The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Will Forte

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Actor, comedian, and Coyote vs. Acme star Will Forte joins Andy Richter to discuss their shared love for the Looney Tunes, when to dig in your heels, going from Saturday Night Live to Last Man on Earth, and more. Do you want to talk to Andy and his comedian friends live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Tell us your favorite dinner party story (about anything!) or ask a question - leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the three questions. I'm your host, Andy Richter. And today, I am very excited to be talking to Will Forte. He is an actor, comedian, writer, and one of the nicest, best people on Earth. You know him from Saturday Night Live, McGruber, The Last Man on Earth, and much more. You can see him in Coyote v. Acme, which is in theaters now. Here's my conversation with Will Forte. Well, it's like, remember the, the, uh, was it the Olympics for the, the break dancer from. Oh, yeah, yeah. Australia. And yes. Yeah, Raygun. And like, what, I don't see why there was, like, it was fun to see what she did. Absolutely.

It was, sure, it was different and a little strange, but like, gloriously strange. And like, yes. People just snuffed out her light. Oh. It's like, oh, fine, I'll never do this thing that gives me such. great joy. And I, I mean, I love watching break dancers. It's amazing. But like, what was, what was so, like, I was, I don't see why people got, some people got upset about it. Yeah, yeah.

And, like, really, like, she was like a national disgrace or something. And it's like, are you kidding? Like, like, to me, it was like, oh, the Jamaican bobsled chain. Like, all right. Yeah. That was so rad that she was, I'm a big. fan of hers of that Olympics and of that breakdancing gift competition what clip endures yeah that one yeah you know because it's like yeah there's something like yes excellence is interesting but also like there's also something unique to uniqueness and that woman was unique and kind of ballsy in a way and like i just charmingly dorky like it was just and and And relatable.

I mean, that's how I felt on Dancing with the Stars, too. That was something I think people, I was attainable. Like the people that are really good at it, there's people at home walks and being like,

I could never do that shit. But seeing me do it, they're like, oh, you know, I'm able to do what that fat old man's doing, you know? It's like weddings.

People get so uptight about weddings and they want everything to go perfectly. Yeah. It's always the screw-ups that are the best part. The best part. The only things I remember about people's weddings, people fainting. Or anything.

Yeah, or, you know. Mispronouncing a name. The shows that we do, like the talk shows, you know, like the art on, it's like, you come to realize like, oh, no, there's something fucked up. Yeah, that's, you know, like, we would pray for like an elephant to shit on the stage. Like, if there's an animal thing, I hope one of them shits, you know, because that's gold, you know. So it's, you know.

And S&L, you get so. terrified about screwing something up and Lauren would go like it's a good if you do happen to I mean you don't want people to screw up but like it reminds people to shows live yeah yeah which is there's some fun to that yeah it's a gift in some ways and also it's you get to it's about something all of a sudden you know I mean that's I especially like with podcasting I've done podcast like I did a podcast for I just like for a kind of like a civic or organization that has a podcast. I don't want to, but they wanted to have like a pre-interview for this hour-long podcast. And I was like, I think it'll be okay. I think that like,

we can talk for an hour without like planning it out. Yeah. You know, but I, they were, I was like, all right. I'll, I'll, uh, and then, and what I did is in the meeting when we started the Zoom meeting pre-interview, they asked me something. And then I just like went like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, and then like the guy running the thing was like, okay, yeah, yeah, it seems like, you know, you've got the gift of Gab. And I was like, yeah, yeah, if you want somebody to talk, I can talk. You know, don't worry about the talking part.

So, well, you're here. And this is so exciting that you're doing Coyote. versus Acme. It's so excited. I'm so excited about it. There's been, I mean, they just have never seemed to really get the Looney Tunes movies right, in my estimation. Nothing against Shaq and, you know, or the basketball one. You know what?

I don't know that I've seen Space Jam. Yeah, yeah. I don't think that I've seen anything except for who framed Roger Rabbit. Yeah, yeah. So, like, to me, the bar is so high. because that's all I know and that's just a perfect movie. It's such a fun movie and they do such an amazing job of bringing the real live action world together with the animated world. So like, you know, tough shoes to fill.

I saw it just recent. And I was six and a half year old and we saw it. And it's like, I forgot like it's pretty gruesome. Like there's a lot of like, you know, like, because you do think like live action. Tex Avery stuff. Is like eyeballs popping out? Like Tex Avery, it's like Auga, but then it's like actual eyeballs

popping out of a live action character, it's like, yeesh, that's gross, you know? This is, I mean, you know, signing up for this, it was an easy decision to say yes to because the script was so fun and it's like, it really does. You could tell the people who were

into this, knew everything about the Looney Tunes. I grew up on the Looney Tunes, but then I kind of went off and went to college and hadn't seen any of the Looney Tunes stuff for three or four decades. Yeah. So I got to, so like all these people have such love and admiration for the Looney Tunes, and that's like really, it's very obvious when you see the movie. Have you, wait, have you seen the movie? I have not.

Oh. I have not. You know the crazy story behind the movie, though. No. I mean, I know there's controversy, and I know that there were, like, things that were shelved or something. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tell everybody. Yes, please. Absolutely. We got time. So this is, I don't know, we make the movie four-ish years ago. Yeah. And you don't have any, like, producery say in it. You're just kind of talent for it.

