Instead, as O'Brien put on show after show, the critics and viewers began to come around.

At first, critics were shocked.

"Ten months of Conan O'Brien. This alone is astonishing," wrote The Chicago Tribune's Jeff Perkins in July 1994, arguing that the show was just as bad as it had been at the start.

But eventually O'Brien began to win some real acclaim.

And by 1996, two million people were watching the show every night.

Tom Shales called "Late Night" "inventive, outrageous, satirical and often just spectacularly silly."

What else could be said about a show that regularly features the host and his sidekick engaged in silent staring contests as the audience looks on in awe?