But after watching the four episodes of his new Max series Conan O'Brien Must Go, it's now obvious — even to a thickheaded critic like me — that leaving late night TV really was liberating for O'Brien. I'm old enough that I started covering TV not long after O'Brien made his first move from the shadows of life as a comedy writer – he worked on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons — to succeed David Letterman in 1993 as host of NBC's show Late Night (now hosted by Seth Meyers). By the time he left his TBS show Conan for good, it seemed O'Brien was already caught in a trend which would hobble other late night shows — as young viewers consumed his content online and ratings on cable dropped.