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The best part of last night’s final Dallas episode of Conan O’Brien’s show was the return of the Walker, Texas Ranger lever. It was a great recurring feature on O’Brien’s old Late Night show on NBC, and his trip to Dallas spurred him to bring it out of retirement. If you haven’t seen it, it’s simple: he has a lever that, each time he pulls it, plays another awesomely bad clip from the 1990s North Texas-made drama starring Chuck Norris.
The segment doesn’t seem to be posted online, probably because that would have involved paying more for the rights to the Walker clips. But it included an audience member (who will likely be insufferably full of himself for the rest of his life as a result) coming on stage to pull the lever once, plus an appearance by four Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.
For the finale, Conan showed the most famous of all his Walker lever clips, which features Haley Joel Osment. It is real, and it is spectacular. You can see it for yourself on this old Late Night clip.
Another highlight from last night was a slam dunk contest featuring strange mascots, including “Tyler Perry’s Rick Perry,” and a delightful interview with Charles Barkley.
In his monologue, Conan made fun of having been told to refer to our region as Dallas-Fort Worth: “They didn’t call the TV show ‘Dallas-Fort Worth.'” Then Sir Charles laughed at the coaching he’d been given to refer to our region as “North Texas” when he broadcasts the NCAA Final Four at Jerry’s Death Star this weekend. He’d gotten on a plane to Dallas, he said, not North Texas.
Sorry, Arlington.
