Since I began this website on April 7, 2003, An Open Letter to Dennis Miller has grown so large and unwieldy that the original letter which birthed this site got lost. So I'm shifting everything down a webpage, and presenting the original letter here:
April 7, 2003
Dear Dennis,
I used to admire you, Dennis Miller. I used to love watching you
do Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. If I had had cable, and
if you hadn't used the F word every ten seconds, then I would have
loved to watch your HBO show. And, I used to imagine, if they ever
did a TV series about my church, I would have loved you to play
my pastor--that is, if you could act well enough.
Then you turned reactionary.
Not just conservative. Reactionary.
I don't mind you turning conservative. You have just as much right
to change your politics as Arianna Huffington has to change hers.
(Truthfully, I don't know how conservative, liberal, or neutral you
were before now. But you certainly were insightful. Very insightful.)
But I do mind the liberal-bashing. You can stand up for right-winged
views without attacking liberals.
Look at what I discovered on the Internet on March 26, 2003:
Dennis Miller Delivers Some More Anti-Liberal Jibes
5. Dennis Miller delivered some anti-liberal jibes on Tuesday's
Tonight Show. Miller suggested Hussein's debate offer could
“flush him out?so we can kill him and suggested: “If you're in
a peace march and the guy next to you has a sign saying that
'Bush is Hitler,' forget the peace thing for a second and
beat his ass.?
Excuse me, Dennis, but isn't that just what a Gestapo would do:
beat to a pulp someone who disagreed with him?
I carried such a sign last March when I joined
an anti-war protest and marched from Times Square to
Washington Square. One side of my sign said,
"THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE", with side comments,
"USA SI, GWB NO" and "I WANT MY DEMOCRACY BACK!"
The other side said:
"BIG IRAQ ATTACK: CAN HITLER DRIVE OUT HITLER?"
So, Dennis, do you now plan to beat me to a pulp?
You have just declared yourself my enemy. Don't worry, though:
the Bible says love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.
I still love you. I pray for you.
Dennis, you're one of the cutest guys in show business, and you
used to be one of the most insightful. In some ways you still are.
(Heck, I even watched an episode of Monday Night Football for you!)
But your newfound hate is poisoning you. Please be careful.
I miss what you used to be.
Dennis, do you even say, "Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong," anymore?
Oh, you handsome, funny man--what happened to you?
Or as they used to say, "Who piddled on your Post Toasties?"
With love and regret,
MNL_1221
[Melanie N. Lee, Queens, NY]
For the rest of the An Open Letter to Dennis Miller website, go
here.
An Open Letter to Dennis Miller
Well, Den now has had his CNBC show for over a year, and a few months ago, say around the end of 2004, he started to lose his good looks at about the same time he started hawking NetZero. At first that commercial seemed to be shown exclusively on NBC-TV, but has recently spread to other channels. He's released two more products--Still Ranting After All These Years, and The Rant Zone, and he's become a living, talking doll.
Me? I'm plugging away at a college tutoring job that's enriching in intellect and spirit but not in cash. I'm dealing with an illness in the family that sometimes drives me up the F-in' wall. I'll admit that the F word has popped into my mind more over the past year than over half my adult life. Is that Dennis' fault, or mine? Also, I'm crafting a new work for musical theater (I'm the librettist/lyricist), hoping to get it ready for the The New York International Fringe Festival, aka FringeNYC. And I have new websites, including Christians for Kerry/Christians against Bush (we didn't win, but we did rally on the Web!).
An, in true disappointed fan fashion, I have no idea whether or not Dennis Miller even knows that this website exists.
CNBC has let go...Dennis Miller's show is no more.
Thu May 12, 9:01 AM ET
Now when Miller lost Monday Night Football on ABC and Dennis Miller Live on HBO in 2002, MAD Magazine printed an article probably called "Career Advice for Dennis Miller": he could become a journalism professor, write political speeches, or other things. Of course, here in 2005, Miller still has Republican fundraisers, the occasional charity benefit, and NetZero commercials. He won't starve.
