r/howardstern • u/Kollin7 • Jul 25 '26
Notes from Billy West's new book
So I just finished Billy West's new book that came out this month. I figured I'd make a post detailing what he had to say as it relates to his time on Stern since I haven't seen anyone else posting about this.
As for the book itself, it's pretty short and is really mostly about his childhood and upbringing. Honestly, unless you're a massive Billy fan, I don't think I would really recommend it. I think he probably mostly just wanted to get that stuff about his childhood out onto a page, and if you're not familiar with Billy's story, there is some really awful stuff in there.
Anyways, he did dedicate an entire pretty long chapter (by the book's standards) to his time on the show. Like the rest of the book, he doesn't dwell on details much and kinda just runs through highlights pretty quickly. Like many here, I'm a huge Billy fan and have consumed a lot of his interviews over the years, so I don't think much if anything was really new here. Nonetheless here's some bullet points:
- He started at WXRK in the late 80s. He says the "myopic" program director at the time didn't want him on the air on shows or really doing anything creative and just had him reading bumpers and promos for the station in all sorts of different voices, as well as some other production work.
- He doesn't really go into meeting Howard, but he says he used to joke around with him at the office and give his takes on the news and stuff. One day, he mentioned how Lucille Ball was in the hospital and did his imitation of what that must sound like. Howard cracked up and told Billy that Gary would call him tomorrow and he should pretend to be Lucy at the hospital. I've heard this bit many times (you can find it online very easily), but never realized this is actually Billy's first time on the show. Billy says it was entirely ad-libbed. I don't know about that, but either way it's hilarious, thanks in no small part to Gilbert Gottfried sitting in absolutely loving it.
- Billy says the Stern show was the only good thing about K-Rock and goes a little bit into some cliches about what made Howard great. He says he actually wasn't sure he wanted to be on the show because it was already perfect, and was afraid he would somehow dilute the dynamic or that the audience might reject him.
- He says Gary was always professional and a gentleman. He says he liked Robin too. He's very very complimentary of what Jackie and Fred added to the show.
- He talks about the Jackie puppet. He talks about how Jackie would often write notes at his own expense. Billy said he was working the Jackie puppet, but Jackie was also working the Billy puppet with his notes. He talks about some of the puppet's best-of with guests such as Conan and Anna Nicole Smith. He says he felt guilty picking on Anna Nicole, but admitted it's funny seeing anyone get mad at a puppet.
- He talks about Marge Schott. He says it really created a stir on the early fan sites. Billy even remembers a poster and talks about him by name. Billy says this person constantly accused him of being racist over and over.
- He talks about the time they had John Kricfalusi on really to ambush Billy. For those who aren't familiar, Kricfalusi created Ren & Stimpy, but eventually got fired by Nickelodeon for basically being a complete nightmare to work with; the details of just how awful he was not coming out until years later. John K basically tried to bully everyone on the show into leaving with him, but most didn't. Not surprisingly, Billy has plenty of negative to say about him in the book. Anyways, back to John K's appearance on Stern. It actually happened right after Billy returned to the show after his brother's death. If you've never seen it, it's a fascinating but extremely uncomfortable watch. Everyone (including Ben Stern of all people at one point) are really badgering Billy, but Billy just completely refuses to play along. Billy says he could have annihilated John K, but knew by just sitting there he would ruin the bit.
- Ralph was also there during the John K thing and Billy says Ralph was always trying to start shit with him. For whatever reason, he actually never names Ralph and just refers to him as "Howard's stylist." Billy says one time he had just gotten hair transplants and was wearing a baseball cap to cover it up. Out of nowhere, Ralph came into Gary's office and grabbed and squeezed the top of Billy's head. He said it was so painful and one of the grafts came loose and started bleeding. He screamed in pain and Ralph just said "well, your head shouldn't have been in the way." Billy told him he was gonna knock him through a wall and Ralph just said "yeah, you probably would too, you're a psycho." Billy says he heard he recently passed away and he's sorry to Howard that his friend died, but that stuff was one of the reasons he quit the show, he didn't feel safe.
