Editing Richard Bey

{{Short description|American talk show host}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Richard Bey
| image              = Richard Bey 2012 Shankbone.JPG
| caption            = Bey at the 2012 [[Tribeca Film Festival]] premiere of ''Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie''
| birth_name         = Richard Wayne Bey
| birth_date         = {{birth_date and age|1951|7|22|mf=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Queens]], New York City, U.S.
| death_date         = 
| death_place        = 
| occupation         = Talk show host, TV and radio personality
| yearsactive        = 
| spouse             = 
| children           = 
| website            = 
| alma_mater         = University of California, Santa Barbara (B.A.)<br>Yale School of Drama (M.A., 1976)<REF NAME="MRNYC09302009">[https://mrnyc.blogspot.com/2009/09/interview-richard-bey_30.html "Interview with Richard Bey"], ''Mr NYC'' blog, Wednesday, September 30, 2009</ref><REF NAME="YALEMAGAZINE">''Yale School of Drama Annual Magazine 2014'', published Jan 20, 2015.</ref>
}}
'''Richard Wayne Bey''' (born July 22, 1951) is an American talk show [[talk show|host]]. He was popular in the 1990s as host of ''[[The Richard Bey Show]]'', a daytime [[talk show]] containing ordinary people's personal stories incorporated into entertaining competitive games. The show was one of the first to pioneer the controversial genre of [[trash TV]], and contained the hard R-rated content that would typify the genre.

==Early years==
Bey was born in [[Far Rockaway, Queens]], [[New York (state)|New York]], to a [[Jew]]ish father and an [[Irish Catholic]] mother and attended [[Far Rockaway High School]].<ref name="ref1">{{cite news|title=THE NEW HOSTS OF 'PEOPLE ARE TALKING' BEGIN WORK TODAY|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=1983-08-15|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB295FCF1A239CD&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|access-date=2009-07-07}}</ref><ref>Morales, Tina. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120724092719/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/newsday/access/77343259.html?dids=77343259:77343259&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+25%2C+1990&author=Compiled+by+Tina+Morales&pub=Newsday+(Combined+editions)&desc=SCHOOL+OF+THE+WEEK%2FFar+Rockaway+High+School&pqatl=google "SCHOOL OF THE WEEK/Far Rockaway High School"], ''[[Newsday]]'', February 25, 1990. Accessed July 3, 2010.</ref>

He is an alumnus of the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]] and the [[Yale School of Drama]].

Prior to ''The Richard Bey Show'', Bey hosted ''People Are Talking'', telecast in [[New York City]] and [[Philadelphia]] (in Philadelphia it aired on [[KYW-TV|KYW]], at the time, an [[NBC]] affiliate), and ''2 On the Town'' for [[WCBS-TV|WCBS]].  ''People Are Talking'' was a one-hour live broadcast covering topical news issues and one on one interviews with guests like [[Frank Zappa]], [[Steven Spielberg]], President [[Jimmy Carter]], [[Sammy Davis Jr.]], [[Patricia Neal]], [[Alexander Haig]], [[Jerry Brown]], [[Ross Perot]] and [[Martin Sheen|Martin]] and [[Charlie Sheen]]. The show was called ''9 Broadcast Plaza'' in its early years before changing its name to ''The Richard Bey Show''.

Among his roles on stage are Hamlet (title role) As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida as well as the world premieres of new plays by Richard Nelson, Chris Durang and Jim Lapine.  He was a company member of the Yale Repertory Theater and understudied the National Theatre of Great Britain on Broadway and at the Kennedy Center.  His film roles include [[Sacha Baron Cohen|Sacha Baron Cohen's]] ''[[Brüno]]'', ''[[Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie|Évocateur]]'', ''[[Meet Wally Sparks]]'' and ''[[George Washington (miniseries)|George Washington]]''.

