The tonight show with Conan O' Briens aims to be funny everynight

Conan O’Brien, grew up in a Boston suburb. His father, Thomas, was a Harvard Medical School professor who specialized in infectious diseases. His mother, Ruth, was a partner at a Boston law firm.

Thinking of becoming a novelist he went to Harvard University, his graduate thesis was on Southern novelist Flannery O'Connor. He later became editor of the Harvard Lampoon and after college he wrote skits for improv groups, funny pranks ideas and practical jokes for "Not Necessarily The News," also scripts for "The Simpsons" and gags for "Saturday Night Live."

The gangly red-haired prankster first stumbled into the spotlight in 1993, when he had the unenviable task of replacing the popular David Letterman on NBC's "Late Night." Letterman had split for CBS after NBC passed him over and picked Jay Leno to replace Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show."

He used to joke that he wasn’t “relatively unknown,“ he was a “complete unknown.“ The old geezers from the mail room at NBC thought of him as a goof plucked who thought just because he wrote scripts for “The Simpsons,“ he must be cool.

He was knocked by critics from New York to Los Angeles. At first, he went under probationary contract that had to be renewed monthly because NBC executives had doubts on him

O'Brien received some lukewarm reviews after his 1993 debut and it took more than a year before he got any respect in the media.

"There were times when I thought we weren't going to make it," he said during a visit to Tampa in February. "I wasn't new to show business, but I was new to being a talk-show host. Our biggest Achilles' heel in the beginning was me. I had to learn how to go from being this funny guy who cracked jokes with writers in a back room to doing it in front of an audience."

Eventually, O'Brien found his way on "Late Night." He and sidekick Andy Richter were like a couple of frat boy cutups having fun after the adults went to bed.

Tonight, O'Brien begins a new era for "Tonight," and the pressure is on not to mess it up.

"I'm not the 30-year-old who took over 'Late Night,'" he said in a recent interview. "I was willing to try anything. I don't regret any of that, but I'm 16 years older now, and I have a wife and two kids. I am keeping some things but I want to try new bits we haven't done before. I really want this show to be funny every night."

Richter, who left to pursue prime-time sitcom roles, is coming back. And drummer Max Weinberg and his band have also made the trip to new digs in Los Angeles.

"But in Los Angeles, if you're not in a car, something's very wrong with you," he said in a recent telephone interview.

"If you walk on the sidewalk, people think that you're off your medication. Police cars pull over and they handcuff you and take you away."

O'Brien says just being in Los Angeles will give him new material for Office Humor Pranks Stuff. He notes, for example, that in New York, where his "Late Night" originated, you encounter life on every corner.

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