The other thing that's so consistently engaging about the Howard Stern show is the reality of what goes on backstage of the shows production. Long before reality TV became a phenomenon that anyone was talking about, Howard was highlighting the bizarre behaviors and attitudes of his behind-the-scenes staff.
From the beginning he had a kind of refined focus that let him know what was just a boring shouting match between two interns, and what was a genuinely bizarre and fascinating example of human behavior, like when two of his interns were subletting an apartment from Stuttering John (later John Melendez, the announcer for the Tonight show, now demoted to staff writer on the new Jay Leno Show) and refused to move out when they were asked to.
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It's the little details that make this so fascinating, at least to me, like the way Grillo just won't budge from "Where am I supposed to go?" And when a little digging reveals that Gange has the bizarre belief that he has the legal right to stay there because he's been living there for a while, and that he "could move into Howard's house if I wanted, and you'd have a hard time getting me out, legally speaking."
At first glance it looks like he's just sticking a microphone in front of two shitheads and seeing what happens, but the truth is that it's a sort of complicated formula that has undoubtedly evolved over time, which involves hiring the right kind of quirky people, knowing how to sift an interesting event from all the boring ones, and most importantly, knowing how to question someone, and nudge them, and get them to reveal the things they didn't even know were going on underneath the surface of the incident.
Now here's my personal favorite example of how this works...
When Howard was moving to Satellite radio, he hired a guy called Sal the Stockbroker, who was a guy on Wall Street who used to call in to the show with prank calls, song parodies, and other little comedy bits. Sal had always dreamed of going into comedy, so he quit his six figure job and took a relatively low paying job at the Stern show, incidentally setting off a slow but steady decline in his marriage.
Sal has all kinds of personality quirks that make him occasionally fascinating to focus on, including his incredibly intense obsession with Howard, the depth of which only started to come out once they were working in close quarters. But right behind that is how he ever managed to work on Wall Street and make some money, while being completely ignorant of seemingly everything going on around him. The list of things that Sal doesn't know is too long to go into, but it includes things like the names of recent presidents, in what order the wars the US has fought in go, who Ted Kennedy is, and on down the line of things we all take for granted.
So one day Sal is talking about a story about himself that was covered by Howard 100 News, and how it was untrue and he wanted them to take it back. But instead of asking for a "retraction" he asked for a "traction." The staff is always alert to things like this, and nobody clued Sal into the fact that he was all wrong about this word, they just nodded politely, and then whispered in Howard's ear.
So Howard calls Sal into the studio while the show is live on the air and starts to question him about this, leading him to start using the wrong word, and then coaxing him into repeating it and locking himself into that usage. It's an absolutely brilliant interviewing performance, in which Howard carefully mines for what he's after, while deflecting Sal's growing suspicion that he's being made a fool of somehow.
(this guy has embedding disabled, which is the most annoying thing anyone can do on youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BLc2n5ssZ4
It becomes ridiculous and riveting, and when you're trying to get through the day, this sort of thing makes the time fly right by, because it's so dynamic and immediate.
But there's also a dark side to the whole "Everything is real, everything happens on the air" attitude, that gives everything an edge of risk and uncertainty.
Howard's sidekick Artie Lange is a recovering heroin addict, who has been on and off drugs several times during his time on the show. That has created all sorts of drama, of every imaginable configuration, from tears to fights to falling asleep on the air.
But the most amazing incident was when Artie went completely berserk during an on-air argument with his assistant Teddy. It started with Howard asking Artie why he had been yelling at his assistant in the hallway during the break, and it ends with Artie (who had ballooned up to 300 pounds at that point) going physically berserk and trying to get to Teddy, despite about six people trying to hold him back.
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After that, he walked off the set saying "I'm not a good person, I have to go."
And the best part was that it was the last day of the week before they went on a week vacation, so for ten days nobody knew if Artie would be back, what was going on with him, or whether Sirius could even continue to employ him. It's the only time I've ever forced myself to get up at six in the morning just to catch the opening of the show.
