Dennis Miller Biography

Dennis Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American stand-up comedian, talk show host, political commentator, sports commentator, actor, television personality, and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references. He rose to fame as a cast member of Saturday Night Live in 1985, and subsequently hosted a string of his own talk shows on HBO, CNBC and in syndication. He currently hosts a daily, three-hour, self-titled talk radio program, nationally syndicated by Dial Global.

Although in his early years of fame he was perceived to be liberal and anti-Republican, in recent years, Miller has become known for his conservative political opinions. He is a regular political commentator on Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor in a segment called "Miller Time", and previously appeared on the network's Hannity & Colmes in a segment called "Real Free Speech." During the Presidential election of 2012, Miller appeared on Fox News Channel and said that under Barack Obama, the US is on the road to the "European model." He is listed as 21st on Comedy Central's 100 greatest stand up comedians of all time.

Early life

Miller was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Castle Shannon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where he graduated from Keystone Oaks High School in 1971. His parents separated and Miller was raised by his mother, Norma, a dietitian. Miller is of Scottish descent. At Point Park University, he majored in journalism because he thought it would be easy: "I remember seeing All the President's Men and thinking Redford looked cool in his crinkled tie." He was a member of Sigma Tau Gamma Fraternity. About his social status during this period, Miller writes: "When I went to college, I lived on campus, and the guys I hung out with made me do some things I'm not proud of, although they made the characters in Revenge of the Nerds look like the Rat Pack in 1962. I myself made that kid Booger look like Remington Steele" (I Rant, Therefore I Am). Miller graduated from Point Park College in 1976.

In 1979 Miller won $500 as a runner-up in Playboy magazine's first annual humor competition with the following joke:

Television career

In the early 1980s, Miller hosted Punch Line, a Saturday afternoon newsmagazine for teenagers, on Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV. He also produced humorous essays for the syndicated Evening Magazine television program. Miller then began performing stand-up in New York comedy clubs such as Catch A Rising Star and The Comic Strip, as well as in Los Angeles at The Comedy Store. He appeared on Star Search, where he lost out to fellow comedian Sinbad after the two tied with judges' scores, but Sinbad won with a higher studio-audience approval rating.

Saturday Night Live

Miller's big break came in 1985 when he was discovered by Lorne Michaels at The Comedy Store. He landed a spot on Saturday Night Live, where he succeeded Christopher Guest as the Weekend Update anchor. The spot was supposed to go to comic Jon Lovitz, but Lovitz was scheduled for other parts on the show and needed the Update segment to do costume changes; so Miller was drafted to read the news. Miller began his fictional news reports with "Good evening, and what can I tell you?" and closed with "Guess what, folks? That's the news, and I am outta here!" Fans of SNL became accustomed to his smirky delivery, high-pitched giggle, and frequently primped hair idiosyncrasies that would be spoofed by Dana Carvey, Tom Hanks, and Jimmy Fallon, all of whom have impersonated Miller on the show. When Miller left SNL in 1991, the anchor's chair was turned over to Kevin Nealon.

In 1988, Miller released a stand-up comedy CD, The Off-White Album, derived from an HBO special titled Mr. Miller Goes to Washington, which drew heavily from the observational and metaphor-driven style he was known for on Saturday Night Live, and showed glimpses of the political humor that would influence his later work. A well-received HBO special, Dennis Miller: Black and White, aired shortly after the release of the CD.

Although Miller spent much of his time on SNL behind the Weekend Update desk, he was included in some sketches and did a few recurring characters and celebrity impersonations.

Recurring characters

• Koko, one of the pixies in the recurring sketch "Miss Connie's Fable Nook"
• Steve, one of The Stand-Ups (others include Jon Lovitz as Bob, Damon Wayans as Keith, and Tom Hanks as Paul)

Celebrity impersonations

• Gary Hart
• George Harrison
• Nathaniel Crosby

The Dennis Miller Show

In 1992, following his departure from Saturday Night Live, Miller launched a late-night TV talk show, The Dennis Miller Show, syndicated by Tribune Entertainment. The Dennis Miller Show continued in the tradition of "alternative" talk shows, which started with the Late Night with David Letterman show, which debuted on NBC in 1982.

The Dennis Miller Show featured cutting-edge bands and other groundbreaking guests. For example, Toad the Wet Sprocket made their national television debut on the show, and Henry Rollins stopped by occasionally to chat with Miller and perform spoken word. Comedian Bill Hicks also performed on the show. Andy Summers, formerly of the band The Police, led the house band, and Nick Bakay was the announcer.

