Jon Stewart took the “Daily Show” host chair on Jan. 11, 1999. Video by Comedy Central on August 04, 2015 JAN. 11, 1999The First ShowWhen Jon Stewart took over the anchor’s seat of “The Daily Show” from Craig Kilborn, nobody was quite sure what to expect. The opening jokes were about President Clinton’s impeachment trial. One gag involved a Senator Jesse Helms action figure that, Stephen Colbert deadpanned, came with a gay figure for the Helms doll to hate. Watch the entire clip here →Madeleine SmithbergCo-creator of 'The Daily Show'I’d love to say I planned some amazing premiere episode for Jon for his first show, but I think it was just the way the guests dropped. Guests were not the first thing that we thought about. Because of the nature of the way the show was produced, the thing that you’re focusing on with all your might is the news of that day. I always describe it as playing slot machines with the world. You would pull this imaginary lever and five stories would come up and that was what you had to work with. And the writers would come in at 9 and start writing, and at 1 o’clock the jokes would come in and you knew whether or not you had a show.I had been offered [a job with Craig] Kilborn and in the process of trying to decide whether I should go to “Late Late Show,” I called Jon, who was my really good friend, and said, “What do I do?” And he had said: “Well, do you like coming to work at ‘The Daily Show’ every day?” And I said: “Yes, I love it. I love everybody I work with. I love the way we interact with the world.” And he told me later that in the process of helping me to arrive at my decision, he realized it sounded like a great job.Michael J. FoxFirst guestI did his show on MTV [“The Jon Stewart Show”] and he returned the favor and did an episode of “Spin City.” When he took over [“The Daily Show”] from Kilborn he asked me to be on it, so I happily agreed. I don’t remember much about the appearance aside from being a smartass and joking that I’d been there more times than he had. I knew he was a smart, funny guy. But I had no idea the weight that he’d carry going down the line.I’ve watched the show religiously. It was the water cooler. He can have an opinion, but you always sensed an openness, like: “Convince me. Tell me I’m wrong. Show me where I’m not getting it. But I’m a smart guy and I think that I’m getting it, and I think that it smells.”- At some point in the mid- to late ’80s on the New York scene, I was the angry smoking guy and he was the angry smoking Jewish guy. He’s always been cantankerous and angry, even in front of the crowd, but he was so charming and smart. The four tools that he had were the same ones that he started to use when he got on “The Daily Show.” He has great, real anger; really, really terrific comedy timing; the ability to rant; and the brains.DENIS LEARY
- When I appeared on Jon Stewart’s show back in the late ’90s it was more of the straight-ahead talk show format, desk, chairs, the usual introduction. Of course Jon was charming from the start, but hadn’t found his true voice, which evolved into a much riskier, edgier, dangerous place as the years went by.SANDRA BERNHARD
Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell were the first “Daily Show” correspondents to leave for greater stardom. Video by Comedy Central on August 04, 2015 SEPT. 20, 1999Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert in ‘Even Stevphen’Under Jon Stewart, "The Daily Show" became a trusted news source for millions of primarily young, left-leaning viewers. It also became a de-facto farm system that has rivaled "Saturday Night Live" in terms of talent developed.The show jump-started the careers of performers like Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, John Oliver and Michael Che. But it was Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, friends since their days together at Second City in Chicago, who first proved that a stint as “Daily Show” correspondent could lead to greater stardom. Watch the entire clip here →Rory AlbaneseA former executive producer and writer of 'The Daily Show'; showrunner of 'The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore'It was my third day, and they were doing a summer spectacular shoot on the roof. Steve and Stephen were in a kiddie pool just goofing around together, and I remember thinking: "I can’t believe these two guys are on this show. How are these two guys not the most famous comedians on TV?" At the time, “The Daily Show” was a little, unknown entity. They were the voices of Ace and Gary, the Ambiguously Gay Duo on “Saturday Night Live.” They were both on “The Dana Carvey Show.” Colbert brought Carell in here, to “The Daily Show.”Ben KarlinA former writer and executive producer of 'The Daily Show'; co-creator of 'The Colbert Report'The show hadn’t really established itself as really anything yet. I don’t think anyone was quite so bold to think about the long-term [career] prospects other than, "Is this going to work?"- It is the sharpest, cleverest, most tuned in comedy audience of any show I’ve been on anywhere in the world, and that’s because of the culture Jon has nurtured. If you’re smart from the beginning, you get people who like smart stuff, and you can do even smarter stuff. It’s a really clever symbiotic evolution.RICKY GERVAIS
