Late career Howard Stern show is a fantastic show. Yes, there are the usual collections of low-brow humor, stunts and fart jokes. However, every now and then there will be an A or B level movie/TV/sport star on and Howard can spend an hour or hour and half extracting every little juicy story out of them. He can get people to tell all kinds of stories about their lives and keeps them on task and focused on telling the story. You hang on every word and every sentence and you just don't want to get out of your car when you listen to him. I really believe that there is simply no better interviewer than Howard Stern. He has the ability and the medium to do such a fantastic job.
I'll always listen to an interview by Howard Stern. They're fantastic. That said, I can't listen to his regular show gags, songs, and bits for more than a few minutes before turning it off out of cringe-inducing disgust. His brand of low-brow makes my skin crawl for some reason.
Where do you listen to the interviews? I was recently obsessed with finding the interview he did with Larry David, but could not find it anywhere. Someone posted it on YouTube when it originally aired, but it has since been taken down.
I found no official channels to pay for access to his catalogue or anything.
If anyone would like to try it free for 30 days (full access to all streaming/on demand interviews etc., both through the web and their mobile apps) go here:
Howard Stern delivers arguably the best interviews you'll ever hear...assuming you are interested in any of the people that he has interviewed, you won't be disappointed.
If anyone was looking for a specific example, here's one I'm going through with Hugh Jackman. A lot about his character as Wolverine. Great example of Howard not being afraid to say anything, and still seeming to entertain the guest (I'd imagine there are interviews where this is the opposite).
That's because in the 90s Howard Stern filled the same role as Tucker Max. He was the douchebag people dreamed of being. He said the things you couldn't. On the air. He banged the chicks you couldn't. ...On the air.
Now that he's become a judge for one of those talent shows and that, and hobnobbing with celebrities, he's mollified his image, and it isn't as ZomgRebelliousAlternativeEdgy as his fans were craving.
Great article (I'm a fan of the show.) If I may turn the discussion toward something a bit more HN-relevant, a few questions:
* The engineer in me is always intrigued by the operations of the show. Does anyone have any details on the equipment / software they use? I tried to gleam some juicy stuff from this shot:
The database and internal messaging is at least in part customized IBM software. Howard is friends with IBM Lotus Vice President Jeff Schick and talks about him occasionally. They also seem to use RCS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Computing_Services) Prophet/NexGen software.
As for jokes, I know they don't type (neither Fred nor Benjy can type quickly), and I don't think they hand over pieces of paper (Fred and Benjy sit behind the guests now) -- I believe they have cameras on Benjy and Fred's paper with a live feed to a monitor on Howard's desk.
* You might have some luck browsing http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ to try to match up the hardware. B&H has a lot of Pro-sumer and straight up Pro products, in addition to all their consumer stuff.
* In radio parlance, devices/software that lets you store and play various clips is called a "soundboard". Or at least it was last time I knew anything about radio... might have newer terms now that everything's definitely digital.
Like I said, nothing solid, but this might help you look into it a bit more.
I'm seriously surprised its taken this long for the Times and the media in general to realize what an incredible interviewer he is. He pulls stuff out of people you never hear anywhere.
I can say some of the celebs they have on there I truly despised, then I hear Stern interview them and come away actually liking them. He just seems to get people to open up and then tell some heartfelt stories.
Case in point - never a huge Billy Joel fan. Stern had him in a few years back. Billy sat at a piano during the interview and would plunk around and sing parts of songs while Stern asked questions about everything. It was simply one of the best interviews I've heard. So laid back, and Billy is one smart cat. So many things I learned about him and how his brain ticks and his process for creating music.
I came away from that having a huge change of heart and a ton more respect for what he's done in the industry. No one, and I mean no one, could have an interview like that with Billy. I'm convinced Stern was the only guy capable of pulling out the stuff that he did and the piano and everything, just amazing.
The other interview I will always remember was the TV show he had where he would interview celebs. He was the last person to interview Phil Hartman, with his wife there no less, days before he was murdered. Another great interview that showed a lot of his insecurities and how talented he really was. At the end, Stern had this list of accents (around 8-10 I think) and Hartman, in classic fashion whipped through them all, flawlessly I might add to end the interview.
I think if you weed through all the sexual innuendos and stripper games, you can see not only is Stern incredibly talented as an interviewer, but the love he has for his guests and the rest of the people he works with (Robin, Fred, Ba Ba Booey, Scott, Richard and Sal) is clear.
