Best host of NBC's REAL PEOPLE

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Vote for your favorite or "best" host of this entertaining television program.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Fred Willard4
Sarah Purcell 3
Skip Stephenson 3
Mark Russell 2
John Barbour 0
Byron Allen 0
Bill Rafferty 0
Peter Billingsley 0


dell, Sunday, 6 April 2008 02:27 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/Opry/2150/stephensonskip4w.JPG
Skip Stephenson (on left)

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2108/Csraff.JPG
Bill Rafferty

http://www.markrussell.net/images/mark2.jpg
Mark Russell

dell, Sunday, 6 April 2008 02:41 (seventeen years ago)

But the real buzz was Skip Stephenson and John Barbour. At the time Johnny Carson was on his 17th year as host of "The Tonight Show" and the execs were looking for a potential replacement. Among the candidates were David Brenner, Martin Mull, and Steve Martin. The execs thought Brenner was too ethnic, Mull would turn the show into a parody just like Fernwood 2night and America 2night and Martin preferred the big screen. Both John Barbour and Skip Stephenson's name was bandied about because of "Real People". David Letterman was considered too unknown and too young and Jay Leno's name wasn't even in the radar screen. By summer's end Stephenson's stock had risen, Barbour was called a blander Bob Newhart. A few years later I ran into a fellow intern who eventually found a permanent place with NBC, eventually the conversation came to who was going to replace Carson and I asked him why Stephenson was on the outs with the network, he said Stephenson did some erratic behavior during some corporate functions and he maybe on drugs, that's why the network didn't make him permanent guest host for "The Tonight Show". It was apparent that his stock had fallen even before "Real People"'s run ended. If one of the other poster was right then it was probably drugs that killed Skip Stephenson's career and then him. Personally I liked the guy. God Bless you Skip, R.I.P.

dell, Sunday, 6 April 2008 19:32 (seventeen years ago)

As Skip introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger, Byron Allen steps in to make sure he doesn't slip in a racial slur. Skip: "Arnold Schwarze-" Byron: "Watch it.." Skip: "NEGGER!!". That always stuck with me, like, what kind of abuse did poor Byron suffer in his youth to be so friggin' paranoid? Let it go, man!

dell, Sunday, 6 April 2008 19:39 (seventeen years ago)

A couple of the pictures I hotlinked to above have vanished. Here is a link to the opening sequence of the show. Towards the end of the clip each host is introduced individually.

dell, Sunday, 6 April 2008 19:44 (seventeen years ago)

hello

http://i30.tinypic.com/o8a2ht.jpg

iiiijjjj, Sunday, 6 April 2008 19:49 (seventeen years ago)

Yeah, that guy's geocities website is awesome. He's posted a ton of photographs of him next to celebrities of every conceivable stripe. The photos appear to span from when he was a teenager to present-day.

dell, Sunday, 6 April 2008 19:58 (seventeen years ago)

There is an entire section dedicated to "Beauty Queens, Models, etc.", which could just as well be re-titled "So not gonna happen..."

dell, Sunday, 6 April 2008 19:59 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

ILX System, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 23:01 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ILX System, Thursday, 10 April 2008 23:01 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

are these people who didn't vote for Skip even HUMAN????

dell (del), Monday, 5 March 2012 22:03 (thirteen years ago)

instead we got Jay Leno );

tbfrank anything involving Mark Russel gives me the h-jeebies, tho

dell (del), Monday, 5 March 2012 22:07 (thirteen years ago)

four years pass...

Look what's back!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0UXUB5/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_0z8bybKZYCGZD

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 23:25 (nine years ago)

I'd imagine this is utterly nightmarish to watch now.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 23:26 (nine years ago)


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