The 2000 presidential election, the first “The Daily Show” covered, brought the show a higher profile. Video by Comedy Central on August 04, 2015 Indecision 2000“The Daily Show” had started to veer more toward political satire after Mr. Stewart took over. But the 2000 election was the first opportunity the show had to cover a presidential campaign.“The whole country was consumed with this and we were a part of this,” said Allison Silverman, a writer on “The Daily Show” at the time. “That was exciting, as opposed to the stories about pet psychics … pet psychics and bird diapers were the types of stories we were abandoning.”The episodes on the 2000 recount earned “The Daily Show” both its first Emmy and a new level of political relevancy. The “Indecision” coverage would go on to become one of the show’s signature features. Watch the entire clip here →AlbaneseThat’s what put “The Daily Show” on the map. People didn’t know how to process what was happening. What the hell are hanging chads? The whole thing was so crazy. It was just perfect for satire. Jon found his rhythm in that moment. You could tell he had a lot to say, and a lot of opinions.It was just a matter of people learning what Comedy Central was. It wasn’t a staple on the cable channels. Jon used to joke all the time that our lead-in was “Mannequin 2.” The network was in its infancy in a lot of ways. They’d had “Politically Incorrect,” and “South Park” was getting going. But they still had “Battlebots” on. They weren’t really what they are now.Allison SilvermanFormer writer, 'The Daily Show'; former executive producer of 'The Colbert Report'There were magical elements of bureaucracy that definitely lent themselves to humor. I remember listening to the Supreme Court argue the case and wishing we had footage, and then deciding we would create our own footage and voices for the Supreme Court.[The final ruling] was upsetting. I don’t think the writers' room was as homogeneous as people probably think it was, but for the vast majority of us, it was an upsetting moment. I remember how exhausted we were, and feeling a sense of sadness and futility with the process that I think we tried to put into the show that night. The premise was we had been doing the show live for the past 30 odd days -- everyone was exhausted and Colbert had a long, very strange, verbose, wonderful speech in which he was kind of Caligula.One thing that I don’t think we ever got to air, was getting the Crypt Keeper to be a pundit on the show. This was Bush v. Gore, and the idea was to just have Jon throw to our very special correspondent, the Crypt Keeper, and he would say “I LIKE GORE!” in his classic Crypt Keeper voice. I think we tried, but the Crypt Keeper was very expensive.- Long before I was a person who would ever be on “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart was where I got my news. Watching Jon — an avowed defender of civil rights, women's rights, all the democratic beliefs that I hold dear really — who still knew it was his job to dress everyone down when they deserved it, kept me amused, inspired and most importantly aware in a time when picking up the newspaper was just not gonna happen.LENA DUNHAM
In 2004 the comic appeared on the show to criticize it. “Stop hurting America,” he told the hosts Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. Video by CNN on August 04, 2015 OCT. 15, 2004Stewart vs. ‘Crossfire’Perhaps the most well-known moment from Mr. Stewart’s run as host didn’t even occur on “The Daily Show.” In 2004 he appeared on “Crossfire,” the CNN debate show hosted by Paul Begala, a former Clinton administration adviser, and Tucker Carlson, a conservative journalist and commentator. Mr. Stewart critiqued the program and its hosts, whom he blamed for reducing complex social issues to two-dimensional grist for partisan bickering.It’s not so much that “Crossfire” is bad, as “it’s hurting America,” he told the hosts. “Stop hurting America.”Several months later, CNN announced it was canceling the show. “I agree wholeheartedly with Jon Stewart’s overall premise,” Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN, said