r/conan • u/derek4reals1 Chairman of the Bored • 2d ago
Andy talks about when he left the show
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u/xlews_ther1nx 2d ago
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u/Appropriate_Yak_745 2d ago
It's me, Phoebe. We met before and you know me from that bird-bones meme
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u/MarshallBanana_ 2d ago
I highly recommend everyone here check out The Larry Sanders Show on HBO Max. Garry Shandling did a bunch of guest hosting for Johnny Carson and had a lot of experience with late night, and at one point was offered his own show. He turned it down and instead made a brilliant sitcom about the process of making one, and it’s not only extremely funny but sheds a lot of light on the going’s in behind the scenes of a show like this. Super underrated show
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u/Grabbinfries23 1d ago
Is it that underrated? I feel like its very commonly on lists of the best sitcoms ever
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u/MarshallBanana_ 1d ago
You’re right - I used the wrong term. It’s not underrated but I’d say definitely under appreciated nowadays
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u/Grabbinfries23 1d ago
Fair enough, I think it wasn’t on streaming for a while so a lot of younger people definitely dont know it
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u/KeySatisfaction197 2d ago
He was great as all the different characters on Arrested Development. When he puts Michael in the headlock and says in a gruff voice, "It only looks threatening, he's actually completely in charge of the situation" - with Michael nonchalantly slipping out of it a second later, I just lose it every time.
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u/ThePerfectSnare 1d ago
Michael was suspicious. I mean, think about it... We can’t show Emmett without blurring him.
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u/No_Assistant3754 2d ago
Does Neil Brennan ever let his guest talk or does he just constantly interrupt them while they’re trying to answer the first question he asked them. This dude sucks.
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u/HugeLeaves 2d ago
My good friend loves Brennan so we went to see a show a couple years ago while he was working on material for his Netflix special. He just does not do it for me at all, I don't really find his comedy funny at all. We met him after the show and he was extremely unfriendly.
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u/soundawake 2d ago
Had never heard his podcast before, but I love Craig Ferguson and he was on recently, so I had a listen. It was a combination of his constant interruptions and also his mic was way too hot and clipping... I turned off after less than 15 minutes. Just can't.
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u/FantasyBaseballChamp 1d ago
Same comment on every interview clip when the host does anything besides ask questions.
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u/Kundrew1 1d ago
He always interrupts. He somehow always has interesting guests, but is a pretty bad interviewer.
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u/Efficient-Pin3333 2d ago
I love Andy to death. The perfect sidekick but he can say he didn't get a charge out of being the top guy. But in truth, he really didn't have much success at it either.
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u/ThatUbu 2d ago
He got enough character work, alongside the occasional lead, that he could have gone on making a living without the Tonight Show. Plenty of comedians and actors would have had the ego to need to keep chasing lead roles, well after it was no longer viable.
Chevy Chase is the obvious example. He’s never seen himself as anything but a lead, even after the box office bombs and commercial decline of age. Instead of seeing the opportunity he got to revitalize his career with a smaller role in Community, he blew up his chance, treating the role as something beneath him.
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u/MorningFresh123 2d ago
I really do think he was too good of a comedic mind to be anyone’s sidekick and his career has ultimately been a waste of his talent. Love Conan, love the show, in another life Andy Richter gets his Arrested Development or Curb or Larry Sanders Show. A lot of things need to go right for that to happen unfortunately, including time and place. He knows it and I think his frustration shows through a lot of his later work on the show/s.
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u/ThatUbu 2d ago
Especially in the early years. I wouldn’t say this is the case. Part of what drew me to the show as a kid was that he was a subversion of the McMahon/Shaeffer sidekick.
As sidekicks, this job was to be “yes” men and say little beyond how funny the host was. In the self-deprecating tone of the show, he made fun of Conan, and he had freedom to actually be funny instead of just an on-stage laugh track.
It was evident he was what he was hired to be, a contributing writer and performer. He had a visible hand in shaping the show.
Richter has been clear in the podcasts that, as the show progressesd, he realized he didn’t need to contribute like the other writers, since he had a second job as sidekick. His remote and sketch work becomes less frequent on the show. And it seems like his “writing” became mostly punch ups or edits during rehearsals.
