REMINDER: Conan O’Brien And Robert Smigel Made A Pilot In 1991 That Starred Adam West

You are probably aware of this because you are all very knowledgeable and attractive pop culture experts with excellent taste and winning smiles, but just in case, here goes: Back in 1991, Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel produced a pilot titled Lookwell that starred Adam West as, per Wikipedia, “a washed-up TV action hero — who at the peak of his career was ceremonially deputized by local law enforcement — falsely believes he can solve crimes in real life,” and the whole episode is available on YouTube.

If you’re putting the timeline together, this project falls smack between Conan’s four-year stint at Saturday Night Live and his work on The Simpsons, and two years before he — along with Smigel as his head writer — took over Late Night from David Letterman in 1993. It’s weird to imagine an alternate universe where NBC picked up this show and it became a huge hit, and instead of Conan moving to late night and going through the Tonight Show debacle, he became a big shot showrunner with a convertible and a young trophy wife. That would be strange. I mean, this show is pretty cool and everything, but a world without the Masturbating Bear? No thank you.

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