Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: When did Andy Richter leave Late Night with Conan O'Brien?
After seven years with the show, Richter departed from Late Night after the show on May 26, 2000. He later said of the decision, "After seven years of being on the show, I got itchy. I have a philosophy that if you enjoy good fortune, rather than sit there and say, 'Oh, that's fine, this amount is good enough for me,' you should try and push it. You should see how much you can stretch your good fortune. And I was curious."[10]
O'Brien's "Late Night" debuted on September 13, 1993, with Andy Richter chosen as O'Brien's sidekick. The premiere episode featured John Goodman (who received a "First Guest" medal for his appearance), Drew Barrymore, and Tony Randall. The episode featured a cold open of O'Brien's walk to the studio with constant reminders that he was expected to live up to Letterman, parodying a popular sentiment expressed in the media at the time. After seeming to be unaffected by the comments, O'Brien arrives at his dressing room and cheerfully prepares to hang himself. However, a warning that the show is about to start causes him to abandon his plans.
"Conan: "... It's time, once again, to look into the future."""Andy/Guest: "The future, Conan?"""Conan: "That's right, Andy/[Guest's name]. Let's look to the future, all the way to the year "2000"!""
The sketch was invented prior to the actual year 2000, but the show's writers decided to keep the named year the same even after the passing of the titular year, in a sort of ironic twist. However, when the sketch was revived on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien", Richter heaped ridicule upon O'Brien for failing to update the name of the skit nine years after the year 2000 had passed. The sketch is renamed "In the Year 3000", with the black robe (referred to as a 'ratty smock' by Richter) being replaced with a more futuristic-looking outfit consisting of a large metallic collar with a series of blinking lights, which Conan said were very expensive to make and Andy said smelled bad. Appearing on "Tonight" June 3, 2009, it was the first "Late Night" sketch to be carried over to Conan's "Tonight Show". The open to the sketch included narration by William Shatner and, on one occasion, George Takei.
Richter is a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. After leaving Late Night with Conan O'Brien, he moved to Los Angeles.
Often, the show's announcer is also a major part of the show. Famous announcers include Gene Rayburn and Hugh Downs (both from the early years of "The Tonight Show"); Ed McMahon from "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson"; Edd Hall and John Melendez from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"; Bill Wendell and Alan Kalter from "Late Show with David Letterman"; Dicky Barrett from "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"; Steve Higgins from the Jimmy Fallon eras of "Late Night" and "The Tonight Show"; Andy Richter from "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" and "Conan"; and Don Pardo from "Saturday Night Live". These announcers often have significant career accomplishments outside of their particular shows.
On February 20, 2009, NBC aired the last episode of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". The show consisted of a compilation of previous "Late Night" clips and included a surprise appearance by former sidekick Andy Richter. Will Ferrell, John Mayer, and the White Stripes also appeared. O'Brien ended the episode by destroying the set with an axe, handing out the pieces of the set to the audience, and thanking a list of people who helped him get to that point in his career. Among those thanked were Lorne Michaels, David Letterman, Jay Leno, and O'Brien's wife and children.
In 1994, Thyre married Andy Richter. They met in 1991 in Los Angeles during the production of "The Real Live Brady Bunch". Richter played Mike Brady and Sarah at one time or another performed all the female roles, except for Marcia Brady. Together, they have appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", and Comedy Central's "Upright Citizens Brigade". Thyre and Richter live in Los Angeles and have two children, William and Mercy.
The set of "Late Night" changed a few times cosmetically, but retained the basic structure used when Letterman occupied Studio 6A: the performance space at the viewer's left, and the desk area, to the viewer's right, where interviews were done. O'Brien did his monologue in the performance area, emerging at the start of each episode from the area where musical guests perform. The Max Weinberg 7 were in the corner made by the stage-right wall and the wall in front of the audience. The desk area had a desk for O'Brien, a chair and couch(es) to the viewer's left for guests (and originally Andy Richter), and a coffee table. Primarily, set changes involved the background behind the desk and chair and couch. On his final episodes, Conan took an axe to parts of the set, giving it out to audience members as souvenirs; not wanting to allow it to simply be thrown away.