at the time. Making fun of Fox News and CNN was already the bread and butter of "The Daily Show," but the “Crossfire” incident solidified Mr. Stewart’s status as cable news’s most prominent critic. Watch the entire clip here →Steve BodowExecutive producer of 'The Daily Show'That was a time when Jon was out doing a lot of appearances on other shows, which he seldom does, because we were promoting “America the Book.” And that [pause] interaction that he had with Tucker Carlson was pretty well unplanned.Paul BegalaFormer aide to President Bill Clinton and former 'Crossfire' co-hostI believe he clearly came in there wanting to blow the show up. And he did so.He was very nervous in the makeup room. That was my first inkling that there was something going on. I went in the makeup room to meet him, because I’m a big fan. Also my cousin was in the Army and Jon’s done a lot to entertain the troops. He never brags about it, never takes credit, never promotes it. He’s not Bob Hope. So I wanted to tell him: "My cousin is in the Army and I wanted to thank you." And I was struck that he seemed nervous.I was trying to parse how much of this was serious and how much of this was comedic. When he [said that we were] hurting America and everybody laughed, I thought that was obviously a joke. That’s hyperbole. Because I don’t think 30 minutes of debate, even if it’s bad, even if it’s shouting, I don’t think that hurts America. I think this is a pretty tough country.He was extraordinarily earnest after the show. Really decent. I don’t think it was a show. I think a lot of it was our fault. It went off the rails quickly and it wasn’t entirely Jon’s fault.It worked out for him. In my life, it doesn’t make my Top 100 list of bad days. A bad day is when they come to you and say: “They just impeached your boss. And by the way, can you write a statement — we’re about to launch air strikes.” That’s kind of a challenging day.AlbaneseMy takeaway at the time was, "Well, we’re screwed." I really thought our show was canceled. One of the lines somebody uttered was, “Polish up your résumé, everybody.” “Crossfire” seemed like the culturally relevant, accepted thing, and we were the wiseasses in the back of the class, making fun of those guys – we didn’t know we were allowed to do it to their face.I don’t think he was trying to get the show canceled. I don’t think he went there planning to do that. But to this day, when he does the audience warm-up, he will get questions about “Crossfire.” “Is Tucker Carlson still mad at you?” That was 10 years ago! But my answer is, "Yes, probably, he is still mad." He probably has a room in his house with a lot of Jon Stewart pictures with arrows through them.KarlinI was there. I was in the green room. We talked about it in the car ride to the taping, whether he wanted to do it or not. Whether he wanted to say what he was going to say. That was somewhat premeditated. I don’t think he saw it necessarily going in that direction, and certainly not becoming a thing. But it had been a running thing in our writers’ room, how awful that show is and it’s such a missed opportunity. We had lots of highfalutin, intellectual hand-wringing over it. I think Jon wanted to bring that to them, and it kind of devolved. He would say the same thing. Again, everyone looks at the post-Sept. 11 show and the “Crossfire” episode as these seminal moments. And I think Jon probably looks at those as not his favorite moments.- Stewart’s a talented guy. He’s quick on his feet. When I went on his program it was fun for me, because it wasn’t mean or personal. It was, “O.K., who can be the quickest and who has the best points?” When you make a point with Stewart he’ll cede it, and many of the others wouldn’t do that. We don’t like phonies. That’s probably the biggest common ground I have with Stewart. He and I have actually used our loathing for disingenuous people to become successful.BILL O’REILLY
Mr. Stewart grilled the financial pundit in the wake of of the subprime mortgage-fueled economic collapse. Video by Comedy Central on August 04, 2015 MARCH 12, 2009Stewart vs. Jim CramerAs the country reeled from the subprime loan-fueled economic collapse, Mr. Stewart aimed his scorn at Jim Cramer, a stand-in for the media covering the nation’s financial sector. He gave Mr. Cramer the classic “Daily Show” treatment, using clips of his own past assertions against him. “When I watch that, I can’t tell you how angry that makes me because what it says to me is you all know,” he said. “So now to pretend this was a crazy once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best, and criminal at worst.” Watch the entire clip here →Jim CramerHost of 'Mad Money' on CNBCIn retrospect, not one of my better moments, or as Jon has said, one of his, but I wish him the best.Tim CarvellFormer head writer of 'The Daily Show'; showrunner of 'Last Week Tonight With John Oliver'That Cramer interview was one of the more satisfying ones I can remember at the show -- a rare case where a guest not only capitulated mid-interview, but Jon then refused to let that be the end of it. And, in a true sign of the show's influence: Nothing changed as a result.- Jon can be extremely polished. But it's the times when he is not polished, when he is a hothead and is raising his voice, that he's the most exciting to watch. Who else is their most eloquent when they are going slightly hoarse?MINDY KALING
Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian journalist, was imprisoned after meeting with Jason Jones of “The Daily Show.” Video by Comedy Central on August 04, 2015 JUNE 22, 2009‘Persians of Interest’In the late spring of 2009, “The Daily Show” sent the correspondent Jason Jones to Iran to unearth whatever comedy could be found in the not-so-hilarious Green Revolution protests, which arose from that country’s disputed presidential election. Mr. Jones helped bring back a different story: Among the sources who appeared in his segment “Persians of Interest” was Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian journalist whose work had made him a thorn in the side of the Iranian regime. One day before this segment ran, Mr. Bahari was arrested in Tehran and imprisoned under suspicion of being a spy.After months of protests and awareness campaigns, and 118 days in captivity, he was released. Mr. Bahari wrote a memoir about his experience, “Then They Came for Me,” which Jon Stewart would later adapt as a film in his 2014 directorial debut, “Rosewater.” Watch the entire clip here →BodowIt was one of the first times where we sent a correspondent and a team and a producer overseas. We were expanding our horizons of what we could cover and how we could cover it. There have been a lot of really good ones like that over the years. That was maybe the most consequential.Maziar BahariIranian-Canadian journalist who was imprisoned after reporting on Iran's Green Revolution.“The Daily Show” called and they said we would like to interview you because we saw you on the Ted Koppel show. At that time, I was very busy. I usually would say no to all media requests. But because it was “The Daily Show” and I had been a fan, I said, "Sure, let’s do it."When they came to Tehran, I met Tim Greenberg, who was the producer, and Jason Jones. I asked them to come to the hotel and then we had coffee, Tim, Jason and I, in the lobby of the hotel. Because I had such a limited amount of time to talk to them, we just had a quick coffee, and I flooded them with names. Unbeknownst to all of us, someone was watching. They thought I had been involved in some sort of espionage, when I was giving so many names to Jason and Tim. And then, of course, when the [episode] was aired, they had the visual evidence for that. Voilà.“The Daily Show” episode was just a very small part of my captivity. It was one of many, many ridiculous [pieces of] evidence that they had against me, including my membership in an Anton Chekhov fan club. Including my membership in a Pauly Shore fan club. I never thought, “Oh my God, I’m such an idiot for doing the 'Daily Show’ interview.”I’m the biggest “Daily Show” fan. I download it on iTunes every morning. When I was watching it this morning and he said that he has only 12 or 13 shows left, I felt really sad. My subway ride, like many other people’s, will be really lonely.I’ve heard people say that, “Jon Stewart is retiring because he made one film and he’s become more interested in filmmaking and he wants to be a filmmaker, and you’re responsible.” I’m sure that they’re joking. But it hurts, even as a joke.I’m just joking. It doesn’t hurt.- One thing I think Jon doesn't get enough credit for is his focus on national security and defense. Veterans, morality and accountability for the wars, strategic issues in foreign policy, terrorism — he's by far the best communicator on those issues that we've had from the left in my generation. For our generation, the Iraq war will always be subtitled “Mess O'Potamia.”RACHEL MADDOW