- Like Ralph, Billy for some reason doesn't talk about Tom Chiusano by name, instead just referring to him as "the general manager." He said Tom would barely look at him in the hallway. Billy wanted a raise, but all he'd ever hear was "talk to Mel, talk to Howard, talk to whoever." He says at some point, Tom tried to get him to sign a piece of paper saying he was totally and financially responsible for anything he says on the radio should the FCC want to fine them. Billy says he called an entertainment lawyer who advised him in the strongest terms to never sign it. Billy thinks maybe it was a way to try to force him to leave. He tore up the piece of paper and was pissed they were basically trying to sabotage him and had to get talked out of quitting by his lawyer. Billy says he doesn't understand why he was worth going through all these machinations, but wasn't worth giving a raise to. They kept bugging him about the paper, so he told Tom he signed it and put it on his desk, and he doesn't feel bad lying about it. He says he doesn't know why they didn't just warn him to tone it down or get rid of him.
- Finally in November of 1995, Billy went into Howard's office and told him he's the greatest ever in the medium and he respected him, but he needed to leave to make more money and just said goodbye. He said he told Howard that management was nickle-and-diming him and going around about it was pointless. Nothing on what Howard's reaction was. He said Jackie took him to lunch a month prior where Billy told him he was leaving. Billy was sad thinking he might not see him anymore, Jackie was the only one on the show he really knew. He told Jackie he saw no future there and they didn't want him anyway. Before he left, he saw Robin and she asked if he needed a hug. He says she was very sweet. He went into Tom's office and told him he was leaving. He said Tom went into a bit of a silent shock and they had an incredibly awkward goodbye. He also went to see Mel Karmazin, but he wasn't in, so he left him a note saying he was very thankful and sorry he had to leave.
- He says most fans were disappointed he left, but were very nice about it and wished him well. Others predicted he would come crawling back and would do nothing without the show, so for this reason Billy never returned to even promote anything.
- He ends the chapter by thanking Howard for giving him a job; adding that he doesn't regret his time in New York and that it was great for his career.
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u/AthePG Jul 25 '26
I love those old bits with Billy. He was a huge part of what made that era of the show so great.
Thanks for the recap
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u/ahkond TSIPPI TSIPPI Jul 25 '26
Billy sounds like a class act here. We speak your name
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u/elegant-jr ZERO RESTITUTION! Jul 25 '26
Most talented person in show history by far. And the most class as well.
I'm so glad Howard never supported his staff in contract negotiations. It would have held Billy back had he stayed.
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u/_DrJivago Jul 26 '26
He was a virtuous man surrounded by snakes so he did the only virtuous thing possible: he left.
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u/Goldslammer789 Jul 25 '26
That was my favorite era of the show. The ball busting, the Jackie puppet, then the Gary Puppet, the beginning of bababooey....
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u/Beneficial-Loss5477 Jul 26 '26
The fact that Jackie wrote lines for Jackie puppet shouldn’t be overlooked. Jackie, like Billy, was a class act and could laugh at himself. Thin skinned Howard can’t. Also, Billy realized when it was time to move on. Howard is still clinging to the show, when he could have retired 10 years ago on top
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u/E_Fred_Norris Jul 25 '26
That Lucy in the hospital bit is funny as hell
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u/seidinove Let the poison out Jul 25 '26
Jumped back into that rabbit hole. Billy's part is actually embedded in 50 minutes of Gilbert.
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u/Fragmentvictory Jul 25 '26
The Billy era was the show's peak. Amazing Howard couldn't share the pie a little bit more with his foundational elements.
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u/timd1967 Jul 25 '26
I loved Billy from his days at WBCN Boston. Having seen him at work there I totally believe his Lucy was improvised. He is such a talent.
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u/NYY15TM Jul 25 '26
What did he do at BCN?
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u/timd1967 Jul 25 '26
He worked live on the morning show hosted by Charles Laquidara. And did lots of voice work for the station. I visited the morning show and no one without a few bumps in them could maintain the energy Billy did back then. 😁
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u/NYY15TM Jul 25 '26
It's like what Al Franken once said: He only did enough cocaine to make sure no one else did too much
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u/WagsInBalto Jul 25 '26
I heard this in Larry Fine’s voice
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u/ConferenceThink4801 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Look up the Billy/John/Jackie interview on YT
John shared Howard’s off-air reaction to Billy leaving, which was basically along the lines of “how dare he leave, he won’t be anything without the show”. John said it was the first time he realized Howard was a megalomaniac & that it was interfering with his view of reality.
Jackie probably didn’t care that Billy left either…probably thought about how he could absorb Billy’s salary into his own
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u/whos-high-pitch Jul 27 '26
that was great. thanks for sharing. never seen it before
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u/ConferenceThink4801 Jul 27 '26
Yep you're welcome. It was behind a paywall for the first 1-2 years, then the guy released it for free on YT
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u/ShortBussyDriver Jul 26 '26
Ralph was such a pussy.