The show's staff boasted a standard mix of past and future performers, writers, and producers of note including Nick Bakay, Todd Baker, Mark Brazill (That '70s Show), Eddie Feldmann, David Kohan & Max Mutchnick (creators of Will & Grace), Norm Macdonald, Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show), John Riggi, Kevin Rooney, Herb Sargent (Saturday Night Live), Drake Sather, and Dave Thomas (Second City TV).

Dennis Miller Live

Beginning in 1994, Miller hosted Dennis Miller Live, a half-hour talk show on HBO. The show's theme song was the iconic Tears for Fears hit Everybody Wants to Rule the World, and also utilized a snippet of the song Civilized by the Rollins Band. The show was taped at CBS Television City on the same stage that The Price Is Right is taped. It utilized a small set and sparse lighting, and there was no band. It comprised mainly Miller, speaking to the largely unseen studio audience, on a darkened stage. He hosted one guest per show, with whom he would discuss the topic of the day. Early on, they were all interviewed live via satellite, but soon most guests were live in the studio. There was also a call-in segment. The number was originally given as 1-800-LACTOSE. Later, he referred to it only by its numeric equivalent (1-800-522-8673). Within the time available, Miller typically could accommodate only two or three calls. He gradually eliminated call-ins entirely in the last few seasons of the show. Miller and his writing staff won five Emmy Awards during the show's run, which aired 215 episodes over nine years. HBO cancelled the show in 2002.

Monday Night Football

In 2000, Miller beat out Rush Limbaugh and Tony Kornheiser (among others) for a job as color commentator on ABC's Monday Night Football. His commentary was sprinkled with esoteric references. A common Miller-ism was after a Hail Mary pass fell incomplete, he would say "Hail Mary is denied " separation of church and state." He also once referred to the "Greatest Show on Turf" St. Louis Rams receiving corps as the "Murderer's Row of Haste". After two seasons, Miller and former San Diego Chargers' quarterback Dan Fouts (who worked alongside play-by-play man Al Michaels) were replaced by the veteran football commentator John Madden. In 2010, TV Guide Network listed Miller's stint at #12 on their list of 25 Biggest TV Blunders.

CNBC show

In 2003, Miller provided short-lived regular commentary for the Fox News show Hannity & Colmes before moving on to do a prime-time political show on CNBC in early 2004 called, simply, Dennis Miller. The hour-long show contained a daily news segment called "The Daily Rorschach", which was reminiscent of his Weekend Update segments. He also had a chimpanzee, as a nod to the early days of the Today show and their mascot J. Fred Muggs. The show also featured a panel discussion dubbed "The Varsity", which offered a wide variety of political viewpoints on current topics. Frequent "Varsity" panelists included Ed Schultz, Gloria Allred, Willie Brown, David Horowitz, Mickey Kaus, Steven Katz, Lawrence O'Donnell, Phil Hendrie, and Harry Shearer. CNBC cancelled the show in May 2005 due to declining viewership.

Guest appearances and commercials

Miller has appeared as a guest or guest star on various shows, including Boston Public, The Daily Show, Hannity & Colmes, NewsRadio, The O'Reilly Factor, The Norm Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, SportsCenter, "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" and late-night talk shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Miller hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 1995 and 1996. He was also the host of HBO's 1996 series of election specials, Not Necessarily the Election.

He has appeared in various television commercials, serving as a spokesman for M&M's candies, 10-10-220 long distance service, and the Internet service provider NetZero. About these activities he has remarked: "Everybody has to sell out at some point to make a living. I'm a family man. I sold out to make an M&M commercial. They offer incredible amounts of money, and I say, ?What can I do to sell one more piece of candy for you? Do you want me to hug the M&M?' " Dennis also did a short B2B commercial for Blockbuster/IBM partnership company, New Leaf Entertainment. On Monday February 27th 2012 Miller guest starred on Hawaii 5-0 on the episode Lekio along with another guest star James Caan.

Return to Fox News Channel

On September 21, 2006, Miller returned to Fox News Channel with a two-and-a-half-minute commentary on illegal immigration during his "Real Free Speech" segment on Hannity & Colmes. He appeared on 13 of the 17 aired episodes of the comedy show The Half Hour News Hour. Currently, he has a weekly segment called "Miller Time" on The O'Reilly Factor. Miller has also appeared on Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld under the pseudonym "Mansquito", a name Miller has pledged to use on future appearances on the network.

Game shows

Miller co-hosted the game show Grand Slam, which aired on GSN in 2007.

For one month, Miller hosted Amne$ia for NBC. The show was a replacement program commissioned during the 2007"08 Writers Guild of America strike and was canceled once the strike was resolved and scripted programming returned to the network.

Sports Unfiltered on Versus

Miller's days as a sports commentator did not end when he left Monday Night Football. In 2007, Versus, now NBCSN, tapped Miller to host Sports Unfiltered.

