History Creator / KeithOlbermann

Some [[http://variety.com/2015/tv/columns/keith-olbermann-msnbc-leaves-espn-1201536388/ speculated]] that Olbermann could return to MSNBC, that his voice would be welcomed by many considering the upcoming 2016 US election cycle. Indeed, after making an appearance on Creator/{{ABC}}'s ''Series/TheView'' in which he criticized Republican front-runner UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, Olbermann stated that he would be "coming out of retirement." In September 2016, he teamed up with ''GQ'' magazine for a bi-weekly[[note]]or more, if Keith feels like it[[/note]] WebVideo series called ''The Closer'' ([[Series/TheCloser no relation]]). These relatively short videos (usually less than ten minutes) echo the Special Comments of his ''Countdown'' days. After Trump won, the series was retitled ''WebVideo/TheResistanceWithKeithOlbermann''. In the final episode of ''The Resistance'', November 27, 2017, Keith declared that the Trump Admin would soon end, and he abandoned most political commentary (save for a snark here and there on Twitter) to stick to sports commentary and raising money for dog rescues to save condemned dogs on NYACC's death row. In 2014, he branched out into voice acting, in the Creator/{{Netflix}} series ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', as the voice of Tom Jumbo-Grumbo, the blue whale news anchor on [=MSNBSea=].

Some [[http://variety.com/2015/tv/columns/keith-olbermann-msnbc-leaves-espn-1201536388/ speculated]] that Olbermann could return to MSNBC, that his voice would be welcomed by many considering the upcoming 2016 US election cycle. Indeed, after making an appearance on Creator/{{ABC}}'s ''Series/TheView'' in which he criticized Republican front-runner UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, Olbermann stated that he would be "coming out of retirement." In September 2016, he teamed up with ''GQ'' magazine for a bi-weekly[[note]]or more, if Keith feels like it[[/note]] WebVideo series called ''The Closer'' ([[Series/TheCloser no relation]]). These relatively short videos (usually less than ten minutes) echo the Special Comments of his ''Countdown'' days. After Trump won, the series was retitled ''WebVideo/TheResistanceWithKeithOlbermann''.

In 2014, he branched out into voice acting, in the Creator/{{Netflix}} series ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', as the voice of Tom Jumbo-Grumbo, the blue whale news anchor on [=MSNBSea=].

* FriendToAllLivingThings / HeroesLoveDogs / CanineCompanion: In an episode of ''The Resistance'', he proudly claims to be a 'born-again' animal lover, marking the beginning of his life from the day he got his first dog in 2012[[note]]he also loves cats, but can't have any as he's allergic[[/note]]. He owns two Malteses, and he once cancelled an appearance on Bill Maher's program because one of the little guys was sick. He is constantly promoting cat and dog adoptions and rescue services on his Website/{{Twitter}} and signal boosting alerts for lost pets. One of his deepest emotional crusades is the listing of "at risk" dogs (on his [[https://twitter.com/TomJumboGrumbo Tom Jumbo-Grumbo account]]) at the New York Animal Care Centers which have a very bad reputation for killing completely healthy, adoptable dogs and cats (and sickly, older and "behavior problem" dogs, many of whom are the much-maligned pit bulls) for little or no good reason. "You can pledge on any tweet and if the dog is rescued you will be tagged within two weeks with payment info for rescue. If he's killed you won't be contacted. Pledges go towards vetting/medical/training or anything else that's needed to help the dog."

