Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Phil Rosenthal

Episode Date: July 3, 2020

Writer and producer Phil Rosenthal (creator of Everybody Loves Raymond) stops by to talk with writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell about running into Conan and David Letterman in the wild right before quarantine, working with his brother on his food travel show “Somebody Feed Phil,” meeting Muhammed Ali, and the best showbiz advice he’s ever gotten. Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] and e-mail us at [e-mail] For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com

And now it's time for Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Hey, welcome back to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Yes, your hottest source for Conan O'Brien related gossip. That's right. And we're your hosts. I'm Mike Sweeney, a writer on the Conan show, and I'm joined by Jesse Gaskell, also a staff writer on the Conan show. Yes. Staff writer. Thank you. That's right. I don't aspire to more than that. That's all I need. Perfect spot for me. I'm not ambitious. I mean, I am ambitious, obviously, because I got here, but I don't want, I don't ever want to be fully in charge. I don't want the buck to stop with me.

Right. What you're saying is you don't like it when people are mad at you. Exactly. Why don't you just say that? The head writer, everyone's mad at you all the time, right? Everyone's always mad. Yes. Above and below. If anyone is ever pleased with you, they don't say it out loud. No, you never get any positive feedback.

No. And there's no one to complain to. Well, you and all the former Conan head writers should have a support group. That's a great suggestion. And we never get together to, I think, because we're spread out all over the place. Although now we could do it on Zoom. Also, though, I would be worried that there would be a mole in the group. It's someone who is going to report back to Conan. All we would be saying is how great he is and how wonderful

the ride has been. I think we know who the mole is. It's me. Well, we have a great show today. We sure do. We're talking to Phil Rosenthal. He created Everyone Loves Raymond. But now he's got a new show. It's a travel show on Netflix where he goes around the world and tries cuisines in different countries. Oh, the ultimate scam. But we had a really good conversation with Phil. He's a really nice guy and had a lot of great stories about getting started in show business and good advice for people. So here's our interview with Phil Rosenthal. By the way, I'm Jesse Phil. Nice to meet you. Hi. I'm Mike. We've met before. I remember you, Mike. Yes.

I had dinner once at your house. That was fun. You don't remember it. And remind me of the occasion. It was just your birthday and you wanted to try new friends. So you'd buy it. I'm good friends with Mike Royce. That's it. And he, you were having a dinner.

Movie night. Exactly, yes. It was great. Came for pizza. We ate outside. I totally remember you. I think we've met elsewhere also. We've met.

Yes. I've run into you in hotel lobbies with Conan. And you're like, why does Conan have have a skinny emaciated security guard with it was me well say hi to him for me we had a we had an incredible evening that we shared because we right before the whole thing shut down i'm out to dinner with alice and jannie my wife and daughter we're friends and we're at republic inublique on La Brea. And I think it must have been like three days before lockdown, right? And Conan comes in with Joe McHale. We've met a couple of times and we say hi, and they sit at the table right next to us. And they're

great. Separately, all of a sudden, in comes David Letterman. David Letterman in the wild. In Los Angeles. That's crazy. The rarest of sight. Conan was astounded. I was astounded. Allison Janney is astounded. We're all like, the whole restaurant, everyone's mouths are open.

We can't believe this man is. So, you know, Letterman was actually one of the producers. It was his company of Everybody Loves Raymond. It was an HBO Worldwide Pants co-production. And I met him once in person when I got the job. I had to go and interview at his, that's another story. But at the time, his show was going and I went to talk to him. The entire nine year run of Raymond, I then spoke to him a grand total. Never saw him again. Really? I spoke to him on the phone a grand total of five minutes. Really? It was like after season one, he called.

