Bret McKenzie has revealed why the HBO Flight of the Conchords show wrapped up after two seasons and why it won’t ever return.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Rolling Stone Uncut podcast, McKenzie recalled how quickly the show garnered global attention, saying that when they shot the first season, people thought it was a student film. By the time the second season began filming in 2008, production on the streets of New York City was much harder to navigate.
After two hugely-successful seasons and a string of Emmy nominations, McKenzie and Jemaine Clement announced in 2009 that Flight of the Conchords would not return for a third season.
“We were both really into the idea of not doing it, because we were, sort of, running out of ideas and we were really burnt out,” McKenzie said.
“We were pre the well-being awareness era. Because it’s quite a long time ago. I mean, now people are just far better at looking after themselves, and there’s a lot more tools and a lot more support… at the time, that wasn’t quite the culture.
“There was no financial offer that was gonna make us do [a third season].”
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While he ruled out any return of the TV series, McKenzie said the Conchords are open to doing more live shows ahead of the Netflix is a Joke Festival in LA this May, with three live shows booked, and newly-announced warm-up shows in their home country later this month.
It will mark the Conchords’ first live shows in eight years.
“It would be fun to do some more, [but] we’re just gonna take it and see as we go,” he said.
“Playing live is pretty fun for us… Jemaine [Clement] has a really busy schedule with a lot of film work, acting and stuff. The live shows are quite good because you can go, ‘Oh, we can get a week, so maybe we could do something there within those few weeks,’ or it seems more realistic than blocking out a year or two.”