About Michael Medved

Michael Medved is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, best-selling author and veteran film critic. His daily three-hour program, emphasizing the intersection of politics and pop culture, reaches more than 2 million listeners in over 180 markets, coast to coast. For seven consecutive years, he's been listed by Talkers Magazine as one of their "Heavy Hundred" most important American talk show hosts, and for four of those years his show has also been listed as one of the ratings top ten.

Born in Philadelphia, raised in San Diego, Mr. Medved graduated with honors from Yale and then attended Yale Law School-where his classmates included Bill and Hillary Clinton. After working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he reviewed movies for CNN, and later as chief film critic for the New York Post. He also served for twelve years as co-host of "Sneak Previews," the nationally televised weekly movie review show on PBS-TV.

Mr. Medved is the author of ten non-fiction books, including the national bestseller What Really Happened to the Class of '65 (the basis for a popular TV series on NBC), as well as the definitive history of the White House chiefs of staff, The Shadow Presidents. His most influential-and controversial-work was a best-selling indictment of the entertainment industry, Hollywood Vs. America. England's prestigious Guardian newspaper wrote: "Just Occasionally, a book changes the way the world thinks. Michael Medved's Hollywood Vs. America is such a book." Most recently, Mr. Medved collaborated with his wife, Dr. Diane Medved, a clinical psychologist and author in her own right, on Saving Childhood: Protecting Our Children from the National Assault on Innocence. In October 1998, the Wall Street Journal wrote: "If Saving Childhood isn't an important book, I don't know what one would look like." His new book, Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life, is scheduled for publication by Crown Forum/Random House in January, 2005.

Mr. Medved has been a frequent guest on all the major TV talk shows, including Larry King Live, Nightline, Oprah, David Letterman, Good Morning America and countless others. His columns on media and society appear regularly in USA Today, where he serves as a member of the Board of Contributors. The Medveds live in the Seattle area where they've raised their three children. The oldest, Sarah, recently graduated from high school (as valedictorian) and is currently studying at a women's seminary in Jerusalem.

THE MICHAEL MEDVED STORY

Michael Medved was born in Philadelphia in October of 1948 and spent the first six years of his life in that city-long enough to develop an irrational, and utterly destructive, lifelong obsession with the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1954, Michael's father, Navy veteran Dave Medved, used the GI Bill to complete his PhD in physics and moved the little family to San Diego, California. Michael's three younger brothers-Jonathan, Benjamin and Harry-were all born there, where their Dad worked for the defense contractor, Convair.

Michael attended public school in San Diego from first grade through tenth grade, before moving with his family to Los Angeles. At LA's Palisades High School, Medved participated in the debate team, led a championship "Scholarquiz" team, got arrested for camping in an illegal area of a state park, got elected Commissioner of Publications, founded the Legion of Heroes, led a campaign to turn the football field into a rice paddy, and won a National Merit Scholarship.

He began his undergraduate education at Yale at age 16. His classmates in college included a disgusting number of future politicians, including Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, President George W. Bush , Governor George Pataki of New York, and Governor Tony Knowles of Alaska. Medved graduated with honors in 1969, with departmental honors in US History - but spent most of his time as an undergraduate in hitchhiking trips, accumulating more than 80,000 miles before leaving Yale. Medved enrolled in Yale Law School after winning a generous fellowship, while teaching 7th and 8th grade three hours a day to earn an "occupational deferment" with the Vietnam era Selective Service System. His classmates at law school included Hillary Rodham (a friend) and Bill Clinton (who he always disliked), while two of his best friends were Lanny Davis and Greg Craig-both of whom played crucial roles in President Clinton's defense in the impeachment crisis. Other law school classmates included Clarence Thomas, Robert Reich and Lani Guanier. After serving as co-chair of the Vietnam Moratorium anti-war demonstration, Medved received a job offer as head speechwriter in an insurgent campaign for the U.S. Senate. He took on the challenge and received an official leave of absence from Yale Law School-but never returned to his legal studies. Instead, he worked at a series of writing and political consulting jobs.

Moving to Berkeley, California in 1971, Medved worked at finishing a political novel (completed but never published), served as campaign consultant to Congressman Ron Dellums (a Stalinist Democrat from California), and worked at a political advertising agency, supervising a minority recruitment campaign for the San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley Police Departments.

