Peter Sagal Explained

Peter Sagal
Birth Date:January 31, 1965
Birth Place:Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, U.S.
Education:Harvard University (BA)
Occupation:Humorist, writer, radio host
Credits:Host of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Children:5

Peter Daniel Sagal[1] (born January 31, 1965)[2] [3] is an American humorist, writer, and host of the National Public Radio game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and the PBS special Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.

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Early life, family and education

Sagal was raised in a Jewish family in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey,[4] son of Matthew and Reeva Sagal.[5] Matthew was a telecommunications executive, and Reeva was a schoolteacher who became a stay-at-home mother.[6]

Sagal is a 1987 graduate of Harvard College,[5] [6] where one of his college roommates was future Wall Street Journal correspondent Jess M. Bravin.[7] Together, they entered a competition to write the Hasty Pudding production and were selected to develop their script "Between the Sheiks".[7] Sagal studied English literature at Harvard.[5] While there he wrote and directed other student theater productions.[6] He also spent a summer as a journalist for Cycle, a now defunct motorcycle magazine.[8]

Career

After graduating from Harvard, Sagal pursued several different occupations, all connected to the theater or writing. While living in Los Angeles, he appeared as a contestant on the game show Jeopardy! in April 1988, in which he placed second.[9]

Sagal then moved to New York to pursue a theater writing career[6] In 1998, he moved to the Chicago area, when he became the host of NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! news quiz program.[6]

He was literary manager for the now-defunct Los Angeles Theater Center,[6] a stage director, an actor, a playwright and a screenwriter, and an extra in a Michael Jackson video. He has also been a journalist, an essayist,[10] [11] [12] a humorist,[11] a travel writer,[12] [13] and an author.[14] Sagal has written several plays that have been performed across the United States and internationally.[12] [13] Some have also been performed as radio plays or podcasts.[15] [12] [13] [16] [17]

Screenwriter

Sagal has written screenplays,[18] one for a 1996 science fiction / martial arts thriller, Savage, another for , a 2004 sequel to the original Dirty Dancing, adapted from his screenplay Cuba Mine,[13] [16] which Sagal said bears little resemblance to the poorly-received film.[19]

Television writer

Sagal has also written for television shows including,

The two Wait Wait pilots are based on the weekly NPR/WBEZ Chicago news quiz radio program which Sagal hosts.

Actor

Sagal had a brief voice cameo as Clown's Joy in the 2015 animated movie Inside Out.[20]

He appeared as himself in the "Pay Pal" episode of the animated television series The Simpsons. In that episode characters Lisa and Tumi listened to an episode of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! featuring Sagal and announcer Carl Kasell.

Sagal has appeared in three television specials based on his radio show: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! (2008), Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!: A Royal Pain in the News (2011), and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me Live! (2013).

Sagal has appeared as himself in documentaries. These include:

Journalist

A runner of marathons, Sagal writes the Road Scholar column for Runner's World magazine.[26] [27] He has also written for The New York Times Magazine,[28] [29] [30] the Chicago Tribune,[29] [30] the Houston Chronicle,[29] [30] and Time magazine.[31]

Sagal and the Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! team contributed a feature called Sandwich Monday to The Salt, NPR's food blog. For five years, each Monday the Wait Wait team ate a new and different kind of sandwich for lunch. Then one of the team members would write a tongue-in-cheek blog post describing the food.[32] Sandwiches included Fritos-topped Papa John's pizza,[32] latke double-down,[32] Passover Sandwich,[33] and Burger King's YUMBO.[34]

Author

In the early 1990s while he was living in Minneapolis, Sagal was hired to ghostwrite an autobiography of the 1970s pornography director Gail Palmer.[6] [15] [16] Sagal discovered that Palmer did not direct the pornography movies attributed to her, and that she was a front for her pornographer boyfriend.[6] Peter wrote the book anyway. However, Palmer did not approve of the manuscript, and it has not been published.[6]