Dennis, why not try starring in a sitcom about a journalism professor who writes political speeches...or what I wrote on 4/7/2003: a TV series based on my church, and you play my pastor? :D
Dennis on sabbatical, I on Fringe
While Hurricane Dennis threatens the Carribean, our Dennis is taking a year off, according to what he said on ABC-TV's The View a few weeks ago. From ABCmedianet.com:
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15 - "Men's Day Wednesday" with celebrity guest co-host Dennis Miller; Father's Day makeovers; musical performance by Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina.
You can read a recap of the Wednesday June 15 show here.
Actually, Dennis shocked the bejeebers out of me by actually showing respect to a Democrat! When a View woman asked what he thought of Al Franken running for Senator from Minnesota, Dennis said Al would make a good senator! Later, when Whoopi Goldberg appeared, Dennis asked her opinion on something, prefacing it by saying, in a respectful tone, that she speaks from the liberal side. Except for Dennis' praise of John Kerry's war record, I haven't heard Miller speak a kind word about a Democrat or liberal in over two years! Maybe it's because Franken and Goldberg are comedians, and Franken an SNL colleague: professional courtesy tops divisive politics.
Miller also shared that he's taking a year off to spend more time with his kids. I think this is the most intelligent and wise thing he can do right now. Relax; regroup; let God talk to you over the months. Oh, yeah, enjoy your kids!
Hey, you might even want to take them to New York next month and treat yourself and them to my show in the Fringe Festival! It's called Travis Tanner, a contemporary oratorio about comedy, politics, and spirituality. Here's a description:
Travis Tanner
Hmm...then again, if you need to relax above all else, this show won't do it to you. Travis Tanner will either annoy the heck out of you or make you laugh your butt off! Oh...come anyway. On a certain level you might love it!
And that goes for the rest of you! If you're in New York in August, come!
A 9/11 Message
Dennis Miller's website still doesn't have an active message board, though people have been posting to a test blog. Here's what I posted yesterday afternoon, Sunday, September 11, 2005:
Dear Dennis,
It's the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 incident and I'm thinking intensely of you today. You said 9/11 changed you. But now do you see the destruction wreaked by the guy you supported? Will Hurricane Katrina change you again?
Since the failure of your CNBC show, you're taking a year off to be with your kids (and I assume, your wife), which I think is the wisest thing you can do now. Regroup, refresh. Listen to your heart, your gut, your conscience. Listen to God.
What are you thinking on this day? Have you reflected on the things you've done over the past two or three years? Has a new seed been planted in you, and will you give it a chance to grow?
Praying for you,
Melanie N. Lee
P.S. Travis Tanner did well with some/much of the audience, but not with the critics or with the box office. Oh, well. You, too, know what it's like to be panned.
Posted by: Melanie N. Lee (mnl_1221) at September 11, 2005 11:02 AM
*****
Dennis suspends his sabbatical: is five months off enough?
First of all: Happy 52nd Birthday, Den! (11/3/05)
I'd read, when searching Yahoo! News, something about Dennis, Bill Maher, and others being involved in a comedy fest in November, but I wasn't sure which November--this year or last. But I've found a more definite news article saying it's upcoming, and here's the website:
The Comedy Festival (TCF)
I'd first imagined that Dennis would put in a small appearance as if at a charity benefit, but he feels he's ready to tape a new HBO special at a place called the Colosseum:
THE COMEDY FESTIVAL : Dennis Miller HBO Comedy Hour
If you want to buy a ticket, go here.
I'll be performing--not on the same night nor the same locale, but in Flushing, Queens, NY, as a Royal Wife in The King and I, during the first three weekends of November (Saturdays and Sundays; we've had two performances already).
Is he ready for such a big step? Has he reflected enough, rested enough, listened to God and to his inner self enough? Regardless of his political stands or other opinions, will what he says seem genuine and well thought out (not to mention funny), or will it be the right-wing rehash we've heard over the past two or three years?
And is this the end of his sabbatical, or just a brief break?
We'll see, we'll see. Break a leg, Dennis.
*****
Now enter the rest of An Open Letter to Dennis Miller, and tread carefully!
