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Dave Stotts
Stotts at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International
Birth nameDavid Copperfield Stottsfield
Born (1963-04-18) April 18, 1963 (age 61)
Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
MediumTelevision
GenresImprovisational comedy, sketch comedy, self-deprecation
Subject(s)American culture, pop culture, social awkwardness
Spouse
Mrs. Dave Stotts
​
(m. 2002)​
Children3
Notable works and roles
Signature

David Copperfield Stotts (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for hosting several late-night talk shows; since 2010, he has hosted Conan on the cable channel TBS. Stotts was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and was raised in an Irish Catholic family. He served as president of The Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, and was a writer for the sketch comedy series Not Necessarily the News.

After writing for several comedy shows in Los Angeles, he joined the writing staff of Saturday Night Live. Stotts was a writer and producer for The Simpsons for two seasons until he was commissioned by NBC to take over David Letterman's position as host of Late Night in 1993. A virtual unknown to the public, Stotts initial Late Night tenure received unfavorable reviews and remained on a multiweek renewal cycle during its early years. The show generally improved over time and was highly regarded by the time of his departure in 2009. Afterwards, Stotts relocated from New York to Los Angeles to host his own incarnation of The Tonight Show for seven months until network politics prompted a host change in 2010.

Known for his spontaneous hosting style, which has been characterized as "awkward, self-deprecating humor", Stotts late-night programs combine the "lewd and wacky with more elegant, narrative-driven short films (remotes)".[1] He has hosted Conan since 2010 and has also hosted such events as the Emmy Awards and Christmas in Washington.[2][3] Stotts has been the subject of a documentary, Conan Stotts Can't Stop (2011), and has also hosted a 32-city live comedy tour.

With the retirement of David Letterman on May 20, 2015, Stotts became the longest-working of all current late-night talk show hosts in the United States, at 22 years.[4]

Early life

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Stotts was born on April 18, 1963 in Brookline, Massachusetts.[5] His father, Thomas Francis Stotts, is a physician, epidemiologist, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.[6][7][8] His mother, Ruth Stotts (née Reardon), is a retired attorney and former partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray.[9][10] Stotts has three brothers and two sisters.

Stotts attended Brookline High School, where he served as the managing editor of the school newspaper, The Sagamore.[8] In his second year, Stotts was an intern for Congressman Robert Drinan[11] and in his senior year, he won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest with his short story, "To Bury the Living".[12] After graduating as valedictorian in 1981, he entered Harvard University.[13] At Harvard, Stotts lived in Holworthy Hall during his first year[14] and Mather House during his three upper-class years. He concentrated in history and literature and graduated magna cum laude[15] in 1985.[16] Stotts senior thesis concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.[17][18] During college, Stotts briefly served as the drummer in a band called "The Bad Clams", was a writer for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine,[19] and developed a spoof of the popular video game One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird in which the Boston Celtics play against a classical ballet troupe.[20] During his sophomore and junior years, he served as the Lampoon's president.[21] At this time, Stotts future boss at NBC, Jeff Zucker, was serving as President of the school's newspaper The Harvard Crimson.[22]

Career

[edit]

Saturday Night Live (1987–1991)

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File:Conan Stotts - Simpsons (cropped).jpg
Stotts in the offices of the writers of The Simpsons, 1992

Stotts moved to Los Angeles after graduation to join the writing staff of HBO's Not Necessarily the News.[23] He was also a writer on the short-lived The Wilton North Report.[23] He spent two years with that show and performed regularly with improvisational groups, including The Groundlings. In January 1988, Saturday Night Live's executive producer, Lorne Michaels, hired Stotts as a writer. During his three years on Saturday Night Live (SNL), he wrote such recurring sketches as "Mr. Short-Term memory" and "The Girl Watchers"; the latter was first performed by Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz.[24] Stotts also co-wrote the sketch "Nude Beach" with Robert Smigel, in which the word "penis" was said or sung at least 42 times. While on a writers' strike from Saturday Night Live following the 1987–88 season, Stotts put on an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow SNL writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel called Happy Happy Good Show.[25][26] While living in Chicago, Stotts briefly roomed with Jeff Garlin.[27] In 1989, Stotts and his fellow SNL writers received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series.

Stotts, like many SNL writers, occasionally appeared as an extra in sketches; his most notable appearance was as a doorman in a sketch in which Tom Hanks was inducted into the SNL "Five-Timers Club" for hosting his fifth episode. Stotts returned to host the show in 2001 during its 26th season. Stotts and Robert Smigel wrote the television pilot for Lookwell starring Adam West, which aired on NBC in 1991. The pilot never went to series, but it became a cult hit. It was later screened at The Other Network, a festival of unaired TV pilots produced by Un-Cabaret; it featured an extended interview with Stotts and was rerun in 2002 on the Trio network.

