-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy Award-winning actress
you know from her iconic roles on "Friends" and "The Comeback,"
and films such as "Book Smart,"
"Romy and Michele's High School Reunion"
and "Analyze This."
She's the executive producer of "Who Do You Think You Are,"
which airs Sundays on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.
Let's take a look.
-Wow. That's -- That is a --
That's a great-looking hat.
And I am a hat lady.
That looks like Pharrell might have copied that hat.
That looks like it would fit my head.
-[ Chuckles ]
If it was a little less than 400 years old,
we'd let you try it on.
-Please welcome to the show, the one, the only
Lisa Kudrow, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-I am so happy to have you here.
-I'm so happy to be here.
-I'm also happy to find that we have something in common,
especially during these summer months
when a lot of people are drawn to it,
but we both despise the beach.
-Oh, yes. -Yeah.
-Yeah, yeah. No, I hate the sand.
-Have you hated it your whole life?
-No, when I was a kid, I didn't mind.
-Yeah. -No, and then, I got smart.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
And I don't like it at all.
-The sand -- You really said it.
I think the sand is just -- I don't care how beautiful
the ocean is, the fact that it's right next
to the sand is just a deal killer.
-No, the sand, it gets everywhere,
there are sand fleas maybe. -Maybe.
I didn't even think about the sand fleas element of this.
-Well, I just gave you more evidence.
-You know, the funny thing is, my wife is the one who wants
to go to the beach, and then, we go to the beach,
and then we walk off the beach, and she's like,
"Will you brush the sand off yourself before you get
in the car?" and I'm like, "Or we don't go to the beach."
-"Ever again!" [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. -I know.
-And then, the car is pristine the way the car
is supposed to be. -Right, exactly.
My husband doesn't like the beach, either,
but he scuba dives, snorkels,
and that is out of the question for me.
-Is that worse to you than being on sand?
-Yes. -Yeah, okay.
-Yeah, yeah, no, because I can't live underwater.
[ Laughter ] -True.
-To me, my instincts tell me I don't belong there,
and then you put the snorkel on,
and you see it's another world, and I want out.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-And by the way, they want you out, too.
Those beautiful fish are not happy to see you.
-Right! They're not there for my entertainment.
-Yeah. -Yeah, I know.
-Yeah. If you had to, would you rather scuba dive
or snorkel, given the two options.
-Well, snorkel. -Yeah.
-Scuba dive, you have to learn how to do it right
or you get seriously injured or die. No.
-I remember as a kid, we went out to go scuba diving.
I did it once with my family, and, like, while they were
giving the instructions, I was just like,
"This isn't -- No, we gotta get out of here."
-It's what's called an unnecessary risk.
-Yeah, exactly. [ Laughter ]
'Cause a lot of other people do scuba diving,
they take pictures of all those fish.
You can just look at the pictures,
and then you're good to go. -There are so many shows.
[ Laughter ] -Speaking of shows --
look at that -- you've got this wonderful show,
and this -- so this was a show you saw
in the U.K. on BBC originally. -Yeah, right.
-And did you immediately think, "Oh, my God.
I want to do that over here." -Yes. I did.
-Were you drawn to the idea of genealogy?
Was this something that was always interesting to you?
-No, not even a little bit. But this show had almost --
Genealogy was just the vehicle that got you to these
phenomenal stories about ancestry and about our history,
and it's our shared history.
And I felt watching it, like, we're all connected.
Like, when we hear these stories, I know about that,
and, look how it affected your family,
what affected my family. Yeah, and I just thought,
"Why don't --" I actually just was
kind of angry -- "Why don't we have this show?
What? We're stupid? No, we're not."
[ Laughter ] You know, like,
"We would, like, totally watch this show!"
[ Laughter ] -Well, thank you for
standing up for us.
On behalf of all Americans, I thank you.
-In a baby, baby way.
-Did you know a lot about your genealogy growing up?
Was your family the kind that shared that sort of thing?
-My dad did. He would go to the Mormon temple
and do research and all of that.
But it was just like names and dates and okay.
So, "Oh, Feivel, Zelig, okay. That's interesting,"
but you don't know anything about them.
But this show made it seem like, "Oh, but you can maybe --
There are records maybe about people,
and you can learn something about them."
So I got in touch with the guy who created the show,
and he said, "Yeah, we've been trying to do it in the U.S.
for a long time. Let's try it together,"
and NBC said yes, and --
Oh, God. I had to do the first episode.
-And did you find out anything --
Were you nervous? -Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-I've done this once. I did one of the other shows.
-Yeah, I watched it. I love that show, yeah.
-But I wasn't nervous -- 'Cause I feel like there's
two kinds of nervous you can be with these shows.
One, I was nervous mine was gonna be boring.
-Right. -The other one is that
you find out some bad things. -Oh, horrible things.
Yeah, but most people -- I mean, look, for our show,
I think what makes people nervous is they're actually
going to the places where their ancestors were,
and they know that they're interacting with historians,
and people, I think, are really nervous that they're
going to look dumb because they don't remember
details of history that -- I'm sorry -- were not taught,
and, yeah, we don't remember Mayflower landed in 1620,
which I only know because we've had 10 people --
you know, I mean, I've seen it 10 times.
