Conan Week: The Portable Conan
2. The Office – Season Two brought Michael Scott to Dunder Mifflin’s New York corporate office on Valentine’s Day. Michael is distracted when he thinks he sees Tina Fey, only to miss Conan O’Brien walking right behind him. Once again, it’s just a cameo, but the mildly disdainful look Conan shoots the camera is priceless.
3. The Simpsons – Conan returned to his old stomping grounds for some voice work in this Season
Five episode (“Bart Gets Famous”). This is actually the first time Conan played himself on another show, and his first acting credit aside from background work when he wrote for Saturday Night Live. Bart briefly becomes famous for an accidental appearance on Krusty the Klown’s show in which he blurted out “I didn’t do it” and spawned a national catchphrase. Desperate to be known for something more than those words, he works out all sorts of interesting tidbits with which to wow Conan. Conan, of course, just wants him to say the catchphrase. And then he chastises Bart as they go to a commercial break: “Only I may dance!”
![Hey, where's Andy?](http://www.cartoonbrew.com/wp-content/uploads/simpsonconan.jpg)
4. Futurama – In 1999’s Xmas Story, Conan teamed up with Matt Groening once again. This time, he performed at a ski lodge in the year 3000. (I feel like they missed a great opportunity by not having him do a “Year 2000” bit.) As with all celebrities on this show, he appeared as a head in a jar. Max Weinberg was there, too, only nobody fed him. Heckled by Bender, Conan responds to the alcoholic robot in hilarious fashion.
CONAN: Listen, I may have lost my freakishly long legs in the war of 2012, but I have one thing you’ll never have: A soul!
BENDER: (scornfully) Pfffft.
CONAN: And freckles!
BENDER: (crying) Waaaaah!
5. Space Ghost: Coast to Coast – That same year, Conan was also interviewed by a cartoon superhero. This episode was especially notable, because it actually premiered as a table read. Essentially, they filmed the writers and actors reading and discussing the original script and aired
it as an episode of the series. Then, after a rewrite, it was aired as a traditional episode as well. (Actually, it was run in both 15- and 30-minute versions. The longer version contained much more footage of Space Ghost slowly following an ant. This was a weird series.) Now, Space Ghost interviews were conducted in a rather bizarre manner. One of the writers would wear the costume and interview the celebrity guest. They would then write an episode around that interview. This generally resulted in guests looking foolish, especially if they were grumpy about being interviewed by a guy in a cape in the first place. Conan, unsurprisingly, rolled with it. He demanded to know Space Ghost’s origins, and why he called himself a ghost if he wasn’t dead. Most of the time, Space Ghost was distracted by an ant, but Conan got in some great lines.
![Don't make me blast you with my Spank Ray!](http://sharetv.org/images/space_ghost_coast_to_coast-show.jpg)
6. 30 Rock – Right here, this is Conan’s finest half-hour. Outside of his own series, this is Conan’s best appearance as himself. In “Tracy Does Conan”, Jack Donaghy forces Conan to have Tracy Jordan on his show, in order to make Tracy more acceptable to the public. Conan’s not thrilled about this, because the last time he interviewed Tracy, Tracy tried to stab him. (This is only a slight exaggeration, if you’ve ever seen the real Tracy Morgan on Late Night.) It gets worse when Tracy has a bad reaction to some medication and starts hallucinating. It’s an over-the-top farce, and it’s hilarious. And Conan makes it even better, with references to his longstanding rivalry with Donaghy and his failed relationship with Liz Lemon. (“Let’s not do this, Elizabeth.”) And we even get a scene between Kenneth the Page (Jack McBrayer) and Conan – McBrayer got his start in comedy bits on Late Night.