New Conan O’Brien Oral History Reveals His Ex-Girlfriend Actress Lisa Kudrow Told Him He Was “No One” Ahead Of His Late Night Debut

Conan O’Brien knew he had big shoes to fill when he was tapped to replace David Letterman on late night television in 1993. But his then-girlfriend, Friends star Lisa Kudrow, had a funny way of comforting him.

In an oral history for Vanity Fair chronicling that first year of O’Brien’s late night career, Kudrow, O’Brien, and many others looked back on his first year on the air.

“You’re trying to replace David Letterman. No one replaces David Letterman. You’re no one,” Kudrow recalled in the oral history with a laugh. “It can’t be anybody that an audience would know.”

O’Brien, who was a 30-year-old comedy writer for The Simpsons at the time, was originally recruited to be head writer on the show. But, as he joined Late Night executive producer Lorne Michaels in searching for Letterman’s replacement, he reportedly began to realize that he may be the person most suitable for the job.

Kudrow also recalled those early conversations she had with O’Brien before his name got tossed in the ring.

“Conan… knew he wanted to do a show that was not just celebrity interviews, but [hosted by] someone who knew enough and who read enough to ask intelligent questions of scientists or authors or other people too,” she recalled. “And I said, ‘So it sounds like you want you.‘ And he said, ‘That would never happen.’”

Even Robert Smigel, who became head writer on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, had few words of comfort to offer him as he stepped into Letterman’s shoes.

“I was excited for him, but I was scared,” Smigel admitted. “I remember saying to him, ‘Man, that is a tough way to get on TV.’ I wasn’t the best person to rev him up in that way. As much as I wanted him to make it, I just reacted honestly.”

Smigel would later be joined in the writers room by many future comedy heavy hitters, including Bob Odenkirk, Louis C.K., Andy Richter, and more.

O’Brien fondly looked back on those early days of the show when they were still getting their footing and trying different comedy bits out.

“I loved how brave those writers were. They were all so young. I think for almost all of them, it was their first TV gig,” he said. “And so the beautiful thing about that Late Night show is nobody knew what the rules were. Nobody knew what was okay to try, so we tried everything.”

According to the oral history, the show found a “loyal following” in college-aged viewers during that first year, even as it struggled with ratings.

But O’Brien’s fateful late night debut on September 13, 1993, proved to be the start of a very fruitful career in comedy, even all these decades later.