Bill Maher

Bill was born on 20 January 1956 in New York City, New York raised in River Vale, New Jersey and he graduated from Pascack Hills High School in New Jersey. His very first major national exposure came in 1983 when he played a character named “Bob” in the Action/Comedy “D.C. Cab”. Prior to this appearance he traveled around the country on the stand-up comedy circuit. Bill is an actor, comedian, host, producer, and writer but he is most famous for his political satire commentary. He has guest-starred in a number of TV shows including “Hard Knocks”, Married...With Children,“Newhart”, “Rags to Riches”, “Roseanne” and “Spin City” just to name a few. He was the creator of the TV series "Politically Incorrect” as well as a writer for the show and its’ 10 year host. The show first debuted on Comedy Central on 25 July 1993 and then was sold to ABC TV where it continued its’ run beginning in 1997. In 2002 there began a big turnover at ABC in the top Management positions of the company. It is said that most if not all of the new brass combined with the shows’ contract being up for renewal were the 2 main reasons for the shows eventual demise. Maher had said about ABC that they regarded him as “The crazy aunt in the attic”. Most people speculate that the real reason the show was canceled was because of his remarks on the show that fateful night the show returned to the air after the attacks of 9-11. It had been said in many circles that he stepped over the line between what people will accept as political commentary, humor and/or satire and what they would consider as being inappropriate comments regarding the terrible, inexcusable, horrific, uncalled for attack on the U.S.

The one remark he made that stood out the most in people’s minds was: "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away, that's cowardly, staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly”. There were many other comments and remarks made that night by him on the show that upset a lot of important people, network sponsors, viewers and even the U.S. government. The remarks he delivered this night in the face of the nation’s current trauma signaled that he may have overstayed his welcome as, FedEx Corporation and Sears Roebuck & Co. pulled their major national ads. Also some of the ABC affiliates throughout the county most notably the one in Washington D.C downright refused too ever air the show again. ABCdecided to pull the plug on the 10-year long running series "Politically Incorrect" and canceled it from its late-night lineup at the end of May to go into effect the end of June. It was to be replaced weeknights at 12:05a.m with a live talk show hosted by comedian "Jimmy Kimmel" formally of "The Man Show" on Comedy Central but the program didn’t debut until after the 2003 Super Bowl, in the interim ABC ran an extended version of its 11:30p.m “Nightline” show. The final show of the series for “Politically Incorrect” aired on Friday June 28, 2002. Bill had on that show as his guests what he called “the four best friends I made on the show” which were Arianna Huffington (who will have done the show 42 times), "Christopher 'kid' Tim Reid", "Ann Coulter" and "Michelle Phillips".

Bill however was not done with his career as most people speculated and some hoped for. He became the host of HBO's “Real Time with Bill Maher” show, that made its’ debut on 21 February 2003. The new show was very similar to “Politically Incorrect” except it aired live and only once a week as a 1-hour long show on Friday nights at 11PM. Bill’s new politically funny talk show is currently in its’ 7th consecutive season showing on HBO TV. Bill currently resides in the Los Angeles, California area.