| Dennis Miller Live | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Michael Fuchs Dennis Miller |
| Presented by | Dennis Miller |
| Theme music composer | Roland Orzabal Ian Stanley Chris Hughes |
| Opening theme | "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" byTears for Fears |
| Ending theme | "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" byTears for Fears |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 215 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Dennis Miller Kevin C. Slattery Eddie Feldmann |
| Producers | Jeff Cesario Adam R. Markowitz Colleen Grillo Michele DeVoe David Feldman Leah Krinsky José Arroyo Jim Hanna |
| Production locations | CBS Television City Hollywood, California |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | Home Box Office Happy Family Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | HBO |
| Release | April 22, 1994 (1994-04-22) – August 30, 2002 (2002-08-30) |
| Related | |
| TV:The Dennis Miller Show (1992), Radio:The Dennis Miller Show(2007–2015) | |
Dennis Miller Live is an American weeklylate-night talk show onHBO, hosted by comedianDennis Miller. The show ran 215 episodes from 1994[1] to 2002,[2] and received fiveEmmy awards and 11Emmy nominations.[3] It was also nominated six times for theWriters Guild of America Award for "Best Writing for a Comedy/Variety Series", and won three of those six times.
The show was the idea of HBO executive producerMichael Fuchs, who told Miller he could use any forum he wanted as long as he brought in the numbers. It was directed by Debbie Palacio for most of its run, and head writers were firstJeff Cesario and thenEddie Feldmann. Other writers included José Arroyo,Rich Dahm,Ed Driscoll,David Feldman,Mike Gandolfi,Jim Hanna,Tom Hertz,Leah Krinsky,Rob Kutner,Rick Overton,Jacob Sager Weinstein, andDavid S. Weiss.
The show had a small set without ahouse band. It mainly consisted of Miller speaking to the largely unseen studio audience on a darkened stage. The show'scold opening started with Miller doing a brief joke about a current event.
The credit sequence showed Miller in apool hall playing by himself set to "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" byTears for Fears,[4][5] though music was changed in later seasons for cost reasons.[6][7] In later seasons, the sequence was changed to show oversized topplingdominoes featuring images of political and social leaders.
Then Miller would perform a two-partmonologue which oftensegued into astream-of-consciousness "rant" that became Miller's trademark, starting with thecatchphrase "Now I don't want to get off on arant here..."[8] and ended with the phrase "Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."[9][10] Books that compiled these monologues were released, starting with 1996'sThe Rants and ending with 2002'sThe Rant Zone.[11]
Miller would discuss the topic of the day with one guest per show.[12][13] During the guest segment, the show would also take phone calls. Thecall-in number was originally given as 1-800-LACTOSE.[14] Reportedly, Miller chose the word "lactose" because it was the only word he could make with seven digits to make it a vanity number.
At the end of the interview, Miller would tell the guest "Stick around, I've gotta go do the news". Black-and-white photographs from newspapers would be shown, and Miller would make humorouscaptions regarding them. At the finish of this segment, Miller would harken back to hisSNL days by saying "That's the news, and I am outta here!"[15]
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