In October 2010 President Obama became the first sitting president to appear on the show. Video by Comedy Central on August 04, 2015 OCT. 27, 2010The First Interview With President ObamaBarack Obama's relationship with “The Daily Show” goes back to his time as a freshman senator from Illinois. A 2005 interview found him giving as good as he got. Asked about the “hopes and dreams on your shoulder,” the then-Senator Obama admitted that he did “worry about the hype.”“The only person who's more overhyped than me," he told Mr. Stewart, “is you."President Obama made seven appearances on "The Daily Show," most recently in July. (Mr. Stewart also made the occasional appearance in the Oval Office, as a recent report revealed.) But Mr. Obama's visit in October 2010 was the first time a sitting president had appeared on "The Daily Show." It was the most explicit sign that a show dedicated to shooting spitballs at the political establishment, as Mr. Stewart put it, was now part of said establishment. Watch the entire clip here →BodowIt was our first time with him, and we had this very wry idea that, in the first act of the show, there would be this huge build-up: It was the president. He was finally going to be here. In the first act of the show, we were going to just kill some time and make people wait, knowing that they wouldn’t go away, because we were about to have the president on, so we could just tease and torture them. And we actually did it – our big studio audience in Washington, we did this thing where Jon just made 'em wait. Killed time. Then we brought the president out and it was a great conversation, and it went way over length. We were like, we just have to lose this stupid thing that we did. So it never aired. We just cut it. So the only time that we wasted was our own. It was really stupid.AlbaneseThere’s always that feeling people have about "The Daily Show," that its mission is to drive some left-wing narrative, and it’s not. The goal of the show is to create a funny comedy show every night. When [George W.] Bush was in power, we made fun of him a lot, and I think there was a lot to make fun of. And I think we’ve done a very good job of making fun of Obama. It doesn’t get as much traction, because so many of the fans are left [-leaning] and loved our Bush stuff.David AxelrodPolitical consultant and former senior adviser to President ObamaAlmost everyday [within the administration] there’d be some line or some summary or some discussion of what transpired on the show the night before.We were right on the verge of a really tough election. Part of the motivation was we wanted to galvanize the vote. When you talk about midterm elections, the great challenge for Democrats is there’s a drop off in the vote, and it’s disproportionately in the young, in minorities. There was a logic to appearing on the show at that time.The bully pulpit is something you have to assemble in the 21st century. It’s not there waiting for you. And you have to assemble it by putting many different pieces together. “The Daily Show” was one of those pieces, certainly for us. Jon Stewart, as a social satirist, is one of the incomparable talents of our time, but it was the audience who was important for us.In March of 2009 we did “The Tonight Show.” I’m sure we had done Letterman by that time. We had long ago broken whatever taboo there was about appearing on these shows. It was not a hard decision to do “The Daily Show.” If you’re the president, you don’t go on to do comedy. There may be some funny exchanges, but Jon asks serious questions. In his own way, he was as tough an interview as anybody.- At his core he makes the news hilarious, but at the same time he doesn't gloss over it — he acknowledges the pain and confusion. I don't know any late night host that has ever showed us more of themselves than Jon has.ABBI JACOBSON
- Our interview was completely surreal because of his sincerity. I'm sitting there, talking to him with cameras on cranes swirling around the studio, and my consciousness fluttered between being on “The Daily Show” and feeling like I was in sweatpants sitting on a well-worn couch.ILANA GLAZER
Mr. Stewart is credited with helping to get a bill passed that aided sick Sept. 11 first-responders. Video by Comedy Central on August 04, 2015 DEC. 16, 2010Backing The Zadroga ActAs the 111th Congress neared its end, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act — designed to aid those who became ill from working at ground zero — was stuck in the Senate. Then Mr. Stewart took up the cause. On Dec. 13, he shamed Republican senators by juxtaposing footage of their tributes to first responders with their “no” votes to override a filibuster of the bill. And on Dec. 16 he brought four first responders with serious health issues onto the show. Watch the entire clip here →BodowIt was something that we had done several things on. It was a running topic of interest. And this was the one where it got really serious. It’s absolutely one of a kind. It comes close to explicit advocacy.AlbaneseThey hung a flag that day in honor of the show and it’s still mounted in the hallway.Representative Carolyn B. MaloneyDemocrat