Patrick Warburton Recalls Ellen DeGeneres' Reaction to Actor's 'Bulls---' Excuse for Not Making Recurring Appearance on Her Sitcom

Patrick Warburton opted to make an excuse rather than tell Ellen DeGeneres the truth.

During a chat on SiriusXM's The Spotlight With Jessica Shaw on Tuesday, July 30, the Family Guy voice actor shared a funny story about an awkward interaction he once had with DeGeneres after rejecting a recurring role on her '90s sitcom , Ellen.

Warburton had made a few guest appearances on the comedic television series , however, he simultaneously was gaining popularity for his portrayal of the character Puddy, the boyfriend of Elaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus ) on Seinfeld .

Due to his heightened attention, Warburton said he became the "flavor of the month" and was ready to do something new — not revert back to a spot on a sitcom the famed actor already appeared on.

"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? So, that was it," The Emperor's New Groove voice actor, 59, explained.

All was good until two weeks after rejecting the role on Ellen , as his excuse came back to bite him during a run-in with DeGeneres in Los Angeles County, Calif.

"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?'" Warburton recalled of their conversation. "And I go, 'No, Ellen.' I go, 'I just had a conflict,' which she probably sensed was just bulls--- and she walked away."

After the awkward encounter, Warburton remembered feeling certain he'd never be asked to appear on the comedian's series , The Ellen DeGeneres Show , upon the daytime broadcast's creation in 2003.

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"Knowing [DeGeneres], I was never, ever gonna be invited onto her talk show," he quipped. "She was spurn."

Despite DeGeneres' potentially hard feelings toward Warburton, the Bee Movie voice actor still considered himself "a huge fan" of both the Mr. Wrong star 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," Warburton praised . "She was as good as anybody.”

"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 added. "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."

"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," Warburton concluded of DeGeneres' talk show, which came to an end in May 2022.