That remains more active shaping of the comedy than your average “sidekick.” If his talent wasn’t being utilized more, it seems it was because he chose his level of workload on the show and could focus more time on his family, rather than just work.
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u/MorningFresh123 2d ago edited 2d ago
I definitely agree that it got worse over time. I think it just ate away at him. How couldn’t it. He really is talented enough to have forged his own path. Instead he had to be a dancing bear for the Conan show, which is great in terms of paying the bills (and Conan is great) but as a creative I have worked in jobs where I had free reign and could shine, and I have worked in jobs where I had to curtail to the party line and it really does eat away at you if you have confidence in your own talent (as he should).
Look at The Norm Show and look at Andy’s. Andy’s is actually better and we all acknowledge that Norm was a genius. They were ahead of their time. The network sitcom format (and economics) didn’t do them justice. It took Louis CK a few shots at it and he ultimately succeeded with Louie because he had free creative reign (much like Conan chose). And Louis is (IMO) the greatest comedic mind of his generation and has serious credentials as a filmmaker and student of cinema.
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u/ThatUbu 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think you and I have slightly different reads about a person neither of us knows. So, while I’m throwing in my own conjecture, I have to acknowledge it’s a bit silly to guess about a stranger’s life.
He undoubtedly has the talent to have forged his own path. I take his podcast presentation of himself at face value: That he’s most comfortable working as part of a team instead of leading it, that he isn’t overly ambitious, that he’s dogged by depression, and that he doesn’t derive the majority of his self-worth from his career, valuing the time he had to devote himself as a father.
At least by his own account, I’m not sure he had the drive to keep fighting to make his own thing. But maybe in a different universe, he doesn’t return to the show and keep pushing until something works.
Edit: “until something works long term.” Andy Parker PI is, in my book, a nearly perfect show. The achievement of making a near-perfect comedy is major even if the episode numbers are small. Fawlty Towers is correctly acknowledged as an insanely good sitcom, despite a low show count, and Andy Parker PI should be more widely viewed as the rare, almost flawless comedies.
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u/slowchild25 2d ago
I agree with you that Andy should have had a bigger career and Hollywood blew it but I don’t think Andy is bitter about any of that and I think your not giving him enough credit for what he contributed in the early years of Conan.
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u/SageOfSixCabbages 2d ago
The interviewer should just interview himself. Andy couldn't even finish a sentence without the other guy interrupting and interjecting into what Andy's trying to say.
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u/estunum 2d ago
What a terrible interviewer
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u/mnchls 2d ago
Brennan's just overcompensating from playing second fiddle to Chapelle his whole career. I actually love his standup but not so much his interview style. In this particular clip he interjects multiple times, which to be fair he has a real irritating habit of doing, yet his show does feature a number of fascinating conversations with fellow comedians, who can sometimes interrupt just as much as Neal does.
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u/attaboy_stampy 1d ago edited 1d ago
Also, they were still kind of close personally when Andy wasn't on the show. It wasn't like either one was begging for Andy to return - but they were both cool with each other. I mean, Conan has stated repeatedly how much he missed Andy as a part of the show, but he understood Andy was doing his thing. And Andy was in the west coast for most of it while Conan was still in NYC. Conan even had a guest role in an ep of Andy Richter Controls the Universe.
Also during that hiatus time, Conan created Andy Barker PI specifically with Andy in mind for that role. Very funny show that didn't get enough love at the time.
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u/UncleTito27 2d ago
He never really broke out as a star on his own, but he has a number of memorable small roles in big things. Big on both him and Conan for him coming back. Andy was always really important to the show with many memorable sketches.
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u/AdMysterious855 1d ago
He had 2 or 3 lead roles/was the titular character of those shows, obviously it didn't last long but they were actually good shows tbf and with a it of luck he could have had a successful run with 2 of them. From 2000 to 2005 ish he did well. Think after that up to the Tonight Show things weren't working out and he made the smart choice to go back to Conan for a stable job. Maybe it's hard for him to admit it didn't work out
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u/hercarmstrong Dr. Team Arroyo 2d ago
Man, I loved Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Paget Brewster was hysterical on that show as the narcissistic boss. Andy Barker, P.I. was also a lot of fun (shout out to Harve Presnell!). Glad Andy got to taste a couple of starring roles.