Thomas Lennon On New Book, Reno 911 & Christopher Nolan
(CBS Local)-- Tom Lennon's IMDB page is one of the longest in the business and that is something he takes great pride in.
The actor and screenwriter recently added author to his bio with a new children's book called "Ronan Boyle and The Bridge Of Riddles." Many television fans still remember Lennon from his roles on CBS shows such as "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Odd Couple."
"I have a weird resume," said Lennon in an interview with CBS Local. "Acting is a job that can break your heart and writing is a job that can break your heart. So what I did is diversify into two things that can break your heart all the time."
Lennon got his start in sketch comedy and he still works with the people he met at NYU 31 years ago. One of the biggest hits of Lennon's career came in "Reno 911" where he played Lieutenant Jim Dangle. Studio executives weren't initially into the concept of the show.
"We did a table read of all of our sketches and we got cancelled at the table read," said Lennon. "They were not feeling it. We had been cancelled, but we had the cast. We had this great cast, a crew and a budget left over. With zero preparation and no planning, we shot and got cop outfits. I said I wanted short shorts. Everybody just picked names and it was really random."
In addition to his TV work, Lennon has also appeared in movies like "I Love You Man", "17 Again" and "The Dark Knight Rises." Working for Christopher Nolan was one of the most unique and memorable experiences of his career.
"I was so excited. The reason why I'm in 'The Dark Knight Rises' is that I'm also the doctor in 'Memento,' said Lennon. "It's an inside joke. It was supposed to be a hilarious joke... this is Sammy's doctor. That was fun. I only had a paragraph that I got to say, but I got only that page of the script on red paper and everything that wasn't literally what I say was redacted with a black marker. It was delivered to my house by someone from Nolan's office. It was pretty neat."
Lennon's book "Ronan Boyle and The Bridge Of Riddles" is available wherever books are sold.