After writing more than 50 articles on the Presidency and American history for the bestselling "People's Almanac," Medved teamed with his old friend from high school, David Wallechinsky, to get a contract to write "What Really Happened to the Class of '65?" This book about their high school class and, by extension, the entire counterculture, became a national bestseller and the basis for a short-lived (and dreadful) TV series on NBC.

Moving to LA to facilitate his work on the book and TV series, Medved became a member of the Writer's Guild of America and worked at several screenwriting jobs-including frustrating projects with Barbra Streisand and the late Henry Fonda. In 1978, he worked with his kid brother Harry Medved (then 15) on the book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time"-which led to three popular sequels, "The Golden Turkey Awards" (1980), "The Hollywood Hall of Shame" (1984) and "The Son of Golden Turkey Awards" (1986). These books led to Medved's first film-reviewing job, as the original on-air movie critic for CNN (1980-83).

In addition to film commentary, Michael also pressed ahead with his "serious" book projects. In 1979, critics acclaimed his definitive history of White House chiefs of staff "The Shadow Presidents"-the research for which helped complete Medved's transformation from liberal to conservative. In 1980, he changed his registration to the GOP. Three years later, Simon & Schuster published his national bestseller about the emotional problems of doctors and nurses, "Hospital: The Hidden Lives of a Medical Center Staff." In 1983, he wrote and hosted a popular show on British TV ("The Worst of Hollywood") and then, the next year, became one of the on-air critics on the long-running PBS show, "Sneak Previews." Taking one of the seats originally occupied by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Michael combined with his partner, Jeffrey Lyons, to host "Sneak" for nearly 12 years -- reaching millions of American homes through the 250 public television stations that carried the show.

Michael's controversial lectures at Hillsdale College in Michigan on the damaging impact of popular culture led to a contract to write "Hollywood Vs. America." After its publication in 1992, members of the entertainment establishment denounced Medved as "stupid," "a Nazi,:" or "a fundamentalist Christian fanatic" (no way to talk about a nice Jewish boy!). But his influential bestseller also had its passionate defenders. England's prestigious Guardian newspaper declared: "Just occasionally, a book seems to change the way the world thinks. Michael Medved's 'Hollywood vs. America' is such a book."

In 1993, Medved won appointment as chief film critic of the New York Post, using that position to advance his argument that the entertainment industry's emphasis on violence, sexuality and vulgarity had broken faith with its mass audience-not only damaging our children, but undermining Hollywood's own profitability. When Rush Limbaugh launched his popular "Limbaugh Letter," he focused on Medved as one of his very first celebrity interviews. This contact led to an invitation to serve as guest host on Limbaugh's top-rated national radio show, and Michael's enthusiastic enjoyment of this challenge brought about more than two dozen appearances behind "the golden E.I.B. microphone." Following a packed-house lecture in Bellevue, Washington, a Seattle talk radio powerhouse that carried the Limbaugh program offered Medved his own daily three hour show - immediately following Rush in the daily schedule. In the summer of 1996, Michael jumped at the chance---leaving LA behind after 20 years and indulging his long-time infatuation with the Great Northwest, where he had camped, hiked, and otherwise vacationed on more than 25 trips since his parents first brought him to the Seattle World's Fair in 1962.

Medved's local Seattle show quickly became the top-rated radio offering in its time slot, and within a year this popularity generated plans to take the show to a national audience. It debuted on 40 stations in March of 1998, and by October of 1999, the show reached more than 100 markets across the country. In conjunction with the program's national distribution, Medved gave up his position at the New York Post; Sneak Previews had concluded its long run on PBS at the end of '96. Michael expresses joy at escaping "the movie review ghetto" and feeling free to address countless topics beyond the entertainment world. His regular columns as a member of the board of contributors of USA Today cover a wide range of social, political and cultural issues. His radio show is now heard in the Seattle area on Talk 770 KTTH ("The Truth") - a new 50,000 watt blowtorch built around the Medved show, that became the dominant talk station in the Pacific Northwest within a year of its January, 2003 launch.

