‘I deprived myself of pleasure’
Conan O’Brien welcomed Tom Hanks on the latest episode of the ‘Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend’ podcast and told the Oscar winner about one of his biggest career regrets: being way too intense during his short stint as a writer on ‘Saturday Nightlife.” O’Brien worked at “SNL” for three years from 1988 to 1991 before jumping ship to write and produce “The Simpsons.”
“People always say there are no regrets,” O’Brien said. “I regret being so intense about that job. Yes. I was way too intense and I think I robbed myself of the fun I could have had. I had a lot of fun, but I think I could have had more fun. And I think I might have been able to write there a little longer if I hadn’t made it so difficult for myself.”
“I’m burned out. I’m burned out. And [Lorne Michaels] it couldn’t have been nicer,” O’Brien added of his “SNL” experience. “This went on for a few years before he contacted me about the late night show. But I was burned out and thought, ‘I have to go,’ and then I went to ‘The Simpsons.'”
But O’Brien’s time on “The Simpsons” didn’t last long either, as Michaels called him with an offer to host “Late Night,” starting in 1993 after David Letterman resigned. O’Brien took him up on the offer and became one of late night television’s biggest stables for over a decade. From 1993 to 2009 he presented ‘Late Night’.
“The brilliance of what Lorne does doesn’t exist anywhere else. I had only worked in television for about three years before that, but no one had let me anywhere near anything,” O’Brien said. “You come to ‘SNL,’ you write a sketch, and Steve Martin will be in it. And Lorne says, “Go in and tell Steve how it should be done and what you think, and then go talk to the props about what the restaurant should look like.” And I thought, ‘I’m 26, I’ve never been to a restaurant! Don’t know.'”
Watch O’Brien and Hanks discuss “SNL” on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast in the video below.