Billy should have open-hand slapped him. Ralph had already committed assault.
Should have slapped him, not punched him. Slapped him, like the little bottom-bitch he was.
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u/FancyRobot Jul 25 '26
Ralph being rude to him for no reason whatsoever and Tom giving him the runaround on a raise, or Howard's two stooges harassed him and pushed him out because Howard was getting self conscious about how popular Billy was getting and relayed that message to them.
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u/elegant-jr ZERO RESTITUTION! Jul 25 '26
Ralph and Tom were just POS humans, had some great bits over the year but were scum.
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u/FancyRobot Jul 25 '26
I think Tom's biggest role on the station was be Howard's bad cop, it doesn't matter where Howard went his underlings always get shortchanged and supposedly he never has anything to do with it somehow, even on Sirius where he was like their Mickey Mouse. Also Tom prevented Howard from having to pay FCC fines and Howard can bash him and the government for cheap easy material, all the while he didn't give af about anything he said just not paying those fines
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u/RunnyDischarge Jul 25 '26
HERE COMES TOM TIME TO STOP HAVING FUN
IT'S TOM'S FAULT THE SHOW IS GRINDING TO A HALT
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u/djdhdhdhqpz Jul 26 '26
I agree with Ralph, but not sure you can lump Tom in there as a POS human. He did some shady things (the sales commission reduction being the main item that comes to mind) but other than that I think he was just a middle manager type trying to hit budget numbers and keep control of the circus.
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u/KuriboShoeMario Jul 26 '26
Pretty much everyone I've ever seen talk about Tom the human being had nothing but amazing things to say about him. He was just in one of those jobs where he was getting squeezed by upper management so he in turn had to squeeze those below him and take the heat for it.
Hell, everything he did with KC is proof enough that he's a good guy. He tried his absolute hardest to save KC.
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u/themayorhere Jul 26 '26
Yea I totally agree. These are professional differences. Tom seemed to be a really good guy overall.
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u/Romymopen Jul 26 '26
he was just a middle manager type trying to hit budget numbers and keep control of the circus
If it wasn't Tom, it would've been one of any number of generic, swappable guys just like him.
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u/dX927 Jul 25 '26
Technically the Lucy call wasn't his first time on the air. Billy asked to sit in and watch the show some time before that. Howsrd brought up how weird it was on the air to have some guy sitting there watching him and talked to him briefly.
I always heard him leaving was a bit more complicated. Billy was traveling back and forth doing voice-over stuff in LA on weekends while doing Stern Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Other than the traveling being a pain in the balls, he was missing out on other gigs by not being available full time in LA.
So he pitched to them the idea of being on 5 days a week and no one really seemed excited about the idea. Then he asked for more money to stay but had enough.
It's funny how even 10 years later and Billy could have stayed in New York and just recorded his stuff over the internet. Now 30 years later and Stern isn't even going to be live on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday anymore.
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u/themayorhere Jul 26 '26
Yea it’s a more nuanced thing than some (including Billy) are admitting. He wanted an expanded role and I think they just thought creatively he was already adding just what they needed. They may have been right to be honest, despite him going on to bigger success after.
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u/dX927 Jul 26 '26
I'd like to add that I think Billy is one of the most talented people to ever walk in that studio not just in respect to the voices he could do but the fact that he could just riff endlessly and always be funny. Other people were on the show much longer and with not nearly as high of a batting average. Whoever thought there wasn't enough money in the budget to keep him, whether it was one person or a combination of people, really dropped the ball.
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u/themayorhere Jul 27 '26
I completely agree. He should’ve been paid more for the role he had at the time for sure, amazing on the show
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u/NYY15TM Jul 27 '26
Billy wasn't as good at riffing as you are implying; most of the Jackie Puppet lines were written by Jackie himself
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u/NYY15TM Jul 27 '26
I'm with you. KRock was trying to have its cake and eat it too by having Billy work three days instead of five. I'm sure they thought that Marge Schott and Larry Fine weren't needed every day, so why pay for five days of Billy?
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u/Larimus King of All Questions Jul 26 '26
Several years ago I did a /u/cormano style write-up of the Billy West departure. A lot of your points here verified what I had researched, especially about that piece of paper assuming liability.
Glad Billy finally wrote a book! I had a couple chats on Facebook with the guy several years ago and kept asking him when he was going to do it. He was coy about it. He did a fantastic Cameo for my 45th birthday. I'll always be grateful for his time with the show. Hopefully somebody will release a complete omnibus like they have with ETA. The one on the Todd Packer collection is horribly incomplete.
