it began in 2004, when conan o'brien, leno's young heir apparent, threatened to leave and go to fox ifomise to give him "the tonight show." the network agreed to what it hoped would be an orderly succession plan in which conan would replace leno in 2009. leno was one of the last people to find out. >> leno: first time, i got blindsided. >> kroft: what did they tell you? >> leno: oh, "you're out. you got... you know, going to go with this and ba, ba, ba." "oh, okay." and i went, "okay." >> kroft: "you're out. you're fired. you got four more years." >> leno: yeah, that was basically it, sure. >> kroft: did you ask them why they had decided to do this? >> leno: no. >> kroft: you didn't? >> leno: no. i mean, "why?" no. ( laughs ) >> kroft: no, i don't mean like..." >> leno: "why?" >> kroft: no, i mean-- >> leno: "why are you doing this?" >> kroft: no, i mean, kind of like, "okay, so why? what's the..." >> leno: you know, you have a girl says... >> kroft: "...logic behind this?" >> leno: "...i don't want to see you anymore." "why?" you know? she doesn't want to see you anymore, okay? >> kro

but we're all we're all just kind of in the zone so your character is infamous for impressions conan o'briensaid you do the best nicolas cage's ever seen do miracles and i hope she's. well or. it's an honor to be here although i thought this was your show you did a lot of i don't really know what my main is but. oh yes all go with the flow. my dear friend is out but you know we spend a lot of time to give and i know you do well so i mean he do. you know the great you may have what do you remember about them probably not the orgasm one girl she bring me taffy oh make my balls feel like concrete. what do you want me do to reflect do you ever think of doing a comedy act and doing bridge and i did do that at one point so i i did it. but probably when i was about nine hundred twenty probably for three four years into my early twenty's and i did a lot of characters and impressions and i. had a brief stint on mad t.v. which was not not very pleasurable but yes i did a lot of that but then i kind of burns out i don't know it's a little league of bang theory has free golf in. that's why devoted fans

remember triumph from conan o'brien? he's back to make fun of the world cup.t sparing any ethnicity, poking fun of colombians and greeks. take a listen. >> only if the teams are done jogging and warming up, they're going to start the game. oh, wait. i've just been informed this is the game. if your last name has fewer than five syllables, you're drinking in the bar in the middle of the day. when did you two realize that you didn't have any -- >> it's very, very funny. he came out with another video today. watch it if you want to laugh at funny stuff. >> i discovered something on "wall street journal".com, if you want to learn more about it, there's something amazing. 50 reporters worked on 100 different legacies of world war i. the war started 100 years ago this saturday. known as the great war at the time. you can go through and there's 100 photographs, and then little stories that are digestible. this is a great thing to show your children, if you want to learn more about the war, fun facts and figures. i mean, there are facts in there. they're fun to know.

in 2008, when conan o'brien came back to late night after a brief hiatus he brought with him a thickstrainer around the mouth region. this year white house press secretary jay carney had a must discussed post-holiday beard for a few weeks, a bulky hobbity chin moss to it. we'll see if the beard makes a comeback. now one of our own. someone we have missed very, very much around here and are glad to see again. also is bringing with him a new facial friend as he comes back to the public eye. perhaps he can explain and tell us how he's been. joining us, my friend lawrence o'donnell and his period back with us after a three-month convalescence after a car accident he's now recovered from. lawrence, great to see you, my friend. how are you? >> rachel, this is a medically induced beard. you know, i had surgery and i was in the hospital for almost two weeks and there's a period there where i literally didn't have the strength to shave. and then before you know it, you've got a beard. and then actually, and there are some medical reasoning for this, there came a point where they didn't want m

listen to conan o'brien who thinks she's got something in mind. >> michelle obama said she wants americansote, as soon as possible. yes, yeah. she says it should happen as soon as possible. yeah, man, so even she's had enough of president obama. >> a little family humor there. >> that's exactly right. i don't think that's what she meant. >> chance she runs? >> no. >> who? >> we need to all stop this insanity. she's made it so clear, even her husband said she's not going to run. >> chance she runs? >> no. she's going to help build the barack obama museum right next to the george lucas museum, very, very busy and maybe move to new york and give you guys grief. >> thank you so much, john. busy night for john king and busy morning for john king. coming up next on "new day," michael jackson remembered. today marks five years since the king of pop died but his music continues to live on. we know that oh, so well what. more have we learned about the icon since his passing? we'll discuss. >> plus, big news in the nba. some of the biggest stars, maybe certainly the biggest, is hitting the open mark