But when they bring you on, they don't say, like, hey, and if you have any ideas or you have a director. for it. Well, the director, I do remember there were a couple things he was trying to work out and just tiny things like, oh, we're, you know, just like, hey, if you have any pitches. So I did, like, tell him a couple pitches. Nothing much. I mean, the script was fantastic. And he was just looking for, you know, just to try to make it as good as possible. And so it's, and he's a very easy person to collaborate. His name's Dave Green. He's awesome. Anyway, so, but yes, nothing. Nothing. you're an actor yes no yes meaning no i had nothing to do with really anything just acted then took off but we all became friends and you could feel while we were making this movie that we were making

the best version of the movie like sometimes you're like oh it's a little off it's like 80% of this that i was really excited about well i was even more excited because this felt like it was even better than how I pictured in my head, and I already had, you know, a really fun version of it pictured in my head on the good side. And this was like surpassed that. So I was very excited to see what he did. And by then I knew he was like a genius type who was going to make all the right decisions. Yeah.

And I kept in touch with them because we became buds. And he went over to London to do the post-production. And he's, and that's post-production is always on a, movie pain in the butt takes forever. Teadious too. It's tedious. Yes. But this post-production involved animating characters into it.

Sure. So much forethought went into this, so much planning to like collide these worlds together. Because there's a scene in the movie where somebody's dropping an animated piano onto a live, onto a real car. Yeah. And then the car explodes from this animated piano. So like just seeing how they rig that. They must have planted out for years.

And it was so cool to watch. Anyway, so he goes, spends a year, year and a half doing all the post. And finally, I got a call from them saying, hey, we're so excited. We're ready to show the movie. of the cast. This is a Tuesday night. I remember. Why don't we watch it next Tuesday? It's been testing really well. We're just so excited to show it to. So it's like, oh, okay, fantastic. I'm so excited to see it. The very next day, get a call from my agent and manager. You always know when

it's two of them calling it's either something really good or really bad. And they called and said, okay, well, Warner Brothers is not going to release the movie theatrically. And I was like, oh, man, bummer, bummer. But they said, wait, wait, wait, hang on, we're not, we're not finished with our sentence. It gets worse. Okay, yeah. Or streaming. And I'm like, oh, what are there? How do you get it out there then?

What do you, you know? And they're like, yeah, they're just going to, this thing's going to, they're going to make it go away. It's, what? I don't get it. They're just. It's going to disappear. It's going to go into a closet, and they're going to take a tax right off,

which they had done to a couple other movies in the recent past. Yeah. And it was nuts. I just was confused because I had heard these guys say how great it was. Yeah. They still said that we were allowed to see it the next Tuesday. So I had like six days to stew on this. And I was thinking, oh,

movies gotta suck, I guess. These producers probably are just, have lost perspective on it, and it's not as good as they thought. Yeah. Then we watched the movie on that Tuesday, and it's fucking great. It's just,

I was so excited about it and so proud of it. You kind of forget that, oh, this is the movie that's going away, because you just are watching this thing. Yeah, you're in it. Yeah, and experiencing it, yeah. Yeah, and it's like, oh, my, God, a movie I can show my kids.

Like, I don't have a lot of those in my, my, move. No Magroober. Right. So, anyway, got to the end and I was even more confused and frustrated. And there were, cast? It was, no, there were actually, by then, it had kind of,

after the announcement, there was kind of an uproar. I think people were still pissed about the other two that they had shelved. and they were like, okay, what's going on here? There are a lot of Looney Tunes fans out there too. So Warner Brothers was hearing about it.

And then right before that screening, we had heard they were possibly going to open it up to buyers. And so there was hope. And we were like, okay, they called it a funeral screening. But in there, there were a bunch of,

like, I remember Chris Miller and Phil Lord were there. Yeah, yeah. Paul Shear and there was a, a room full of like 100 people or 150 people. And people with good taste. Yeah. Proven track records of knowing what's funny and what's good.

Yeah. And I just remembered the movie ending and looking around and everybody had a collective head scratch. Like, yeah. What's, okay, what's the deal here? Yeah. It was, so it was that my frustration levels grew quite a bit. and over the next couple weeks,

you got the sense that maybe they weren't going to make a deal with anybody. Like, you know, you'd hear about, oh, there's this very legitimate offer from this streamer, this streamer. And I don't know, I wasn't there, so I don't know the actual numbers. But the things that I was hearing were like, oh, this is real. Yeah, this is real. why wouldn't you sell it for that? Yeah, yeah. But again, I don't know the business side of it.

So anyway, it just started to become clear that, like, this was likely not going to ever see the light of day. And then I got really angry. Yeah. And then I lived in that kind of angry place for a while. Did the anger make you do anything? I did. I was like, I got to say something. And I wrote a series of posts, well,

drafts of posts. They started out very angry, real scorched dirt stuff. Which I didn't care about, but it seemed like the people in my life thought, yeah. This is, and I'm actually happy. I'm familiar with the process.

So I'm happy that they told me not to send it because eventually my wife said, why don't you talk about, why don't you approach it from the angle of how proud you are of the movie? Yeah. And it was like, that's great, because that was so much easier.

right and it was like because there were hundreds of people work on this movie right and they never they were never going to get a chance to see it yeah so i wanted to let them know how awesome it was and so i wrote this better that was kind of the first step of the this sounds so heavy and i don't mean it but like kind of a grieving process of like okay i got i can't hang on hang on to this anger for for this long it's going to be bad for me mentally and physically I'm just going to let it go. And then things got busy with other stuff. I have kids.

