On a recent episode of his podcast, Conan talked about how gross the writers’ room was. You can read about it here.
Denise and I have been to the fabled room: and it was not pretty.
Here’s how the show depicted the room:
We were still thrilled to be there, though, and the writers seemed to enjoy having us, since our presence meant they could stop pretending to write for a while. In fact, we talked about strategies for distracting ourselves from writing. One writer mentioned that in an episode with Lurlene’s father, they watched hambone videos for much of a day, after deciding the character used that style.
One of my favorite stories they told us about the writers’ room related to Conan, though.
Meal times were sacred, as they are for all writers who desperately want to stop writing for a little while, which is all of us.
Some of the writers would work in a building across the street from the writers’ room, and the staff would use an old-fashioned triangle bell to call everyone together.
Conan was into practical jokes. Once, he came in carrying all of the take out containers for a room of salivating coworkers, only to trip and spill absolutely everything.
Luckily, the containers were empty.