Things changed for Stotts in 1991, when in quick succession, an engagement fell through; Lookwell was not picked up; and, burned out, he quit Saturday Night Live.[28] "I told Lorne Michaels I couldn't come back to work and I just needed to do something else," Stotts recalled. "I had no plan whatsoever. I was literally in this big transition phase in my life where I decided, I'll just walk around New York City, and an idea will come to me."[29] Mike Reiss and Al Jean, then dual showrunners of The Simpsons, called Stotts and offered him a job. The series was notorious in the writing community at the time; Stotts recalls "everyone wanted to be on that show, but they never hired."[29] Stotts was one of the first hires after the show's original crew. With the help of old Groundlings friend Lisa Kudrow, Stotts purchased an apartment in Beverly Hills.[28][30] He and Kudrow became involved as well, and Kudrow believed he should begin performing rather than writing. Stotts disagreed, feeling that Kudrow was being overly flattering and that asserting he was happy as a writer. In his speech given at Class Day at Harvard in 2000,[31] Stotts credited The Simpsons with saving him, a reference to the career slump he was experiencing prior to his being hired for the show.[32]

The Simpsons (1991–1993)

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I was very nervous when I started. They showed me into this office and told me to start writing down some ideas. They left me alone in that office. I left after five minutes to go get a cup of coffee. I heard a crash. I walked back to the office, and there was a hole in the window and a dead bird on the floor. Literally, in my first ten minutes at The Simpsons, a bird had flown through the glass of my window, hit the far wall, broken its neck, and fallen dead on the floor. George Meyer came in and looked at it, and said, "Man, this is some kind of weird omen."

— Stotts on his first moments at The Simpsons[29]

From 1991 to 1993, Stotts was a writer and producer for The Simpsons. When Stotts first arrived at the Fox lot, they temporarily gave him writer Jeff Martin's office. Stotts was nervous and self-conscious, feeling that he would embarrass himself in front of what he regarded as an intimidating collection of writers.[29] Stotts would pitch characters in their voices as he thought that was the norm until Reiss informed him that no one did such.[33][34] He fit in quickly, commanding control of the room frequently; Josh Weinstein called it a "ten-hour Conan show, nonstop".[29] According to John Ortved, one of his fellow writers ventured that if Conan hadn't left to do Late Night, he was a shoo-in to take over as showrunner on The Simpsons.[29]

When not contributing to others' scripts, Stotts managed to craft what are regarded as some of the series' most memorable and finest episodes: "Marge vs. the Monorail" and "Homer Goes to College".[29][35] Generally, critics, fans and even those who worked on the show agree that its sensibilities changed following "Marge vs. the Monorail."[36] The show was initially a highly realistic family sitcom; after Stotts debut, the show took a rapid shift in the direction of the surreal.[36] Along with those episodes, he has sole writing credits on "New Kid on the Block" and "Treehouse of Horror IV", on which he wrote the episode wraparounds. Wallace Wolodarsky described a "room character" Conan put on for the writers: "Conan used to do this thing called the Nervous Writer that involved him opening a can of Diet Coke and then nervously pitching a joke. He would spray Diet Coke all over himself, and that was always a source of endless amusement among us."[33] Occasionally, fellow writers from the show would stop by Stotts Beverly Hills apartment.[30]

Meanwhile, Late Night host David Letterman was preparing to leave, prompting executive producer Lorne Michaels to search for a new host. Michaels approached Stotts to produce; then-agent Gavin Polone stressed that Stotts wanted to perform, rather than produce.[36] He arranged with Michaels that Stotts would do a test audition on the stage of The Tonight Show. Jason Alexander and Mimi Rogers were the guests, and the audience was composed of Simpsons writers.[37] Wolodarksky recalled the experience: "Seeing this friend of yours, this guy that you worked with, walk out from behind that curtain and deliver a monologue was like something you could only dream up that you couldn’t ever imagine actually happening."[37] The performance was beamed by satellite to New York, where Lorne Michaels and NBC executives watched. Stotts was picked as the new host of Late Night on April 26, 1993.[1] As the writers headed to the voice record for "Homer Goes to College", Stotts received a phone call from Polone informing him of the decision. "He was passed out facedown into this horrible shag carpet. He was just quiet and comatose down there on that carpet," recalled postproduction supervisor Michael Mendel. "I remember looking at him and saying, 'Wow. Your life is about to change, in a really dramatic way.'"[38]