In October 2007 HarperCollins published Sagal's The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them).[6] [28] In the book Sagal revisits the Gail Palmer incident and indicates that his exposure to the porn industry led to his writing Book of Vice.[6] Publishers Weekly called Book of Vice, "a hilarious, harmlessly prurient look at the banality of regular people’s strange and wicked pleasures".[35]

Awards and honors

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! was designed as a weekly satirical look at the week's news in a quiz format.[18] The host of the show was to be a comedian named Dan Coffey[7] who would quiz panelists, celebrity guests and non-celebrity callers. The show debuted in January 1998[7] [13] but had a rocky start. The producers replaced Coffey with Sagal in May 1998.[7] [13]

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! has become one of the most popular shows on NPR. The radio program is heard weekly by nearly three million listeners on 520 public radio stations nationwide.[13] [38] The Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! podcast is also heard by a million people every month.[13] [38] In 2008 Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! was awarded a 2007 Peabody Award "For offering a droll, light-hearted alternative to both news and the cottage industry of punditry that surrounds it..."[39]

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! has not been without controversy. For instance, in December of 2014, Sagal attempted a joke about a Diocese of Brooklyn Christmas ad depicting a young woman taking a selfie with a picture of Jesus. He asked why Jesus did not just take the picture for her, and answered "His hands were occupied." Critics including Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and Dallas First Baptist Church senior pastor Robert Jeffress called the joke blasphemous and accused Sagal specifically and the secular media in general of mocking Christianity. O'Reilly stated that if Sagal's comment was salacious he should be fired. When asked about the incident, NPR President and CEO Jarl Mohn said, "[T]he show's goal is to poke fun at the news and make people laugh" and he "regrets that we didn't succeed in this case."[40]