New sketches included O'Brien posing for the paparazzi, known as "Conan's Tabloid Moment", and "Twitter Tracker", where an excited announcer reads mundane "tweets" by celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Miley Cyrus, and Dennis Haysbert. Sketches from "Late Night" reintroduced include "In the Year 2000" as "In the Year 3000", with Richter once again assisting Conan on the sketch, and "Celebrity Surveys". Popular "Late Night" character Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog appeared on "Tonight" for the first time on June 19, 2009, serving as correspondent for the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee. Another favorite character from Conan's old show, the Masturbating Bear, was also reintroduced on January 20, 2010, on Conan's third-to-last show. O'Brien originally retired the Masturbating Bear at the end of his "Late Night" run due to concerns about its inappropriateness in the 11:30 time slot. "Late Night" character The Interrupter made his first appearance on "The Tonight Show" on September 3, 2009.
Celebrity guests of the night would also occasionally appear in sketches either during their interviews or during the earlier comedy segments, e.g. in "In the year 2000" (which always included the participation of a celebrity guest after Andy Richter left the show) or a sketch where Conan would pretend to write in his diary while an attractive female guest was there. Quite rare for a talk show, sometimes interviews began normally but turned into sketches with both the guest and Conan participating, usually when the guest was a "friend of the show."
At the same time The Real Live Brady Bunch was playing in New York, two fellow Annoyance members (Beth Cahill and Melanie Hutsell, who played Marcia and Jan Brady in the "Real Live Brady Bunch" stage show) were hired as cast members on Saturday Night Live. With friends on SNL, Richter was able to get into the after-show parties where he met SNL writer Robert Smigel. Two years later, Smigel hired Richter for a new show he was producing, Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Originally hired as a writer, Richter was upgraded to Conan O'Brien's sidekick just weeks before the show began airing in 1993, after it became clear the two had a strong rapport, something Smigel noticed after sending Richter to join O'Brien on stage during a practice run-through when the production staff was testing lighting angles and sound.[9]
On February 24, 2009, it was announced that Richter would be joining Conan O'Brien once again as the announcer for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in Los Angeles.[13] Richter frequently appeared in comedy sketches on the show and often commented and interacted with Conan during the opening monologue; he was also part of the show's writing staff. In mid-December 2009, Richter also began joining Conan on the couch during the celebrity interviews, much like he did in his former sidekick role on Late Night. Richter said he enjoyed having a steady paycheck again and not having to deal with production companies while developing television shows. Richter said, "Now I'm so happy to be back and making TV every night, not asking permission from somebody and waiting six months to get their sparklingly clear and cogent notes. And then wait another month for them to get back from Hawaii and say, 'Yes, now we can go make television.' I felt like a plumber who kept going into the building and saying, 'Can we put some pipes together?' and watching my wrenches gather dust."[10]
When Conan O'Brien left "Late Night" to take over "The Tonight Show", Godard did not follow him to Los Angeles. Godard wrote on his Facebook fan page that "Reports of my retirement were exaggerated. Conan just didn't take me to California with him. I remain in New York City with no LA lease to be stuck with!!!" Instead, former "Late Night" sidekick Andy Richter was hired as announcer on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien", and "Saturday Night Live" producer Steve Higgins became the announcer on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon".
In September 1993, Conan O'Brien made his television debut on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" after working as a writer on such television comedy institutions as "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons". O'Brien's brand of irreverent humor proved to be a hit with the late night audience, including memorable sketches like "If They Mated," "In the Year 2000," and "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog." In September 2004, on the 50th anniversary of "The Tonight Show", NBC announced that O'Brien would take over hosting duties from Jay Leno in 2009. While his time as host proved to be short-lived, O'Brien went on to launch a new late night talk show, "Conan", on TBS in November 2010. Conan O'Brien remains a true comedy innovator and, at almost 25 years on the air, has enjoyed one of the longest runs of any late night television host.
Andy Richter Controls the Universe is a sitcom which aired from 2002–2003 on the Fox network. The series was Andy Richter's first starring role after leaving NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in 2000.
Many television talk shows make use of a sidekick as a co-host who anchors a show with the main star. Ed McMahon played this role famously to Johnny Carson on the "Tonight Show", as did Andy Richter to Conan O'Brien on the "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and during O'Brien's short-lived tenure on the "Tonight Show". "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" employs a mechanical robot sidekick named Geoff Petersen.