I was just busy doing other stuff. And just like you go about your life as if it's never going to see the light of day. And then out of nowhere, I don't know, a year later, year and a half, catch up entertainment. This company comes and somehow bought it from Warner Brothers, which I didn't, I just, It was a surprise to everybody. Can't you tell my loves it grows? Yeah, and then we had to wait for a lot. At first it seemed like maybe they were going to get it out

a couple months after that happened, but it's a very delicate process because Warner Brothers has to agree to a lot of, you know, they have to work everything out together and it just, that process takes a longer than you think. So we had to wait another, I don't know, 14, 15 months and it's finally coming out. And it's, I'm so excited for people to see it.

Yeah, yeah. It's. And it's wide theatrical release, right? Wide theatrical release. Yeah. And like, I have never been a part of a movie that the reviews came out so early. Like, they just came out yesterday. Oh, really?

I think there's, I think there are more to come out. But, like, usually it's just like a couple days before the movie, right? Yeah. And this is, it's, what is it, the 13th today? Yeah. The movie's not for 15 days. It starts on the 28th. And a bunch of, like we have 47 reviews in and we're at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a very exciting and a fun, like, I don't know.

But it also doesn't mean that people are going to turn out to see the movie. It probably does. I hope. It probably does. But it's like, you know, it's a real David versus Goliath thing because ketchup, they're awesome. But they, you know, they're certainly not, you know, these big companies have such a marketing power and, you know, but ketchup's just awesome. I cannot thank them enough. And also like the fans who there were just a bunch of people who would not shut up about it.

And really, like, it really shows you like, if you make enough noise, you can change stuff. So it was it was really impressive, and I'm forever grateful to the people who kept being loud about it and to catch up. The Rotten Tomatoes score does, I mean, I just, I'm in the movie obsession for two seconds. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's now historical. It's, you know, it's like the highest grossing fill in the, you know, low budget horror movie, you know, movie starring Andy Richter. you know, of all time. And that's the way it's...

Wait, you're in obsession? I am in obsession. I haven't seen the movie yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a very small part. Okay. And it was just like, it just happened that, hey, you know, I mean, you get indie movies offered to you. And, you know, and some are like, okay, yeah.

And this was, you know, just like, was a, you know, go to, I think I was up in Northridge, you know, like drive to Northridge for an afternoon. Okay, I can do that. And I saw Curry Barker and. And the guys that he works with, I saw they did a bunch of clips on YouTube, hilarious, sketch comedy stuff, little featureette, horror featurette he did. Fantastic, like, you know, for 600 bucks or whatever. Read the script, absolutely the best, nutsiest, nastiest, craziest banana script I'd ever read, was like, man, I want to see how this shit gets made. Like, this is insane.

Yeah. And that's very little, like I say, ineffectual kind of nothing part. I was like, sure, yeah, I'll do that. But that can't, like, I was excited about, you know, like I knew it was going to be good. And I just, because I could just tell, you know, you got a sense while you're there. You do this enough that you just like, you get enough sort of, you know, you might, you know, you work with the director and they got one good thing. And then they have two clunkers. So you're like, you know, it's always shaded this.

everything I saw that this guy had done was so great. And then the script, too, you know, and it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, you know, and, and, and, and it's, like, like, like, well beyond my capabilities of ever actualizing a piece of cinema. Yeah. You know, I mean, I could live three lifetimes and I wouldn't have this talent. And so I just knew it was going to be good. And then as it was online, they did it just, you know,

such a great job of putting it online, showing it to the right influencee kind of people, just 98% rotten tomatoes, not, you know, just hammering that to there was just this huge, like, you know, the people and especially horror movies. And I think that it'll be the same with this because I think people like people that watch animated movies, there's a, there's a core and it's the same thing with horror. They're interchangeable. They'll go see every single one that comes out. Yeah. And just because they love the genre so much and they don't get a lot of it. And it's their thing.

And I think, you know, I know I'm excited about it. I'm excited to see it. Oh, well, thank you. Yeah. I hope you're right. Like, I'm really proud of it. But I have been proud of other movies. Yeah.

I was proud of McCruber. You know, certainly was not. I also think, too, one thing you have going for you is the story of this. because people love to prove rich people wrong. They love to prove executives wrong. And that is such a feature of why this thing, somebody made the decision. Nah, we're going to shelve it.

And then there's all this pushback. No, it's really good. And this person has to then be like, oh, fuck. I, ugh. I might look like an ass. this thing might be really good and it might come out and really make people happy, which is sort of what we're supposed to be doing. You know, like that's, it still blows my mind today.

And I mean, in show business sucks now. It just sucks. You know, not, you know, for me, you know, like I'm, I'm a successful. I'm successful in show business and it still's like, I'm still like, what's the file? What do I do? I mean, I'm a podcaster. Yes. But like, what is it that I do?

But the thing that blows my mind and it's, and I've been dealing, you know, it's like it's, it's like a cancer that's grown over time is just the corporatization of, of entertainment. And there's so many people that I know who are comedy fans, grew up comedy fans, obsessed with comedy, loved comedy, but knew I'm not a comedian. I'm not going to be a comedian. but what I am going to be is somebody that facilitates comedians. I'm going to get, I'm going to be in a studio, I'm going to be in a network, I'm going to be a manager, I'm going to be in the comedy business because I love this business and I love being around it.

