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| Birth Name(s) : Dennis Miller |
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Full Dennis Miller Biography
In recent years, Miller has become known for his conservative libertarian opinions, emphasizing an aggressive stance on U.S. military action and campaigning for Republican presidential candidates (George W. Bush, Rudolph Guiliani). He is a regular political commentator on Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor.
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.
Beginning in 1994, Miller hosted Dennis Miller Live, a half-hour talk show on HBO characterized by its simplicity. The show had a small set, no band, and not even much lighting. It consisted mainly of Miller speaking to the largely unseen studio audience on a darkened stage. There would be one guest per show, either live in the studio or occasionally on air via satellite, whom Miller would quiz on the topic of the day. The show also had a call-in segment. The number was originally given as 1-800-LACTOSE. Later, he only referred to it by its numeric equivalent (1-800-522-8673). With the show's time constraints, typically only two or three calls could be accommodated. Call-ins were phased out entirely in the last years of the show. Miller and his writing staff won five Emmy Awards while hosting the show, which aired 215 episodes during its nine-year run. The show was cancelled by HBO in 2002. The show's theme song was the iconic Tears for Fears hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", and also utilized the song "Civilized" by Rollins Band.
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. 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 Gloria Allred, Willie Brown, David Horowitz, Mickey Kaus, Steven l. katz, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Harry Shearer. CNBC cancelled the show in May 2005 due to declining viewership.
Miller hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 1995 and 1996. He also was the host of HBO's 1996 series of election specials, Not Necessarily the Election.
Miller's days as a sports commentator did not end when he left Monday Night Football. In 2007, Versus, the cable network best known for its coverage of the National Hockey League tapped Miller to host "Sports Unfiltered," a sports commentary show that airs Tuesdays at 10 PM Eastern Time.
He has authored four books based on his standup comedy and television monologues: The Rants (1996), Ranting Again (1999), I Rant, Therefore I Am (2000), and The Rant Zone (2001).
Miller is known for his laid-back style (for example, calling everyone "Babe" or referring to others as "cat(s)") and acerbic, brooding sense of humor. His specialty is the "rant"—a stream-of-consciousness diatribe 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."
While Miller's humor is often cerebral and abstract, it can at times be extremely pointed and blunt. In 2003 he remarked on the Tonight Show, "I would call the French scumbags, but that, of course, would be a disservice to bags filled with scum".
Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, 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 , 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.
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 US Senate candidate 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”.
The term "Dennis Miller conservative" has popped up in right wing circles describing a person who is mainly libertarian, but also feels fighting against terrorism is one of the most important issues (i.e. a "republitarian" or "neolibertarian"). On the November 12, 2007 episode of Miller's show, country singer Trace Adkins mentioned he was also a "Dennis Miller conservative". |
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