Hey, congratulations. I hear the show's picked up. Yes, that's right. We're very excited. He goes, now how many years do they pick you up for? He's used to getting 10 year orders. I'm not sure about your world, Dave, but here in Hollywood, it's one year at a time. Oh, well, that's good. That's good. And then three years later, hey, I heard you won a thing. We're all proud. Okay. It was always very nice. The only

other time I ever spoke to him was the week he was going off the air himself ray had been on the show for like his last appearance maybe in the week before and he thanked dave for you know his good life and i thought i i should call dave he he helped me out as well so i called and believe it or not, I got a call back the night before Dave's last show. He called me. I'm like, you got nobody better to call. And he called me and we talked on the phone for like 20 minutes. And it was wonderful. And he couldn't have been nicer. I think having a kid, you know, really changed him, right? Oh, yeah. He just became sweet and mellow and maybe I'll grow a grandpa beard or something. I don't know what it was. Yeah. He became Santa. He did. And then now I see him at the restaurant and he's like my friend and I can't believe it. It was so much fun. And we were just, we were all blown away. And Conan and I are looking at each other like, can you believe this?

So it was so great. It was so great. Well, yeah. And who knew that that would be the last time you'd ever see anyone in person again? Last time you'd eat out in a restaurant. But by the way, isn't that a good last time? Yeah. That's a good one. If you're going to have one. Yeah. Wow. I really felt like I was in Hollywood that night. Oh, yeah. Plus, you don't have to stretch to bring it up. You know's like oh well it sounds like you're just talking about your last time in a restaurant it just so happens yes that is crazy you have no control over it that is wild about i don't know i it never occurred to me how hands-on or hands-off david letterman would be not with his production company maybe he had no notes he was reading all the scripts he just had no

notes it's perfect here's the kind of boss here's the kind of boss you want i hire you and this is how i feel about when i invest in restaurants right because i'm stupid enough to do that i bet on the chef what do i know about restaurants right i. I love this food. I want to support this guy or this girl. I love this food. And I think other people will love it too. I'm in. After that, run it. You do what you do.

Isn't that how you wish every studio was? Yes. You had never mentioned the decor, the flower arrangements. If I'm asked or there's something egregious or i'm passing on stuff i've heard that they might want to know right someone who doesn't even know that i'm an investor or maybe they do know and they want and and i'll consider this is this a note worth giving yeah so i'm just passing on what i heard like you you threw a knife at somebody. Don't, maybe you don't do that. We have in common that we all work on travel shows. Yes, I love Conan's, by the way.

I love it. Do you work on that personally? We love yours. Yeah, we both do. Mike and I. I love it. So you go with him. We go with him.

But we've been really thinking about how, you know, when are we going to be able to do that again? And you must be feeling the same way. Of course. But I mean, beyond that, when can we go at all as people? Yes. Yes. Well, like even if you could go now.

Yes. It doesn't sound enjoyable. Like you'd land somewhere and kind of be like, okay, welcome to Italian lockdown. I mean, it's kind of. Yeah. There are like $20 flights to Italy right now. You could go. Yeah. Did you hear that deal where if you buy a house in this particular town in Italy,

it's yours for a dollar? Oh, I heard that. Yes. You just have to fix it up. They just want the place fixed up. So you'll fix it up. And I'm like, wow. No one's touched the house since 1540. Yes. Right. So I did stay in a place that was like that, a medieval town where the town was the hotel. So like this big company took over, it's called Il Boro and I recommend it, it's fantastic.

It does take 20 minutes though for the hot water to start. In your shower I said, you're not kidding with the medieval. Where's that in Italy? Tuscany. But I mean it's a little hilltop village. And every building is you know a three-bedroom thing for you and your family so that's the hotel and then the town's

restaurant is the hotel restaurant where everyone gathers in the morning and you walk down the little hill it's gorgeous this place there's so many great things in the world to do yes i just can't wait and when people ask me where's the first place you're gonna go you know what i say the diner down the street yeah because that's all we want is normalcy i want to go to my coffee shop that i walk to every morning and just be normal again then i'll worry about am i going back to italy i know even talking about this sounds uh like we're talking about world peace, achieving world peace. It just sounds crazy. Traveling to another country. And we don't want the compromised experience. We don't want, I want to be able to, you know, the great thing about Italy, let's say,

is not only is everywhere you look gorgeous, not every, only is every bite of food beautiful, but everyone's hugging and kissing you. Yeah. Right? I want to make out with people when I'm traveling. Come on. That's the fun part. To get a hug and a kiss from an old lady who serves you gelato, come on. Yeah. You know what else I love about Italy?

