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Howard Stern

Started by Marc.Knight, March 17, 2011, 10:47:57 PM

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: onan on August 25, 2011, 09:05:55 AM
The only time I spent with stern was I saw his movie right after it came out. I thought it was a pretty good movie. Thought Paul Giamatti did a great job. Was impressed with sterns "so public" proclamation for his love of his wife. Only to learn maybe a year later he was divorcing her for another. I thought WTF.

   Here's irony. It's quite possible that Stern's marriage began to dissolve during the filming of his movie...a film where his relationship with his wife was an integral part.

   Maybe it was a mid-life crisis causing his personal turmoil, whatever...but "Private Parts" disappointing box office results seemed to affect him. The movie made 40M domestically, but projections were for 100-125M. His demeanor changed, he came across as bitter and his 1998-2001 CBS program was another flop. One he put little effort into.

   

Frys Girl

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on August 25, 2011, 09:43:59 AM
   Here's irony. It's quite possible that Stern's marriage began to dissolve during the filming of his movie...a film where his relationship with his wife was an integral part.

   Maybe it was a mid-life crisis causing his personal turmoil, whatever...but "Private Parts" disappointing box office results seemed to affect him. The movie made 40M domestically, but projections were for 100-125M. His demeanor changed, he came across as bitter and his 1998-2001 CBS program was another flop. One he put little effort into.


Jack Black made a statement similar to yours about Stern's marriageorce contradicting the movie's message and Howard went in on him. Jack Black actually had to issue a public apology lordy. Howard is very insecure and sensitive. It must be very difficult to be married to him. At least he ended up making a lot of money to take care of the family.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: Frys Girl on August 28, 2011, 07:55:18 PM
Howard is very insecure and sensitive. It must be very difficult to be married to him. At least he ended up making a lot of money to take care of the family.

   Insecure to a point of pathology. He can poke and pry into the lives of his guests, but bristles when it's done to him. In '94, he bailed on his quixotic governorship run because of financial disclosure issues. He didn't want his audience,or more importantly, his staff knowing what he really made.

    With time, Stern has become the thing he despised most...IMUS.  ;D

rangers1919

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on August 25, 2011, 09:43:59 AM
   Here's irony. It's quite possible that Stern's marriage began to dissolve during the filming of his movie...a film where his relationship with his wife was an integral part.

   Maybe it was a mid-life crisis causing his personal turmoil, whatever...but "Private Parts" disappointing box office results seemed to affect him. The movie made 40M domestically, but projections were for 100-125M. His demeanor changed, he came across as bitter and his 1998-2001 CBS program was another flop. One he put little effort into.



Stern said making the movie accelerated his divorce. He said he was working too much and couldn't focus on his wife as much as he should have, but that the marriage was already rocky and it helped push it over the top.

I've been listening lately and it is in no way comparable to how great it was before. I listened to a bunch of Billy West clips online this week and it is amazing how different in a negative way the show is now. It's like they aren't even trying to be a comedy show anymore. Howard never has the Whack Pack on, rarely has comedians in, and the only funny bits are done by others w/ no input from him. Since he decided to sue (an asshole move IMO) the show has been worse. He is clearly costing until he is done.

Someone said he has become what he hated in Imus, but I have to disagree. He has become what he hates in Leno. A has-been that is on a major show raking in money, and the only funny parts of the show comes from somebody else. The only remotely funny parts of Leno's show are when he goes on the street and lets other people do things, or when he has a comedian go do something on the street, or when he has a headline he reads that somebody else sent in. In Stern's case it is funny phone calls, funny bits on the street, etc. They even let it slip that Stern has canceled all the creative writing meetings for months so they are basically writing bits w/o him or winging it.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: rangers1919 on August 30, 2011, 12:01:36 AM

Someone said he has become what he hated in Imus, but I have to disagree. He has become what he hates in Leno. A has-been that is on a major show raking in money, and the only funny parts of the show comes from somebody else. The only remotely funny parts of Leno's show are when he goes on the street and lets other people do things, or when he has a comedian go do something on the street, or when he has a headline he reads that somebody else sent in. In Stern's case it is funny phone calls, funny bits on the street, etc. They even let it slip that Stern has canceled all the creative writing meetings for months so they are basically writing bits w/o him or winging it.

