Bob Saget Biography

Robert Lane "Bob" Saget (born May 17, 1956) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and television host. Although he is best known for his family-friendly roles as Danny Tanner in Full House and the original host of America's Funniest Home Videos, Saget is also known for his very vulgar stand-up routine. Since 2005, he has provided the voice of the future Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother.

Early life

Saget was born in Philadelphia to Italian parents. His father, Giuseppe, was a supermarket executive, and his mother, Dina Bovo, was a hospital administrator. Saget lived in Norfolk, Virginia and in Encino, California, before moving back to Philadelphia and graduating from South Philadelphia High School. Saget originally intended to become a doctor, but his Honors English teacher, Elaine Zimmerman, saw his creative potential and urged him to seek a career in films.

He attended Temple University's film school, where he created Through Adam's Eyes, a black-and-white film about a boy who received reconstructive facial surgery, and was honored with an award of merit in the Student Academy Awards. His friends called him "Sags". He graduated with a B.A. in 1978. Saget intended to take graduate courses at the University of Southern California but quit a few days later. Saget describes himself at the time in an article by Glenn Esterly in the 1990 Saturday Evening Post: "I was a cocky, overweight twenty-two-year-old. Then I had a gangrenous appendix taken out, almost died, and I got over being cocky or overweight." Saget talked about his burst appendix on Anytime with Bob Kushell, saying that it happened on the Fourth of July, at the UCLA Medical Center and that they at first just iced the area for seven hours before taking it out and finding that it had become gangrenous. Saget credits the band Autistico for getting him through the tough times.

Career

Early career

Saget started performing stand-up comedy and did a number of national tours. Later, in 1987, he became the co-host of The Morning Program—an attempt by CBS to take a different direction with morning television—for which he also wrote and produced content.

Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos

Soon after, Saget was cast as Danny Tanner in Full House, which became a huge success through family viewers and landed in the Nielsen ratings's Top 30 from the third season onward. In 1989 Saget was cast as the host of America's Funniest Home Videos, a role he held until 1997. During the early 1990s Saget worked both on Full House and AFV simultaneously, and in 2009 had turn to AFV for a 20th anniversary one-hour special co-hosted with Tom Bergeron.

Continued career

Saget was also the host of NBC's game show 1 vs. 100, which debuted October 13, 2006.

He plays the narrator of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which premiered on September 19, 2005. In the series he portrays the future version of the protagonist Ted Mosby. Throughout the series, only his voice is heard and it is yet to be seen if he will make an appearance.

His HBO comedy special, That Ain't Right, came out on DVD on August 28, 2007. It is dedicated to his father, Ben Saget, who died on January 30, 2007, due to complications from congestive heart failure. He was 89.

He has had recurring roles in HBO's Entourage playing a parody of himself.

Saget appeared in the Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone for a limited four-month engagement. He played "Man in Chair" while Jonathan Crombie, who normally played the character on Broadway, was with the national tour of the musical. On January 4, 2008, Saget's caricature was unveiled at Sardi's Restaurant.

On August 17, 2008, Saget was roasted by Comedy Central in a special, titled The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget.

In April 2009, he debuted in a new sitcom along with his co-star Cynthia Stevenson on ABC called Surviving Suburbia. The series, which was originally to air on The CW, ended after one abbreviated season.

Directing career

Saget directed the 1996 ABC television movie For Hope, which was inspired by the life story of his sister, Gay Saget, who died from scleroderma three years earlier.

In 1998, Saget directed his first feature film Dirty Work, starring Norm Macdonald and Artie Lange. Coming off one year after he left his long-running role as host of America's Funniest Home Videos, the film received broadly negative reviews from critics, and earned low box office returns. However, it has since become a cult favorite, due partially to Artie Lange's later popularity on The Howard Stern Show where the film is sometimes mentioned, often in unflattering terms.

Saget wrote, directed, and starred in Farce of the Penguins, a parody of 2005's March of the Penguins, which was released direct-to-DVD, in January 2007.

Other works

In 1998, Saget made a cameo appearance as a cocaine addict in the stoner comedy Half Baked.

In 2006, Jamie Kennedy released a rap song and music video entitled "Rollin' with Saget", which featured Saget and is on his website.