I love making comedy. I love making things. And I would think that would still be true. Like in every jaded executive, there's still somebody that had to decide. I'm not going to go work for Arthur Anderson. I'm going to go into the movie business because it's fun and because you're making fun stuff and you're making people happy. I can't imagine any of them ever going, you know what I want to do? Protect shareholder value.

That's my dream as a 19 year old. I love comedy and stuff. But what's really important to me is shareholder value. And it's fucking crushing us, you know? I mean, this is kind of every industry, though, right? It's like that's, you know, I'm sure that at some point the health insurance, they were really. It's the dream factory. You know, we're supposed to be making people happy, you know?

Like, we're supposed to, like, there's supposed to be some magic to all of this. Yes. And, and like, if I'm doing this till I'm 90, that's still going to be a big component of it, you know, is the fact that it's fun. Yes. And that is why I am hoping. hoping people turn out to see this movie because it's, it does send that message. And I know that it's, you know, of course,

I'm trying to get people to go see this movie. Yeah, yeah. But it does send that message, but you're also getting to see an awesome movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, why not kill two birds with one stone? Right, exactly. And then it just, you know, it shows,

it's more likely that movies like this will continue to get made as opposed to, you know, I don't know. It's, well, I know, I think it's very, I mean, I'm, like you said, it's twofold. I can't wait to see the movie, uh, because I love you. I've, I've heard so much good stuff about, you know, like from people I trust. Like you said, like, you know, like I think I saw Paul Shear talking about it. Like, I trust his taste. Like, okay.

Yeah. Um, and, and it is, but it's like having done obsession, like there's part of that, of that, what was so rewarding to me, aside from being in a really good, you know, like the best movie I've ever been in. You know, I would, you know, like, I've done good movies, but like, it's the best movie I've ever been in. Yeah. And, and that's, you know, I love that. Even though I'm a small part of it, I love being in the, in a movie that sure. Sure. Oh, yeah. But I also love that it just takes the conventional wisdom and just shits all over it. Like, you can't, like, $750,000 horror movie made by a 25-year-old, like, good luck.

Like, you know, you can't just let that kid do what he wants. Yes, you can. And then he can make $500 million at box office if you just let that talented kid do what he wants. Yeah. And there's been so many, just there's so many examples of that that I always, Matt Weiner, Matthew Weiner worked on Andy Richter controls the universe, had a pilot script for a show called Mad Men.

and everybody in town told them, we're not doing period shows. Nobody wants to see period shows. AMC takes a flyer on it, takes the chance, throws a little money in it. The next season, it's swinging 60s.

Like every asshole that had this conventional wisdom that no, this won't work, is going, oh shit, I got to fucking do a show about the heyday of Pan Am, you know?

And it's, And that's what that's to me like what's so great. It's just anything that takes those people because I've sat across and those people are like, you can't do an anthology show, you know, like you can't, it just won't work. And then like black mirror or, you know, you name the successful anthology shows that have happened since then. It just, it makes me like want to say like, give those people a little bit of humility,

you know, so that they go, okay, yeah, here's a talented, guy, let him do what he wants to do. There's a group of talented people. You know, we'll have a track record of being talented and doing good things. Let him go. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know what?

You should run a company. I would be so bad. You should run every company. If there's nap times, then maybe I would do that. No. No, I mean, it's easy for me to say. Like, I've all, I mean, having been part of network television forever, like, like Like, if they said, like, you pick the shows for next fall.

Jesus Christ. I don't know. Everyone would be like, oh, these are weird. These are kind of, these made my grandma cry, these shows, you know. I mean, and some of, like, it must be a hard job because I'm with you. Like, if I, you know, you think about, oh, what if I got to run SNL for a year? Yeah, yeah. It's like, oh, you know, I don't know.

Or like when I was at Last Man on Earth, it was too much, it was my show and I was basically in charge of making all the decisions. You know, I had a team of writers, a team of editors, everything. But like I made the ultimate decision. It was way too much work. And I was going nuts. And then each year at the end of the year, I would say, I got to delegate better. I got a, I got to just take some off my plate. I'm going crazy.

And then I would try that out and it would be different. It would just be the show would just be a little bit different, maybe even better. I'm not even sure, but it just would be different. And I was like, I couldn't, I couldn't let it go. So I would kind of, I just said, okay, I'm going to just ride this out until the very end. But, but, you know, it's.

Has that been a part of you? like creatively forever? Like have you... Yeah. I mean, I... Like on SNL, when you had a sketch idea and somebody's like, maybe you want to do this a little different, you know? And then were you someone who would dig in your heels?

I certainly would dig in my heels when I believed in stuff. But I... I mean, my friends would probably laugh if I say. I collaborate, but I definitely am... I want to... You know, I want to do the... You want the funniest sketch.

Absolutely. So, like, I'm not going to not listen to somebody's idea, but sometimes somebody's great idea is just one that you're like, I'm not sure if, yeah, I don't know. You just like, you're, you just have a sense for what you want something to be. And it might even be better what their thing is, but you're like, I don't know, I see this more as this thing. And you just kind of want to put it out.

