Conan O’Brien said “Hacks” triggered PTSD symptoms for him as a longtime late night host after he watched the Max series cover late night television in its fourth season.
“The show delves into late night this year, which was fascinating for me because there are things that you cite in the show that I’ve lived through,” O’Brien told “Hacks” co-creator and writer Paul W. Downs during a sit-down conversation on Team Coco’s YouTube page. “And so, I’ll get a little bit of PTSD from watching it. But it’s also really funny and … apt. You know, like getting notes or, ‘This is what we heard about you.’ You know, in the early days of my late night show … research, and, ‘What are people saying?’ And, ‘What do we need to try to adjust?’”
He applauded the show for its accurate portrayal of the TV sector.
“It was all stuff that just felt impossible. So I’m kind of reliving it a little bit through your show, but you guys are doing a very good job of hitting a bunch of the nerves, which means you’re getting it right,” O’Brien continued.
After Downs mentioned that the cast and crew often referenced his “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” talk show, as well as other well-known late night series, O’Brien brought up a scene from the show where late night hosts are tussling over a celebrity guest appearance and it’s suggested that he’s not alive.
“[Deborah’s] trying to get Kristen Bell on her show and Jimmy Kimmel confronts her and says, ‘You don’t get Kristen Bell because she always does my show. She’s been doing, I got, sort of possession of having her as a guest after Conan died,’” O’Brien said as he laughed with the rest of the podcasters. “And you know what I loved about it, is that it’s said with no one questions it. It’s just like, ‘Since Conan died,’ and it’s just like, ‘I get her after Conan died,’ and it’s just, that’s understood. And I’m laughing because no one questions it.”
Shutting the idea that O’Brien is dead in the “Hacks” universe, Downs said the crew definitely wants him on the show.
“I have to give him credit because that was a Jimmy Kimmel impromtu line,” Downs said. “So, I did not write that line.”
Season 4 of “Hacks” is now streaming on Max.
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