Howard Stern on Video

How would you like to have Howard Stern in your home? That is what his fans would like to know. Howard has worked on television several times and has been in two movies, but currently only Son of the Beach is available. Howard keeps promising to release or re-release his movie and television output on DVD, but there always seems to be some sort of problem.

The Channel 9 Show
Between 1990 and 1992 Howard Stern did double duty both working a full week on his radio show and writing and staring in a low-budget hour variety show for local station Channel 9. It was originally called The Howard Stern Summer Show because Channel 9 planned to air only four episodes during the summer of 1990. But after the program got phenomenal ratings Channel 9 extended the run and shortened the name to The Howard Stern Show. The show was extremely eclectic going from celebrity interviews to sketch comedy to coverage of big events. One week you would have a parody of Hollywood Squares, the next an actual boxing match where Frank Stallone pummeled challenger Geraldo Rivera over a fictitious heavyweight belt in the Howard Stern Boxing League. Guests were often abused, such as when Sir. Bob Geldolf was tricked into being locked in a car trunk and abandoned, or Garry Busey wound up on a talk show skit called Head Injury Club for Men. Ever since the Channel 9 shows went off the air fans have been begging for a home video release. So what's the problem? WWOR Channel 9 and Howard did not part ways amicably. Channel 9 claimed that they were forced to cancel the show because they were unable to find sponsors. Stern claimed that it was he who cancelled the show because Channel 9 reneged too long on promises to increase the show's budget. Characteristically of Howard Stern he began to insult Channel 9 executives in the air. Years later when Howard decided he wanted to release the shows on home video Channel 9 demanded more money for the rights to the show than Howard could afford suggesting that they really had no intention of allowing Howard to ever release the shows on home video. Negotiations with Channel 9 are still ongoing.

Private Parts
Howard's extremely popular biographical movie and favorite on cable, it has been out of print for on home video many years. According to Howard he had wanted to release a deluxe edition with all the outtakes and deleted scenes on laserdisc but Paramount Pictures who owns the rights refused to allow it. Years later after the DVD had been released as movie only Howard asked once again if he could release Private Parts as a deluxe edition, and once again Paramount declined to allow it, opting to release a 10th anniversary movie only edition instead. Howard had the legal right to block Paramount from releasing the movie only edition, and it has remained out of print ever since. So why exactly has Paramount refused to allow a deluxe edition? Some speculate that it was part of their larger strategy of releasing movies on DVD without extras then releasing deluxe editions months later so that fans of the movie would end up buying it twice. Another speculation is that Paramount has protocol of releasing deluxe editions on the insistence of the movie's producer and not the movie's lead actor. Another rumor is that Paramount executives are angry that Howard did not deliver the ticket sales he promised at the box office as only a fraction of his listeners actually went to see the movie, this despite the Herculean effort Howard made to get his listeners to the theater. Just like with the Channel 9 Shows, negotiations with Paramount for a deluxe edition of Private Parts is still ongoing.

The Howard Stern VHS Collection
Howard released four mail order home videos between 1988 and 1994. Howard Stern's Negligee and Underpants Party ( 1988 ) was originally a live pay-per-view television show. Howard Stern's U.S. Open Sores ( 1989 ) was a documentary of a sports event Howard hosted where he played against his producer Gary in a tennis match. Howard Stern's Butt Bongo Fiesta ( 1992 ) was a dirty version of a Channel 9 show using footage from an abandoned 1990 video tape project. and Howard Stern's New Years Rotten Eve ( 1994 ) was yet another live pay-per-view event. According to Stern he would love to re-release these videos on DVD but said that he had promised they would be collectors items that he would never release again after they went out of print. Currently he is considering reneging that promise.

Uncensored E! Shows
Almost immediately after the Channel 9 show was canceled Howard signed with the E! Channel, where between 1992 and 1993 he did a celebrity interview show. This lead to a second deal with E! to stick a couple of robot cameras in his cramped radio studio for a show that lasted 11 years. One of the things Stern regretted about his E! show was the censorship. Women were constantly taking their clothing off in his studio, but when shown on E! the women were hidden behind digital cubes. In 2004 Howard announced to his listeners that he would be compiling a home video called E! Uncensored which would be the E! shows without the bleeps and those annoying cubes. Once again these videos never materialized. Why? It began with E! cancelling Howard's show. Scrambling to find another network to continue airing his radio shows Howard accepted an offer from iN Demand who promised to air his programs uncensored. Howard thought an uncensored channel was perfect for his upcoming uncensored satellite radio show. But it also meant that for the next few years iN Demand would have exclusive rights to all the old E! Show tapes

The Fox Pilots
In 1987 the Fox network approached Howard about replacing Joan Rivers as the host of The Late Show. Uninterested in doing a simple talk show Howard pitched to Fox his idea for a nighttime variety and talk show. Fox asked Howard for five pilots that they planned to air on Channel 5 in New York City. At the last minute Fox decided not to air the pilots claiming they were all of substandard quality. Stern claimed that the real reason for them not airing the pilots was that Rupert Murdoch got cold feet after the Archbishop John O'Connor personally asked him not to allow Howard on the Fox network. Whatever the reason a nasty feud erupted between Stern and Fox. Since then there has been little mention of the Fox pilots, although crude bootlegs are currently available on the Internet.

The Unaired Cartoons
After Howard Stern's production company produced Sons of the Beach for the FX network it began plans to produce other shows for other channels. Two cartoons were developed and eventually abandoned, Doomsday and Howard Stern: the High School Years. There have been many stories, some from Howard himself, claiming that episodes from both series were completed. Howard's fans have been begging for the completed episodes to be put onto DVD.