of New YorkWe had hit a brick wall in the Senate. Nothing was working. And then Jon Stewart really took it up. And I distinctly remember the impact that he had. He started talking about it and then everybody started talking about it. We were running out of time. We had been a Democratic Congress. The next congress would have been a Republican Congress, meaning that it would have been dead. He called it “the Least We Can Do No-Brainer Act of 2010.” It was so classic.A victory has many authors. There are a lot of us who worked on this bill and fought for it daily. I had events every week for nine years practically. Letters, petitions, lobbying, meetings. But it was Jon Stewart who brought that bill to life.- He uses comedy well to shine a light on issues that make it clear what’s right and what’s wrong so that his viewers can fully understand it. And for a lot of young viewers, they don’t watch news very often. His take on an issue may be the only resource they have.SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
The comedian filled in while Jon Stewart made “Rosewater.” HBO gave Mr. Oliver his own show a few months later. Video by Comedy Central on August 04, 2015 JUNE 10, 2013‘The Daily Show With John Oliver’The announcement that Jon Stewart would be taking a hiatus from “The Daily Show” in the summer of 2013 to direct his first movie raised a number of questions. Such as: Jon Stewart is directing a movie? And it’s not a comedy?Also: Who, if anyone, will take over “The Daily Show” during this time?The reins were handed to John Oliver, the British-born comedian who had been a “Daily Show” correspondent since 2006. Though Mr. Oliver acknowledged some uncertainty about how he’d fare – “It’s like a Nascar driver giving keys to his car to a member of his pit crew,” he told The New York Times – his fill-in run was a hit. Helped along by a summer that was unexpectedly generous with mockable news, including the downfall of Rep. Anthony Weiner, a.k.a. Carlos Danger, Mr. Oliver thrived and won many new fans. The admirers included HBO, which stole away Mr. Oliver and signed him up for his own news satire series, “Last Week Tonight.” But more importantly for “The Daily Show,” Mr. Oliver’s success suggested that the show could survive without Mr. Stewart. Watch the entire clip here →CarvellEveryone at the show thought John was ready to host, with the possible exception of John himself -- he was the only one in the office who was actually nervous about it. But he'd shadowed Jon in the weeks leading up to Jon's departure, trying to soak up as much as he could about what it's like to run things. I will say that first day was a little daunting, because the Edward Snowden story had broken in the week leading up to his first show -- and that would've been a tough story to get our arms around no matter what.BodowAnthony Weiner was, to Oliver’s run, what Donald Trump is for Jon right now. “Oh, thank you, universe.”AlbaneseI do think there’s an irreplaceability to Jon Stewart. But I think, because of the infrastructure that’s built there – prior to John Oliver hosting, I would have argued, if Jon Stewart leaves, this thing goes off the air. When John Oliver hosted, it was the first time I realized, no, we built a hell of a machine here.It was really fun to watch John Oliver go to the next level. Now he’s got his own show. If all that had happened in a different order, maybe Oliver would have ended up sitting in the chair when Jon left. But the good news is, we get John Oliver and we still get "The Daily Show." People are like, "Oh, how's [Mr. Stewart successor] Trevor [Noah] going to be?" Trevor’s going to be great. Because the machine is built. Trevor’s smart. He’s keeping the staff. That machine is going to keep humming. And then Trevor’s going to find his voice. Trevor’s going to come in and it’s going to be the same thing that happens with all these shows. Everyone’s going to watch the first one and spout some stupid stuff on the Internet. And then within a week, they’re going to be like, this guy’s great.- He started a tree of really magnificent political satirists. Most of them got their [guts] from working on that show and being able to say what they wanted to say, and have it aired.It’s hard to call Jon Stewart a genius without him just laughing at you. But if you look at the overall history of that show, the way he that he did it, who he interviewed, how fearless he was and how beloved he was, you would have to say there was genius involved to pull it off so magnificently. He can mock me all he wants.RICHARD LEWIS
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Jon Stewart and The Daily Show NY Times
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