They love children there. They love children in restaurants. And I'm like- That's right. Oh, this is fantastic. Yes. What a fantastic country it's all that's so encouraged yes yes i always tell people in all my travels where should we take our kids

where they've never traveled before i always say venice because it's the it's a small world ride yes it totally everyone waving is italian but i also found like we took our kids when they weren't even three and six years old. But I found that not only did they love the whole water feature, but when you did walk, they would gladly walk as long as it was ending in pizza or gelato. And in Italy, it usually is. Yes. No, their favorite foods are around every corner. Yeah.

So Venice, people. Venice is great. And Venice, you know, from the shutdown, it got cleaned up. The water is sparklingly beautiful. It used to be there's no more toxic substance on the earth than the water in the Venice Canal. Right. Like Catherine Hepburn fell in there in 1956 when she was filming Summertime and had an eye infection the rest of her life. That's true.

That's true. That is true. I mean, it is. Created the gap in her teeth. Toxic sewer water. And now there's footage of fish, jellyfish, dolphin, I think, out in there. Wow. Crystal clear.

You can see the bottom. Gorgeous. Your young kids can go swimming there if you take them there. Are you guys, if you want to, and the world is fine, are you able to go and do your show some more, the travel show? Well, I mean, we hope so eventually. We're just still figuring out if we can even do the Conan show somewhere. Oh, God.

Besides his home. Oh, my God. Oh God. Besides his home. Oh my God. For now. I have to imagine that will be easier to do than the travel show. Yeah. Is the studio show. Yes.

Right? We actually had a travel show scheduled the week that everyone went into quarantine. The week that you were at Republique. That's right. We were supposed to be going to Argentina. Yeah. I did the Buenos Aires. Wowires wow it's great i saw that one i know and it made me so sad that we didn't get to go but i i just love what you guys are doing i what can we do a crossover i know i was gonna say why don't

we do one together each other why not yeah where where have you not been yet that you would like i haven't been to india yet i haven't been to australia you not been yet that you would like to go with your show? I haven't been to India yet. I haven't been to Australia on the show yet. I haven't been to New Zealand yet. I haven't been to Shanghai. It's a big world. Yeah. We had a trip planned to India and we had a hard time getting the permits for it. But not only are you guys way funnier than me, but you're also more adventurous. You're actually doing hard stuff. Really? You think that's true?

I do. I don't think I'm doing the hard stuff yet because I'm just, you know, I've done, I've filmed between the PBS show and these and the ones you haven't seen yet, five more coming in the fall or winter that are shot. We got in just under the wire, by the way. I was going to say. We finished in mid-January. Oh, wow. But they're shot. We got in just under the wire, by the way. I was going to say. We finished in mid-January. Oh, wow. But they're shot. Where did you go?

I can't tell you. Okay, very good. They don't let you. They like these things to drop like a Beyonce album. So I listen to Beyonce or watch Phil? What do I do? I hate having to choose. I don't know why.

I really, I don't understand how things work. But I'm in my infancy, I feel. So I've done 28, right? Wow. Wow. That's amazing. But that's it. That's like.

That's it. Remember, I'm an old Jewish man who is just, I'm not going anywhere. There's not a hotel with a bed and a pillow. I'm not Anthony Bourdain. In fact, the way I sold the show was I said, I'm exactly like Anthony Bourdain if he was afraid of everything. That's it. And I mean it.

Now, having done this many, 28, I am, my toe is getting into a little deeper water, right? Just a little. Oh, that's nice. Well, you're an adventurous eater. You've always been. So I think you're probably a lot more adventurous than Conan on that front. Everyone tells me that Conan does not care about food.

