NBC
Modern pop culture history is littered with stories of the late, great Robin Williams being a stand-up guy, and longtime late-night host Conan O’Brien recently added another entry to that canon. According to Conan, following his controversial hiring and firing from The Tonight Show, Williams not only reached out but organized a day out for Conan.
During a recent episode of his podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Conan — who was recently announced as the host of next year’s Academy Awards — recalled receiving a call from Robin Williams after Jay Leno decided to un-retire and take back his job hosting The Tonight Show.
Williams, who passed away at the age of 63 years old in 2014, was a frequent guest on Conan’s shows over the years, from Late Night to Conan on TBS. Following his death, Conan said that Williams was the “best talk show guest in the world” because of how easy he made the host’s job.
“I was lucky enough to have some great interactions with Robin Williams before he passed,” Conan said. “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. 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 even know how he got my phone number. [Williams asked,] ‘How are you holding up, chief?’ And he said, you know, ‘You’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna be great.’”
O’Brien added that Williams also arranged a bike ride for him, albeit on the “ugliest” green bike that was painted with shamrocks.
“And 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. And he said, ‘I told him to paint it in all these crazy Irish colors.’ I get down there and it’s the ugliest — I mean, it was just greens and shamrocks and everything. And he was like, ‘You’re going to like that bike, chief. Don’t worry about it.’”
Conan’s post-Tonight Show pick-me-up anecdote is just one of many that highlight Williams’ inherent kindness and care for his friends, with perhaps the most famous of them being that he was the first person to make Superman actor Christopher Reeve laugh after his paralyzation by pretending to be a Russian proctologist.
And since you’re here, please enjoy one of my favorite Robin Williams clips of all time — him accepting an award for a righteously stoned Jack Nicholson.