But, yeah, no, you're not meant to remember all that stuff.
-Do people come to you now and say they want to do it?
-Yeah. -Okay, so people reach out.
-Yeah, they do. -Because it really is --
I mean, the way this show works, which is, as you mentioned,
people travel, and they get to go to these places
they would never go, and I imagine, some people,
that must be so magnetic an idea.
-Yeah, I think that is exciting to them,
but I think they're also, they just want to --
'Cause you know you'll be
walking in your ancestor's footsteps.
There's just something about being right outside the building
where, "You mean this is where...?
I'm in the same spot." -Yeah.
-"These are the same bricks that he touched,"
and usually it's a "he." [ Laughter ]
-Well, a lot of countries, they wouldn't let women touch bricks.
-No, that's right. [ Laughter ]
See? You know more than me. Thank you! No.
-I know that, I know Mayflower's 1620.
-Until five minutes from now. [ Both laugh ]
-I want to ask this, as well, because the pandemic was a time
where so many people went and watched old shows.
And I'm wondering if someone like you --
I mean, with that said, it strikes me that "Friends"
was a show that people did not need a pandemic
to go back and watch. -Yeah.
-Have you found new fans over --
with shows like "Friends" or "The Comeback" --
-Yes. -That's great.
-Yes, I mean, "Friends" is not shocking.
It was when it was on Netflix and all of a sudden,
there are all these 8-year-olds who weren't born, saying,
"Oh, my God, are you Phoebe?" [ Laughter ]
But, no, "The Comeback," and then, there's these
young people who are like, "Oh, God, I love 'The Comeback,'"
like, "What?! You do?! Oh, my God."
But the most thrilling thing -- I just have to say this --
is my son had COVID, and so he was stuck,
and called me up and said, "So I just watched, like,
episode -- like, the first two episode.
It's really good, Mom." I said, "Thanks."
He said, "Can I ask you some questions about that?"
Like, "Yes!" [ Laughter ]
I almost started crying. -That's really great.
-I didn't think that, you know,
anyone in my family liked that show.
[ Laughter ]
-Did you -- So you obviously knew
at the time your son did not watch it.
-Well, no, he was 5, 6, yeah. -Yeah.
Well, that's -- they say "The Comeback"
is for 7 and above. [ Laughter ]
What is his relationship with "Friends"?
Is that a show that he's watched?
I mean, obviously, it was -- you know, he came after, but --
-Right, right. No, he was 5 when we were finished.
-Gotcha. -So, but still...
No, no, he did start watching when his friends at school
were watching, and you got to know what everyone's watching.
-Yeah. -So he watched it,
and, no, he was impressed.
He said -- He goes, "It's actually really funny."
[ Laughter ]
This little kid, he's like... -He said, "Actually"?
-Kind of, yeah. He said, "It's actually really funny.
And, I mean, the guys are so funny."
[ Laughter ]
And he's like, "No, I mean, you're funny, too."
And I never in my life have I wanted to tell my own kid,
like, "[Bleep] you." [ Laughter and applause ]
I mean, I thought it. -I didn't say it.
-You thought it. You didn't say it.
-No, no, I didn't say it. -By the way, I think, you know,
for all parents, you think it. [ Laughter ]
The difference between a good parent and a bad parent
is, like, "Do you say it?" Yeah.
-I mean, listen, it's not required that you're a fan.
And you don't have to like what I do, but don't be so demeaning.
[ Laughter ]
It's so wow.
-You were the voice of an animated poodle.
-Yeah, yeah, Honey. -This is very exciting.
-Yeah, her name's Honey. -Honey.
You have a real -- is this half a poodle or a full poodle?
-She's like a quarter poodle. -A quarter poodle.
-She's really cute, and she's more elegant than that.
-Oh, do you -- did you use her as any inspiration
for the voice of the fictional poodle?
-Yeah, I kind of tried. -Yeah.
-You know, and then, it just turned out to be me, but...
[ Laughter ]
But, no, I mean, I tried. -Do you --
You and your husband both hate the beach.
Do you both love the dog equally?
-Uh, yes -- no, my husband loves her more.
My husband actually --
This will sound weird, but it's true.
He says all the time, "I just want to take --
I want to take her to Paris." He's French.
So he says, "I want to take her to Paris
and have dinner with her at the Eiffel Tower."
[ Laughter ]
What?
-No, that doesn't sound weird.
[ Laughter ]
-"No, I love her so much, and it's such a pretty view."
-Do they even let you bring dogs to the Eiffel Tower?
I bet, being Paris, they probably do, right?
-If they're small.
Don't they bring their dogs everywhere in Paris?
-Yeah, maybe they do.
You're the one who's married to the French guy.
-I know, but I don't know everything about it.
[ Laughter ]
-You're too busy learning about the genealogy
of other celebrities.
You don't have time for your husband.
-That's right, you see.
-Hey, thank you so much for being here.
It's such a delight to talk to you.
Congratulations on the show.
I can't wait to watch the new season.
Lisa Kudrow, everybody.
"Who Do You Think You Are?" airs Sundays at 7:00 p.m.
on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.
We'll be right back with more "Late Night."