Yeah, not in a passionate way. It's more of a fuel, yeah, I would say. See, that would be our episode. He would try to get me to do something that I would never do, and I would get him to eat stuff that he would never eat. Right, right, be our episode. If he had to eat soylent for a while. He would try to get me to do something that I would never do, and I would get him to eat stuff that he would never do. Right, right, right, right. Oh, yeah, I like that. I'm just curious about the production for your travel shows. How long

does it usually take to film an episode? A week. A week, yeah. How about you guys? Same for us. Yeah, usually. But it's a lot. It's a very, very full week. It's a busy week. Yeah yeah we went to greenland last year and we only had two days there and also we were covering a topical because trump had just said let's buy greenland and then so we also edited it in like five four and a half days to get it

on the air so so that that was a very unusual but normally it's a week of shooting yeah and it's and it's fully planned out i mean you guys you do because conan of course is a is a star around the world you do have access to stuff that i actually don't have access to oh interesting yes you know including celebrities shows in the place like when you went on that talk show in, was it Mexico? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That was phenomenal. Yeah. He likes soap operas.

Because they know who he is. Yes. Right. Well, sometimes they know, or sometimes it seems like they might just be flattering him. Japan, not one person. Cause I think when he, we go to a country, he loves to go outside and take the temperature of, Oh, are there fans here? Do people know who I, you know, will I get any love at all? Especially cause he likes to do a lot of man on the street stuff. So those best moments tend to be people just barging in front of the camera unplanned. So we go walk around Tokyo and just no one even looks at him. And it was that way the whole week. They have to look at him because

he's a giant in that country. Well, yes. They thought they assumed he was in cosplay, I think. He's on stilts. He is an anime character. Right. Come to life in Japan. Yeah. But I love kind of being not known when I talk to people on the street. Right. That's pretty great, actually. Well, and I'm always impressed with your show that you, I mean, you talk, you find such great characters. And I don't know if some of that is like, is that you're able to seek out people in advance or your producers do or that you just really stumble on people all the time? You have a good instinct. Yeah.

It's both. And of course, the ones that aren't fantastic or even the foods that aren't fantastic, I'm not putting in. Right. Right, right, right. Just like you. Which is why you need to be there a week. Yes. Then they say, oh, even Netflix note would come from an executive.

It looks like you like everything. I'm like, yes, I like everything I'm putting in the show. Right. Would you like this show? Hey, I'm going to try this new thing. That's all right. Yeah. Is that the show?

I want you to come. The whole purpose of my thing is I want you to travel I want think the world would be better if the world could experience other people experience

I'm trying to be enthusiastic as enthusiastic as I can be there's no acting on the show it's really me it's really

this is how I feel I was blessed or cursed with this face I can't play poker and so you see you can tell how it tastes

yeah Phil doesn't like it. Yeah. Well, that's happened. Of course that happens. Sure. But we only keep it in if it's funny. Right.

Like the thousand-year-old egg. Right. I thought my brother would die laughing because I turned every shade of that egg. For people who don't know, it's a preserved egg in Hong Kong that I had. It is popular. It's not really a thousand years old, is it? It just tastes that way. Yeah.

So it's buried in lime and ash underground for weeks to months until it kind of hard boils itself. And what you get is a white when they cut it in half like hard boiled eggs on the table right the white is a brownish orange and the yolk is a bluish green and there was a chinese woman at the table who would not touch it oh wow i was surprised because i said this is your cuisine not mine she goes i know i'm not touching it i'm like all right if you taste it i'll taste it and she went like this like little tiny tip of tongue i was like come on because i'm hilarious i popped the whole thing in my mouth sure you had to and i turned every shade of that egg and you could hear my brother behind the camera laughing the first thing you taste is really really rotten

egg rotten like sulfur like a sulfur mine and then that's supplanted by a tsunami of ammonia well you've sold me of ammonia by the way i gave it to somebody on a TV show. I think it's a Today show. They wanted to try it after seeing the clip. And I think Tamron Hall took a huge bite out of it and said, it's too much. And she goes, I kind of like it. She's a better liar. You might enjoy my mother's cooking. Wait, so your brother is the producer of the show? I love it.

He's been a TV producer for a long time. Oh. And, you know, he worked at Comedy Central. He worked on Facebook, all their original videos and stuff. Oh, wow. So when I got the thing, started the, I called him and I said, I got this thing. They're going to give me six on the air, can go wherever I want and eat. He goes, really? They gave you that show?

