A
television show broadcast on
HBO from 11:30PM to 12:00AM live on friday nights, and rerun hundreds of times during the week on both HBO and
HBO Comedy. It stars its namesake,
Dennis Miller, and could best be described as
political satire. The show follows a basic script:
- Dennis' opening jokes
- The Rant
- The Guest Interview
- Callers Phone In
- The Big Screen
The Rant is the cornerstone of the show, when Dennis voices off about whatever the show's topic is. It will contain many obscure references, but that doesn't stop anyone intelligent or at least smart enough to look it up from getting the joke. The rant always begins with "Now I don't wanna get off on a rant here, but..." and ends with "But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong." Every so often, the exact language of the end changes depending on what the subject is (for example, he has used "That's just my wife's opinion, I could be wrong.")
In much, much older airings of the show, Dennis occasionally interviewed his guests via satellite hookup. Examples of this are Bob Costas on December 23rd, 1994 ('twas the episode they replayed tonight, hence my urge to note it) and Jim Carrey. Through the years, the show has had many great guests, from rock stars to actors to politicians to Dennis' former Saturday Night Live castmates, most notably Dana Carvey.
Until this season, the theme song of Dennis Miller Live was "Everybody Wants To Rule the World" by Tears for Fears. The song that was played during the segue to The Big Screen is "Civilization" by the Rollins Band.
The Big Screen is merely a series of pictures (most often with political figures present) with humorous captions. One example is Colin Powell holding a cell phone, with the caption "Can you hear me now, motherfucker?" in reference to the Verizon advertising campaign.
The show has spawned a loyal fan base and four books full of Dennis' rants (check my writeup on Dennis Miller for a list of all four, and for the love of god, buy them). Sadly, once it ends on August 30th, 2002 and 1-800-LACTOSE (the call-in number for the show) gets disconnected, fans will need to satisfy themselves with reruns and tapes.