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Beloved comedian Conan O’Brien is opening up about his previous mental health struggles, revealing how one of the nation’s longest-running series actually saved his life.
“My origin story, for people that don’t know, is I was working on Saturday Night Live. I was in a funk,” O’Brien, 63, said during the Thursday, September 10, episode of his podcast “Conan O’Brian Needs a Friend” featuring The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
“I loved that job and I love everyone there, but I thought, ‘I need to go. I’m in a bad place in my life,’” the former late night host continued. “I walked away from SNL with no job, and two of your writers, I think it was [Mike] Reiss and [Al] Jean, heard that Conan O’Brien might be loose and available. So the next thing I knew, I was submitting, I don’t know, some of the sketches I had written on SNL.”
He added, “Then I was told, ‘You’ve got a job on The Simpsons, and you need to be here in four days.’ And it really saved my life.”
The Conan Must Go star started working as a writer for SNL in 1998, ultimately exiting the sketch comedy series in 1991. O’Brien joined The Simpsons as a writer and producer later that same year, contributing to seasons 3, 4 and the start of season 5 before ultimately leaving the series to host Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1993, taking over for longtime host David Letterman. (O’Brien went on to briefly host The Tonight Show before Jay Leno’s controversial return, prompting the comedian to launch his own talk show Conan on TBS in 2010. The show ran for 11 seasons until 2021.)
“I was so intimidated when I showed up,” O’Brien continued of his time as a writer and producer for The Simpsons. “I had never written that form before. I had only written sketch and suddenly they’re saying, ‘This has to happen in this act, but then in that act…’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ It was a magical part of my life.’”
O’Brien went on to publicly thank his guest Groening, 72, the cartoonist and animator who created not only The Simpsons but also Futurama and Disenchantment, for giving him an avenue for continued opportunity after his time at NBC.
“God, do I thank you,” O’Brien said. “I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t gone there.”
O’Brien has managed to reinvent himself several times over his decades-long entertainment career and while somehow maintaining his signature style of physical, slapstick comedy and absurd silliness.
“Conan is the patron saint of ex-talk show hosts,” Stephen Colbert told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published back in March and in the wake of the Comedy Central alum’s own unceremonious late night exit. “He’d actually been telling me to quit for years. We were out, a few Emmys ago, and he kept saying, ‘I want you to know there’s a lot of fun to be had when this is over, so don’t feel like you need to stay.’”
Colbert, 62, continued at the time, “It almost hurt my feelings, but he was just being kind. He Dutch uncle’d me.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
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