Radio career

The Dennis Miller Show

In January 2007, Miller signed a deal with Westwood One (later acquired by Dial Global) to launch a weekday three-hour talk radio program. The program debuted on March 26, 2007. The show's website provides a live stream of the broadcast. The site also makes archives of all shows available in MP3 format. The live feed is free, but a subscription to the Dennis Miller Zone (DMZ) is required in order to access archived broadcasts. The show airs on 250+ stations, many of which (especially in the major markets) are owned by Salem Communications, airing on tape delay on some of those stations between 6"9 pm ET and 9 pm-12 am ET. Salem stations also air a "best of" Miller show on Saturdays. His former on-air sidekick "Salman" (David S. Weiss) also wrote for Dennis Miller Live. His producer Christian Bladt previously appeared on-camera as dozens of different characters during the "Daily Rorschach" segment on his CNBC television show.

Miller's program includes serious discussions about American culture, current events, politics, and their place in the global context. The show is infused with Miller's sarcasm, which is often characterized by obscure pop culture references. For example, each hour of the show once opened with an arcane reference. The first hour's opening phrase was a combination of dialogue from the film Thank You for Smoking and a U.S. space program slogan coined by Alan Shepard: "What's up, Hiroshi? Let's light this candle!" Miller's other opening phrases for his second and third hours respectively were "Come to me my babies, let me quell your pain", (Powers Boothe as Jim Jones in Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones) and "ABC " Always be closing if you want the knife set" (from Glengarry Glen Ross).

Most shows feature three guests (one per hour), mostly from the world of politics and entertainment, as well as calls from listeners. Guests include fellow comedians and SNL alumni (such as Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz), pundits and authors such as Ann Coulter, Aaron Klein and Mark Steyn (while the show's guest list leans right of center, there are several liberals who have appeared on the show, such as Dennis Kucinich and Alan Dershowitz), Presidential candidates, several sports commentators, and some "regulars", Howard Fineman of Newsweek, singer Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, Nikki Finke, and Representative David Dreier, a Republican congressman from California, among many others. Dennis Miller generally takes calls every hour, and in addition to comments about culture and politics, Miller encourages humorous callers and often comments on their comedic delivery. A segment on Fridays is set aside for "Dennis Ex Machina", his term for a segment without a guest, where he allows phone calls on any topic.

According to Talkers Magazine, as of spring 2011, Miller's show has an estimated 2,250,000 weekly listeners. Miller and Dial Global signed an agreement in early 2012 to continue his show for an undisclosed number of years.

Other endeavors

Miller periodically performs stand-up at the Orleans Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. In recent appearances, he has done a mix of his old and new material, with some political jokes as well.

He has authored four books based on his stand-up comedy and television monologues: The Rants (1996), Ranting Again (1999), I Rant, Therefore I Am (2000), and The Rant Zone (2001).

Miller has appeared in several films, in both comedic and non-comedic roles. His movie credits include Madhouse, Disclosure, The Net, Never Talk to Strangers, Bordello of Blood, What Happens in Vegas and Murder at 1600. He plays the Howard Stern-like talk-radio host Zander Kelly in Joe Dirt (2001) and appears as himself in Thank You for Smoking (2006).

Miller guest hosted the Slammy Awards episode of WWE Raw on December 14, 2009.

Comedic style

Miller is known for his laid-back style (for example, calling people "babe" or referring to them as "cats") and acerbic, brooding sense of humor. His specialty is the rant"?a stream-of-consciousness diatribe monologue in which he rails against whatever happens to be bothering him at the moment. Such rants typically begin with "Now, I don't want to get off on a rant here, but..." and end with "...of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." (During the first two seasons of Dennis Miller Live, his rants ended with "Aw, fuck it. Who wants pie?")

Miller's monologues and standup routines often feature elaborate similes and metaphors involving allusions to obscure people, places, and things. Miller has alluded to his own reputation for obscurity by titling one of his television specials Citizen Arcane. On his passion for language, he has remarked: "I've always loved the flirtatious tango of consonants and vowels, the sturdy dependability of nouns and capricious whimsy of verbs, the strutting pageantry of the adjective and the flitting evanescence of the adverb, all kept safe and orderly by those reliable little policemen, punctuation marks. Wow! Think I got my ass kicked in high school?"

He was voted number 21 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.