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From the beginning he had a kind of refined focus that let him know what was just a boring shouting match between two interns, and what was a genuinely bizarre and fascinating example of human behavior, like when two of his interns were subletting an apartment from Stuttering John (later John Melendez, the announcer for the Tonight show, now demoted to staff writer on the new Jay Leno Show) and refused to move out when they were asked to.
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It's the little details that make this so fascinating, at least to me, like the way Grillo just won't budge from "Where am I supposed to go?" And when a little digging reveals that Gange has the bizarre belief that he has the legal right to stay there because he's been living there for a while, and that he "could move into Howard's house if I wanted, and you'd have a hard time getting me out, legally speaking."
At first glance it looks like he's just sticking a microphone in front of two shitheads and seeing what happens, but the truth is that it's a sort of complicated formula that has undoubtedly evolved over time, which involves hiring the right kind of quirky people, knowing how to sift an interesting event from all the boring ones, and most importantly, knowing how to question someone, and nudge them, and get them to reveal the things they didn't even know were going on underneath the surface of the incident.
Now here's my personal favorite example of how this works...
When Howard was moving to Satellite radio, he hired a guy called Sal the Stockbroker, who was a guy on Wall Street who used to call in to the show with prank calls, song parodies, and other little comedy bits. Sal had always dreamed of going into comedy, so he quit his six figure job and took a relatively low paying job at the Stern show, incidentally setting off a slow but steady decline in his marriage.
Sal has all kinds of personality quirks that make him occasionally fascinating to focus on, including his incredibly intense obsession with Howard, the depth of which only started to come out once they were working in close quarters. But right behind that is how he ever managed to work on Wall Street and make some money, while being completely ignorant of seemingly everything going on around him. The list of things that Sal doesn't know is too long to go into, but it includes things like the names of recent presidents, in what order the wars the US has fought in go, who Ted Kennedy is, and on down the line of things we all take for granted.
So one day Sal is talking about a story about himself that was covered by Howard 100 News, and how it was untrue and he wanted them to take it back. But instead of asking for a "retraction" he asked for a "traction." The staff is always alert to things like this, and nobody clued Sal into the fact that he was all wrong about this word, they just nodded politely, and then whispered in Howard's ear.
So Howard calls Sal into the studio while the show is live on the air and starts to question him about this, leading him to start using the wrong word, and then coaxing him into repeating it and locking himself into that usage. It's an absolutely brilliant interviewing performance, in which Howard carefully mines for what he's after, while deflecting Sal's growing suspicion that he's being made a fool of somehow.
(this guy has embedding disabled, which is the most annoying thing anyone can do on youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BLc2n5ssZ4
It becomes ridiculous and riveting, and when you're trying to get through the day, this sort of thing makes the time fly right by, because it's so dynamic and immediate.
But there's also a dark side to the whole "Everything is real, everything happens on the air" attitude, that gives everything an edge of risk and uncertainty.
Howard's sidekick Artie Lange is a recovering heroin addict, who has been on and off drugs several times during his time on the show. That has created all sorts of drama, of every imaginable configuration, from tears to fights to falling asleep on the air.
But the most amazing incident was when Artie went completely berserk during an on-air argument with his assistant Teddy. It started with Howard asking Artie why he had been yelling at his assistant in the hallway during the break, and it ends with Artie (who had ballooned up to 300 pounds at that point) going physically berserk and trying to get to Teddy, despite about six people trying to hold him back.
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After that, he walked off the set saying "I'm not a good person, I have to go."
And the best part was that it was the last day of the week before they went on a week vacation, so for ten days nobody knew if Artie would be back, what was going on with him, or whether Sirius could even continue to employ him. It's the only time I've ever forced myself to get up at six in the morning just to catch the opening of the show.
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Obviously Howard Stern is not for everyone, but he's got a surprisingly broad appeal. Amanda (BrightEyes1082) is a devout Christian, but she only had to listen to Howard a few times with me before he grew on her and she became almost as big a fan as I am.
And the list of celebrities who are big enough Howard Stern fans to come on the show and win a Howard Trivia contest is pretty interesting, including Ryan Philipe and Neil Patrick Harris, and Kristen Chenowith and Natalie Maines.
