Andy Richter, King Of A Dying Art
(I had some pieces I’ve written over the years clogging up my desktop. They were all pieces that got accepted by websites but for one reason or another didn’t end up running. I figured I might as well put them up somewhere.)
Being a sidekick is, by its nature, an unglamorous. You are in the shadow of whomever you are sidekicking for. You are never the most prominent aspect of whatever endeavor it is you are a part of. The only time you ever really get credit is when some intellectually lazy writer decides it would be clever and interesting to make the bold choice to look past a star to focus on the quality of the sidekick. With that in mind, here are some words of affinity for Andy Richter, the last bastion of sidekickery in late night television.
For years, sidekicks were synonymous with talk shows, although that was largely based on Ed McMahon’s presence on The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was host. For decades, when people thought “talk show” they thought Carson, and Ed McMahon was always by his side. There’s a reason that, on The Larry Sanders Show, Hank Kingsley existed. Paul Shaffer, you could argue, was a sidekick, although his position as the leader of the band blurs that line. That’s sort of where things are now. Shows generally have ersatz sidekicks, if anything. Steve Higgins will riff with Jimmy Fallon here and there, and participate in games, but he disappears for large chunks of the show. Reggie Watts is a tertiary piece of James Corden’s show. Seth Meyers is all by his lonesome, except on the rare occasion when Fred Armisen is around. The internet seems to indicate Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t have a sidekick. Honestly, aside from Richter, the last late night host that had a definitive sidekick was Craig Ferguson, and his sidekick was a gay robot skeleton named Geoff Peterson.
There is no question about Richter, though. During the monologue, he stands at his podium while Conan O’Brien tells his jokes. Then, he heads over to the couch, like a true sidekick. He’s there for interviews. He’s there for comedy bits. He’s always there. Conan and Andy are effectively tied together. It makes sense, considering they broke together. O’Brien was thrust into the spotlight when he began hosting Late Night in 1993. Before that, he was but a humble, genius comedy writer. It made sense to give him a sidekick to help shoulder the load. In came Richter, who was himself hired to be a writer on Conan’s show, but developed an instant connection with O’Brien, and thus he was tapped to be the sidekick.
Richter stayed with the show until 2000, before heading off to ply his trade as an actor and leading man. This was fair, because of how talented Richter is. Alas, all his sitcoms including the very funny Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Andy Barker P.I., were swiftly cancelled, and when O’Brien briefly helmed The Tonight Show, Richter returned to his sidekick role, and has remained alongside Conan to this day on his titular TBS show.
It’s a role that’s perfect for him. Sure, it’s a second banana role, but he excels at it. He could be a talk show host himself, probably, but he does feel better suited for the sidekick role. Richter is a very smart, quick guy. He’s excelled at Celebrity Jeopardy! and been tapped to host game shows in the past. This makes him adept at reacting on the fly to what’s going on during the show, and reacting with a good joke. More importantly, he knows how to pick his spots. This is vital, because, otherwise, he could ruin the flow of an interview. He has to be a comedy surgeon.
Conan and Andy also complement one another well. While they are both smart guys, Andy does have an “All-American Boy” quality to him. He’s stocky and jovial, and he doesn’t rely on the same comedic archetypes that Conan excels at. They do different things, but their skill sets just mesh. Also, it seems like they clearly like talking to one another, and just goofing around, which means things never feel stilted or weird on the show. When it comes to comedic bits, Richter, who has had sitcoms of course, is a solid enough actor for comedy sketches. He’s also game for everything, which, given O’Brien’s weird, absurdist sensibilities, is perfect.
While Richter is incredibly talented and funny in his own right, he feels basically perfect alongside Conan. It would be weird, say, if he was alongside Fallon or Stephen Colbert. He could probably work alongside Meyers, but not as well as Conan. O’Brien and Richter make one another better, and that makes Conan better.
Sidekicks may be passe now, but a great sidekick is still tremendously valuable, and Richter is a great sidekick. He’s this generation’s Ed McMahon, even if that is almost by default. It’s easy to take Andy for granted, since the show is called Conan after all, but we shouldn’t. With his quick wit and friendly, welcoming personality, albeit with a cutting side, Andy Richter encapsulates what a talk show sidekick should be.