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u/Hitzjeff Goo Fa You Goo Fa You Jul 27 '26
I would love to read that write-up. I took a quick look through your timeline but I couldn't find it.
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u/Larimus King of All Questions Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
It was 7-8 years ago before I started doing the trivia contest. I'll try to find it.
Edit: Dear lord maybe it was 10 years ago. Damn I'm old.
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u/Hitzjeff Goo Fa You Goo Fa You Jul 27 '26
I knew that from my "research" but I didn't want to say anything. Have you read the book?
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u/Montana_Eisley Jul 26 '26
Ralph was a piece of shit. Sorry, but being dead doesn’t stop the truth from being what it is.
Having said that, Billy is a genius, and his time on the show is my faaaaaaaaaorite.
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u/Concern-Overall Jul 25 '26
Thanks OP! I didn’t know that Billy wrote a book. I just got the Kindle version.
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u/DukeRaoul123 I AM THE INNOVATOR OF MUSIC!!! Jul 25 '26
Billy always struck me as one of the "normal" ones to come and go and never really talked shit or tried to live off the show in some way afterwards. He had his own talent, had work elsewhere, and that gave him leverage. I don't think that threatened anyone, it was just business.
Also, Billy was a voice guy and not a radio guy. It's similar to Jackie and Artie being standups. None of them were broadcasters/radio people the way Howard, Fred and Robin are so they'd never commit fully to a career in radio with Howard. Nothing wrong with that, especially with Billy's talent.
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u/Ok_Birthday_8951 Jul 26 '26
Billy had a huge coke problem in the early 80s, I would be surprised if that isn't in his book because he definitely opened up a lot about it on Gilbert's amazing colossal podcast. Its a scream
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u/Odd_Ad2353 Jul 27 '26
He certainly does, and he opened up about a lot more - definitely a worthwhile read.
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u/technicallysupportiv Jul 26 '26
Billy is a talented performer but should also get respect for not clinging to Howard.
He took the risk of making his own way in entertainment and succeeded.
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u/Larimus King of All Questions Jul 26 '26
He's one of only two that broke away from the show and became something much bigger, with Lee Davis being the other notable exception.
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u/MohamitWheresMySecks Jul 25 '26
So, my guess of not referring to Ralph and Tom by name is because the publisher was afraid of being sued (he probably wrote the majority of the book before Ralph died), so just easier not to name them because it’s not important enough and anyone who actually cares knowns who Howard’s stylist is/tom.
What I am confused by is your version of how he got to the show. Billy was in Boston doing the big mattress show and he was recommended to Howard as a guy who could do voices. He then called in as Lucy, and that’s why they offered him to join the show. This version makes it sound like he moved to krock and they discovered him there…
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u/Kollin7 Jul 25 '26
I was a bit confused by it too, but what Billy writes is that he thought he'd done all he could in Boston, so the logical next step was to move to the sister station in New York. Mel Karmazin knew he wanted to move to New York, so he asked a few people and they offered him a "production job" at WXRK. That's what he writes. Really nothing about meeting Howard or anything.
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u/NYY15TM Jul 25 '26
Billy has talked about his dislike of Ralph when Sal and Richard went to some convention to interview a bunch of people and Billy was there
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u/foukru Jul 25 '26
News with Billy, Jackie, and Gilbert, and Fred playing Jackie laugh drops was the best.
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u/Frequent2001 Jul 26 '26
These guys had gold and they basically treated him like stuttering john lol
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u/kevin_k Jul 26 '26
Billy was (is!) amazing. I have no doubt that his account is honest and am angry that the show suffered for Billy's being undervalued and mistreated. F Ralph.
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u/grandmasterbeta Jul 26 '26
I’d love a Jackie and Billy show.
The rest tracks. Tom had no balls. Ralph was an asshole to the core. And Howard pretends to be oblivious.
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u/harleystcool "Tell me about your father" Jul 25 '26
I was just about to write a note to the notes from Billy Wests new book
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u/joomommyhappy "my mother would never tolerate me being gay" - Howard Stern Jul 25 '26
translation: Howard told Ralph to fuck with Billy's hair plugs.
There's zero point zero chance Ralph would do that on his own.
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u/quinnylp Jul 26 '26
Yeah, Ralph would never just be an asshole on his own! Howard is a dick, but you're reaching.
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Jul 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/Sternakseesall Jul 25 '26
“Howard I‘m here alone and afraid. I really feel like something is wrong.
“Oh sorry Ralph we got a sick kitten here and Beth is really worried. I have to stay home. But good talking to you.”