The worst thing in the world is to put something out that it, like, If something goes poorly and you've done it not the way you wanted to do it, then you always wonder what it would have been like. And when you, it's so much easier to live with a failure with this stuff if it's the failure that you believed it. Yeah. I write a quote and I'm going to get it wrong, but it's something about the movie business. And it's like you don't want to fail. on something that you feel compromised by. Yeah, oh, that's exactly.

You know, like you don't want, like, if you do something that you're like, oh, I'm going to do this because I was told it would work and I don't feel good about it. And then it shits the bed. Then you're like, what the fuck? I might as well have stuck to my guns, you know. Yeah. And usually when, like, there's some extra special spice in something that you believe in with all your heart. Yeah, yeah.

Like, it doesn't mean that everything's going to succeed that. If you believe in it with your heart, you're going to win the lottery every time. Yeah. But like, there is, you can, you can just tell when something comes out. Like, and it sounds like that's what you're describing with, with obsession. It's like, this just came. So they let him go. Yeah.

And it can't. And like, they were right to trust him. That's, that's awesome. Because that's, that's, when you get in there with executives, there's so few executives who have that freaking courage to like go no notes you got this yeah you know can't you tell my loves there's also like because when you're talking about too because i i mean i you know having worked in so many collaborative spaces uh i hate that word but what else are you're gonna call you know places where you're collaborating um you know like i i i definitely think my ideas are the fucking best and i and i

I would joke often, like, when there's things that are up in the ears about, like, what should we do with this? And it would sitcom, whatever. And I would say my piece. And then it would kind of be like, yeah, okay. And I would have a joke where I'd go, like, you should just listen to me. If you want it to work, just listen to me. I, you know, and I mean, it was kind of a joke. But I also kind of, I also, and this is a gift from Conan O'Brien who invited me into the collaborative

process and into a like a like a sort of higher place in the collaborative process of every you know late night with conne o'brien conan all those shows to the tonight show um i i gained a certain amount of poise because i helped make so many decisions i mean just the tonnage of the number of decisions in terms of what's best with this comedy thing um i'm very i have a good sense of poise about like nah, you know, I think we should do it this way. Yeah. But then I also, too, am well aware and it still can happen. I write this thing, it's a fucking hoot.

I love it. Show it to somebody and they go, eh, and I'm like, oh, I guess it was just me that thought this was really funny. You know, you have to be open to that. That happens sometimes. Yeah. That happens sometimes. And I love that there, and I've known people too.

And this is like, this is a rare thing, the person that is always. has just like an empirical sense of what's funnier and divorces themselves from it completely. Like it doesn't matter if a grip came up with the funniest idea. They're like, do what the grip said. And that I don't, you know, I always prefer my ideas. But it's nice that, you know, like it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, the people that I've known in my life who have that ability. Like I'm like, oh my God, I wish that's great.

Like it's it, you know. Oh, yeah. It's a great skill to have. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah. For sure. And sometimes I'll do that.

But it's when you, it's, it's just you, you kind of know when you know. Like if it's got to be, if you know how you want to play something and it might, sometimes it doesn't even come off on the paper if somebody reads it. But if you just know, if some idea comes in that everyone likes and you're like, just don't see it like that. Yeah. can't do it. But then if it's like everybody is somebody who's in your trust circle, yeah, yeah. You just got to go. Okay. Yeah, the ones that you just really trust. Yeah.

Because you need that. Everybody needs, especially in comedy, you need somebody, they can go, is that funny? And then they go, yes. And you can just go, all right, well, this guy said that. So, okay. Yeah. You know. My buddy John Solomon. Do you know John Solomon? I've met him, yeah. Like, he's just awesome. We went to, college together and we've written together a bunch of he was at s andl and he's uh he's that guy where it's like when he if everyone in the world says no i would do this thing differently if he came in and said it's like okay yep yeah yeah doing it you just believe it yeah yeah conan i mean coner and i had that for a long time you know that was like for both of us you know he could look to me and i

could look to him. And it's, if anything, it's just because, as I've said, you know, we're laying tracks for a train that you can hear coming. But there's no fucking time. Do you think this is good? Yes. Okay, good. Let's just do it. There's no time to dilly dally. We've got to do a show. By the way, I want to come back just for one second when I was talking about executives having the courage to give no notes. It's always those people who will just have like one or two notes that are just like, It, they're just, they have the most insightful. Yeah. Just they can say so much with just these, just a couple sentences. Yeah. And then you go, oh, yeah, right. Sometimes. Yeah.

Yeah. You do need to listen to others. There are people like that out there. There are a lot of awesome people, but I, you know, but it does seem like they're far outweighed by. There are also, those are the people too that, like I'm talking about, that are still living in the joy of I love. comedy yes I love TV yep and and that's I'm here because of that love not be you know not because I went to Wharton or whatever the fuck you know or be you know because I like living in Bel Air it's it's because they love making stuff yeah in any sort of way I wanted to go back

to last man on earth because I loved that show thank you I really really loved that show and it was just so weird, you know, and like such a, and, and I mean, you know, credit to the people that put it on the air, because it was, it was not like any other things, you know, it was, you know, it was like if you were Rod Serling, you know, it was kind of like a twilight zony kind of world, but incredibly absurd and incredibly funny and incredibly weird and like so many like, just like, so petty. Like there's like you're just like your character was saying such a petty dick a lot of the time. Yeah, my character was petty a dick.

