Last Friday, Conan O'Brien bid The Tonight Show adieu. Jay Leno will reclaim the "King of Late Night" title in March. But to understand the present, one must know the past: here's how we got to where we are now.

Conan O'Brien just closed out his final episode as host of The Tonight Show, and what a show it was: hilarious shenanigans, Steve Carell, Tom Hanks, Neil Young, a tearful statement of gratitude, and Will Ferrell with a mothereffing cowbell.

In the midst of 30 Rock's non-stop bashing of Boston, the crew revolted against Liz Lemon and NBC management's decision-making (ha!). So Liz, genius that she is, thinks of a solution that Jeff Zucker wishes he thought of first.

The hosts spoke about Conan's agreement to part ways with NBC. Fallon finally took a jab at his network while O'Brien, with the help of famous friends, spent more of NBC's money. Gawker.TV's Matt Cherette caught all of the action.

Moments ago, Conan O'Brien confirmed that tomorrow is his last day as host of The Tonight Show, but promised to go out with an NBC-bashing bang. Meanwhile, Jay Leno announced his return to 11:35 as David Letterman continued eviscerating him.

NBC's Dick Ebersol extends an invitation to Stephen Colbert, the masturbating bear makes a special appearance on Conan's show, Arsenio Hall pays Leno a visit, Adam Sandler commiserates, and many more late-night antics rounded up by Gawker.TV's Matt Cherette.

The constant back and forth verbal jabs between Late Night hosts is already getting a little tired. Maybe they need to let their fists do the talking instead of their mouths.

As the Letterman-Leno rivalry heated up when both hosts took nasty, personal attacks on each other— Conan continued to trash NBC during his limited time left on The Tonight Show. Gawker.TV's Matt Cherette rounded up all the best parts.

Confused about the whole Late Night situation? Let Taiwan get you up to speed by turning Zucker, Leno, and Conan into brawling animated superheroes. Gruh?

Tonight, Jay Leno spoke seriously on the NBC late night controversy for the first time, skirting blame and saying, "Conan's show... was not doing well." Later, David Letterman continued his Leno-bashing, while O'Brien further took NBC to task. Videos inside.

In this retro clip from The Ben Stiller Show, a very young Judd Apatow does a spot-on impersonation of Leno. In it, he's trying out for The Tonight Show back in the days when it still belonged to Johnny Carson.

Howard Stern went on Late Night With Conan O'Brien in late 2006 to promote Sirius radio. But during his appearance, Stern decided to discuss Jay's impending departure from The Tonight Show. Mainly that he wasn't buying it for a second.

Tonight, SNL opened with a Larry King Live parody that addressed the mess at NBC over its late night lineup. It sucked. What didn't suck, however, was Seth Meyers' anti-NBC rant during the Weekend Update segment. Video of both, inside.

It's no easy task to digest the goings on of the NBC late night war that was brought to a head this week. After the jump you'll find all the night by night highlights of the bitter goings-on.

Following yesterday's late night melee, we wondered: after four nights of infighting, would détente emerge this evening? Nope! Conan O'Brien embarrassed NBC in the best way ever, Jay Leno personally attacked David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel mocked everyone, and much more.

Back in 1984, Jay Leno made an appearance on David Letterman's talk show. Despite their rivalry, things seemed tame enough— until Leno had the audacity to make jokes about his shady deals with NBC behind Dave's back.

It's surprising that Jay would usurp Conan O'Brien like he is. Because not only has he gone on record saying he has total faith in Conan, but NBC once tried to screw over Jay just like they're doing to Conan.

NBC has drawn the long knives and dispatched NBC Sports titan and former late-night guru Dick Ebersol—who produced Saturday Night Live during the Joe Piscipo years—to strike back at Conan O'Brien in a New York Times interview.

Because she's the type that will find this funny. If you've got 4 minutes to waste and like rap parodies, watch this. And if you don't watch it now we guarantee you'll get it from your Great Aunt Ethel.

NBC's Leno-Conan scheduling war: Fertile comedic material, and a window into late-night hosts' souls. A guide to Letterman's, Conan's, and Jimmy Kimmel's subconscious feelings for Jay.