Patrick Warburton recalls Ellen DeGeneres confronting him in public about not doing her show: 'It was just weird'

The actor said the comedian approached him at a restaurant and asked, "Too big to do my show now, huh?"

Patrick Warburton is sharing how turning down a spot on Ellen DeGeneres's sitcom Ellen led to one very uncomfortable and very public confrontation with the comedian and future talk show host.

While visiting SiriusXM’s The Spotlight With Jessica Shaw on Tuesday, the Family Guy actor recalled an awkward run-in he had with DeGeneres at a restaurant after he'd claimed to have a conflict to avoid doing another guest spot after making a few previous appearances on the sitcom, which ran from 1994–1998. Warburton — who was gaining popularity at the time as Puddy, Elaine's (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) boyfriend, on Seinfeld — explained that he had become the “flavor of the month” and was ready to do something new.

“They asked me to come back and do another one and I was just kind of done doing guest spots at that time, and it was sort of time to move on, and I just, you know, I said I had a conflict, all right?” He confessed. “So, that was it.”

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Well, until two weeks later. “I’m having lunch at a restaurant called Orso in Beverly Hills with a buddy of mine having lunch and Ellen walks up to the table and she goes, 'Too big to do my show now, huh?'” He remembered. “And I go, ‘No, Ellen.’ I go, ‘I just had a conflict,’ which she probably sensed was just bulls— and she walked away.”

After their run-in, Warburton said that he realized the repercussions may extend beyond the show he turned down. "Knowing [DeGeneres],” he said, he knew he “was never, ever gonna be invited onto her talk show," referring to The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which ran from 2003–2023. “She was spurn,” he added.

Related: Patrick Warburton's mom tried to get Family Guy canceled despite his salary from the show supporting her

A representative for DeGeneres did not immediately reply to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment.

During its run, Ellen was nominated for 10 Emmys, winning three. It broke new ground in a 1997 episode in which the character Ellen Morgan, echoing DeGeneres' real life, came out as a lesbian, making her the first out gay or lesbian lead character on a U.S. network TV show.

Warburton went on to explain that he considered himself to be "a huge fan" of DeGeneres and her sitcom. "What I recall working on that show was that, as far as crowd work and talking, she was just this remarkable comedian, you know, at the very, very top of the game," he said. "She was as good as anybody.”

Related: Ellen DeGeneres abruptly cancels shows on her comedy tour

Still, he was perplexed by the star's reaction to him declining her invitation. “It was just weird because, you know, when you say you have a conflict and you don't do something, you seem like you're gonna be fine with that,” he said. “You don't expect the star of the show to walk up to you and call you out on your s— and that's all it was.”

He continued, “And then I always knew, it was like, ‘Oh, Ellen's got a great show. It's a lot of fun. I'll never be on it."

Following her sitcom success, the stand-up comic fronted her own daytime talk show for 19 seasons. The decision to end The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2022 came two years after a BuzzFeed News report that saw several of its current and former employees come forward with toxic workplace environment allegations against DeGeneres and senior staffers.

The comedian later reflected on getting “kicked out of show business” for being “mean” during a comedy gig back in April, adding, “I'm making jokes about what happened to me, but it was devastating. It took a long time for me to want to do anything again."

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated that Warburton was referring to his appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show instead of the sitcom Ellen.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.