"Why is everybody freaking out over conan o'brian's 'last show'?" wrote one of my friends on Facebook Saturday morning. "Like he's not going to be back having boring conversations with celebrities in the next few months." Which is a completely fair viewpoint on the end (?) of the Late Night Wars. As for me: I was surprised by how emotional I got watching the series finale of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" (in full, above).

Back in February, I wrote about the series finale of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," and how devoted I had been to the show, but even I wasn't especially bullish on his prospects. (I guess I never imagined -- much as Conan himself probably didn't -- that NBC wouldn't at least keep him around until his time-slot rival David Letterman retired, to see if Conan could beat whomever replaced his "Late Night" predecessor and build NBC's audience in the most desirable 18-34 demographic.) But when that first episode of Conan's "Tonight Show" kicked off, the bit was such vintage O'Brien -- ebullient, goofy, absurd -- that I thought for sure he'd be fine.

I mean, for one thing...it's a pretty great country you've got here. To see Conan loping through it on those crazy five-foot legs of his is weirdly moving, and could even be taken as a symbolic repudiation to the critics who thought his cerebral silliness was too New York-y to work on a (potentially) larger audience: Conan ran through the WHOLE nation, not just the coasts. And when he gets to the turnoff for the Hollywood Freeway and the studio audience cheers, it's hard not to cheer along, even now: Conan had been working and waiting for 16 years to get to that on-ramp. So to see that bit again in the series finale, carved up into bitlets for a montage of the greatest moments of Conan's seven-month tenure, was kind of heartbreaking for me.

Conan had time for one last "ridiculously expensive" comedy sketch.

And after sitting for his NBC exit interview with a special guest...

...Conan welcomed a longtime friend of the show, Tom Hanks.

As Vulture pointed out last week, Hanks's appearance on the show could be a good augur: back in 1993, Hanks was also one of the final guests on Letterman's final show at NBC. (The rest of Hanks's chat with Conan is here and here.)

Speaking of Letterman -- who's certainly had plenty of fun the past couple of weeks at NBC's and Jay Leno's expense, yet has been very kind to Conan and even hinted that his "Late Night" heir could one day take over his "Late Show," too -- tried to cheer up Conan's fans with a Top Ten List of Things to Be Happy About.

"Jimmy Kimmel Live" produced a little crime-show fan fiction involving Conan and Jay Leno.

Jimmy Fallon, Conan's "Late Night" heir, said goodbye to Conan with the help of his house band, The Roots.

But I have to give the last word on this whole thing to Conan, who kept his last moments on "The Tonight Show" as classy as we all expected he would, and totally made me cry.

Yeah, he's a millionaire many times over. Yeah, his celebrity interviews -- as my friend said on Saturday -- are generally nothing special. But Conan is talented, original, and by all accounts, a sweet and generous person, and he has been the first to say no one should feel sorry for him, and I don't. I'm sorry for me, that for the next several months, his singular vision and creativity won't be on TV for us to watch.

All this, and he SHREDS, too.

As that best-of montage ended, the screen read, "TO BE CONTINUED." Indeed: Conan, I hope we'll see you again very soon.