Another one, on 'James' (somewhat about the song, but more about the songwriting process, for him and the Rolling Stones, he throws an impersonation in there too):
Agreed. This is typical of mainstream media, who for years only focused on the prurient and racy segments of his show. Much like how Rolling Stone magazine ignored AC/DC for 35 years and then in their waning days decided to proclaim them "the greatest hard rock band ever." Howard has always been a great interviewer, his gift is that he gets guests to forget they on a live radio show revealing things about themselves to strangers. Marc Maron is similar in this respect. If you like interviews his WTG pod cast is great. Anyway nothing "happened" to Howard Stern however it sounds like something "happened" to a journalist at the NY Times.
But I listened and was blown away. For those not listening Stern said after she was done that it was one of the best live performances in the history of his show.
GaGa is actually an incredibly talented singer and musician.
She just knows the value of heavy handed marketing (after her initial, more natural, career in NYC didn't take off she pivoted... and the rest is history)
Love Stern, listen to him almost every day. I also generally don't care for celebrities, but when he interviews them I do care. It's the most real you'll ever see them.
Any specific interview you recommend? The few I tried listening to were not worth finishing... simply un-interesting. I'd like to hear one or two of the memorable ones that his fans really enjoyed.
This is not a new one, but dives into a world most aren't familiar with, that of the independent cartoonist. This particular interview is with the creator of Ren and Stimpy, and his antagonist, the voice of Stimpy, who had a major falling out:
Just watched all of that, thanks for posting. As an old (young?) Ren & Stimpy fan, I had no idea of the backstory. Also, even though Howard Stern's dad weighed in, I'm not sure who I side with. I can honestly see both sides to the argument and that's... unsettling.
The Howard Stern show because of its longevity has had many great moments so its hard to choose. But I really liked the John Oliver interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQxyfbd2PzM
It is the situation though: Did I like the interview- because Stern is a great interviewer /or/ because I like john oliver? I am not sure
It's been a while since I last listened to the show, but thinking back, some of my favorite guests were:
Bill Murray, Jerry Seinfeld, Jeff Bridges, Martha Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Conan O'Brien, Quentin Tarantino, Brad Garrett, Jesse Ventura, Howie Mandel, Norm MacDonald, Tom Arnold, Steven Adler and Chip Z'nuff.
NYT can't go a single, off-topic article without crap-smearing Trump. When a media outlet covers a person 100% negatively, at what point does its readership begin to realize there may be a conflict of interest? Or does the collective cognitive dissonance take care of that all by itself?
Maybe the media professionals at the NYT know that they're overdoing it, massively, and doing it anyway because they want Trump to win the presidency but also want plausible deniability?
Or maybe that's just what they want me to think and what they really...
His 1997 (semi?) biographical film Private Parts is full of lascivious shenanigans that you might expect from a "shock jock", but it's also thoughtful and charming.
That's why I'm at w loss for the titling if the article. Stern has always been wonderful, ahead of the curve and a game-changer for radio. Private Parts is a great primer for anyone not familiar, and is not bad at all for a biopic.
My wife, a conservative Christian, was dismayed when he joined America's Got Talent as a judge, due to his radio antics. But he quickly won her over as her favorite judge—he was good, he was insightful, he was serious and honest in a way the other judges never managed. I was impressed how he managed to show a very different side to himself from what people expected, and I'm sure it won him a lot of new fans. It was a great move on his part.
I'd just like to point out that in addition to his radio show he had a very unique and entertaining sketch comedy/variety show. Known to many fans as the "Channel 9 Howard Stern Show" (as not to be mistaken for the "Howard Stern Show"). It ran from 1990-1992 on Saturday nights and contained all original content and skits (as opposed to video of his radio show like the E! show that came later). Extremely entertaining and original, definitely worth checking out for anyone who has an interest in the evolution or career of Howard Stern.
Sirius did a huge audio production called "The History of Howard Stern" which they'd play when Howard went on vacation or filming America's Got Talent. It's absolutely massive. Must be 60+ hours.
It goes into incredible detail of every point of his career and plays all the old key moments. It's an amazing listen. Really interesting watching his personality evolve from a geeky Weird Al type guy into what he's become.
I loved it so much I converted it into a podcast feed for myself to listen to whenever I have free time. I think I'm only like 75% through and I've been listening to it for over a year.
As in Guy Debord? In what way? I've only heard his show a few times but it didn't really scream "commodity fetishism" to me. Although I suppose there's an essay you could write on living vicariously through his celebrity guest stars.
“What stops us from looking at ourselves and seeing ourselves is that we’re kind of ugly, if we really, if we look really hard,” Mr. Murray replied. “We’re not who we think we are. We’re not, uh we’re not as wonderful as we think we are.”
Classic example of an ugly person who has limited awareness of the fact that he is an individual who is individual from other people.
Bill Murray has a legitimate problem most of us can't even imagine. He is a living legend. Every interaction he has is burdened by outsized expectations he cannot control. Where you deride, I feel only sympathy.
