Conan O'Brien says one job left him in a 'bad place,' another saved his life
Conan O'Brien opens up about the show that 'saved' him after a rough patch
Conan O'Brien is looking back on how joining The Simpsons changed his life at a difficult time on Saturday Night Live.
The 63-year-old comedian made the revelation while speaking with the show's creator, Matt Groening, on his podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, saying the opportunity came right when he needed it most.
O'Brien explained that before joining The Simpsons, he had been working as a writer on Saturday Night Livebut was struggling personally, despite loving the job and the people there. He eventually decided to leave, even without another job lined up.
“My origin story for people that don’t know is I was working on Saturday Night Live. I was in a funk,” O’Brien confessed. “I loved that job and I loved everyone there, but I thought, ‘I need to go. I’m just in a bad place in my life.’“
Shortly after, two writers from The Simpsons, Mike Reiss and Al Jean, heard he was available and reached out. Within days, O'Brien found himself with a new job, joining the show as a writer and producer in 1991. He credited that moment with turning his life around.
“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, and then I was told, ‘You’ve got a job on The Simpsons, and you need to be here in 4 days.’ And it really saved my life,” he shared.
During his time on the show, O'Brien wrote the fan-favorite episode "Marge vs. the Monorail." He recalled feeling intimidated at first, since he'd only written sketch comedy before and had to learn an entirely new format working alongside what he described as an incredibly talented writers' room.
O'Brien left The Simpsons in 1993 to host Late Night with Conan O'Brien, a role he held until 2009, before later hosting The Tonight Show.
More than 30 years later, he took the opportunity to personally thank Groening, saying he isn't sure where his career would have gone without that chance.
