![[VIDEO]: Jay Leno Gets Musical Sendoff From Surprise Guests on 'Tonight Show'](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/HARG0864.jpg?w=2000&h=1126&crop=1)
Leno on what he will miss the most: "I like coming to work every day. I like the people I work with. I think our writing staff is probably the highest paid because they’ve been here the longest. Most of the writers have been here 20 years; producers have been here all 22 years. Everybody’s been here since the beginning. People say it’s a family, which is a little hokey, but it is. Mr. Fezziwig from [Charles] Dickens' A Christmas Carol was always my role model."
Austin HargraveJay Leno said goodbye to The Tonight Show on Thursday, with a song and some help from some surprise guests.
Billy Crystal, who was Leno’s first guest ever, led Oprah Winfrey and others in a tweaked version of The Sound of Music‘s “So Long, Farewell”
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“There’s a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall and the bells in the steeple, too. And all the executives that run NBC are popping into say, ‘You’re through,'” sang Crystal.
Jack Black, Kim Kardashian, Chris Paul, Sheryl Crow, Jim Parsons, Carol Burnett each chimed in with their own lines.
Black: “So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, my dear. If Fallon tanks, you’ll be back here next year.”
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Kardashian: “So long, farewell, last night I told my folks now I won’t be the butt of Leno’s jokes.”
Winfrey: “So long, farewell, you really raised the bar. If you were me, you’d buy them all a car.”
Read THR‘s full recap from backstage and the audience, here.
Leno passes The Tonight Show to Jimmy Fallon, whose first episode airs on Feb. 17.
During his final week, Leno received on-air tributes from many of his guests, including Fallon and Sandra Bullock. Longtime Leno detractor Jimmy Kimmel also wished Leno the best, tweeting ahead of the show “Issues aside, 20 years at #1 is a remarkable achievement. Congratulations and best wishes to @jayleno on an incredible run.” Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien zinged Leno in his opening monologue.