Personal life

Sagal was married from 1994 until his divorce in 2013. In 2018, he married Mara Filler. He has three children from his first marriage and two from his second marriage. Sagal was a longtime resident of the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, though he moved to Highland Park, Illinois in 2022.[41]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Who's Bill This Time? . Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! . NPR . February 6, 2021 . Chicago, Illinois . February 6, 2021 . I'm Bill Kurtis. And here's your host, a man whose middle name is not danger, Peter Daniel Sagal..
  2. petersagal. 1223315625826758657. It's my birthday!. Peter. Sagal. January 31, 2020.
  3. Book: Deuchler, Douglas. Legendary Locals of Oak Park. 2013. Arcadia Publishing. 978-1467100861. 97. Peter Sagal (born in 1965)....
  4. Web site: Peter Sagal . . February 6, 2021 . Colchester, Vermont.
  5. Web site: NJ native hosts game show with twist of the news. Kaplan. Ron. July 13, 2006 . . January 20, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20130920204054/http://njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/071306/mwNJNativeHostsGame.html. 20 September 2013. dead.
  6. Web site: The New Vice President . McKeough. Kevin. 17 October 2007. Chicago Magazine. Chicago Tribune Media Group. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206184725/http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/November-2007/The-New-Vice-President/. February 6, 2017. January 20, 2017.
  7. Web site: Scuderi. Benjamin M. . Peter D. Sagal . The Harvard Crimson. The Harvard Crimson Inc. . January 20, 2017. May 23, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105107/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/5/23/Radio-Host-NPR/. February 6, 2017. live.
  8. Web site: Live Wire 257 Encore: Peter Sagal, Chelsea Cain, Eef Barzelay. LiveWireRadio.org . Live Wire! Radio. February 2, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170206104030/http://www.livewireradio.org/Episode257Encore. February 6, 2017. live.
  9. Web site: Peter Sagal. J!Archive. October 24, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111115093643/http://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=6121. November 15, 2011. live.
  10. Web site: Stein. Anne. Celebrity Traveler: Peter Sagal 'Wait, Wait,' while Peter Sagal tells us. Chicago Tribune. January 23, 2017. December 21, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105825/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-12-21/travel/0812180404_1_chicago-marathon-peter-sagal-quiz. February 6, 2017. live.
  11. Web site: Distinguished Lecture Series welcomes peter sagal. Wisconsin Union. University of Wisconsin-Madison. February 1, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170201204408/https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/the-art-of-telling-a-joke-with-peter-sagal/. February 1, 2017.
  12. Web site: Peter Sagal. The Dinner Party with Elysabeth Alfano. The Dinner Party. January 24, 2017. March 11, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206104358/http://thedinnerparty.tv/peter-sagal/. February 6, 2017. live.
  13. Web site: Peter Sagal. JoCoCruise. 23 January 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206103715/https://jococruise.com/artist/peter-sagal/. 6 February 2017. dead.
  14. Web site: "The Art of Telling a Joke" with Peter Sagal. Wisconsin Union. University of Wisconsin-Madison. 23 January 2017. October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170201204408/https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/the-art-of-telling-a-joke-with-peter-sagal/. February 1, 2017. live.
  15. Web site: Peter Sagal Host of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!. NPR. National Public Radio. January 20, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170119095011/http://www.npr.org/people/2101115/peter-sagal. 19 January 2017. live.
  16. Web site: Peter Sagal. WNPO.org. New Orleans Public Radio. January 23, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206110046/http://wwno.org/people/peter-sagal. February 6, 2017. live.
  17. Web site: Peter Sagal. Dramatic Publishing. January 23, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20180419120446/https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/authors/profile/view/url/peter-sagal. April 19, 2018. live.
  18. Web site: PAMC's Feature Speaker: Peter Sagal. www.iavm.org. International Association of Venue Managers. 24 January 2017. 6 December 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170202205200/http://www.iavm.org/pamc%E2%80%99s-feature-speaker-peter-sagal. February 2, 2017.
  19. Web site: Live Wire 257 Encore: Peter Sagal, Chelsea Cain, Eef Barzelay. LiveWireRadio.org . Live Wire! Radio. February 2, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170206104030/http://www.livewireradio.org/Episode257Encore. February 6, 2017. live.
  20. Web site: Inside Out Full Cast and Crew. IMDB. August 28, 2022.
  21. Web site: Public Programs Staff. Featured Project Constitution USA With Peter Sagal. National Endowment for the Humanities