    Billy West's impression of Leno was one of the greatest bits on Stern, "Evil Jay" doing "nigger jokes" and other racial/sexist humor was insanely funny. And supposedly Leno HATED IT. Stern and Leno got along until 1995 when Jay got annoyed with Stern bringing lesbians on his "Tonight Show" appearance on 11/30/95. Leno angrily telling people "Is it all pussy with him?".

       Here's where I make the Imus comparison. Howard now has a much younger,blonde wife who suddenly becomes an author after the nuptials. Just like the "I-Man" does. Also, Imus constantly has very shady "charitable organizations" constantly hitting up the audience for money...and now Stern has double-barreled action with Yoko, I mean Beth's, ventures and now Quivers has some ridiculous charity as well.

   

Howard's also now into photography too, just like Imus was for awhile.

He's become more and more like Imus, but he'll deny it. I will say that Stern's still a lot funnier than Imus, who just fell off the map when he had his kid and got totally lazy. Every once in awhile, Howard will find someone to lash out at, like Andy Dick a few weeks ago, and it makes it worth it.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: TaoOfLuxLisbon on August 30, 2011, 10:54:29 AM
Howard's also now into photography too, just like Imus was for awhile.

He's become more and more like Imus, but he'll deny it. I will say that Stern's still a lot funnier than Imus, who just fell off the map when he had his kid and got totally lazy. Every once in awhile, Howard will find someone to lash out at, like Andy Dick a few weeks ago, and it makes it worth it.

     One crucial difference that I'll concede to Stern...

       I have hundreds upon hundreds of tapes of Stern from 1993-1999, and his show has aged so much better than Imus. Especially in the mid 90's, they are so many bits,lots of them with Billy West, that are as funny today as they were in 1994. Whereas the tapes I have of Imus from that era are unlistenable today, dated in the worst ways. Cringe inducing Rob Bartlett song parodies.

     The NBC-era/early K Rock Stern hasn't aged well,IMO(1983-1989). Now that material is very dated...and Stern's delivery was often quite forced, very strange hearing him in that "DJ" mode. It's something he finally got rid of around the time of the WWOR launch in summer of '90.

   

Frys Girl

I paid for stern for a while, but he just sucks now. I couldn't take it anymore. He's just there to collect a check and go home. I also don't enjoy his Beth stories. Lame. He sounds like an old man trying to brag about the hot blonde being his. Just appreciate what you have and move on. I've read other fans writing about this, and the fanboys always say "you're jealous~!!!!!" Bitch please. Howard is very cool and I'm happy for him, but in terms of radio, the Beth stories suck ass.


I totally dig Beth's commitment to rescuing animals.

rangers1919

I find it ironic that although he is somewhat unknown West has a more popular show than Stern now. Billy West is the voice of Fry on Futurama. I looked at the most recent ratings for Stern, and there isn't a single modern episode of Futurama that had ratings as low as Stern's average. The numbers for Stern were a little old, and may be higher, but with the decline of the show I don't think they would be much higher, even with the merger of the two satellite companies.

I've listened to the Jackie Doll clips on Youtube so many times and they never get old. I also love his other kind of random impressions. I haven't listened to many of the Leno ones so I will have to go back and listen to them.

I don't disagree with the Imus comparison too much, but I think an argument can be made comparing Stern and Leno now (except I don't think Stern steals bits). I don't find Leno funny at all. When I watch his show I have always thought that the only funny parts were the bits where a comedian went and did something without Leno, or they did a bit where the comedy was separate from Leno like Jaywalking, headlines, or various other street bits. All of the comedy happened because of other people than Jay. Now on Stern it is obvious that most of the comedy in recent years has little to do with him, it's all prank phone calls, street bits with people, etc., like Leno the comedy on Stern's show happens due to his staff and he just relays it and cashes the checks.

