Conan O'Brien and friend talk Expo 86 and Beachcombers during podcast

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It’s not often you hear a couple of Hollywood heavyweights shout out the Canadian classic TV series The Beachcombers but that is what happened on a recent episode of the podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.

During a wide-ranging and hilarious conversation on the Aug. 24 edition of the hit podcast, host O’Brien and his longtime pal, former writing partner Greg Daniels (creator of the American version of The Office and Parks and Rec), recounted a trip they took when they were young writers living in Los Angeles.

Forgoing a weekend on a boat with pals, the pair of self-professed “nerds” flew to Seattle, got the “cheapest rental car you can get,” and drove to Vancouver with plans to check out “Expo 87.” No, that is not a typo.

“We just managed to convince ourselves that if we missed Expo 87 in Vancouver, we would regret it for the rest of our lives,” said Daniels who also created and produced the Vancouver-shot series Upload.

O’Brien agreed and said: “Oh, by the way the expo was over, the expo was over but we thought, ‘We’ll see the remnants.’”

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Once here, the pair discovered the fair really was over and all they seemed to remember seeing were pavilions belonging to businesses, which led the pair to crack wise about Xerox showcasing a new printer during the fair.

While in their motel room, the pair discovered the CBC series The Beachcombers and decided the trip was now all about heading to Gibsons, where the show was shot and meeting the stars.

“There is a Canadian content show that ran for, like, 50 years. It’s, like, the Bold and the Beautiful of Canada,” said Daniels describing the series that starred Bruno Gerussi and ran for 19 seasons from 1972 to 1990, for a total of 387 episodes.

The pair missed the B.C. Ferry they needed to take to what they referred to in the podcast as “Gibson Island.” Still determined to get there, they managed to convince a local fisherman to take them in his boat over to the Sunshine Coast. Once they arrived, the pair had a plan.

“We decided there was one particular character on it who didn’t have many lines, and we decided we have to meet him. And we made a promise to ourselves, we’re going to shake his hand before we leave Vancouver,” said O’Brien about an actor they did not name in the conversation.

Once there, they discovered that the name of the street in Gibsons on which the actor lived.

“Greg took the north side of the street, I took the south side of the street,” said O’Brien, who along with Daniels had pretended to be reporters in order to get info.

“I’m banging on, like my seventh door. Door opens, there’s the guy, and I’m like, hold on a second, Greg. Greg, Greg. Greg comes running. We both shake his hand. He doesn’t know what’s happening. He’s just accepting that he’s got fans from L.A. that you know, have made the pilgrimage. He’s happy.”

Quest completed, the pair now had to get back to Vancouver and on the road to their Seattle flight. Hearing the ferry had docked, the pair hightailed it to the wharf. Running down the street, they were able to flag down a woman in a Jeep.

“We hitched, like, this woman, we explained it to her. She completely loved the spirit of it,” said Daniels. “She, like, gunned it towards the ferry, went into the wrong way down a street because, the ferry line for the next ferry was already there.”

“We had to kill her,” added O’Brien.

Years after their B.C. adventure, the story was brought back up to O’Brien by a big-shot Hollywood player.

“So flash forward years. Greg’s gone on to create half the TV shows people have watched. And I’ve gone on to my foolishness,” said O’Brien. “Someone tells me, Ari Emanuel, the famous Ari Emanuel, is on Line 1. Agent to the stars. He’s, like, ‘I just talked to Greg. He told me the story of you guys.’ And he said, ‘It’s a movie.’ And I said very calmly, ‘No, Ari, it’s not. It’s two nerds doing something very nerdy.’”

Dgee@postmedia.com