Living legend is a meaningless oxymoron. He's a successful actor, full stop. He has made lots of movies, some good some complete crap. What "legitimate problem" does he have? Shallow "meme culture" has built him up just as they have done with Betty White, Chuck Norris and bacon. He seems to be a individual who cherishes his privacy and shuns celebrity culture and for this mainstream media brands him "an enigma." This "living legend" BS is also a very recent phenomenon, there was a good 10 to 12 year period between say "Groundhog Day" and "Lost in Translation"that nobody talked about him at all.
My youth? I am old enough that I saw both Ghostbusters and Caddyshack as a kid in the theater when they were new movies. As such your comment or attempt at snark is quite laughable. I've been an avid Bill Murray fan for I guess most of my life now. He was not a legend back then, he had modest success post SNL with those movies and a long string of flops and was actually considered "washed up" for quite some time. So no, the whole "living legend" thing started around the time that Sophia Coppola cast him in "Lost in Translation" and introduced him to a new generation of kids. This phenomenon is particularly amusing to Murray fans in my age group.
Yes, because Caddyshack, Stripes, and Tootsie were small, modestly successful, movies that only a few people have heard of.
I mean it's not like Ghostbusters was one of the most successful comedy movies of all time.
It's not like Groundhog Day from 1993 was was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" or anything.
No, clearly he just had "modest" success in just those 13 years post-SNL. I mean we'd better not even mention his award winning turns in movies starting the late 90s had we?
Yikes, I take it back - it's not your youth, it's your smug ignorance that's showing.
You should learn to read better, what I said was "he had modest success post SNL with those movies and a long string of flops" and the "those movies" are referred to are Ghohsbusters, Caddyshack et al, the ones he did right after SNL. There is 10 year period of flops between "Ground Hog Day" and "Lost in Translation." I also stated that. Notice you didn't mention a single movie from that 10 year period? Exactly.
There was nothing smug about either of my replies. There is also nothing ignorant about replies and I'm well aware of his career arc. I'm not even sure what point is but it sounds like you might be upset because I called you out on your presumptuous comment. Grow up.
I read it as "Bill Murray is ugly but doesn't realize that he's not like everyone else" (who presumably are not ugly).
I also read it as a comment from someone unable to be self-critical. When Bill Murray says we're uglier than we think, I assume he doesn't mean that we're all secretly terrible people, but that our flaws are worse than we want to admit to ourselves, that honest introspection hurts because it means confronting those flaws we spent so much time downplaying and ignoring. I'm sure Bill Murray's flaws are not the same as mine or anyone else's, but I'm pretty sure most people have flaws they are unhappy about.
What an odd article to be posted on hacker news. Stern is the consumate shape shifting media personality, in turns erudite, vulgar, brash, sensitive - all to keep the listeners tuned in and consuming the ads. He's a variant of the Kardashians - famous for being famous having adopted the style of an eighties rock musician.
Two more cents from the peanut gallery:
I really just don't like the guy, and don't like his show.
I think less of people who champion Howard Stern as talented. And worse of those who emulate him.
I've watched lots of Howard Stern, I've watched a lot of pornography too. I've watched beheading videos, and videos of people being humilated and tortured to death across the unholiest realms of the internet.
I watch these things and listen to them, as bald facts of life, and they have been engrossing at times. But I wish hell upon all of it, and Howard Stern's shit falls into the same category.
I'd make so much of all that disappear, if I could, no matter whether it were right or wrong to do so.
I think a whole hell of lot less of people who watch beheading videos and videos of people being humiliated and tortured to death, than you think less of people who champion Howard Stern as talented or emulate him.
You should really take it easy on the beheading, humiliation and torture videos. Just like Howard Stern, it's possible to go through life without going out of your way to expose yourself to those things, or even hanging out in online discussions about them, telling people how much you don't like them even though you "watched lots of" them.
Howard Stern went through a very expensive and drawn out war with the FCC, of which most of the lawsuits were fought around content that is commonplace in mainstream media today. I think the battles he fought in the 90s went a long way to reducing government censorship in the US.
In addition to that, I think he's an incredible interviewer. Maybe one of the best ever.
He also won the nomination for the Libertarian party for governor of New York. He dropped out of the election when they demanded he reveal tax returns.
Last time I checked, the Kardashians got famous because of Kim's sex tape. Before that, I hardly think many people who know Kim, remember her far more famous dad Robert who was an attorney on the OJ case.
I always figured that most people that know of the Kardashians know of them as just some amorphous blob. I know the name, know they are famous for being famous, but couldn't tell you anything in particular about any of them. I don't even know how many there are, and until reading your post, didn't even make the connection to the OJ case.
