Who even remembered that Conan O’Brien once dated Lisa Kudrow?!
That’s just one of the many highlights of Vanity Fair‘s new oral history of the first year of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, in which various interviews track the humble beginnings of one of the best late night talk show hosts of all time.
Our fave quote is from the Friends star, who was actually Conan’s girlfriend at the time took over hosting Late Night when David Letterman famously quit and headed to rival network CBS. She told the carrot-topped comic:
“You’re trying to replace David Letterman. No one replaces David Letterman. You’re no one.”
Ha! Telling a guy trying to be a TV star that he’s “no one” sounds pretty harsh, like tough love. But it wasn’t, it was genius!
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See, she meant it as a compliment. She was saying the person who won over viewers after Letterman’s exit “can’t be anybody that an audience would know.” It had to be a dark horse — well, a pale horse — coming from out of nowhere. And she was right! Tons of folks grew up on the zany antics of Conan like the previous generation had grown up with Letterman. He was a huge hit with college students and developed the same kind of loyal but small following that his predecessor had begun with.
Lisa was exactly right!
Did YOU grow up on Conan?? When did you start watching? What won you over? Read the whole oral history HERE and add to it in the comments (below)!
[Image via Team Coco/YouTube.]
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