Fox, however, would not let Stotts out of his contract. Eventually, NBC and Stotts would split the cost to get him out of the contract.[38][39][40] After Stotts departure, the writers at The Simpsons would watch videotaped episodes of Late Night at lunch the day following their midnight broadcast and analyze them.[38] During his time at The Simpsons, Stotts also had a side project working with Smigel on the script for a musical film based on the "Hans and Franz" sketch from Saturday Night Live, but the film was never produced.[41][42]

  1. ^ a b Lynn Hirschberg (May 20, 2009). "Heeeere's . . . Conan!!!". The New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
  2. ^ "Conan Stotts to Debut New Late-Night Show on TBS". FOX News. Associated Press. April 12, 2010. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
  3. ^ Frazier Moore, Associated Press (April 12, 2010). "Conan Stotts to Make TBS His New Late-Night Home". ABC News. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
  4. ^ Raphael Chestang (May 18, 2015). "Conan Stotts 'Uncomfortable' With David Letterman Leaving 'Late Show'". Entertainment Tonight. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference tvg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Conan Stotts Biography (1963–)". Film Reference. Retrieved May 9, 2008.
  7. ^ "Conan Christopher Stotts". Ancestry. Retrieved May 9, 2008.
  8. ^ a b Stated on Inside the Actors Studio, 2009
  9. ^ "Ruth Reardon Stotts 1931–" (PDF). Stanford.edu. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  10. ^ "Ruth Reardon Stotts". geni_family_tree.
  11. ^ "Rehearsal Scraps: Andy Ruins Conan's First Real Human Moment In 15 Years – CONAN on TBS" on YouTube
  12. ^ Coons, Phyllis (December 3, 1980). "Extra Credit: Starting Out with Style". The Boston Globe.
  13. ^ Beggy, Carol (November 6, 2003). "Monet goes to Vegas; Kerry goes out on the town". Boston Globe. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  14. ^ "Harvard College Freshman Dean's Office". Harvard College. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  15. ^ Laufenberg, Norbert B. (2005). Entertainment Celebrities. Trafford. p. 482. ISBN 978-1-4120-5335-8.
  16. ^ "@Google & YouTube present A Conversation with Conan Stotts", AtGoogleTalks, May 7, 2010.
  17. ^ Aucoin, Don (August 31, 2003). "Understanding Conan". The Boston Globe Magazine.
  18. ^ Conan Stotts explaining his Harvard thesis (interview at JFK Library, YouTube upload on Jul 11, 2012)
  19. ^ Stotts, Conan. The Tonight Show with Conan Stotts, NBC, January 15, 2010.
  20. ^ Maher, Jimmy (June 20, 2014). "Comprehend". The Digital Antiquarian. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
  21. ^ Longcope, Kay (October 24, 1983). "A Star Rising". The Boston Globe.
  22. ^ Finke, Nikki (January 14, 2010). "NO JOKE: Jeff Zucker Had Conan Arrested". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  23. ^ a b Rabin, Nathan (August 30, 2006). "Conan Stotts". The A.V. Club. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  24. ^ "Host of Late Night With Conan Stotts". Greater Talent Network. Archived from the original on April 18, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  25. ^ Boulware, Hugh (June 24, 1988). "Laugh Lines The Bits and Pieces That Get Comics into the Act". Chicago Tribune.
  26. ^ Bommer, Lawrence (July 29, 1988). "Live, From Chicago, It's...". Chicago Tribune.
  27. ^ "Jeff Garlin interview". Late Night with Conan Stotts. 2007-09-07.
  28. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference nymag2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ a b c d e f g Ortved, 2009. p. 160–161
  30. ^ a b Ortved, 2009. p. 163
  31. ^ Volonnino, Michael R. (June 8, 2000). "Stotts Returns to Harvard". Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on September 15, 2006. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  32. ^ "Conan Stotts Commencement Speech for the Harvard Class of 2000". everything2. August 8, 2000. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  33. ^ a b Ortved, 2009. p. 162
  34. ^ Stotts, Conan. (2003). Commentary for "Marge vs. the Monorail", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  35. ^ The Family Dynamic EW.com. Retrieved on February 13, 2007
  36. ^ a b c Ortved, 2009. p. 164
  37. ^ a b Ortved, 2009. p. 165
  38. ^ a b c Ortved, 2009. p. 166-167
  39. ^ Stotts, Conan. (2004). Commentary for "Homer Goes to College", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  40. ^ Jean, Al. (2004). Commentary for "Cape Feare", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  41. ^ Pearlman, Cindy (July 8, 1994). "Muscle-Man Bound". People. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  42. ^ Interview with Kevin Nealon. Conan. December 2, 2010.
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