Conan O'Brien 'Robbed' Himself of 'Fun' During His Time as an SNL Writer: 'I Regret Being So Intense'

Conan O’Brien is remembering his time on Saturday Night Live.

On the Nov. 4 episode of his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, the comedian opened up about being a writer for the sketch comedy show from 1988 through 1991. Thinking back to his three years on the job, O’Brien, 61, said he now wishes he stayed in the position longer.

"People always say no regrets," he began. "I regret being so intense about that job. Yeah. I was way too intense, and I think I robbed myself of some fun that I could have had. I did have a lot of fun, but I think I could have had more fun. And I think I could have maybe written there a little longer if I didn't make it such a grind for myself."

He joked: “Jay Leno came and took my writing job at SNL! No. I burnt out.”

Tom Hanks, who was a guest on the podcast episode and appeared on SNL while O’Brien was a writer, said the long-running series is unlike any other because the writer is also “on the floor producing” the show.

“A guy who wrote it with great passion is over there in between sweating bullets and vomiting out of anxiety,” Hanks quipped. “He's telling Sting how to do a comedy bit, you know. But I think that's the great power of it. You get to produce the thing that you wrote then and there.”

O’Brien thought back to his few years of experience in television before landing SNL, and he said “no one had let me near anything” during that time. When he met Lorne Michaels, who created SNL, everything changed.

“You get to SNL, you write a sketch and Steve Martin's gonna be in it,” O’Brien recalled. “And Lorne says, ‘Well, go in and tell Steve how it should be done and what you're thinking, and then go and talk to the props people about how the restaurant should look.’ And I thought, ‘I'm 26. I've never been to a restaurant. I don't know.’”

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As someone who has now been on SNL 10 times, Hanks added that it is an intense experience for guest hosts as well.

“You do have to learn how to survive physically when you do the show,” he said. “Yeah. “The last time I did it, I told everybody who was in charge of me, particularly our wardrobe and stage manager people, I said, ‘I want you to understand that my goal on this week's hosting duties is to take as few steps as possible. So I am going to come here, and I will get dressed, and where can we get dressed next time? Because I don't have to walk all the way back here. I'm going to take as few steps.”

He added: “It's a young man's game, and there was a time that you just you know, it's just balls to the walls, and you just fill up every minute with activity.”

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.