Frys Girl

I think one reason Stern stays on is his staff. Despite being an asshole, I do think he appreciates them enough to stay on longer. They and their families depend on Stern.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: Frys Girl on August 31, 2011, 06:16:18 PM
I think one reason Stern stays on is his staff. Despite being an asshole, I do think he appreciates them enough to stay on longer. They and their families depend on Stern.

     Billy West,Jackie Martling,Stuttering John can attest to Howard's "benevolence"...ask for money, there's the door.

Frys Girl

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on August 31, 2011, 06:35:29 PM
     Billy West,Jackie Martling,Stuttering John can attest to Howard's "benevolence"...ask for money, there's the door.
Yes these are all correct cases of Stern's asshole attitude. Don't know what I was thinking. Anyway, maybe he is semi-benevolent and semi-aware that if he goes home, he'll go insane and drive Beth away. Men just gotta work. Idle men do dumb things. What will Stern do all day? Workout and play with his dog?

rangers1919

I agree and disagree with Stern's concern for his crew. On the one hand he has said that one of the reason he continued his career when he was considering retirement was because of his staff. They even had a bit when he made an announcement about going to satellite where they tricked Sal b/c he was late and missed it and they told him he was retiring because they new he wasn't financially prepared to look for a job. Stern told him to think about his kids and future, and to realize that the show wasn't going to be there forever so he should prepare financially.

On the other hand an analyst has said Stern's part of the new Sirius deal alone is $400 million, and his last deal was $500 million. The fact that he has a relatively small staff and will have made $900 million in about a decade makes it pretty clear that he isn't helping out his staff enough. This amount is probably a little inflated since it counts either stock options for a stock that has crashed, or future payments which are likely to be in doubt once Stern leaves and internet radio becomes bigger. Still, he is already estimated at $500 m worth, and probably higher since he was already wealthy before signing onto satellite radio.

His main staff is paid well though. Robin gets like $10 m a year, Bababooey  & Fred are around $8 m a year, and Artie was making like $2-4 m.

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on August 31, 2011, 06:35:29 PM
     Billy West,Jackie Martling,Stuttering John can attest to Howard's "benevolence"...ask for money, there's the door.

I think you're wrong on this. No one really knows what the deal with West was. He just told Baba he was done one day. I assume his other jobs trumped the money he made at KRock/CBS.

Jackie was an idiot. He kept holding out/striking for more money constantly until they got sick of him. He regrets it now, and has admitted it.

Stuttering John got a great deal from Leno (for god knows what).

All these guys negotiated with CBS and Infinity, not Howard.

rangers1919

Quote from: TaoOfLuxLisbon on September 01, 2011, 08:49:00 PM
I think you're wrong on this. No one really knows what the deal with West was. He just told Baba he was done one day. I assume his other jobs trumped the money he made at KRock/CBS.

Jackie was an idiot. He kept holding out/striking for more money constantly until they got sick of him. He regrets it now, and has admitted it.

Stuttering John got a great deal from Leno (for god knows what).

All these guys negotiated with CBS and Infinity, not Howard.

It wasn't on where I live when West left, but from what I've heard he was trying to get a more steady thing going. I think he was working 3 days a week, and wanted to go to a 5 day schedule and get paid more. I don't know if he asked for more money and days, or just more days at the same rate. I know there was a clip where Stern said West asked him if he wanted him to come in 5 days a week b/c he didn't want to go fight for it if he wasn't going to be wanted. I don't remember if he got the 5 days, but I don't think he got paid what he thought he was worth. I also think Stern didn't back him like he wanted. I remember hearing clips where Stern constantly said he wasn't part of the group, etc. where he was joking but still serious.

He didn't come back for the last terrestrial shows, hasn't been on the satellite show, and has said that he doesn't expect to ever stop in there so I think Stern did something to him, or didn't back him when he was trying to get paid.

