Bob Saget

Bob Saget
Saget in 2015
Birth name	Robert Lane Saget
Born	(1956-05-17) May 17, 1956 (age 65) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Medium	Television, stand-up
Alma mater	Temple University (BA)
Years active	1977–present
Genres	Character comedy, observational comedy, wit/word play, satire/political satire, black comedy, surreal humor, sarcasm, blue comedy
Spouse	Sherri Kramer ​ ​ (m. 1982; div. 1997)​ Kelly Rizzo ​ (m. 2018)​
Children	3
Website	www.bobsaget.com

Robert Lane Saget (/ˈsæɡət/; born May 17, 1956)^[1] is an American stand-up comedian, actor, television host and director. His television roles include Danny Tanner on the ABC sitcom Full House (1987–1995) and its Netflix sequel Fuller House. He also hosted America's Funniest Home Videos from 1989 to 1997. Saget is also known for his adult-oriented stand-up routine.^[2] He also provided the voice of the future Ted Mosby on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother from 2005 to 2014.

Saget's 2014 comedy album, That's What I'm Talkin' About, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

Early life

Saget was born in Philadelphia to a Jewish family. His father, Benjamin (August 28, 1917 – January 30, 2007),^[3] was a supermarket executive, and his mother, Rosalyn "Dolly" (February 12, 1925 – February 15, 2014),^[4] was a hospital administrator. Saget lived in California before moving back to Philadelphia and graduating from Abington Senior High School in 1975.^[5][6] Saget originally intended to become a doctor, but his Honors English teacher, Elaine Zimmerman, saw his creative potential and urged him to seek a career in films.^[2]

Saget attended Temple University's film school, where he created Through Adam's Eyes, a black-and-white film about a boy who received reconstructive facial surgery, and was honored with an award of merit in the Student Academy Awards. He graduated with a B.A. in 1978.^[7] Saget intended to take graduate courses at the University of Southern California but quit a few days later. Saget describes himself at the time in an article by Glenn Esterly in the 1990 Saturday Evening Post: "I was a cocky, overweight twenty-two-year-old. Then I had a gangrenous appendix taken out, almost died, and I got over being cocky or overweight."^[8] Saget talked about his burst appendix on Anytime with Bob Kushell, saying that it happened on the Fourth of July, at the UCLA Medical Center and that they at first just iced the area for seven hours before taking it out and finding that it had become gangrenous.^[9]

Career

1987–2001

Following a short stint as a member of CBS' The Morning Program in early 1987, Saget was cast as Danny Tanner in Full House, which became a success with family viewers, and landed in the Nielsen ratings' Top 30 beginning with season three. In 1989, Saget began as the host of America's Funniest Home Videos, a role he held until 1997. During the early 1990s, Saget worked both on Full House and AFV simultaneously. In 2009, he returned to AFV for the 20th-anniversary one-hour special co-hosted with Tom Bergeron.^[10]

Saget directed the 1996 ABC television movie For Hope, which was inspired by the life story of his sister, Gay Saget, who died from scleroderma three years earlier.^[2]

In 1998, he directed his first feature film, Dirty Work, starring Norm Macdonald and Artie Lange. Released one year after he left his long-running role as host of America's Funniest Home Videos, the film received broadly negative reviews from critics and earned low box office returns. However, it has since become a cult favorite, due partially to Artie Lange's later popularity on The Howard Stern Show where the film is sometimes mentioned, often in unflattering terms.

In 1998, Saget made a cameo appearance as a cocaine addict in the stoner comedy Half Baked.^[11]

2001–present

Bob Saget on stage during the Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour in 2006

Saget had a sitcom on The WB titled Raising Dad. It co-starred Kat Dennings, Brie Larson, and Jerry Adler and lasted only one season. He was host of NBC's game show 1 vs. 100 from 2006 to 2008.^[12]

He served as the voice of the future Ted Mosby, who narrated the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which premiered on September 19, 2005.^[13]

His HBO comedy special, That Ain't Right, came out on DVD on August 28, 2007. It is dedicated to his father, Ben Saget, who died at age 89 on January 30, 2007, due to complications from congestive heart failure.

From 2005 to 2010, Saget had a recurring role in four episodes of the HBO TV series Entourage playing a parody of himself. He would later appear in the 2015 feature film based on the series.

Saget performing in 2007

Saget wrote, directed, and starred in Farce of the Penguins, a parody of 2005's March of the Penguins, which was released direct-to-DVD, in January 2007.

Saget appeared in the Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone for a limited four-month engagement. He played "Man in Chair" while Jonathan Crombie, who normally played the character on Broadway, was with the national tour of the musical. On January 4, 2008, Saget's caricature was unveiled at Sardi's Restaurant.^[14]

In April 2009, he debuted in a new sitcom along with his co-star Cynthia Stevenson on ABC called Surviving Suburbia.^[15] The series, which was originally to air on The CW, ended after one abbreviated season.

In 2010, Saget starred in an A&E series Strange Days in which he follows others in different activities and lifestyles, documenting their adventures in unusual ways.

In 2014, his book Dirty Daddy was released, in which he writes about his career, comedy influences, and experiences with life and death. He embarked on a small tour in support of the book, including the Pemberton Music Festival, where he introduced Snoop Dogg prior to performing his own set. In the same year, he toured Australia for the first time, with a stand-up show called Bob Saget Live: The Dirty Daddy Tour. The show was performed in the major cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth.^[16]

In 2015 and 2016, he guest-starred in two episodes of Grandfathered, starring and produced by his Full House co-star, John Stamos.

In 2019, he was announced as host of ABC's Videos After Dark. Saget will also host the game show Nashville Squares on CMT.^[17]

In 2020, Saget launched a podcast titled with Studio71.^[18] He also competed as the "Squiggly Monster" on the fourth season of The Masked Singer.

Charity work

Saget is currently a board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation. His scleroderma efforts have further benefited such celebrities as Scary Movie star Regina Hall.^[19]

In an interview with Ability Magazine, Saget discussed how his sister was diagnosed with scleroderma at 43 and died at 47. Before that, she had been misdiagnosed many times.^[20]

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bob Saget.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Bob Saget

• Official website
• Bob Saget at IMDb
• "Regina Hall Interview". Ability Magazine. "Regina Hall Issue", April/May 2010