And, unfortunately going by the sound of the new song they performed, Pearl Jam isn’t, already rushing to come out with more overdone modern rock ala World Wide Suicide. Looks like I’ll still have to listen to the Into the Wild soundtrack if I want quality new Eddie Vedder.

Bad performances aside, I really dug everything Conan had control of, and having him on earlier will only mean the ability to catch more quality episodes. Mixing the comedic reaction of Max Weinberg and the improv abilities of Andy Richer with the brilliant ex-Simpsons writer himself holding the reins, we’re only ensured more high quality shows. And when the house band’s drummer is more comedically charismatic than most people hosting talk shows, you know something about that show really stands out.