Michael has been married since 1985 (January 27) to Dr. Diane Medved-the former Diane Elvenstar-- a clinical psychologist and author in her own right of such books as "First Comes Love: Deciding Whether or Not to Get Married," "The Case Against Divorce" and "The American Family" (with Dan Quayle). In 1998, the Medveds collaborated for the first time on a literary project: the much-discussed and influential book "Saving Childhood: Protecting Our Children from the National Assault on Innocence." They have also collaborated on three children: Sarah (born in 1986), Shayna (1989) and Danny (1992). The Medveds developed their relationship as joint participants in Pacific Jewish Center - the innovative congregation in Venice, California, that Michael had co-founded to help attract unaffiliated young Jews to a traditional Jewish lifestyle. Their common religious outlook helped to overcome the fact that more than three years before their first meeting, Diane had reviewed one of Michael's books ("The Golden Turkey Awards") in the Los Angeles Times, and gave that volume one of the most negative critical assessments it received anywhere. For the most part, Michael has by now managed to forgive her.

SOME EMBARRASSING SECRETS ABOUT MICHAEL MEDVED

He failed his driver's license driving test three times before he finally passed it as a junior in college in 1967. Within two weeks of getting his license he was involved in a head-on collision that totaled his parents' green Rambler. Fortunately, neither Michael, nor his passenger (his brother Jonathan), nor the other driver was seriously hurt. Even more fortunately, Medved's driving has improved since that time-with no major accidents (to date) in the last 30 years.

During his period of political consulting, he worked briefly for Congressman Ron Dellums of Berkeley, California-the single most left wing member of the House of Representatives. After six weeks Michael resigned in disgust, and the entire experience helped push him permanently away from the Democratic party.

Michael's book "Hollywood Vs. America" featured a particularly odd "endorsement" on the cover of its British paperback edition. Citing the comments of English director Michael Winner, the line proclaimed n big letters: "MY WORST READ OF THE DECADE." Writing in New York magazine, establishment critic David Denby also enthusiastically declared: "This is the stupidest book about popular culture I have ever read through to its conclusion."

At age 12, Diane Medved was chosen by MGM to represent all American young people for the indescribable honor of meeting the rock sensation Herman's Hermits during their triumphant American tour. She presented them with a giant cookie baked in the shape of Herman's head. In her high school year book's class poll (Hamilton High School, Los Angeles), she was chosen "Most Entertaining" and "Class Crush." Her given name is "Diane Edwards." The unusual surname "Elvenstar"-- which she bore when she met Michael, and under which she published her first two books and more than 200 articles--was made up out of whole cloth in a fit of 1970's madness-as a vague tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien.

Michael Medved's arrest record: in 1965, at age 16, he was picked up and spent several hours incarcerated for illegally camping at San Clemente State Park in California. Six years later he was briefly detained in upstate New York for carrying concealed weapons in his car--- steak knives (given away as a gas station premium) which he had stored in his glove compartment.

Michael's sister-in-law (and brother Jonathan's wife) was assistant director on the Tom Cruise teenage prostitution comedy, "Risky Business." She s now a full-time mother raising four children in Jerusalem.

Michael's father was one of 16 Americans selected by NASA for the original "Scientist Astronaut" program. After nearly a year of training and preparation, he washed out of the mission due to unhealthy gums.

Dan Sytman, Michael's producer and partner on the radio show, once saw Bigfoot at the edge of a summer camp in the woods. Even before meeting Dan, Michael was a passionate believer in Sasquatch.

While hitchhiking home to California during final exams period (January) of his freshman year at Yale, Michael suffered frostbite outside Omaha due to his poor planning--- wearing tennis shoes in weather that reached 20 below zero. On that trip, he also managed to make it from Connecticut to California in the astonishing time of 76 hours.

In 1968, Michael entered an eating contest sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts of New Haven. He consumed more than two dozen large, filled donuts within the allotted one hour time limit and finished second in the State of Connecticut.

In another astounding feat of athletic glory, Medved was the starting second baseman on the Elders of Zion softball team that upset all expert predictions in 1986 by winning the championship trophy in the LA Jewish League.

Medved's all-time favorite micro-brews: Hale's Pale Ale (Seattle), and Bridgeport India Ale (Portland).