* FriendToAllLivingThings: In an episode of ''The Resistance'', he proudly claims to be a 'born-again' animal lover, marking the beginning of his life from the day he got his first dog[[note]]he also loves cats, but can't have any as he's allergic[[/note]]. He owns two Malteses, and he once cancelled an appearance on Bill Maher's program because one of the little guys was sick. He is constantly promoting cat and dog adoptions and rescue services on his Website/{{Twitter}} and signal boosting alerts for lost pets.[[note]]One of his deepest emotional crusades is the listing of "at risk" dogs (on his [[https://twitter.com/TomJumboGrumbo Tom Jumbo-Grumbo account]]) at the New York Animal Care Centers which have a very bad reputation for killing completely healthy, adoptable dogs and cats for little or no good reason. "You can pledge on any tweet and if the dog is rescued you will be tagged within two weeks with payment info for rescue. If he's killed you won't be contacted. Pledges go towards vetting/medical/training or anything else that's needed to help the dog." [[/note]]

* HeroesLoveDogs / CanineCompanion: Keith's biggest cause. He loves both dogs and cats, but is allergic and had always assumed he would never be able to care for a dog. In 2012, he bought two Maltese puppies (they're hypoallergenic) and felt "born again in dogs". He worked with a rescue, then discovered that the New York Animal Care Center pretty casually euthanizes older, sickly and "behavior problem" dogs (a large number of which are the much maligned pit bulls). He's to be found on Twitter with his @TomJumboGrumbo account, publicising at-risk NYACC dogs for pledges. The money goes to rescues who can take the dogs out of there and provide vet care, training or whatever else they need to prepare them for adoption.
--> ''Unlike in so many areas of our current lives we can, individually, do something to defeat pain and death, if not for humans then for those who make our lives better.''

* FriendToAllLivingThings: In an episode of ''The Resistance'', he proudly claims to be a 'born-again' animal lover, marking the beginning of his life from the day he got his first dog[[note]]he also loves cats, but can't have any as he's allergic[[/note]]. He owns two Malteses, and he once cancelled an appearance on Bill Maher's program because one of the little guys was sick. He is constantly promoting cat and dog adoptions and rescue services on his Website/{{Twitter}} and signal boosting alerts for lost pets.

* SharpDressedMan: ''And how''. Keith is a notably snappy dresser, and very careful about having his suits tailored to minimize his enormous size. He's not fat, he's just ''huge''. Taken to a new level after partnering with GQ for ''The Closer''/''The Resistance''.

* GrayEyes: [[Website/{{Twitter}} "gray, hint of blue - but gray"]]

On July 17, 2013, Olbermann re-joined ESPN, prompting reactions of CueTheFlyingPigs considering how acrimonious their earlier split had been, and a sign of just how seriously ESPN took Fox's heavily-hyped sports network. They launched a new late-night sports-based show titled ''Olbermann'' on August 26 on [=ESPN2=], a hybrid of his sports (highlights, or as they were called "Keithlights") and political (Worst Persons, interviews with people in sports and sports-fan friends of Keith's, commentary that aired at the start of the show this time, and for the first year, Time Marches On, all sports-centric) pasts. As the show continued, rumors began to circulate that higher-ups at ESPN were becoming concerned with Olbermann's continued taking of ''Countdown''-style shots of people and sports organizations when on-air, particularly at the NFL its chairman Roger Godell, over the league's handling of on-field head injuries and [[DomesticAbuser domestic violence cases]] involving players. (ESPN has a deal with the NFL that runs through 2019 worth over $15 billion.) ESPN, in late 2014, had already cut the show to a half-hour and moved its timeslot from 11PM to 5PM, but if the moves were meant to dull Olbermann's edge, they didn't succeed.[[note]]In fact, the move was perceived at the time as ''benefitting'' Olbermann, since the late-night time slot resulted in the show being bounced around the schedule or to ESPNEWS depending on when sports events on ESPN and [=ESPN2=] ended, making it hard for people who wanted to watch the show, and didn't care about its lead-in, to catch it.[[/note]]

Keith Theodore Olbermann (born January 27, 1959)is an American commentator, originally known for sports commentary but in the mid-2000s became equally well-known for his political commentary.

