Tom Hanks and Conan O’Brien: Their early SNL monologue sketches together from 1988 and 1990

If you're wondering why Tom Hanks was on the final edition of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, well, perhaps you thought, maybe it's because Hanks nicknamed Conan "Coco" on his second Tonight Show. Close. But not quite. As Hanks explained in last night's show, he and Conan go way, way back to Hanks' nights as a host on Saturday Night Live, when he remembered seeing Conan back in the deepest recesses of SNL's studios as part of the "Boiler Room Boys" with fellow SNL writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel. Wonder what happened to those guys?

Anyhow.

Eventually, NBC.com and Hulu will figure out they need to put more of their Conan clips online to earn some revenue — they need the money. Until then, I did find these two clips from SNL way back in the night, in rare appearances by Conan O'Brien when he was an SNL writer but had speaking lines. Both instances involve Tom Hanks as the host. So now it comes three-quarters-circle. This first clip is from 1988, in which Hanks tries to disprove the Hollywood myth that he's a nice guy. Hard to believe now, right?

This second appearance of Hanks and Conan comes from 1990, when Hanks hosted SNL for his fifth time and gained entry to the ultra-exclusive SNL Five-Timers Club. Look who the doorman is! It's Conan! (That he says his name is Sean is merely coincidence, as we still have not met yet) With appearance by all of the previous SNL 5-timers: Paul Simon, Steve Martin, Elliott Gould. No Alec Baldwin back then. Roll it.