I said, yeah. They must hate you. They gave you that show. They gave you that? He goes, what are they going to call the show? The Lucky Bastard? And I said, quit your job. Be the producer of this show.

And we'll call our production company Lucky Bastards. I love it. And so he did. And so now I get to go around with my brother. And now he can't resent you. He still can. He still can. Well, of course.

But do you guys fight at all? Hardly ever. Hardly ever. still can he still can well of course but do you guys fight at all well hardly ever hardly ever yeah it's it's been a lifetime of fighting that now having dreams come true we've realized maybe we are lucky bastards right yeah yeah let's not wreck it by having an argument let's just enjoy this of course but there's tiny that the thing of working with family is that the shorthand where you just have to go like this just raise the eyebrow and they know right something and you've communicated everything you think because they've seen it a million times well maybe you can tell us about i mean because you went from being a showrunner to then being

in front of the camera so it probably was nice for you to have someone you trusted there so that you weren't having to also direct everything. Absolutely. But sometimes I'll be in the middle of a scene. I looked at, I just look out of the corner of my eye to see if, is this going okay? I don't even know.

And my brother's on his phone. Cause it's just me. But well, so he's doing what the producer does. I guess. But that's a good point. brought up from Everyone Loves Raymond. You must have like a good director's eye too. So are you doing that as you go along now shooting your show?

Like, oh, are we grabbing that cutaway and all those sort of thoughts? You have it all in your head and then you try to forget about it all and just be in the scene like a person. Right. That's hard. But also it gets more natural. Like my parents, for example, they're in the show. Everyone is in love with them. They're the stars of the show.

My mother has since passed away. She passed away in October. But my dad is still in it telling a joke on every episode. He's fantastic. My wife sits with him. It's fantastic. It's great. And they're great.

And the first time I used them, I made this documentary about taking Everybody Loves Raymond to Russia. Right. It's called Exporting Raymond. They asked me to turn my show into Everybody Loves Kostya over there. And I said I would do it if I could document the whole thing. And it turned out funny because of how much I suffered in that trip. But one of the things I did was my parents had been to Russia in their travels, and I took a camera crew to their house to start the movie. Tell me about Russia. You'll also get a little background. This is where the parents from

Everybody Loves Raymond come from, from them. So you know what it's like. You go, you wire people, you put the thing down the front of their shirts. They never had this. You clip it on their behinds. There's guys with big cameras in their kitchen, and they're freaked out. And within five minutes, they're fighting as if nobody's there. Seriously. And it's been that way ever since and i've used them ever since yeah because they were like finally someone realized we're meant to be on tv they're gold and i swear we've i've had we filmed skype calls where they have started fighting fighting and it was not funny where it was so like oh wow dark oh wow and um i'm almost in tears

and the crew is watching like what is this like and then i have to be a therapist and get them back and get them to a place where we can at least be civil for the rest of the Falun Gong. That's the footage I'd like to see. Oh, no, it's not. I mean, it's so deeply personal and raw that it's unusable. If I showed it to you, you would go, I wish I didn't see that. It's like you swallowing the egg.

Yes. Yes. But that see that. Yeah. It's like you swallowing the egg. Yes. Yes. But that happened once. Yeah. But I only tell you this to show you how everyone gets used to the camera. Right. You forget about it as it should be. Otherwise, you'd never get anything that wasn't unselfconscious.

Right. Yeah. They were saying that about the Michael Jordan, the last dance. Yes. Yeah, everyone had, they were saying that about the Michael Jordan, the last dance documentary that you could tell over time that he started getting less self-conscious. When he cried at the end of that one episode, because some of his teammates said they didn't like him so much all the time. I thought that was one of the greatest moments ever in a documentary. Did you ever, do you know what I'm talking about, that moment? I remember him crying profusely the first time they won the,

the championship, which I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the interview. Oh yes. Yes. And he's, he's, and he's looking at his iPad and he's obviously they're showing him footage

that they shot. And he actually, he gets very defensive and he says, I didn't ask them to do anything that I didn't do myself. And he was like, I've never seen a more vulnerable moment from a giant superstar. Yeah. Yeah.

