Conan O’Brien Reveals Robin Williams Called Him After ‘Tonight Show’ Ouster: ‘You’re Gonna Be Fine’
Robin William was without a doubt one of Hollywood’s shining stars. From his memorable on-screen performances to the way he cared for his co-stars, there was something about him that made him special. He frequently went out of his way to ensure those he loved were doing okay, and as Conan O’Brien revealed, his kind gesture following the comedian’s exit from the Tonight Show was yet another example of his generosity.
The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien
Following Jay Leno’s retirement from the Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien stepped up to the plate. No stranger to the late-night game, he’d previously hosted his own series, Late Night with Conan O’Brien (1993-2009).
While the Tonight Show struggled to outperform its competitors while under O’Brien, it continued to receive modest viewership numbers in its first seven months. However, rumors began to spread that NBC, which aired the series, was going to move Leno’s new venture, The Jay Leno Show (2009-10), from primetime to the Tonight Show‘s time slot, causing a rift between the network and O’Brien.
Despite O’Brien’s concerns that moving the show from its long-held time slot would hurt it in the long run, NBC refused to budge, and after two weeks of negotiations it was announced the host would be hanging up his hat in January 2010, after having received a $32 million buyout.
Following O’Brien’s departure, Jay Leno returned to host the Tonight Show for four more years, before retiring once more and being succeeded by Jimmy Fallon.
Robin Williams reached out to Conan O’Brien
On the November 11, 2024, episode of his podcast, Conan O’Brien hosted Monty Python’s Eric Idle, with the duo discussing the late Robin Williams, who passed in August 2014. In particular, O’Brien talked about the actor’s kind gesture following his final night hosting the Tonight Show.
“I was lucky enough to have some great interactions with Robin Williams before he passed,” the comedian shared. “One of the most memorable examples to me is when I went through my whole Tonight Show debacle.
“Finally, the show is done, and I don’t know if I have a career anymore,” he continued. “What am I gonna do next? I’m lying on the floor in the living room of my house, and my phone rings, and I pick it up, and it’s Robin Williams. I don’t know how he got my phone number.”
According to O’Brien, Williams asked how he was holding up, before assuring him, “You’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna be great.”
An unexpected (and much needed) surprise
What Conan O’Brien didn’t know was that this wasn’t just a check-in call – Robin Williams had something else in mind to cheer him up: he’d arranged for the comedian to get a bicycle from a shop in Santa Monica, California.
“I said, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘No, no, no, just head on down there. Ride around, you’ll feel better.’ And I went down and it was a Colnago, which is a very nice bike,” O’Brien told Eric Idle.
Always one to crack a joke, Williams revealed that he’d asked the shop owner “to paint it in all these crazy Irish colors.” O’Brien then explained it wasn’t the most beautiful bike he’d ever seen. “I get down there and it’s the ugliest – I mean, it was just greens and shamrocks and everything,” he recalled. “And he was like, ‘You’re going to like that bike, chief. Don’t worry about it.”
As it turns out, Williams was right – biking around Santa Monica was just what the doctor had ordered.
O’Brien concluded that he thanked Williams “many, many times” for the gesture, telling Idle, “I just couldn’t believe that he was thinking of me.” Idle, who was close friends with Williams, explained it was “fantastically typical Robin, and that generosity and kindness combined with the wit on a man is not a common combination.”
