The set was low-tech, celebrities sent greetings, the Masturbating Bear returned, and Jay Leno’s name only came up once—but above all, says Lloyd Grove, Conan’s premiere featured a host thrilled to be back from late-night exile. Plus, watch the 6 funniest Conan moments. 
 
 
 
 “That was our show. That was fast!” Conan O’Brien marveled Monday night at the end of his debut show on TBS. 
 
 Fast and breezy—even though the hyperkinetic O’Brien’s breeziness arrived with the force of a gale. 
 
 Looking for all the world like a free man just sprung from maximum security, he actually seemed joyful to be creating his own show, Conan, on basic cable at 11 p.m. instead of trying to follow Jay Leno and fit himself into the venerable Tonight Show franchise on NBC. 
 
 He didn’t lean on desperate gimmicks or overwrought pyrotechnics; he was content for the most part to stick to his knitting. Yes, there was a witty opening video sending up his months of unemployment, featuring Larry King and Jon Hamm; a cameo appearance in a second short video by the Masturbating Bear, apparently permitted by NBC’s intellectual property attorneys to dispense lottery-ball winners from his nether parts; and a mocking series of promos featuring Ricky Gervais, who congratulated O’Brien in each one for a new job in a downwardly mobile career trajectory. 
 
 O’Brien was at home on a basic talk show set (massive wooden chocolate layer cake of a desk, nondescript chair for guests, and a long gray sofa for sidekick Andy Richter), and just was funny—or “Very Funny,” as the TBS slogan would have it. OK, there was also a movable 3-D moon hanging over the Pacific Ocean, a low-tech special effect that O’Brien and Richter managed to get some amusement out of. And the white-haired, red-aproned old lady who curates the Nutcracker Museum in Leavenworth, WA, was flown in to be Conan’s absolutely first guest and to be celebrated in a rousing anthem as “the most important person in history.” 
 
 Having kept the beard he grew during his nine months’ exile from television, the flame-haired O’Brien easily displayed his comedy chops, seemed to be having a good time bantering with inaugural guests Seth Rogen, who riffed on getting engaged and smoking marijuana, and Glee star Lea Michele, who looked lovely. For his finale, O’Brien took up his electric guitar to rock out with musical guest Jack White; more to the point, Jack White rocked out with Conan, who was really the featured performer. 
 
 
 
 Watch the opening of Conan's first TBS show, featuring Larry King and Jon Hamm. 
 
 “I know what you’re thinking: ‘Hey, it’s the guy from Twitter!’” O’Brien joked in his opening monologue. 
 
 “I know what you’re thinking: ‘Hey, it’s the guy from Twitter!’” O’Brien joked self-mockingly in his opening monologue, which contained scant reference to his previous tormenters at NBC. 
 
 • Watch: 6 Funniest Moments from Conan’s DebutThe only reference to Jay Leno—the giggling, big-jawed villain of the piece, lurking unseen in the psychic background—was in a commercial for a website, Bezzerwizzer.com. “Congratulations, Conan,” an announcer intoned. “Who’s the Bezzerwizzer now, Jay?” 
 
 If it didn’t make any sense, it really didn’t have to. 
 
 Conan O’Brien is back. 
 
 
 
 Conan takes shots at NBC in his opening monologue. 
 
 Dissenting Views: 
 
 The Los Angeles Times' Robert Lloyd on Conan's "Godfather-style bang." 
 
 The New York Times' Alessandra Stanley on Conan's self-referential return. 
 
 Plus: Check out more of the latest entertainment, fashion, and culture coverage on Sexy Beast—photos, videos, features, and Tweets. 
 
 Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects. 
 
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 For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com. ||||| Michael Buckner/Getty Images 
 
 Thank goodness Conan O'Brien's going to cable, because, while he can't say peacock, he's still allowed to say the words pea and cock. 
 
 Or so the former Late Night and Tonight Show host told the crowd in Eugene, Ore., Monday as he poked fun at his old network during the first stop on his 30-city Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour, according to an eyewitness. 
 
 A soldout crowd chanted his name as they stood in the rain outside the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, waiting to be let inside. 
 
 "This is the first time anyone has paid to see me. They've paid me to go away," O'Brien jested before going on to list the "eight stages of grief after losing your talk show." 
 
 Those include "denial, blame myself, blame everyone else around me, anger, paranoia, 36 hours of Red Bull and Halo, buy everything Amazon says I would also like (I bought a Team Edward thong), and get your ass to Eugene, Oregon!" 
 
 Talking about his new television venture, he told the audience, "I'm sure some of you heard I got a new job. Starting tomorrow, I'm the new manager of the Eugene Banana Republic." 
 
 He probably won't be wearing the pink sequin jumpsuit he strode onstage in to work. 
 
 "Right now," O'Brien said, "the people at TBS are watching, going 'What the hell? He's wearing a pink leather outfit?!' " 
 
 Of his departure from NBC, O'Brien cracked, "True story, I may not any longer be able to use the name Conan O'Brien. They may legally own it." He added, "There are certain words I cannot say. I can't say peacock, but I can say pee and cock." 
 
 O'Brien even took a shot at one of E!'s own reality stars: "I'm not on television, but Kim Kardashian is." 
 
 Guests included 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer, indie rock band Spoon, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and the Masturbating Bear (rebranded as "Self-Pleasuring Panda"). 
 
 O'Brien takes his self-deprecating shtick to Vancouver on Wednesday. 
 
 —Reporting by Drew Dakessian 
 
 ________ 
 
 Check out what Conan's new late-night neighbor is saying about him right here!
– As Conan O'Brien returns to TV tonight on TBS, 10 months after the fiasco at NBC that ended his tenure as the Tonight Show host, questions abound: Perhaps the biggest of those questions is whether or not Conan can take his phenomenal success on Twitter and translate it back into TV ratings, the Los Angeles Times notes. Conan isn't directly competing with rival Jay Leno, but his 11pm cable slot pits him against two much more challenging opponents: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, both riding high from their hugely popular Washington rallies, reports the New York Times. Others raise more pressing concerns: Will the beard stay? "That orange facial fuzz has come to typify everything we love about the new Conan," writes Eric Ditzian on MTV. Ditzian also weighs in on the rumored first guest, Andy Richter's role, and another big question—will he make any Leno jokes? (Probably not, but Ditzian is hoping for "one last zinger.") Perhaps most importantly, wonders James Poniewozik at Time, "Will the Masturbating Bear be back?" Jokes aside, NBC technically owns all of Conan's signature bits. Will he defy NBC or come up with all-new material? To get your fill of Conan while waiting for the premiere, click here.