Keith Olbermann is an American commentator, originally known for sports commentary but in the mid-2000s became equally well-known for his political commentary.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: In an episode of ''The Resistance'', he proudly claims to be a 'born-again' animal lover, marking the beginning of his life from the day he got his first dog. He owns two Malteses, and he once cancelled an appearance on Bill Maher's program because one of the little guys was sick. He is constantly promoting cat and dog adoptions and rescue services on his Website/{{Twitter}} and signal boosting alerts for lost pets.

Just before the 2010 U.S. elections, Olbermann was suspended for making donations to three candidates for office without seeking MSNBC approval. A petition was circulated to get him reinstated, and while it looked like all would be back to normal, in January of 2011 he announced he was quitting MSNBC. Shortly thereafter a new show, also named ''Countdown With Keith Olbermann'', would feature on UsefulNotes/AlGore's [=CurrentTV=] network, following the same formula. [=CurrentTV=] fired him after less than a year, and itself folded in 2013.

In 2003 he went into political journalism at MSNBC again, this time with much more success than the last: ''Countdown: Iraq'', the show that would shortly evolve into ''Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann''. It found its voice as a left-wing {{foil}} to shows such as those found on Creator/FoxNewsChannel. Among the recurring segments were "The Worst Person in the World", in which bronze, silver, and gold medals were awarded to politicians and pundits that had performed particularly repellent gaffes, scandals, or general fuck-ups that week. [[Series/TheOReillyFactor Bill O'Reilly]] was an early and frequent recipient of this award, and this led to a long and recurring feud between the two.

In 2003 he went into political journalism at MSNBC again, this time with much more success then the last: ''Countdown: Iraq'', the show that would shortly evolve into ''Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann''. It found its voice as a left-wing {{foil}} to shows such as those found on Creator/FoxNewsChannel. Among the recurring segments were "The Worst Person in the World", in which bronze, silver, and gold medals were awarded to politicians and pundits that had performed particularly repellent gaffes, scandals, or general fuck-ups that week. [[Series/TheOReillyFactor Bill O'Reilly]] was an early and frequent recipient of this award, and this led to a long and recurring feud between the two.

It was at this point Keith would make his first foray into non-sports news, as host of a primetime news show on Creator/{{MSNBC}}, ''The Big Show with Keith Olbermann'', a reference to a book he had co-authored with his former ''Sports Center'' co-host Dan Patrick. The show began to focus more and more on the 1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal, causing Keith to quit and go back into sports, this time at Creator/{{Fox}} Sports, who fired him in 2001. He would hold a series of journalistic odd jobs for a few years, writing a column for Salon, freelancing for Creator/{{CNN}}, and filling in for radio broadcaster Paul Harvey.

* FascinatingEyebrow: Pretty much the facial equivalent of Jon Stewart's "Go ''ooonnnnnn''" -- basically an invitation for the subject to continue [[DiggingYourselfDeeper digging themselves into a hole]].
* FriendToAllLivingThings: In an episode of ''The Resistance'', he proudly claims to be a 'born-again' animal lover, marking the beginning of his life from the day he got his first dog. He owns two Malteses, and he once cancelled an appearance on Bill Maher's program because one of the little guys was sick. He is constantly promoting cat and dog adoptions and rescue services on his Twitter and signal boosting alerts for lost pets.
* GameOfNerds: Keith is a huge baseball fan and historian. His Baseball nerdery was so bad that his parents disallowed him talking Baseball on every second day ''when he was eight''. During his ESPN stint he often came up with some obscure minutia of Baseball history ca. 1905 that [[ShownTheirWork he had researched]].
** In short, there's a very good reason why KenBurns turned to Keith for his [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming Tenth Inning]] follow up to his documentary mini-series about the sport.

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and [[SelfDeprecation mocked]] in a guest appearance on ''Series/TheDailyShow''. Jon Stewart met him on ChatRoulette, and Keith took this trope as far as humanly possible.

