We had a party afterward at the 21 Club. And I just remember, just hanging out with John Goodman. After the show shot, it went pretty well. We were all pretty elated, this new thing. I really enjoyed your weird sketches. We did a lot of really excellent non-sequitur stuff. And then they were all just nonsense. So when you guys went to primetime for Tonight Show , that was so exciting. And then the way it all played out was so horrific, I mean, to a fan, to watch it.
It was very stressful. And then they had given Conan the deal five years before and Jay Leno had agreed to it. And then he backed off the deal when it came time for us to do the job. We knew that that would just mean that Jay would eventually take The Tonight Show back. And Jay was Jay, and he already had their ear. He already had a viewership at that time slot. So there was no real chance for us to grow.
And it was strange, too, to realize that we were becoming, like, a cause — people congregating outside the building, chanting support for a comedy show — and then also that we were part of broadcast history.
That was a strange, strange development. My kids are here and my life is here, so, yeah. One thing that the last 10 years have been in short supply of is for me to get to act as much as I would like to. So I have the freedom to do that now. A version of this story first appeared in the June 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
So it made it difficult for him to be inside a conversation. Whereas now we can go as long as we want, it gets edited and it does allow people to take more time, for him to take more time, for him to follow tangents and for the conversation to take on a life of its own.
And the people having the conversation stop thinking about having the conversation and just start having the conversation. I mean, television has evolved to be this very short, punchy thing. But then outside television, in terms of interview things, there are all kinds of long, meandering, organic things happening. I know Conan was tired of having six-minute conversations and having to chop things off in the middle.
And he likes to talk to people. I think there was so much stuff to do. A lot of great old friends have come by to visit. What level are we? Like 1 to 10, how sad are we? I mean, people like our stage manager started as a PA.
A lot of the people there too, they worked for Conan and they were in New York. And by Conan, I mean the show more so than the person. How much do you look back on the actual on-air product that you guys have done and the bits, not just the camaraderie and the things that nobody sees? Well, I mean, in an instance like this time, it matters a lot. Bill Hader was on the show and we taped it, and he mentioned finding us in high school. We are doing something important and making people laugh, and that is about as direct an expression of happiness as you get to, but it is still kinda silliness.
And there was like a minute section of the conversation with them where we started just talking about you guys and how much we worshiped you guys, both of you guys. Again, it was like kids talking about their favorite baseball player. I live in my house with my dog and my kids, and phone calls from my sister about my mom, and I just live in my life. Except to feel proud and everything. Yeah, it is like that. The first time when I left the Conan show in to come out here and try my hand at sitcoms, there was a big sendoff for me, and it made me so nervous to the point of having to take anti-anxiety pills because I felt enraged just by the attention.
You know? And so it was just a really weird thing when I felt like I was the bride at the wedding and the wedding just kept going on, and on, and on. It was too much for me. I just feel like, go look at somebody else for a little while, leave me alone.
Yeah, but it is like these periods of being the topic of the conversation, especially in a meta way. This show still means something to people that are younger.
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