When I look at the show rundown to see if I want to listen to the Stern show about 20% of the shows even have topics or a guest that I can find slightly interesting. The show could be funny again with a comedic influence, but is in a bad state now.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: TaoOfLuxLisbon on September 01, 2011, 08:49:00 PM
I think you're wrong on this. No one really knows what the deal with West was. He just told Baba he was done one day. I assume his other jobs trumped the money he made at KRock/CBS.

Jackie was an idiot. He kept holding out/striking for more money constantly until they got sick of him. He regrets it now, and has admitted it.

Stuttering John got a great deal from Leno (for god knows what).

All these guys negotiated with CBS and Infinity, not Howard.


   Billy West...Stern was always miffed at he and Jackie having a different agent than his. But the final straw for Billy was supposedly CBS/Infinity wanting an indemnification clause for him. So if the show got sued for something Billy did(in character,no less) the shit would hit Billy, not Howard.

    Jackie was making roughly 300-400K when Stern's yearly income had begun to approach 30M circa 2000. Making 1% of what Stern did had to rankle him. Obviously, it was a career suicide move...but the Stern show also took a major hit when he left. Artie and Benji sucked,IMO.

   As far as negotiations go...if Howard went to bat for them, they would have gotten their deals-he was the most powerful on air personality there by a mile,what Howard wanted, he got.

   Billy probably wanted out, it's worked out for him, "Space Jam" was an immediate success. But Jackie...there's no way he wanted to leave,but dug a hole for himself. If he ad "Super Agent Don Buchwald" he would have gotten his deal.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: rangers1919 on September 01, 2011, 10:46:06 PM

He didn't come back for the last terrestrial shows, hasn't been on the satellite show, and has said that he doesn't expect to ever stop in there so I think Stern did something to him, or didn't back him when he was trying to get paid.



   I recently listened to shows from November,1995. On Nov 1, Billy was in rare form, doing his "Florida Evans","Red"-awesome hilarious stuff making Robin's news funny...it would be his last show.

    Billy's absence was never mentioned or explained. "Miss America" came out on 11/7 and that was the primary subject. Crackhead Bob was discovered that month and quickly became a hit. It didn't become clear Billy wasn't there until the week of 11/13, when callers began to ask "Where's Billy West?" and Howard would do his "I don't know" routine and change the subject.

coaster

I listened to Howard the last couple of nights. That show has went straight down hill.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: coaster on March 10, 2015, 03:55:18 PM
I listened to Howard the last couple of nights. That show has went straight down hill.

   Fuck radio, I'm America's Judge, right Robin?

   Depressingly out of touch and over the hill.

ksm32

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on March 18, 2011, 08:58:06 PM
The show never recovered from Jackie Martling leaving on 3/2/01, IMO.

I really thought I was the only one who thought that.   

All this AGT shite and extreme left PC humor has it a very different product than it once was.   I actually like Jay Thomas now.

Note to self! Cancel Sirius!!!

I went through a major Stern phase for a few years where I listened to everything of his I could get my hands on. I originally found him because I'm a huge Kinison fan and whenever Sam was in the studio, it was some of the wildest shit I've ever heard. Stern when he was coming up was one of the funniest most visionary and true geniuses I've ever experienced in entertainment. But I don't know man, this just hasn't been a good century for him. I couldn't give a fuck less about Hampton Howie or the rich soulless sycophants he's surrounded himself with.

Eddie Coyle


    I thought Hollywood Howie of 1996-1998 was bad, then he eventually devolved into Hamptons Howie of the past decade. It's disgusting. He never replaced The Jokeman, instead he hired superfans who work for peanuts(Benjy, Sal, Richard) and became worse than Imus in promoting his wife's phony career. Stern of 2015 is everything that Stern of 1992 mocked.

SredniVashtar

Whenever I listen to Howard I can't get over the fact that Robin must be the most fortunate woman in show business to have made a career out of being annoying and contributing almost nothing to that show. She is always a beat behind everyone else when there is anything funny happening and you know that she must be a total nightmare to deal with. I don't know if it is all  just material for the show but to hear him whining about his parents is pretty unpleasant coming from a multi-millionaire in his sixties. I ended up quite liking Artie when he wasn't trying too hard, but when he thought he was being funny often he was just a bore. His stand-up act was an abomination with him wheezing his way through the jokes. Whenever Howard mentions his wife I just want to curl up and die, because I can't believe anyone can really be that insipid with all that animal rescue stuff.