Some [[http://variety.com/2015/tv/columns/keith-olbermann-msnbc-leaves-espn-1201536388/ speculated]] that Olbermann could return to MSNBC, that his voice would be welcomed by many considering the upcoming 2016 US election cycle. Indeed, after making an appearance on ABC's ''The View'' in which he criticized Republican front-runner Creator/DonaldTrump, Olbermann stated that he would be "coming out of retirement." In September 2016, he teamed up with ''GQ'' magazine for a bi-weekly[[note]]or more, if Keith feels like it[[/note]] WebVideo series called "The Closer" ([[Series/TheCloser no relation]]). These relatively short videos (usually less than ten minutes) echo the Special Comments of his ''Countdown'' days. After Trump won, the series was retitled ''WebVideo/TheResistanceWithKeithOlbermann''.

In 2003 he went into political journalism at MSNBC again, this time with much more success then the last: ''Countdown: Iraq'', the show that would shortly evolve into ''Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann''. It found its voice as a left-wing foil to shows such as those found on Fox News. Among the recurring segments were "The Worst Person in the World", in which bronze, silver, and gold medals were awarded to politicians and pundits that had performed particularly repellant gaffes, scandals, or general fuck-ups that week. [[Series/TheOReillyFactor Bill O'Reilly]] was an early and frequent recipient of this award, and this led to a long and recurring feud between the two.

A graduate of Cornell in 1979, he started in sports broadcasting at the wire service UPI in 1981 before moving on to the sports division of the newly-founded CNN, and then local sports broadcasting in Boston and then Los Angeles. In 1992, he joined Creator/{{ESPN}}'s ''Series/SportsCenter'' as co-anchor with Dan Patrick. His tenure is considered to be the point where ''Sports Center'' really took off, with his on-air persona inspiring one of the characters on the short-lived Aaron Sorkin drama ''SportsNight''. After disputes with management, he left in 1997, seemingly burning his bridges in the process, though he would remain friends with Patrick.

A graduate of Cornell in 1979, he started in sports broadcasting at the wire service UPI in 1981 before moving on to the sports division of the newly-founded CNN, and then local sports broadcasting in Boston and then Los Angeles. In 1992, he joined ESPN's ''SportsCenter'' as co-anchor with Dan Patrick. His tenure is considered to be the point where ''SportsCenter'' really took off, with his on-air persona inspiring one of the characters on the short-lived Aaron Sorkin drama ''SportsNight''. After disputes with management, he left in 1997, seemingly burning his bridges in the process, though he would remain friends with Patrick.

It was at this point Keith would make his first foray into non-sports news, as host of a primetime news show on MSNBC, ''The Big Show with Keith Olbermann'', a reference to a book he had co-authored with his former ''SportsCenter'' co-host Dan Patrick. The show began to focus more and more on the 1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal, causing Keith to quit and go back into sports, this time at Fox Sports, who fired him in 2001. He would hold a series of journalistic odd jobs for a few years, writing a column for Salon, freelancing for CNN, and filling in for radio broadcaster Paul Harvey.

In 2003 he went into political journalism at MSNBC again, this time with much more success then the last: ''Countdown: Iraq'', the show that would shortly evolve into ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann''. It found its voice as a left-wing foil to shows such as those found on Fox News. Among the recurring segments were "The Worst Person in the World", in which bronze, silver, and gold medals were awarded to politicians and pundits that had performed particularly repellant gaffes, scandals, or general fuck-ups that week. Bill O'Reilly was an early and frequent recipient of this award, and this led to a long and recurring feud between the two.

Just before the 2010 U.S. elections, Olbermann was suspended for making donations to three candidates for office without seeking MSNBC approval. A petition was circulated to get him reinstated, and while it looked like all would be back to normal, in January of 2011 he announced he was quitting MSNBC. Shortly thereafter a new show, also named ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'', would feature on Al Gore's [=CurrentTV=] network, following the same formula. [=CurrentTV=] fired him after less than a year, and itself folded in 2013.