Personal life

Miller married Carolyn "Ali" Espley, a former model from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on April 10, 1988. Espley is best known as the girl in Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy" music video. The couple live in Santa Barbara, California, with their two sons, Holden (born 1990) and Marlon (born 1993). His younger brother Jimmy Miller has been a manager for comedians such as Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow, and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Political views

During the late 1980s and continuing through the 1990s, Miller was generally perceived as a cynic on the left, ever eager to bash conservative Republicans. This perception did not change much even when Miller told USA Today in 1995: "I might be profane and opinionated, but underneath all that are some pretty conservative feelings. On most issues, between Clinton and Newt Gingrich, I'd choose Newt in a second, even though he is a bit too exclusionary." Miller also declared himself a "conservative libertarian" in a 1996 Playboy interview.

Miller's ideology changed significantly in the years following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when he became one of the few Hollywood celebrities backing George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Miller has said that one of the defining moments, in addition to 9/11, for his move from the Democratic to the Republican Party was watching a 2004 primary debate between the nine Democrats then contending for their party's nomination. "I haven't seen a starting nine like that since the '62 Mets", he remarked.

Slate.com commentator Dennis Cass describes Miller as having changed from a "left-leaning, Dada-ist wisenheimer" to a "tell-it-like-it-is, right-wing blowhard." The perceived change did not surprise former Saturday Night Live colleague and Democratic Party Senator Al Franken, however: "People have said to me, ?What happened to Dennis?' Nothing happened to Dennis. He's the same Dennis. He's always had a conservative streak on certain issues."

While not at all shy about expressing his conservative opinions on topics such as taxes and foreign policy, Miller is quick to point out that he is still quite liberal on many social issues, including abortion and gay marriage. During a recent interview, Miller said "I'm basically a libertarian. I'm pro-gay marriage and pro-choice, but nobody wants to hear all that.... They determine who you are based on the war." During an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, he said that he did not believe in global warming, and that even if it was happening, he would not mind it because he does not like to be cold.

In a radio interview with Penn Jillette on September 22, 2006, Miller explained his libertarianism, saying, "...[a libertarian is] what I am, I'll be honest with you. I'm for gay marriage. I don't believe in abortion but I'm pro-choice 'cause it's none of my business. Pretty much anything goes with me if you're not infringing yourself on other people but, I'll tell ya, 9/11 changed me.... You gotta go around and explain it to people and they think you're a turncoat."

On February 21, 2007, while appearing as a guest on The O'Reilly Factor, and again on May 25, 2007, while appearing as a guest on The Tonight Show, Miller stated that he initially supported Rudy Giuliani for president in 2008. After Giuliani's departure from the race he redirected his support to John McCain.

Miller endorsed Herman Cain in the 2012 Republican primary, but later dropped his support, saying of Cain, "he can't win!" He later campaigned for Mitt Romney in the general election.

Media

Film

• Madhouse (1990) - Wes
• Disclosure (1994) - Mark Lewyn
• The Net (1995) - Dr. Alan Champion
• Never Talk to Strangers (1995) - Cliff Raddison
• Bordello of Blood (1996) - Rafe Guttman (Miller often refers to this film as his "magnum opus.")
• Murder at 1600 (1997) - Detective Stengel
• Joe Dirt (2001) - Zander Kelly
• Thank You for Smoking (2005) - Himself
• What Happens in Vegas (2008) - Judge Whopper
• The Campaign (2012) - himself

HBO specials

• Mr. Miller Goes to Washington (1988)
• The 13th Annual Young Comedians Special (1989) (host)
• Black & White (1990)
• Live from Washington, D.C.: They Shoot HBO Specials, Don't They? (1993)
• State of the Union Undressed (1995)
• Citizen Arcane (1996)
• The Millennium Special: 1,000 Years, 100 Laughs, 10 Really Good Ones (1999)
• The Raw Feed (2003)
• Dennis Miller: All In (2006)
• The Big Speech (2010)

Audio

• The Off-White Album (Warner Bros. Records, 1988)
• The Rants (Random House Audio, 1996)
• Ranting Again (Random House Audio, 1998)
• Rants Redux (Random House Audio, 1999)
• I Rant, Therefore I Am (Random House Audio, 2000)
• The Rant Zone: An All-Out Blitz Against Soul-Sucking Jobs, Twisted Child Stars, Holistic Loons, and People Who Eat Their Dogs! (HarperAudio, 2001)
• Still Ranting After All These Years (HarperAudio, 2004)

Print

• The Rants (Doubleday, 1996) ISBN 0-385-47804-6
• Ranting Again (Doubleday, 1999) ISBN 0-385-48852-1
• I Rant, Therefore I Am (Doubleday, 2000) ISBN 0-385-49535-8
• The Rant Zone: An All-Out Blitz Against Soul-Sucking Jobs, Twisted Child Stars, Holistic Loons, and People Who Eat Their Dogs! (HarperCollins, 2001) ISBN 0-06-621066-6