And Dennis (or anyone else), if you want to write me, go here:
****************************************************************************
From Talk About Network:
open letter to dennis miller; comic to comic
by Marz
There was a time not so long ago when you were one of my favorite xomics. I paid money to see you in person and taped and replayed your TV shows over and over to get the references. You were funny and informative.
Now you're a different man. You've changed a lot. You've lost your edge.
You've sold out.
Your affiliation with evil has taken away your soul and your credibility. It shows in your performance. Advocating genocide so the
corporations can steal a country's resources must prey upon your subconscious.
The fact that you have bought into the party lie and are spouting it on national TV is reprehensible. You have become a pawn of the corporate machine and are, as a result, assisting them in committing genocide.
You have not bothered to seek out and espouse the truth as you used to. You have chosen, instead, to happily cheerlead the slaughter of millions of innocent people.
Shame on you and your writing staff and all who feed you the lies you
regurgitate to the world. The damage you cause by lending your starpower to this charade is incalculable. Know this, though; that many see through you to the petty whore you've become.
Marz. Comic and Ex-fan.
http://www.talkaboutpeople.com/group/alt.fan.dennis-miller/messages/8539.html
From www.bianca.com:
Date: Fri Feb 7 00:37:24 2003
From: Left Wing Warrior
Subject: An open letter to Dennis Miller
In a way Dennis himself might once have written it
So, Mr hair dew of the 80s, Mr pay cable filler of the 90s and
Mr drop Monday night football ratings to the basement of the new millennium,
seems you have taken a stand in favor of Bush.?
Bush seems like a “decent guy” eh Denny? Or so you said on the Jay
Leno show. Sure Denny boy! He is such a decent guy that he still has
brain damage from a coke problem, has two daughters screaming for
help by publicly getting trashed, and is planning to kill 100 K or
so innocent women and Children in a country he probably couldn’t have
found on the map till his old man showed him 12 years ago.
So You want to be a celeb Republican eh? Good choice Dennis! Have
them park your 12 x 70 in the lot right between Charlton Heston’s
and Tom Sellak’s. The three of you can get together and invite Ted
Nugent over to pound down a few brewskys. We can all start a pool
to bet on which one of you accidently shoots another one in the foot
first.
Best of all Dennis, since you have about as much chance of being
a regular on TV again as Jenny McArthey, you can trade those Armani
suits in for a pair of olive green Dockers, a plaid shirt and a pair
of penny loafers. Join the local kiwanus club and go to the piggly
wiggly with expired cupons and argue with the 19 year old manager
when he refuses to accept them. You can go to local school board meetings
and bitch about the cost of new text books, and when the neighborhood
kids hit a baseball into your yard, you can take it in the house
and refuse to give it back.
Yes sir Dennis, you are going to make a GREAT Republican. Just don’t
be too disappointed when you don’t get an invitation to certain parties
and gatherings, because the host found out, “You used to be in Hollywood
Just my opinion, I could be wrong.
BTW Dennis, Michael Landon called, he wants his bullshit right wing
view of politics back.
http://www.bianca.com/interests/us_politics/bbs/posts/2003_Feb_07/40931/40931.html
photo from moneycentral.msn.com (CNBC TV website)
May 16, 2005
NEW YORK - CNBC is canceling comic Dennis Miller's low-rated political talk show after less than 16 months, replacing it with a business show rerun...
CNBC Canceling Dennis Miller's Talk Show
July 6, 2005
Patriotic Jesters Productions
Writer:Libretto by Melanie N. Lee, Music by Robert Stephens
Director: DJ McDonald
Not all Christians adore Bush. In this pop oratorio, feisty Black believer Leila Knowles fights for her favorite “sacred clown”, white comedian Travis Tanner, as he morphs into Bush’s Court Jester. Can Leila rescue Travis from the Dark Side?
2h 0m Local Comedy Musical
www.geocities.com/travistanner05/
September 12, 2005
November 7, 2005
November 17-19, 2005
Caesar's Palace (and other venues), Las Vegas, NV
The Comedy Festival Venues Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
Fri, Nov 18, 2005 08:00 PM
Others' Open Letters to Dennis Miller