Blacha started as a local Chicago Comedy writer, where he met Andy Richter. Richter eventually landed Blacha a job with the Conan O'Brien show in 1993. Tommy worked on the Conan O'Brien show until 1999 writing bit pieces and developing such characters as "Gaseous Wiener" and "PimpBot5000".
The sketch is typically performed with Richter participating, but after Richter left "Late Night", the celebrity guest would participate (when Richter was scheduled as a guest, he would again take part). Each guest version would usually be titled "The [guest's surname] Edition" with "2.0" added for guests who have done the sketch more than once. In 2006, the naming format was changed to simply "The [guest's name] Edition". Its introduction is as follows:
When Richter left "Late Night", the sketch was simply titled "Conan on the Aisle." In the skit, Conan and Andy review movies released in cinemas around the time of the sketch's original airing. He usually comments on a negative quality which is either fictitious or exaggerated by an edited scene he then shows as proof. For example, when Conan was reviewing "Jurassic Park III", he mentioned that the movie had scenes that were disgusting and weird. A scene then appeared where a couple ran and were surprised by a dinosaur which opened its mouth to roar. "Late Night" edited the couple's lost child into the dinosaur's mouth, and the child says "hello" to the parents. The sketch occasionally reviewed TV shows. For example, Conan poked fun at the then-new television series "Viva Laughlin" claiming the producers missed some key signals of the show's poor quality. A clip of the show featuring one of its musical numbers appeared interspersed with footage of a "crew member" who, horrified at how terrible the show is, suddenly activates a TNT detonator and the scene switches to stock footage of an imploding building.
Conan O'Brien announced on the February 18, 2009 episode of "Late Night" that The Max Weinberg 7 (rechristened as The Tonight Show Band, and adding a second percussionist), the house band on that program, would be accompanying him to "The Tonight Show" as his version's house band. It was announced February 23, 2009 that former "Late Night" sidekick Andy Richter would be O'Brien's announcer. Richter replaced O'Brien's former long-time announcer Joel Godard (who stayed behind in New York) when his rendition of "The Tonight Show" began.
Paul Andrew Richter (born October 28, 1966) is an American actor, writer, comedian, and late night talk show announcer. He is best known for his role as the sidekick of Conan O'Brien on each of the host's programs: Late Night, The Tonight Show on NBC and Conan on TBS. He is also known for his work as the voice of Mort in the Madagascar franchise.
When Conan O'Brien returned to the air as host of his self-titled TBS show in 2010, Richter followed and resumed his roles as announcer, writer, general sidekick and participant in comedy sketches.
Former sidekick Andy Richter, who re-joined O'Brien when he took over "The Tonight Show" in June, joined O'Brien onstage for two segments, watching clips and reminiscing about the show. Among the clips shown, O'Brien noted that his all-time favorite "Late Night" piece was when he attended a re-enactment of an American Civil War-era baseball game, played at a Long Island NY museum, Old Bethpage Village Restoration. During the course of the final week, O'Brien began violently dismantling and handing out pieces of the production set to the audience. In the final show, a large piece of the stage's frame was pulled down and chopped into pieces. O'Brien then promised to give each audience member in attendance a piece of the set.
Usually the band leader is a major part of the show, and the band leader and host often exchange playful banter during the monologue and comedy segments; the band leader has thus taken over the part of being the host's sidekick, which in the past was played by an announcer or designated co-host (such as Ed McMahon and Andy Richter). Of the current late night talk show band leaders who play this role, Paul Shaffer is well known for being a straight man to David Letterman. However, on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien", Max Weinberg rarely spoke during the show, and his interactions with O'Brien were often short and awkward – a recurring gag on the show (Richter, now the announcer, was O'Brien's primary sidekick on "The Tonight Show" and has carried on in that role on "Conan", whereas new band leader Jimmy Vivino has barely any interaction with O'Brien), and Kevin Eubanks was often the butt of Leno's jokes, particularly regarding drug-related stories. Most notably "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" did not have a house band, and Ferguson often used that fact as a running gag in his show; Ferguson used a robot named Geoff Peterson as his sidekick ("The Late Late Show" had never had a house band with hosts Tom Snyder, Craig Kilborn, and Craig Ferguson, but with James Corden's assumption of hosting duties, the program features a house band led by Reggie Watts).