    Division of Public Programs

    . January 25, 2017. May 2, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20170126064744/https://www.neh.gov/divisions/public/featured-project/constitution-usa-peter-sagal. January 26, 2017. live.
  22. Web site: Constitution USA with Peter Sagal. Twin Cities Public Television. January 25, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170123232037/http://www.pbs.org/tpt/constitution-usa-peter-sagal/home/. January 23, 2017. live.
  23. News: Smith. Tim. The BSO hits another expressive peak with semi-staging of 'Candide'. The Baltimore Sun. February 1, 2017. June 12, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105521/http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/artsmash/bal-bso-hits-another-expressive-peak-with-semi-staging-of-candide-20150612-story.html. February 6, 2017. live.
  24. Web site: Valania. Jonathan. Q&A: Peter Sagal, Host of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Phawker. February 1, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20161126003015/http://www.phawker.com/2015/07/09/qa-peter-sagal-host-of-wait-wait-dont-tell-me/. November 26, 2016. dead.
  25. Web site: Puluse. Don. Wait Wait's Peter Sagal and Symphony by the Sea at the Cabot Theater. Marblehead Patch. Patch. February 1, 2017. May 8, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206184621/http://patch.com/massachusetts/marblehead/wait-waits-peter-sagal-symphony-sea-cabot-theater-0. February 6, 2017. live.
  26. News: Trainor. Ken. Sagal has been busy . . Oak Park, Illinois . January 20, 2017 . May 7, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206104714/http://www.oakpark.com/News/Blogs/5-7-2013/Sagal-has-been-busy/. February 6, 2017. live.
  27. Web site: Peter Sagal Host, NPR's "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!" . Chicago Ideas . January 25, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206184530/https://www.chicagoideas.com/speakers/peter_sagal. February 6, 2017. live.
  28. Web site: Discover Author Peter Sagal . HarperCollinsPublishers . . January 23, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170206110304/https://www.harpercollins.com/cr-102328/peter-sagal . February 6, 2017 . live .
  29. Web site: Peter Sagal: Milton Bradley. Playing On Air. February 1, 2017. December 15, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206104830/https://playingonair.org/2014/12/15/peter-sagal/. February 6, 2017. dead.
  30. Web site: Peter Sagal 2013 Moment Magazine Creativity Award Recipient. Moment magazine. Center for Creative Change. January 25, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170322141220/http://www.momentmag.com/symposium-2013peter-sagal/. March 22, 2017. live.
  31. News: Sagal. Peter. Peter Sagal Remembers 'Car Talk' Host Tom Magliozzi . Time magazine. Time magazine . January 25, 2017 . November 3, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105205/http://time.com/3555499/peter-sagal-remembers-car-talk-host-tom-magliozzi/. February 6, 2017 . live.
  32. Shilcutt. Katharine. NPR's Peter Sagal Talks Sandwich Mondays and Banh Mi . . January 27, 2017 . June 23, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170206184411/https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2015/6/23/peter-sagal-npr-sandwiches-june-2015 . February 6, 2017 . live.
  33. Web site: Sagal. Peter. Sandwich Monday: The Passover Sandwich . The Salt. NPR. January 27, 2017 . March 30, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170127072626/http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/30/396362204/sandwich-monday-the-passover-sandwich . January 27, 2017 . live.
  34. Web site: Sagal . Peter . Sandwich Monday: Burger King's YUMBO . The Salt . NPR. January 27, 2017. March 23, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20170128151031/http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/23/394887152/sandwich-monday-burger-kings-yumbo . January 28, 2017 . live.
  35. Web site: The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them). publishersweekly.com. Publishers Weekly. January 28, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105920/http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-084382-3. February 6, 2017. live.
  36. Web site: Peter Sagal: The 2016 Kurt Vonnegut Humor Award Recipient. Kurt Vonnegut Museum * Library Blog. Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. February 1, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170201205858/http://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/peter-sagal-the-2016-kurt-vonnegut-humor-award-recipient/. February 1, 2017. 21 October 2016.
  37. Web site: Taylor. Emily. "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!" host Peter Sagal on Kurt Vonnegut, ethics and memory. NUVO.net. NUVO newspaper. 25 January 2017. 9 November 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206104806/http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/wait-wait-dont-tell-me-host-peter-sagal-on-kurt-vonnegut-ethics-and-memory/Content?oid=4379324. February 6, 2017. live.
  38. Web site: Peter Sagal. Yakima Town Hall Speakers Series. Yakima Town Hall. 31 January 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170131182832/http://www.yakimatownhall.com/speakers/. 31 January 2017.
  39. Web site: Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! (National Public Radio). Peabody: Stories That Matter. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia. 29 January 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105023/http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/wait-wait...dont-tell-me. February 6, 2017. live.
  40. News: Barnhart. Melissa. Pastor Robert Jeffress Condemns NPR Host Peter Sagal for Mocking Jesus; NPR's CEO Says He 'Regrets' Joke Didn't Succeed. The Christian Post. January 31, 2017. 10 December 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20170202011222/http://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-robert-jeffress-condemns-npr-host-peter-sagal-for-mocking-jesus-nprs-ceo-says-he-regrets-joke-didnt-succeed-130992/. February 2, 2017. live.
  41. News: Goldsborough . Bob . 2022-05-12 . NPR's Peter Sagal, host of 'Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!', sells Oak Park home for $505,000 . Chicago Tribune . 2022-05-15.

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