In 2010, Saget starred in an A&E series Strange Days in which he follows others in different activities and lifestyles, documenting their adventures in unusual ways.

Charity work

Saget is currently a board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation. His scleroderma efforts have further benefited such celebrities as Scary Movies star Regina Hall.

In an interview with Ability Magazine, Saget discussed how his sister was diagnosed with scleroderma at 43, and died at 47. Before that, she had been misdiagnosed many times. "Unfortunately, rheumatologists in a lot of places don"t have very many scleroderma patients come through their labs, and no one knew what to do with her. I wish I"d known then what I know now."

Because of this, Saget is involved in many fundraising benefits, towards finding a cure for this disease.

"Nobody knew about the disease at that time. Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, and myself all got involved in the benefit, but this was 25 years ago, and none of us had any real television life to speak of. Sharon Monsky, who founded the Scleroderma Research Foundation, organized that benefit."

"There"s also a Scleroderma Foundation, and we"re separate from them, but one of the Scleroderma Foundation board heads is also on the Scleroderma Research Foundation board. We"re all basically trying to cure the same thing. Our organization has raised $25 million for research. Our chairman, Luke Evnin, is an amazing man, and lives up in San Francisco with his wife, Deann Wright. They"re both brilliant scientists and doctors. Dana Delany"s on the board, Caryn Zucker, Kristen Baker Bellamy, who lost her mother to scleroderma, and is married to Bill Bellamy. Robin Williams worked our first benefit. A number of celebrities sign on, which helps to give the disease a higher profile. As you may know, Regina, a significant number of the people who get scleroderma are African-American."

Television and filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1979	Outer Touch	Voice of Wurlitzer	Voice Also writer
1980	Devices	Therapy Patient
1981	Full High Moon	Sportscaster
	Bosom Buddies	Bob the Comic	Episode: "The Show Must Go On"
1983	The Greatest American Hero	Rook	Episode: "Wizards and Warlocks"
1985	New Love, American Style	Comedy Vignettes	unknown episodes
1986	It's a Living	Dr. Bartlett	Episode: "The Doctor Danny Show"
1987	Critical Condition	Dr. Joffe
1987"1995	Full House	Daniel 'Danny' Tanner	192 episodes
1989"1997; 2009	America's Funniest Home Videos	Himself (host)
1989	MMC		Episode: Guest Day"
1992	Quantum Leap	Macklyn "Mack" MacKay	Episode: "Stand Up - April 30, 1959"
	To Grandmother's House We Go	Win-O-Lotto Lottery Host	TV film uncredited'
1993	For Goodness Sake	Surgeon
1994	Father and Scout	Spencer Paley	TV film Also executive producer
1997	Meet Wally Sparks	Reporter #4
1998	Half Baked	Cocaine Addict	uncredited
1999	Sorority	Dean Tinker	TV film uncredited
2000	Becoming Dick	Bob	TV film uncredited Also director
	The Norm Show	Mr. Atkitson	Episode: "Norm vs. Schoolin'" Also director
2001"2002	Raising Dad	Matt Stewart	17 episodes
2003	Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd	Walter
2004	New York Minute	Himself	Extra
2004	Huff	Butch	Episode: "Flashpants"
2005	Listen Up	Mitch	Coach Potato
	Madagascar	Zoo Animal	Voice
	The Aristocrats	Himself	Documentary
	"Entourage"	Himself	Five Episodes
2005"present	How I Met Your Mother	Ted Mosby (2030) Voice only	TV series
2006
	1 vs. 100	Himself (host)	Hosted from 2006"2008 on NBC
	Casper's Scare School	Dash	Voice TV film
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Glenn Cheales	Episode: "Choreographed"
2007
	Farce of the Penguins	Carl	Voice Direct-to-video Also writer, director and producer
	Howard Stern on Demand		Episode: "Brad Garrett"
	The Tuttles: Madcap Misadventures	Barry Tuttle	Video game
2008	The Life & Times of Tim		Voice Episode: "Mugger/Cin City"
	The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget		Himself
2009	Surviving Suburbia	Steve Patterson	13 episodes
2010	Conan		Episode: "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Dead Fish"
	Strange Days with Bob Saget	Himself (host)	six episodes
2011	Law & Order: LA		Episode: "Van Nuys"
	Louie	Bob Saget	Cameo