%% below cut verbatim from CountdownWithKeithOlbermann on 08 Sep 2017; probably needs trimming.

* SharpDressedMan: ''And how''. Keith is a notably snappy dresser, and very careful about having his suits tailored to minimize his enormous size. He's not fat, he's just ''huge''. Taken to a new level after partnering with GQ for ''The Closer''/''The Resistance''.

In 2014, he branched out into voice acting, in the Creator/{{Netflix}} series ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', as the voice of Tom Jumbo-Grumbo, the blue whale news anchor on [=MSNBSea=].

Just before the 2010 U.S. elections, Olbermann was suspended for making donations to three candidates for office without seeking MSNBC approval. A petition was circulated to get him reinstated, and while it looked like all would be back to normal, in January of 2011 he announced he was quitting MSNBC. Shortly thereafter a new show, also named ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'', would feature on Al Gore's CurrentTV network, following the same formula. CurrentTV fired him after less than a year, and itself folded in 2013.

On July 17, 2013, Olbermann re-joined ESPN, prompting reactions of CueTheFlyingPigs considering how acrimonious their earlier split had been, and a sign of just how seriously ESPN took Fox's heavily-hyped sports network. They launched a new late-night sports-based show titled ''Olbermann'' on August 26 on ESPN2, a hybrid of his sports (highlights, or as they were called "Keithlights") and political (Worst Persons, interviews with people in sports and sports-fan friends of Keith's, commentary that aired at the start of the show this time, and for the first year, Time Marches On, all sports-centric) pasts. As the show continued, rumors began to circulate that higher-ups at ESPN were becoming concerned with Olbermann's continued taking of ''Countdown''-style shots of people and sports organizations when on-air, particularly at the NFL its chairman Roger Godell, over the league's handling of on-field head injuries and [[DomesticAbuser domestic violence cases]] involving players. (ESPN has a deal with the NFL that runs through 2019 worth over $15 billion.) ESPN, in late 2014, had already cut the show to a half-hour and moved its timeslot from 11PM to 5PM, but if the moves were meant to dull Olbermann's edge, they didn't succeed.[[note]]In fact, the move was perceived at the time as ''benefitting'' Olbermann, since the late-night time slot resulted in the show being bounced around the schedule or to ESPNEWS depending on when sports events on ESPN and [=ESPN2=] ended, making it hard for people who wanted to watch the show, and didn't care about its lead-in, to catch it.[[/note]]

In 2014, he branched out into voice acting, in the Creator/{{Netflix}} series ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', as the voice of Tom Jumbo-Grumbo, the blue whale news anchor on MSNBSea.

To take his career at a gallop: A graduate of Cornell in 1979, he started in sports broadcasting at the wire service UPI in 1981 before moving on to the sports division of the newly-founded CNN, and then local sports broadcasting in Boston and then Los Angeles. In 1992, he joined ESPN's ''SportsCenter'' as co-anchor with Dan Patrick. His tenure is considered to be the point where ''SportsCenter'' really took off, with his on-air persona inspiring one of the characters on the short-lived Aaron Sorkin drama ''SportsNight''. After disputes with management, he left in 1997, seemingly burning his bridges in the process, though he would remain friends with Patrick.

To take his career at a gallop: A graduate of Cornell in 1979, he started in sports broadcasting at the wire service UPI in 1981 before moving on to the sports division of the newly-founded CNN, and then local sports broadcasting in Boston and then Los Angeles. In 1992, he joined ESPN's ''SportsCenter'' as co-anchor with Dan Patrick. His tenure is considered to be the point where ''SportsCenter'' really took off, with his on-air persona inspiring one of the characters on the short-lived Aaron Sorkin drama SportsNight. After disputes with management, he left in 1997, seemingly burning his bridges in the process, though he would remain friends with Patrick.

[[redirect:Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann]]