Althouse: Goodbye, Dennis.

May 12, 2005

Goodbye, Dennis.

CNN reports: "'Dennis Miller' will be replaced with a second airing of 'Mad Money With Jim Cramer' at 9 p.m. ET."

"Mad Money With Jim Cramer"? That's brutal. Poor Dennis.

His show never got to be as good as it could have been because -- I'm guessing -- Miller never got the support from CNBC he needed. And he deserved it. His past work on HBO was great, but the CNBC show was struggling on the edge all along. I suppose Miller never should have risked his reputation by venturing into that unsupported environment. There was a limit to how much he could do on sheer wits alone. And it was often painful to watch him sweating it out on camera.

He needed great writers and supporting actors and a sharp audience -- what Jon Stewart has on "The Daily Show." Now, he's the one stuck looking like a failure. And I blame CNBC for doing that to him.

I'm going to punish them by never -- never! -- watching "Mad Money With Jim Cramer."

16 comments:

Joaquin said...: Miller is a class act. His mistake was doing Monday Night Football. It was an awful gig and one I'm sure he regrets.
Let's not knock Jimmy Cramer. The guy has enthusiasm, knows what he's talking about, and he's from Philly.; 5/12/05, 1:30 PM
Laura Reynolds said...: CNBC was a bad place for him, the show was decent enough but it was just so out of place. I tend to agree about the monkey though. Well now I can delete channel 37 from my remote. I might be interested in Jimmy Cramer if I had two nickels to rub together. Watching those shows just reminds me that I will never be able to retire.; 5/12/05, 1:37 PM
Scrutineer said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 5/12/05, 1:45 PM
DaveG said...: I just never thought his show was very funny. Poor writers, I suppose, which Ann pointed out.

I always felt it unfair that the Libs got Jon Stewart, while we got Dennis Miller. I like the guy though - he's got a good head on his shoulders.; 5/12/05, 1:57 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Mr.Proliferation: God already dealt with that problem when he created TiVo.; 5/12/05, 2:05 PM
Harkonnendog said...: Miller makes comebacks like Travolta. 2 years from now he'll be on top again.; 5/12/05, 4:36 PM
Birkel said...: Professor Althouse,
You are absolutely correct that Miller never had the resources he needed to create a following. I watched him quite often and found his humor still sharp but the production-value quite low. Meanwhile, I thought he was refreshingly middle-of-the-road as a 9-11 Democrat cum conservative. It's too bad that he doesn't have a show but I hope he makes himself available as a guest commentator.

And CNBC wasn't the right venue.; 5/12/05, 5:18 PM
TigerHawk said...: If you like stock market shows, "Mad Money" is pretty amusing. Unfortunately, my wife hates TV that involves a lot of shouting, so I'm basically not aloud to watch it. If that was true at 6 pm (when I'm rarely home anyway), it will be doubly so at 9.; 5/13/05, 4:51 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Tigerhawk: I'm sure I've beenn unfair to Jimmy Cramer. I don't know the show. Note that Miller is replaced by a RERUN of Cramer.; 5/13/05, 6:44 AM
Joaquin said...: Tigerhawk-
I don't know where you live but, Cramer has a very good radio show, Jim Cramer's Real Money. IT comes on from 6 to 7 pm EST. It may be available in your market. I listen to it on the way home in the car where its nice and quiet. My mental douche at the end of the day.; 5/13/05, 7:46 AM
Mister DA said...: I never understood why Dennis Miller was on Cnbc in the first place. I would have thought the most logical place would have been on MSnbc, instead of, oh, I don't know, name almost anything running between 7 and 10 p.m., Monday through Friday.; 5/13/05, 8:10 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: I am one of those who is going to sorely miss Miller. Yes, the production was a little questionable. And yes, the chimp was stupid. But silly stupid, which is why I never minded him.

The thing that I think that I liked the best was his Varisity Panel. You had real people as the talking heads, instead of the interchangable regulars you see everywhere else. In particular, he had thoughtful liberals on, as a foil, which is a change. Most of the liberals you see on the other channels argue almost entirely from emotion - just like DU, they expect you to get incensed when they intone "Halliburton" or "Bush Lied".

Indeed, I would often switch channels after that segment, but still, it was quite enjoyable.

Hope he lands on his feet somewhere soon.; 5/13/05, 9:14 AM
merlallen said...: Dennis Miller is not funny. Just a Bush suck up.; 5/19/05, 8:54 AM
David Watkins said...: Back in season 10, just before the show fell off a cliff, The Simpsons gave us the final word on this mystifyingly overrated hack's career. Lisa is being initiated into a MENSA-like society in Springfield. She observes a tee-shirt:

C:, C:\Dos, C:\Dos\Run. Ha! Only one person in a million would find that funny.

To which Professor Frink responds:

Yes, we call that the Dennis Miller Ratio.; 5/25/05, 12:40 AM
the mtb investor said...: If you find you like Jim Cramer's Mad Money...

visit - - - the-mtb-investor.blogspot.com; 5/26/05, 12:30 PM
Wade Marshall said...: Miller had a great show (not that I like his politics). It was a little too inaccessable for the general public, however (unlike The Daily Show) His monologues were still top rate though.

But as much as I like Dennis, I'm loving even more the Mad Money. I can't see the 6PM as I'm still in traffic! I'm guessing there's a lot of people just like me digging the 9PM timeslot too. At least he got replaced with something respectable.; 6/13/05, 10:21 PM