VegasI15

I think I'm one of the few who thinks Howard's show is better now than before.  He has mellowed out a lot which is a good thing.  Howard was so annoying and the show way over the top.  The best thing he does are interviews.  He has an uncanny ability to ask interesting questions.  Outside of that Howard himself I don't think is funny.  The Robin parody songs are hilarious.  Ronnie the limo driver does some funny stuff.  But the rest of his staff is just dysfunctional.
What I can't stand is his arrogance, its still going strong.  And he gets upset over the littlest things.  So I find myself only listening to certain segments. I could care less about how hard his life is between the show and AGT.  And his total lack of humility, constantly calling himself the king of all media, is just unnecessary.  Especially since I think Howard is way down the list when it comes to talent in Radio history.     

The show has its moments of brilliance.  They just are too few and far between.

Speaking of Imus, I have some WABC airchecks from 1977-78.  Really enjoyable to listen to.

henge0stone

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on March 18, 2011, 08:58:06 PM
The Stern show of 1992-1995 is my favorite program of all-time,largely due to the genius of Billy West. But he left on 11/1/95, and 1996-97 was "Hollywood Howie" constantly talking up his motion picture. The show never recovered from Jackie Martling leaving on 3/2/01, IMO.

Gotta disagree. I think 2001-05 was the best. Artie was way funnier than Jackie who just bitched about how he wasn't getting paid enough and didn't add much to the conversations. Artie had awesome one liners all over the place. Also Sal and Richard's insanity were way funnier than Stuttering John who never did anything funny on the show. The shows alright but not as good. George takei is the best part of it, he should do it full time because without Artie there's a void.

aldousburbank

I never got the deal with Stern. Tried to listen but I think I never laughed so...
Is he still alive?

Centurion40

Quote from: aldousburbank on May 30, 2015, 08:28:58 AM
I never got the deal with Stern. Tried to listen but I think I never laughed so...
Is he still alive?

Clearly your sense of humour is not puerile enough. 

Jackie was/is a jealous greedy bastard.  He fucked himself out of the best gig he could ever have.  Then Artie fucked himself with drugs. Neither will ever do as well again. I've enjoyed listening to the old shows when they were both in their prime.  The comedy routines were at their height with Jackie.  Maybe it was Jackie, or maybe it had to do with them all being in their creative prime; like a Rolling Stones song written in the early 70's vs. a Rolling Stones song written in the 21st century.

Howard clearly fucks people over for money.  What happened to Lisa G, or Shuli?  They're just gone....

Generally, I agree with Vegas.  Howard's celebrity interviews are pure gold.  Ronnie's sexual perversity is regularly funny, as are the fan-generated parody songs.  I don't find Howard's angry rants entertaining.


SredniVashtar

I think you either get Howard or you don't. I go through spells when I enjoy the show, and then I don't listen for a long time and don't really miss it much. I always seem to enjoy the bits most where Howard is peripheral to what is going on, but when he is trying to be funny he often tries too hard and it can sound pretty desperate. Some of those old shows on YouTube where they are doing sketches sound plain bloody awful I don't suppose he has had anyone close to him tell him that what he is doing isn't working for a very long time so it is no wonder that he can sound a bit out of touch.

PathoJen

Quote from: g1rock on April 02, 2011, 04:41:03 PM
Agreed, after the jokeman left it floundered...
I'm on team Artie Lange, hated Jackie so much. I am a huge fan of Howard omg he's amazing. The only thing he ever did that annoyed me was when he compared Mr Bell to Riley Martin. In his defense he has never heard Art he just knows some of Art's topics are UFO related and Howard is a sceptic when it comes to life on other planets and afterlife and things such as that. He's downright curmudgeonly

Corona Kitty

Don imus is gone.... Love it

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