Yeah. But that was, I mean, that show and you kind of touched on it because I could imagine that show was exhausting. And I can imagine that it like consumed you. Well, I mean, originally when we pitched it, we were very close to doing it with Netflix. and for some reason the studio couldn't make a deal with them. And we really wanted it. And then when it was, when they said, we're going to make this deal with Fox,

I don't think we were as excited just because of the, no disrespect to Fox, but it was, you know, we wanted the opportunity to swear if we wanted to. You know, there, certainly there are some, you know, some things that you cannot do, obviously on broadcast TV that you could on a streamer. And so that was tough. But then, like, after looking back,

there was something really great about not being able to do that stuff because we were able, and also it was very special to have something that weird on broadcast TV. So, you know, that was, Fox was really great to let us take a lot of chances. And sometimes we'd have to talk them into it. And there were definitely some little arguments, but ultimately they would usually let us, you know, go for it. And I would say, you know, more often than not, it would pay off. So it was like, I look back and I'm so proud of that show.

And I'm, you know, so many wonderful things came out of that in my life, like relationships with people and, I don't know, just learned, how to be a better storyteller, too. Just having to do, I think we did 67 episodes, but like it was just, I had never, I started as a writer and then went to S&L. And I was kind of lowered to mid-level by the time I got to S&L.

So I didn't know really what it was like to actually put together a show. Yeah. So after, so when I got this opportunity to run the show for the first season, I didn't know what went into it. So I was like, yeah, okay, great, because it meant that I got to, you know, control everything. Yeah.

And that was very appealing to me. Do they pair you with a grown up that's run shows before? Because that I always had that kind of, you know, that was always implicit and, you know, like, well, you know, you have an idea. Oh, that's good. Let's put you with, you know, a guy that worked on Frazier. This one, no. But I did like, I did have this group of people that I had worked with forever. Yeah.

people I had known forever who had a lot of experience. But it was, it was basically, like Chris and Phil, Lord Miller, we all created it together. So they were, they're like so busy all the time, but they were so great about, you know, helping kind of shepherd the show and then kind of got us on the right path. And then it was, you know, my friend John Solomon, who I just talked about. and Emily Spivey, who was at S&L for years, who I was at the Groundlings with, and Andy Bobro, who I was at the Groundlings with,

Liz Kikowsky. Yeah. Just this, yeah, I mean, a bunch of heavy hitter, trusted people who were so good. And Eric Durbin, Tim McAuliffe, all these just amazing people. And I'm leaving out some because I'm rambling. But it was like they did kind of,

you know, We did get to just kind of go nuts. Was it six seasons or five? Four seasons. Four seasons. Wow, in 67 episodes. Those are, they were still ordering episodes back now, I guess. So we originally thought, oh, we kind of assumed it'd be a, it was so weird that it'd be a streamer.

Yeah. So we thought, oh, eight or ten episodes. And then going into a place where the first season, I think, was 13. and then it was 18, they would ask 18, because I had a contract that said no more than 13. Yeah. It might even said no more than 10. But each time they'd ask and I go like, yeah, okay, let's do it.

Oh, wow. You're testing your macho. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, just like, it's all a blur. Did that number of episodes, did that become daunting? Like, oh, fuck, I got to, you know, like, did it, at a certain point, did it become hard to, like, stretch that? that world.

So, because I, you know, like, I always think about faulty towers, you know, this, this, you know, giant of TV comedy. Yeah. And there's like 13 episodes, you know, and it lives in your head so much. And it just, and it does seem like, oh, yeah, if they had to do 60, it might not be the thing that it is. Yeah. So I always wonder about, like, when you do get that deep into that many episodes, is it hard to

keep it going. It was. I would say it's going to be hard no matter what, but especially having, like, you know, I'd be working every year. My typical day would be getting up, you know, 5.30, getting into work to go through hair and makeup, start acting during the day,

and then you're right, every second that you're, there's a lighting setup or something, I'm running to my computer. and or running into the editing bay. Yeah. It was just sprinting for seven months in a row. And there's no time. I'd never ate lunch with the group.

It's just like constant work, constantly waiting for people, excuse me, waiting for me. And it's like, what's going to, it was, there were so many times when I just thought my head was going to explode and I just have to take a deep breath and go. Okay, I'll do this and then this and then this. And just like the only way to catch up was to stay up late and not get sleep. And that just built up. And you'd get, I don't know, I got, I lived a very isolated life for several years. And I kind of, I don't know, I feel like I turned into a monster a little bit.

Like I just was like, just like, I started boozing it up pretty. Like it was, you know, trying to cope with this loneliness. Yeah. Were you married at the time? I wasn't. I was, it was very tough. I put on a bunch of weight. You can just watch it.

As you watch the seasons, I'll get really kind of heavy towards the end of the season, and then I'll come back, having lost a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Not as much as I had. That's a fun game. That's a very fun game to watch. Pink Pond.

But it was, it was, what an experience and what a challenge, but like, ultimately, If I did it again, I would do it so differently. That's what I was going to say. Would you do it again? Are you afraid that your personality would be such that you would just get so immersed? Or do children in marriage change that? They definitely do.

