\tConan O\u2019Brien revealed to Eric Idle on a recent episode of the \u201cConan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend\u201d podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that Robin Williams cold called him after NBC fired him as host of \u201cThe Tonight Show.\u201d O\u2019Brien took over the late night show from Jay Leno in 2009, but he was infamously fired after seven months. The network decided to dump O\u2019Brien and bring back Leno.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI was lucky enough to have some great interactions with Robin Williams before he passed,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cOne of the most memorable examples to me is when I went through my whole\u00a0\u2018Tonight Show\u2019\u00a0debacle. Finally, the show is done, and I don\u2019t know if I have a career anymore. What am I gonna do next? I\u2019m lying on the floor in the living room of my house, and my phone rings, and I pick it up, and it\u2019s Robin Williams.\u201d \t<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI don\u2019t even know how he got my phone number,\u201d O\u2019Brien continued. \u201c[Williams asked,] \u2018How are you holding up, chief?\u2019 And he said, you know, \u2018You\u2019re gonna be fine, you\u2019re gonna be great.’\u201d <\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t \t \t\t \t \tWilliams then instructed O\u2019Brien to go down to the local bike shop in Santa Monica because Williams had set up a bike for O\u2019Brien to rent for the day. Both gentlemen were avid bikers at the time.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAnd I said, \u2018What?’\u201d O\u2019Brien remembered. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018No, no, no, just head on down there. Ride around, you\u2019ll feel better.\u2019 And I went down and it was a Colnago, which is a very nice bike. And he said, \u2018I told him to paint it in all these crazy Irish colors.\u2019 I get down there and it\u2019s the ugliest \u2014 I mean, it was just greens and shamrocks and everything. And he was like, \u2018You\u2019re going to like that bike, chief. Don\u2019t worry about it.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIt turns out clearing his head and biking around Santa Monica is just what O\u2019Brien needed in the moment. He added, \u201cI thanked [Robin] many, many times. I just couldn\u2019t believe that he was thinking about me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIdle was one of Williams\u2019 close friends and told O\u2019Brien that such a kind gesture was \u201ctypical\u201d of Williams, who died in August 2014. \u201cHe would put a lot of effort into making you feel better,\u201d Idle added. \u201cThat\u2019s fantastically typical Robin. That generosity and kindness combined with the wit of the man is not a common combination.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIt was Williams who taught Idle to be generous to fans, the Monty Python comedian admitted. \u201cI would just tell them to fuck off and they would laugh and go away, you know?\u201d Idle explained of his fan interactions. \u201cAnd that became a thing. Then I watched Robin and his empathy, remembering that this is somebody\u2019s moment in their life and it\u2019s a big moment in their life because they\u2019ve waited, they love you, they want this moment. So if you are shit or dismissive, it\u2019s a nasty memory.\u201d \t<\/p>\n
\tListen to the full \u201cConan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend\u201d podcast episode with Idle here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Conan O\u2019Brien revealed to Eric Idle on a recent episode of the \u201cConan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend\u201d podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that Robin Williams cold called him after NBC fired him as host of \u201cThe Tonight Show.\u201d O\u2019Brien took over the late night show from Jay Leno in 2009, but he was infamously fired after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}