Robin Williams Called Conan O’Brien After ‘Tonight Show’ Firing and Sent Him Out on a Bike Ride: ‘You’re Gonna Be Fine. Ride Around, You’ll Feel Better’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Conan O’Brien revealed to Eric Idle on a recent episode of the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that Robin Williams cold called him after NBC fired him as host of “The Tonight Show.” O’Brien took over the late night show from Jay Leno in 2009, but he was infamously fired after seven months.

The network decided to dump O’Brien and bring back Leno. “I was lucky enough to have some great interactions with Robin Williams before he passed,” O’Brien said. “One of the most memorable examples to me is when I went through my whole ‘Tonight Show’ debacle.

Finally, the show is done, and I don’t know if I have a career anymore. What am I gonna do next? I’m lying on the floor in the living room of my house, and my phone rings, and I pick it up, and it’s Robin Williams.” “I don’t even know how he got my phone number,” O’Brien continued. “[Williams asked,] ‘How are you holding up, chief?’ And he said, you know, ‘You’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna be great.'” Williams then instructed O’Brien to go down to the local bike shop in Santa Monica because Williams had set up a bike for O’Brien to rent for the day.

Both gentlemen were avid bikers at the time. “And I said, ‘What?'” O’Brien remembered. “And he said, ‘No, no, no, just head on down there.