Yeah. So I probably would stick to the lesser order, which would have made life different. Because after I said, I will never, after that I said, I'll never do this again where I like, write something like I'm the creator and star of a show. Yeah. And then we did McGruber, which isn't just me like Last Man on Earth. It was me, John and Yorma, John Solomon and Yorma Tocconi. So that was different already.

And then the fact that we were only doing eight episodes meant that you could write the eight before you even shoot. Yeah. And then shoot them all and then don't have to worry about editing. them until you're done with the shoot. Yeah. I mean, some people shoot while they at it, but like we were able to convince them to let us do it afterwards. And when it's compartmentalized like that, then it's way more doable.

Yeah, yeah. And also I shared those responsibilities with those two guys and then had another, you know, awesome team of people helping us out. But like, at Last Man on Earth, you have 18 episodes. You're racing. The first bit of it is like you start writing. a couple months before the first episode shoots. So you're trying to bank as much as you could.

We usually have, I don't know, four-ish episodes written, maybe six or seven outlines done, and then you're starting to shoot. And then you're, so you're writing and acting, and then you're still trying to push forward on the outlines and trying to polish off the scripts as they're coming in. but then you got to start editing and then so you're

acting, writing, editing, still working, you know, pushing everything forward then then the music stuff comes in. You've got to start, you know, doing spotting for music sessions and sound

mixes. And it's just like you're working on seven different episodes at once and you're still like have people waiting on you to check this outline. Yeah. And it's your dream come true.

Yeah. It's your wildest dreams come true. Exactly. And it's exhausting. And I would say that to myself all the time. Like, this is what you wanted. This is the peak of your dreams. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's, you know, so it's tough. I hate that. I am so thankful of that opportunity to do that show. Yeah. I'm appreciative. But I was. so, I was so happy when they canceled it.

Yeah. I was like, yeah. I did a, Chelsea Peretti did a movie called first time field female director that I was in and she wrote, directed and starred in it. And she used to say, because people would be like, wow, you wrote directed and starred in this? And every time she'd go like, yep, one too many. One too many. Like that was her standard answer. Like, yeah, that was, you know, because she'd, you know, she'd like, be like, oh,

fuck, I can learn my lines, you know? Oh, yeah. Like, just the most basic thing was sort of, oh, an afterthought. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's tough, but it is also, like, if you can do it right, that's why it's nuts. I'm working on Tina's show right now, Tina Fey's show. And like...

Which show is that? Oh, the four seasons. Right, right, right. And, like, I don't know how she does it. Like, she does way more than I. ever did on that show. Like she's running a TV show, acting and stuff,

writing novels, raising kids. I was just doing this show. You can't compare yourself to her. She's like next level, unbelievable. Absolutely. I mean, she has really good. She's always had really wonderful people around her. But she is like, it is sort of,

I've always sort of like, do you ever make a bad choice? Like, do you make bad choices? But no, she does. And I do think that there are, because I totally relate to what you're saying here. I've never been a position where I've sold my idea and then had to sort of like do, you know, multiple, multiple episodes of it. I've never been in that position. But I totally can see myself being like where it would be too much.

It would be too much for me. Did Andy Richter controls the universe go for? It went through two mid-seasons because, yeah, it was got, they, there was, and I found it very, like, gendered, very sex-oriented because every, all, it was all women that green lit it. And Gail Berman at the time was, like, in charge of the, in charge of the network. and it, like, they loved it. They got it to, and then it got to this wall of men above them who were like, well, what the fuck is this?

You know, like, where's the titty, you know? And it just so they had to be convinced to do a mid-season version of it. And then they had to be convinced again to do another order of it, which they were like, well, we'll only do a mid-season of it. And so we were always, I mean, I'm, been in that position where and because like when you talk about about the coyote versus acme movie just that just when they the thing that's so deadly is when an executive says no then you're like well maybe we can convince maybe we can sell some more else maybe than this that the fact that

person said no is like that what you know like you were you would be insulting them flopping their dick on the table. Like I, you know, like they made this grand gesture of no. And then it's like, well, maybe you should rethink. Like, I'm not in the business of rethinking. I'm in the business of shoring up my infallibility. And if I said no, I meant no. And I've had, you know, I did a, the third show I did, Andy Barker P.I, which was created by Conan and Jonathan Groff, who was a head writer on late night, uh, did that,

and it was among my shows. I, I like all the shows that I did, but it's my favorite. It was just the most fun and it was just, I think it's, you know, because Conan was involved and stuff,

but that, they had to beg to get that made. Like, yeah, LA said no, but New York kind of, you know, at the time Conan was going to be the tonight show host.

And they're like, it's the tonight show host. He's, you know, let's, it would it kill you to put this show on the air, you know, like, give him a few episodes, give him a few episodes, you know? And but I always had the sense that somebody had said no. And that, and that show was more highly reviewed, better reviewed than anything I've ever done.

Oh, really? It had, and because it was still in days of like Xeroxes of things. Yeah. Like a Bible-sized stack of nothing but positive reviews. And that would, and I want to. I wasn't doing the conversation with the people that had said no. But it was like, hey, did you see all these reviews? Hey, did you see this?

And it was always kind of like, yeah, yeah, I saw, you know, I saw that, yeah, the thing I said no is really being well received and people are really enjoying it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I said, but I said no. But that's, then that's, yeah, that's so tough because then they, you know, there's that possibility that, that if somebody is in that position where they still won't, you know, if they didn't want to do something and then against their will, this show was made. Yeah.