But he still wanted approval. Yeah. Isn't that something that you never get over that. By the way, I'm not, I know nothing about sports, but this thing was so wonderful because any idiot can recognize this is the greatest person who's ever done anything being the best at what they do. We should all be as good at what we

do as this man is what he does, right? So it transcends sports into just greatness, like Muhammad Ali. Yes, exactly. Well, you became a basketball fan exactly the right time. I'm a fan of talent, but don't we like seeing, like, I'll go to the ballet if it's the world's greatest, Mikhail Baryshtikov. Now. To see somebody do that. Now you've gone too far. Yes, I understand. I understand.

But don't you want to see the greatest of everything? Of course. Yes. Because there's only two kinds of anything, good and bad, right? And then there's great. Did you ever meet Muhammad Ali? I grew up worshiping him. I did meet him.

I was like, he was on my list of, I just want to see him, even from a distance. How did you meet him, Phil? My friend David Wild and I co-wrote the telethon, the 9-11 telethon that George Clooney produced. Oh, wow. Right? And we wrote it with some other people.

And basically it was, there'd be a song, and either in the New York studio or an LA studio from somebody, and then a famous actor or personality would make an appeal for money to help the families, or they would tell a story of incredible heroism or have a message. So if you remember, there was a lot of anti-Muslim activity going on in America because they were blaming all Muslims for this attack. And Muslims were getting beaten up in the streets,

and children were getting punched in school. It was a horror. So Muhammad Ali is going to come, and he's going to give a message. Muhammad Ali at this time in 2001 was on the decline with Parkinson's and he's very shaky. But that same year, Will Smith played him in the movie. So Will Smith is going to accompany Ali. And we were hanging out in the hall the day of the live broadcast, which is, it was, I think, broadcast on every station on the earth. It it was every it was everywhere and we're in a tiny hallway and in comes will and right behind him is ollie and ollie is shaking

his he's got the parkinson's you know tremble right and i was shocked to see him i mean i was i was just like three feet away and we're all a bunch of us crammed in there. And I go, oh, hey, champ, like that. And he just keeps shaking. And it's a very awkward silence. Right. And I went, how you doing? Like this to make it worse, of course.

Sure. And silence. And I look and I'm about to just smile and say something else. And he extends his right arm super fast. And the fist stops a fraction of an inch from my nose. He just whipped it out like that. Like, boom, like that. And I went like this.

And everyone, of course, laughed. Sure. And and that was his joke that's how he communicated wow that's how he did it and i also shut you up which was a side benefit perfect but he didn't to be and and there was a twinkle in his eye that i'll never forget and the slightest smile and i just you touched his hand, which is the size of my head. And you fell in love instantly. It was as if Mozart wrote you a little ditty. No, you could say you almost got punched out by him. He was in there. You know what I mean? He was in, he was all there and he was in there and he was playful and great. And then his message, go take a look at that. It must be on YouTube. Will Smith introduces him and then he manages to dig it out and says the most profound thing about relations that would be perfect for right now, of course.

What a guy. What a guy. Talk about transcending. Oh, man. And you know what else i loved about me he was so funny he was yes which is what you're saying right now but i mean i would go on deep dives with my sons just to like experience him with howard cosell yes just couldn't get enough of him and he was so funny and and always had that twinkle in his eye but then also he could pivot to like there are some great episodes where he was on mike the old mike douglas show right and and i think sly

stone was on yeah with him like sly stone was co-hosting all week and sly was like in a real las vegas phase and then you had ali coming on in you you know, a dark suit and being very, just very serious about racial injustice and everything. And those two are clashing on this. It's, I've never seen TV like that. I mean, you don't think of TV like that back in the 70s. No. Well, there was times. Nowadays, I don't have to tell you, it's a four minute segment where you can't get into anything.

Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah. It's just sound bites. Yeah. But this was a whole hour. So it's a four minute segment well you can't get into anything yeah yeah right yeah sound bites yeah but this is a whole hour so it's like amazing mike douglas like we'll be back with more they were killing time yeah yeah it was yeah no but people think people think if you if you have a lot of stuff packed into your hour many many things that that keeps the audience entertained when really getting sucked into content is what really does it. Yes.

Right? Yeah. Well, Phil, we actually have to wrap up. That went by really fast, but- I love talking to you. We love talking to you too, and we could have you back to continue. And I would talk to you over lunch or any other social occasion. Or we'll meet you in New Zealand.

Yeah, I know. I love the idea of a crossover episode. Let's do it. Let's listen. Here's what I'm telling people. I don't know if you have a minute. I know people are watching your travel show, my travel show. Oh, look how it used to be. I'm melancholy about it, right? I'm feeling, you know, sentimental and sad even that we can't go. But guess what? This is going to end. Of course it is. We're in the middle of the tragedy right now. We can't see the end. We're thinking about how am I going to get by next week? Right. But it will end. It's not as fast as we want it to. So watch these shows as you always have. Hey, I want to go there. Let's plan a trip, honey. Yeah. Let's plan our trip.

And then it gives you something to look forward to. And then when this is over, we go. Yeah. I mean, realistically, no one was going to get to go in the next. You don't usually plan a trip for less than six months out anyway. So. Yes. It's about the same thing.

But look at these shows. Plan it out and do it. You've got to have something to look forward to. That's all life is. And of course this will end. And I have the empirical evidence of it's only ended every other time. Something terrible like this, right? So that's one way or the other.

It's definitely going to end. One more thing we always like to ask our guests, since this is a podcast about Hollywood, if there's one piece of advice that you could offer to someone out there who might want to do what you're doing. I'm going to pay it forward. I got the best advice

I ever got from Ed Weinberger. Mike, do you know who that is? No. He was an executive producer on the Mary Talamore Show and Taxi and a bunch of other shows. Great, hilarious guy.

Uh-huh. Very smart. I'm writing the pilot for Raymond. I ask him for advice. He goes, do the show you want to do because in the end, they're going to cancel you anyway. So that is great advice, especially for kids. It's for anybody. And it's so, it's about anything, not just show business. Listen, we all get canceled one day. Right. So it's literally live your life.

I love it. Yeah. Don't get too caught up with notes from other people. Yes. You know, what you're trying to predict what the market wants. Exactly. You're absolutely right. That's always a dead end. See?

Yeah. Make the content you want and the right audience will find it. By the way, you're doing it. We are. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Oh, man. I know Conan is giving you tons of notes, but here you go.

No, he has no idea that we're doing this. Yeah. If he found out, he'd put an end to this immediately. This is being done in my name? Exactly. I love it it were you ever fired from a job of course i don't know phil do you know my whole genesis is i felt i was a guard at the metropolitan museum of art ah and where what part uh all over yeah i did i worked a daytime where you say the the same phrase over over, down the hall and to the left for the bathroom.

But then also I worked four to midnight, and then I worked midnight to eight in the morning because I was in theater in New York, and I couldn't work otherwise. And I was 21 years old, and I thought I could handle this. Right. And I was going on my third night without sleep, and at five in morning they found me asleep on a 300 year old bed and they fired me but i uh later was it worth it though well the asian wing here's the thing years later in uh la trying to make it and i'm gonna write a spec sitcom script with a partner because maybe i can do that and there's a show called roseanne and we'll write a spec roseanne what will we write about well what if john goodman's character has to take another job and he works at the local museum

and he falls asleep on a 300 year old bed and gets fired okay and we write it and we get an agent because everyone who reads it goes what an imagination so that was everything so you never know you never know where the break is going to come and so i tell kids live your life go out there go and have experiences so you have something to write about and you never know where the break is going to come don't sleep for three nights. Take that odd job that you think is going to be a dead end. We all think, oh, this is beneath me. I'm not doing that.

Right. Why aren't I famous already? Right. Right? So you take it because you never know. If you're going to write about real life, you have to have one. Yes. Yes.

