Are Veep’s Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson From ‘I Think You Should Leave’ Really Best Friends?
The tragically canceled Comedy Central series Detroiters showcased best friends Sam Richardson who starred in Veep and Tim Robinson from I Think You Should Leave. The buddy sitcom was pretty convincing when it came to Richardson and Robinson’s friendship, but are they really best friends in real life? You betcha.
How did Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson meet?
While Detroiters was a sitcom, the basis was pretty autobiographical. The comedians both drew up in the Detroit area and met as teenagers. “We met at Second City Detroit,” Richardson recalled to Men’s Health. “Tim was my level-A teacher. I was 18.”
“Yeah, yeah. I was 21,” Robinson added. “It was the very first class I ever taught, I think. Our mutual friend was like, “My friend Sam’s gonna be in your class.” And like in Detroiters, the guys hung out at a sleepy bar in Detroit after class.
“Our last few years in Detroit, we got super close,” Robinson recalled. “We did shows together. We would spend long nights together sitting on my porch or at [Sam’s] palace of booze and would just shoot the shit till, like, the sun came up. Then our trajectories kind of went the same. We both went to Chicago at the same time. Got on touring companies in Chicago at the same time. We kind of followed each other around.”
When did the ‘Detroiters’ stars know they were best friends?
The moment they realized this friendship would go the distance was when they discovered they both had a hardcore love of Christmas. “Because you look back and it’s a whole era of times. We were both super into Christmas,” Richardson said about that “ah-ha we really are best friends” moment.
Richardson added, “Just listening to Christmas songs nonstop while we’re at each other’s houses, like, “Oh, this is a great one!”
“I remember calling you one Thanksgiving eve at two in the morning and saying, ‘Turn on PBS right now. There’s a Jack Benny special on,'” Robinson added. They then traveled down memory lane, remembering how they’d watch Jack Benny together on the phone. They also had their own special meal they loved to split called “Turf and Turf.”
“We’d always get what we’d call the turf and turf, where we’d order a burger and wings and we’d cut the burger in half and split the wings,” Richardson said.
Do these close friends ever fight?
Richardson and Robinson know they are friends for life. “Every phone call ends with ‘I love you, bud,'” Richardson shared. Being open about their friendship was a big part of the storyline on Detroiters. In fact, the guys would say, “I love you bud” when they would end their day after work at the advertising agency. They would stand outside the homes they purchased (next door to each other) and say in a matter-of-fact tone “Love you.”
Richardson added: “I just think there’s no airs between us. There’s no fear of lost masculinity. It’s very secure in that.”
And while the guys are tight, like most friends, they also fight. “I’m paranoid and I have all these ailments, and I think at one point I was freaking out about a bump on my leg,” Robinson recalled of a moment when he got on Richardson’s nerves. “And Sam did just what my wife does: ‘Well, go to the f**king doctor!’”
“I think he got frustrated with me constantly being like, ‘I don’t know what this is,'” Robinson added.