And then it's getting well reviewed. They might hold back from supporting it so they don't look like an idiot. Right. And, God, that's such a bummer. But it's like, don't you look great if you're... Absolutely. If your place is making money and you're... You would.

think, you know, like, I know all the business terms. Place, plays, is what they say? I, well, the thing is always amazing, because, you know, and I mean, I haven't been, I mean, there isn't network television to pitch much anymore, you know, but like when I was out here and can't, it'd come out here and was in the, you know, really in the thick of pitching things at network television level, it would always kill me that, and I was the victim of it at least once, regime change. The president of the network gets five. And there, I was always struck by there was this like, like an ape troop.

Like if there's a new alpha male, it has to kill the offspring of the previous alpha male. Because that line of genes must be stopped. You know, like nothing going forward shall be good unless it is mine. And unless something was a runaway hit, that was usually like anything on the bubble that was like pretty good and being well received. Yeah, but it was that previous assholes. Yes. So it's a no for me, you know. Just so, you know.

And there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you for coming. Jonathan Groff. I saw him. I did Smigel's podcast. I saw him recently.

I think he was with his daughter. Yeah, yeah. Dynasty typewriter. She's doing sketch comedy. No, she is. Okay. Maddie Groff. And she's very funny.

Yeah, he's great. I love him. He's still a very dear friend. your friend of mine. Let's talk Coyote versus Acme. It's in theaters, August 28th. Is this going to come out close? Yeah, this will, so you go to a theater straight from this.

Hopefully, you're listening to this in the lobby. Yes. Of a theater. Well, I really look forward to it. Did it have a big premiere or anything yet? It will have a premiere on the 26th. Nice. Yeah, and I'm very excited.

Yeah, yeah. Have you got your tucks all picked out? I just actually came, and I'm going to be wearing a spoiler, like a purpleish, almost eggplant suit. More purple, light purple. Obergine. It's like something I would never in a million years pick out on a rack. And this person who's like has a ton of taste who I've worked with for a long time said, how about this?

And I'm like, okay, I'll try it on. And then it's like, looks really nice. and my wife, you know, sees a picture and she's like, that's great. That's the one. And I'm like, just let other people make these decisions. And it's, yeah. I let you know. If my wife says wear that, I wear it.

I would, like for me, I would want to do what, what is it, Einstein? Is he, who are the people who wear, they have just all the same suit so they don't have to spend any time? Is it Einstein who did that? He may have. I know Jay Leno. Jay Leno does it, the denim shirt and jeans. Mork. For Mork?

Yes. David Byrne once had a quote. It was like, if you want people to remember you, wear the same clothes all the time. You know, which is pretty good. And then also, Daniel, the Harry Potter actor, Daniel Radcliffe, was, he was in New York. and I think he was doing a Broadway show, and he got sick of paparazzi outside. So when he would leave his house,

he would wear the same clothes every time because then the shots became worthless because the people buying the shots would be like, how do we know that was from today? Very smart. Really smart. Really, really smart. Yeah.

So it's like he made his own value. And I don't know, I've never spoke. I just knew somebody that lived in the, building that told me about it. Yeah. And I don't know if it really, but I think it did. Like they just gave up. Like, there's no point in photographing him getting on his bike to ride to Broadway or

anything. By the way, I just want to come in. I feel like I've done a lot of complaining on this podcast. I mean, it's fun. It's very fun to talk with you about this stuff. And it's very therapeutic. But like, I do, I do think it's worth saying, like, I'm very thankful for, like, I feel very blessed in this career.

So this is like, I know, I feel weird sometimes complaining. I listen, I'm a bit. I'm a bitch. That's what I do. So like I,

and I understand. And it's like I always feel like I hope people understand that I, that I am a happy person who feels very, you know, very lucky to have lived the life that I live and to enjoy the things that I enjoy in life. I mean, that isn't to say that they weren't. worked for and stuff, you know, but, but yeah, but I hope people understand that. But see, for me also,

it's like, it's fun talking about it. I mean, it's like fun. And if you're, if you're, my position is always like, if you're invested in making the world a better place, recognizing what's wrong is the first step of that process. So it's like, you know, if you're just endless positivity, then nothing ever gets changed and nothing ever, you know, happens. But I mean, I also get it, you know, living an online life, too, if you're on social media, you know, to complain, you know, is just like, well, it must be fucking nice, you know, like, at least you have a car, you know. I remember once I posted about like, uh, that I had, I had become the kind of person that squeegeed off the shower glass after each shower

and that like how it is, how fantastic it was and how much I changed my life. And somebody was like, must be nice to not have a plastic shower curtain. And it's like, I don't think a glass shower wall makes me, you know,

fucking Bill Gates. It's like there's a lot of showers in the world that have a glass wall. I mean, a glass wall. And then you still had money left over for the squeegee. For a squeegee. And it was a nice squeegee.

Yeah. Encrusted with jewelry. Faberje, squeegee. All right, well, Will, thank you so much for coming in. Thank you. And everybody go see Coyote versus Acme to prove those fuckers wrong. Yeah. He didn't say it, I did.

The three questions with Andy Richter is a team cocoa production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sacks, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistants from Maddie Ogden, research by Alyssa Graal. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to the three questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

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