John Mulaney Talks to Ted Danson About “Saturday Night Live”

Hey, Conan here with some news that's hot off the presses.

Our Team Cocoa podcast, where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson, sometimes is back for a brand new season.

This season, listen is Ted and Woody when we can find him.

Have some great conversations with people like John Mulaney, Sarah Silverman, Fred Armison, and more.

Their first episode with John Mulaney is out right now.

Here's a sneak peek.

You came out of Saturday Night Live without PTSD, right?

I mean, yeah, because some of your compatriots.

Some of it's

hard.

Oh, it's very hard.

Yeah.

And it's very competitive, yes, to get your material up.

And it's competitive with yourself and with

the gods of show business.

And I don't even mean the gods that run the show.

I mean, the sort of larger, just is something playing or not.

But I recognize I had a very good experience there.

I just

liked having a boss.

I liked fitting into a hierarchy.

I like, um,

I kind of like, uh, what would be a good word?

Uh,

bizarre, strong-willed people.

I get a kick out of them.

I liked working with some of these guys at the show who'd been there since 76 and were 90 years old and were just crazy and mean.

I mean, really, like, I just got- You're not offended.

No, I delighted in it.

Yeah, that's great.

I don't want to name names, but so many of them are dead.

But, uh, but there were just people go, you know, I remember Phil Himes, our lighting designer, uh,

had started on NBC radio during World War II, as did Don Pardo.

And we were doing a sketch where Fred was playing Obama, and it was like a, at one point, he gets up in the Oval Office, Fred, and he looks out the window.

So we kind of needed a special treatment, I thought, of lighting on the Oval Office windows so they were non-reflective or something.

And I'm explaining this to Phil Himes, and he stares at me and he goes, I lit John F.

Kennedy in the White House.

And I'm like 25, going, Can you do this thing where

the windows don't shine?

Yeah.

The 50th anniversary was great.

I know you was really cool.

Yeah, really.

It was so many new pieces.

Spectacular.

I liked it.

It wasn't just like clip packages, a lot of performance and stuff.

Yeah, that was really good.

How long were you on that, working on that?

Um, in conversations for weeks leading up to it, but nothing got done.

And then we all flew in around

the Monday or Tuesday before, and then it really ramped up.

But leading up to it was funny because

you just knew that Lauren was, you just knew he was waiting just long enough that it got really scary.

Yeah.

It was, because we saw it coming for so many years.

You had to make it

disorganized in some ways so that it could all come together by the broadcast.

Were people pissed off or did they like the

scripted show about Saturday Night Live?

Oh, the Jason Reitman one?

Yeah.

No, I didn't hear anyone was pissed off.

I did get a physical, though,

at UCLA Hospital.

And I get all this blood work done, prostate.

They check my liver.

Everything good?

Everything good.

The doctor, knowing a little of my history, goes, I don't know how this is possible, but you have the liver of a 12-year-old.

I was thrilled.

That's really what you want in your organs is 12.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cause they've lived a little life.

But they've got some more miles.

More miles.

So then we're finishing up the physical and he goes, I saw that movie Saturday night.

So I have a real appreciation of what your career has been like.

And I said, oh, well, you know, that movie's not that accurate.

And he goes,

I know Jason.

He wouldn't make stuff up.

And I go, yeah, but I'm telling you.

I'm telling you, some of it's embellished, but that's okay because it's for a movie.

And he goes, from what I'm hearing, it's very accurate.

And I I go, sir, I don't, Doctor, I don't want to have this conversation anymore.

I'm trusting you with a lot of my blood.

Okay, head over to where everybody knows your name to listen to the rest of John and Ted's conversation now.

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