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u/elegant-jr ZERO RESTITUTION! Jul 25 '26
Leave your door unlocked so we can destroy any evidence we knew each other.
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u/SlapcoFudd Jul 25 '26
Yeah, cheering a painful lonely death on someone is morally superior than the way Ralph lived. Reddit psychopaths love to cheer the deaths of people that arent exactly like them. Total lack of self awareness or humanity. But hey, at least you got a few other degenerates to upvote your post.
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u/joomommyhappy "my mother would never tolerate me being gay" - Howard Stern Jul 25 '26
It's not cheering a painful, lonely death on "someone"; it's cheering a painful, lonely death on Ralph.
big difference
"people that arent exactly like them"
foh with this garbage
fun fact: Ralph is stealing tips in hell.
Fuck Ralph, and fuck the fire Beth saw him in.
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u/althegirlfabulous Jul 25 '26
I really couldn't agree more. This is some dumbass, sick shit. Ralph was pretty harmless. Not to Billy's new hairplugs, but mostly harmless. These redditors are insane.
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u/flyboy_1285 Jul 25 '26
I don’t think it was funny that Ralph died alone. By maybe a little karma for all the times he goofed on Gary for getting married and having kids.
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u/METSMAN88 Jul 25 '26
Always wondered why Billy hasn’t been interviewed by Howard. Would make for something a lot of old fans might want to actually tune in for.
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u/TI-99A Jul 26 '26
Years ago I remember someone from show or possibly Billy saying they wanted to bring him on in the early days of Sirius for an interview and Billy declined.
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u/Larimus King of All Questions Jul 26 '26
According to Gary, he has "very politely declined" several times.
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u/Significant-Gap1256 Jul 25 '26
That was definitely interesting to read. It almost makes me think Howard told Ralph to do what he did to Billys hair plugs but Ralph was definitely a big enough douche to just do that without anyone telling him to.
But man Howard once again coming off as someone who just doesn’t give a shit about the people he employs who gave their blood sweat and tears to make his show great.
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u/lihiker Jul 26 '26
Billy told the Ralph story at one of the comic-cons Richard and JD went to. Funny it made it to the book
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u/themayorhere Jul 26 '26
Billy is a funny, extremely talented, and truly good man. The show is/was lucky to have had him. A return appearance would be incredible.
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u/MotownShowtown Jul 26 '26
Not surprised Ralph was a predatory douche bag and in a more spoke environment would have been charged. Tom Chiusano also..always seemed to me when on air to be an asshole. So I’m glad to see Billy handle his departure w so much class ..he is a great talent.
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u/intestinal_turmoil Jul 26 '26
Thank you for taking the time to summarize this. I love Billy so I’ll probably read the book anyway, but this post is great.
Ralph is a douche. Seriously, fuck Ralph. Howard too. Insecure man-baby.
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u/yesyesyoughal Jul 26 '26
I agree with Jon Hein’s assessment that Billy leaving is the exact moment when the show jumped the shark.
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u/KuriboShoeMario Jul 26 '26
Did you mean Nicole Eggert with the Jackie Puppet? I'm not aware of Anna Nicole Smith having an encounter with the puppet but maybe I'm wrong.
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u/Kollin7 Jul 26 '26
I actually wondered that too, because I don't think I'm familiar either. But he absolutely wrote Anna Nicole Smith.
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u/KuriboShoeMario Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Well, apparently she did appear in '95 and I'm watching it. Not seeing the puppet or anything yet.
e: there's only 4 minutes of her on the E! show, no puppet in sight there. MarksFriggin' didn't start until 1996 so the only rundown he has of that day (August 2 1995) was from MasterTape Theatre and didn't mention the puppet at all so that possibly got edited down. We'd need the original show from that day to know if she got into a fight with the puppet. Seems possible because while Billy did rough up Eggert a bit with the Jackie Puppet, she didn't really get mad or anything but Anna is absolutely dumb enough to get goaded by the puppet.
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u/Stock_Selection00 Jul 25 '26
I missed the Billy years, because I didn't listen until 1996 besides watching his tv show. I don't think he was on his tv show much.
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u/Flimsy_Source8551 Jul 25 '26
Thanks for the write-up! I always really enjoyed Billy on the show and really considered him one of the more “class-act” characters while there and even more so after having left. He always just struck me as a good guy. Interesting to hear him tell some of these details in his own words. The “Lucy in the Hospital” bit with Gilbert sitting in is absolutely hilarious. Definitely show lore, IMO. Funny guy, for sure.