You can't just write about being an aspiring writer. No, that's boring. I thought you were going to say you ended up buying the Met Museum, but well, there is a plaque now that says Phil Rosenthal slept here. Well, Phil, this was a delight. Thank you so much. You're a delight. Thank you. This was fun. I loved it. So that was Phil Rosenthal. Really nice guy. Yeah, that was fun chatting with him. Season three of Somebody Feed Phil is available on Netflix now.

Yes, but watch, of course, Conan Without Borders on Netflix first. And you can also watch Conan Without Borders on the new HBO Max streaming service. Yeah, that's so great. I don't know if I have HBO Max. I think I have HBO Min. I have the minimum amount of HBO. We have a listener question, Sweeney. Yes, we're so excited. His name is Ray. Hi, Mike and Jesse. Did Abe Vigoda have a good sense of humor about the sketches he was in on Late Night? Love the show, Ray. Abe Vigoda was in a ton of sketches. He was in a ton

of sketches because the second he would appear in the studio, the crowd would go nuts for him. They just loved seeing Abe Vigoda and his deadpan puss. And Abe Vigoda, of course, I think he became famous from the original Godfather movie. Yeah. And then he got a sitcom after that called Fish, where he played a deadpan detective who just kind of- Oh, that's great. I didn't know about the sitcom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the crowds loved him so much that, you know, we'd be writing sketches the night before and we didn't have an ending. Like we would do a sketch with six, we'd call them beats, like, you know, five mini comedy pieces within one overall theme, like Salute to Spring or something

like that. And we'd like, oh, we don't have the ending. We don't have the ending. And then it'd be like, let's write something for Abe Vigoda. He was your huge hitter. Yes. He was, you're halfway home. You already know you're going to get huge reaction just by having them come through the curtain. So it was just okay we need a good idea even a even a shitty idea just to get us out of town so we could call it was the thing that got you all out of the office exactly it was still before 9 p.m yeah yes but then we had to call and of course he tended to always be available i mean mean, he lived, I think, on the West Side, Upper West Side. And we did a sketch once where Conan called Paula Davis, our talent coordinator, and said, you know, hey, we need Abe Vigoda on the show.

Is he available? And it's a shot of her at her desk. She goes, hold on, I'll check. And then the camera widens out. And Abe's sitting right next to her on the couch reading a magazine. And she just goes, Abe, can you do the show tonight he goes um let me check yes I'm available so that's great he was the original Nicolas Cage it says yes to everything yes which also used to be a theme on our show anyway Abe Vigoda a lot of people's favorite sketch with him was Robert Duvall was on the show.

And one of the writers, it might have been Andy Blitz, had the idea to recreate the famous scene from the first Godfather movie between Robert Duvall and Abe Vigoda, where Abe's kind of quietly begging for his life. They both agreed to recreate that scene in our little scene doc where we shot stuff. And it was, everyone loved it. Yeah, it it was great was it funny or was it just good it was funny it was like you know Abe going can you you know could you let let it go can you let me go and he's like I can't sorry Sal I can't do that he's like why don't we go for ice cream and he just is trying to talk him into going oh yeah and at the end of late night, I, one of my favorite things is Conan,

uh, was winding up the show. Uh, and he goes, you know, we're, this is our last week of shows in New York. And,

you know, we're finishing up a lot of things here. And one thing we have to do is we have to set a Vigoda free. And it turns out we kept him in a cage. We opened up this cage and you just saw him run out into a field. And we just stayed on him running for like 20 seconds off into the distance. And he was happy and free. He was going to go live among other vagardas.

Into a farm upstate, yes. Exactly. Well, Ray, I hope we answered your question. Our voicemail line is open for other questions. Yes. If anyone else has one, call us at 323-209-5303. Or email us at insideconanpod at gmail.com.

Yeah. We love hearing from you. Have a great week. We like you. Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell. Produced by Jen Samples. Engineered and mixed by Will Becton.

Supervising producers are Kevin Bartelt and Aaron Blaire. Executive produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco. And Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Earwolf. Thanks to Jimmy Vivino for our theme music and interstitials. You can rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. And of course, please subscribe and tell a friend to listen to Inside Conan on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you like best. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.