John C. Reilly Told Conan He Was "Born with a Horseshoe Up His Ass"

After eight months of virtual interviews, Conan O'Brien's first in-studio guest in November was John C. Reilly, who discussed the origins of his then-new series Moonbase 8, and the fortuitous timing of its release. 

"People used to say to me, when I was young, when I would get lucky, they're like 'Reilly, you were born with a horseshoe up your ass,'" he told Conan O'Brien, who was unfamiliar with the expression and found it odd to think anyone with a horseshoe stuck in their ass would be considered lucky.

Reilly revealed the show had started on a text chain with Fred Armisen, Tim Heidecker, and Jonathan Krisel, and detailed the unusual production process. "Me, Tim and Fred wanted to just spend a lot of time together and find a project where we could just, you know, goof off and be confined."

After the idea of a space training camp came to him, they managed to secure funding from A24 and filmed the whole show before they sold it to anybody for distribution. 

"It hasn't been market tested, it hasn't gone through the development process with executives," he said. "It took a second, actually, to sell the show. We made it, and most big players that put shows out, they don't really work like that. They like to have a hand in the beginning of a project, so it took a second. Then Showtime was like 'yeah, we'll take it,' and then it just timed out perfectly. Suddenly, Showtime was like 'oh my god, we've got a golden egg!'"

Moonbase 8 is now streaming on Showtime.

Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.