[Salamander]

"Rod Steiger's dream journal?"

Referencing Rod's title-role performance in "The Illustrated Man", mayhap?

If so, brilliantly arcane.....:)

[TheBigB]

Go Dennis!

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

CONTINUED... The Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Miller said, changed him. "Everybody should be in the protection business now," he said. "I can't imagine anybody not saying that. Well, I guess on the farthest end of the left they'd say, `That's our fault.' And on the middle end they'd say, `Well, there's another way to deal with it other than flat-out protecting ourselves.' I just don't believe that. People say we're the ones who make them hate us because of what we do. That's garbage to me. I think they're nuts. And you've got to protect yourself from nuts."

Mr. Miller's decision to join CNBC came after a somewhat troubled time in his career. He said he was fired by ABC in 2002 after two seasons as a commentator on "Monday Night Football" when the network had a chance to hire John Madden. Mr. Miller's reviews had been mixed. He said he enjoyed being a sports commentator and had no ill will toward ABC. "As soon as Madden left Fox, I pretty much knew I was going to be whacked," he said. "Here was Madden, the Pliny the Elder of football announcers. And they were going to stay with the kid?"

"I was having fun," Mr. Miller added. "I had alienated half the community, and probably half of them liked me. Which is pretty much my batting average. I began to see maybe a decade ago that my career was never going to be in complete approval. I wasn't endearing."

As open as he is about his political views, Mr. Miller is reticent about his private life. He grew up in Pittsburgh and says his mother, now dead, is "a sainted figure to me." His parents were estranged, and he declines to talk about his father. (One of Mr. Miller's brothers, Jimmy, is a partner in Gold/Miller, a Hollywood management company that represents stars like Jim Carrey.)

Mr. Miller said that as a youth he worked in delis and scooped ice cream until he realized that his life was going to turn into a "Kafka novella" unless he began seriously pursuing comedy. He started performing in clubs and on local television in Pittsburgh, then moved to Los Angeles, where he met other struggling comedians. Jerry Seinfeld got him a gig at the Improv, and Jay Leno found him an apartment. He remains close to both. He appeared on television with David Letterman and later auditioned for Lorne Michaels for "Saturday Night Live."

"He looked at me and goes, `Would you like to do my newscast?,' " Mr. Miller recalled. "And I said, `Yeah, I would,' and he said, `Well, I'll see you tomorrow.' And then I walked out. And I remember thinking, `My life has just changed.' "

Mr. Miller said his own comedic influences include Jonathan Miller, Richard Pryor, Richard Belzer and Mr. Leno. He speaks more hesitantly about the two comedians with whom he has often been compared, Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce.

He said he had transcripts of some of Mr. Sahl's early shows and was amazed by them. But then he lost interest. Mr. Sahl, he said, became too close to the Kennedy family and was "a savage name-dropper." Mr. Miller added, "It always reminded me to watch myself."

Surprisingly he is tougher on Lenny Bruce. "Lenny was a heroin addict, and I could care less about heroin addicts," Mr. Miller said. "Once I hear a guy is a heroin addict, and they tell me he's a genius, I think, really? I'm not trying to be judgmental. But anybody whose last vision is of a tile pattern on a bathroom floor, I don't know what kind of genius they are."

[paulklenk]

Wow -- I was just going to do a thread search to see if this was posted, and it showed up at the top of the thread list. Thanks for posting it.

Still being,

[cwb]

Miller is a riot...and if you don't have HBO, you need to pick up the DVD of his "Raw Feed." It was an hour of some of the best political commentary/comedy I've heard in a long time.

[unsycophant]

Ms. Thomas-Graham said Mr. Miller's political positions had played no role in the decision to hire him

Liberal TV ranting is bleeding to death, fast. They're trying to revive the CNBC corpse. Of course Dennis Miller's political positions played a role in giving him this job.

[hunter112]

Mr. Miller said he remained socially liberal. "I think abortion's wrong, but it's none of my business to tell somebody what's wrong," he said. "So I'm pro-choice. I want to keep my nose out of other people's personal business.

I love Dennis Miller, but I wonder what it would take to get him out of the camp that would have said 150 years ago, "Don't like slavery? Don't own one!"

[McGavin999]

FOX really missed a bet on this one. I can't figure out why they didn't sign the guy up.

[billhilly]

I'm starting to like this guy, although I still remember checking into a hotel with my wife and daughter a few years ago, turning on the room TV which happened to be tuned to HBO. I was not fast enough to change channels.He managed three or four Fs and F-ings before I could hit the mute button.

[Billthedrill]

Good stuff. I wish he'd write a syndicated column. I'd buy the whole newspaper to read it.

[tcuoohjohn]

Being candid I think Miller's career is in a tailspin. While signing on with CNBC is a good thing it must be noted that CNBC is currently celebrating it's 9th viewer. ( that was a joke but not far off the mark) It is the Salvation Army Thrift Store of talk show venues.

The second issue is one of style. Miller's urban glib slickster style works in glib urban slickster venues. I doubt that Miller's style will play well in Oklahoma City and Pahrump, Nevada. Given that Miller's career choices have narrowed considerably eg. His Monday Night Football exercise never got off the twenty yard line, and his college dates have dwindled to a mere trickle ( most conservative colleges and conservative religious schools where his style once again handicaps him)

While Millers epiphany regarding the conservative cause is welcome, I don't think he will garner much career benefit from being born again as a conservative.

[Tempest]

Dennis is the man!!!

[potlatch]

Mr. Miller said he told the Republicans he had no interest in running against Ms. Boxer

I like Dennis Miller, but a more serious person is needed to run against Boxer. I hope they aren't beginning to think every Hollywood star can be a great politician!

[Lancey Howard]

This is good news, and it will no doubt help CNBC.
I will watch Dennis Miller's show.

[GretchenEE]

You might enjoy this.

[DmBarch]

Weekdays at 9 PM is a good slot. Always thought that that Capital Report gave you the same crap as on the other networks, pols strutting without enough business interest. Getting rid of the Friday only WSJ Editorial Board was stupid - it was one of the unique and refreshing shows of late.

[Brimack34]

I can only take him in short spurts. But then again I rarely watch any show all the way through.

[vikingchick]

Mr. Miller is also not a traditional conservative. "I've always been a pragmatist," he said. "If two gay guys want to get married, it's none of my business. I could care less. More power to them.

I don't understand what's pragmatic about gays getting married.

[sweetliberty]

Well, his timing is good. He's got a target rich environmemt to work with, what with the democRAT circus going on. The fun and games will be endless.

[freeperfromnj]

Good for him. Hope he doesn't punk out like Scarborough. What a disappointment he turned out to be.