==''People are Talking'', ''9 Broadcast Plaza'', and ''The Richard Bey Show''==

{{main|The Richard Bey Show}}

''[[The Richard Bey Show]]'' (1992–1996) was produced from [[WWOR-TV|WWOR]] in [[Secaucus, New Jersey]] and later [[Broadcast syndication|syndicated]] across the country by [[All American Television]] (known today as [[FreemantleMedia]]). The show originated as a combination of two hit shows which were very equally popular, ''People are Talking,'' which was the first form of ''Bey,'' which was a true talk show that was serious and sometimes confrontational, similar to ''[[The Morton Downey Jr. Show]]''. It was nationally syndicated, but was produced by KYW.  The show sometimes got confrontational, and it set the seeds for what would become his show, in 1992. Eventually, sometime in the late 80s, the show merged with ''9 Broadcast Plaza'', and became a WWOR/[[MCA-TV]] production. ''9BP,'' which Bey also occasionally would host, when [[Matt Lauer]], the show's original host, would be absent or doing his assignment for his other show, ''Beyond the Screen'' (a major popular behind-the-scenes show that made [[Cinemax]], its network, topple [[HBO]] in views) was a combination of entertainment, that incorporated the local news (sometimes Lauer and Bey would talk to Reg Wells, Rolland Smith, Brenda Blackmon, on select telecasts, telesync), setting the stage for the likes of [[Stephen Colbert]], and many others. On ''9BP,'' major elites from many countries, international superstars, and celebrities, were interviewed, hence making ''Beyond the Screen'' similar to this. There would be high-line cuisine displays, and fun activities on the more family-friendly episodes, such as a pizza-making contest, when [[Sara Lee Kessler]] occasionally hosted. Bey eventually took over duties of the show, and the seeds of ''The Richard Bey Show'' were set. The shows got more adult-oriented (meaning TV-MA/hard R), although without the fights, abundant graphic language, sexually explicit content that ended up on ''Bey''. Both programs would be 18-rating by [[BBFC|UK]] and [[Schengen Area]] standards.

From 1992 and on, as ''The Richard Bey Show,'' the staples of trash TV became officially commonplace. The show had hard R/TV-MA-DLSV (18 by UK and Schengen Area standards) content - violence in the form of fights, some of which were graphic, graphic language, graphic sexual content. The show featured such competitive events as the "Miss Big Butt" contest, the "Mr. Puniverse" contest, "Country Drag Queens versus City Drag Queens", "Dysfunctional Family Feud" and "Blacks who think [[O. J. Simpson|O.J.]] is guilty vs. Whites who think he is innocent". Young women who were guests on the show were sometimes placed in a spoof of [[The Dating Game]] in which the guest interviewed three hidden "bachelors", all of whom were an obvious mismatch for the "bachelorette", e.g., a [[drag queen]] or a [[Dwarfism|dwarf]]. The show was one of the first to set the stage for [[trash TV]], featuring hard R content such as graphic language, graphic sex, drug references, as well as fights, sometimes to the point of getting bloody. For a time, his show was considered the most graphic of the TV talk shows, only to be tied with ''[[The Jerry Springer Show]]'' after 1996, which is when Bey's show ended.

Bey's show made frequent use of sound effects like "uh-duh" for an insane response, "I've been framed" for a guest proclaiming innocence and "You're busted!" for one accused of wrongdoing.  Bey often exclaimed, "Where do they find these people?!" in the presence of unbelievable guests or audience members.  During some shows, there would be a secret word ("Bey's Phrase That Pays"). If an audience member used it in a comment, he would receive $100, an homage to a prior talk and game show, ''[[You Bet Your Life]]''. A joking suggestion was then made on how to spend it: "Lobster dinner tonight!"; in addition, he had other sound effects, such as "Shut up." Richard also famously lost his temper in a 1994 episode involving strippers, and had a guest named Jerry Saunders who criticized his opponents. Sometimes the content was uncensored, and Bey says "dick" (in the vulgar sense) in one episode, to poke fun at his name, for jokes.

The show was a precursor to [[reality television]], featuring a variety of games incorporating guests' stories, most notoriously "The Wheel of Torture", in which a guest would be strapped to a spinning wheel while a spouse or lover poured slime on them as punishment for a misdeed. The show was executive produced by Bob Woodruff and David Sittenfeld.

Richard would frequently make fun of [[Jerry Springer]] on his show, as when he lost his contact lenses and was forced to wear eyeglasses, remarking, "Don't worry, you're not watching Jerry Springer" and showing Jerry in his "Bad Neighbors" segment, a reference to Springer's show being the [[lead-in]] or lead-out to ''Bey'' on many stations in the early-to-mid 1990s. He also made light of [[Ricki Lake]], [[Rosie O'Donnell]], [[Phil Donahue]], and [[Oprah Winfrey]]'s shows. He also incorporated a lot of humor. One famous episode of his show under the title ''9BP,'' was a controversial one dealing with Communism and had guest panels arguing. 

Bey also hosted a prime time show called "Night Games".  It was short-lived but ran around the time his daytime show was at its peak.  It ran after 10 o'clock and was equally ribald with sexually clad women engaged in contests.{{clarify|date=July 2024}}{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

Bey claimed his TV show was canceled in December 1996, despite the high ratings it maintained,{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} as a direct result of doing a program with [[Gennifer Flowers]], discussing her sexual relationship with then President [[Bill Clinton]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/1999/09/20/nipmon/index.html |title=Juicy bits |work=[[Salon.com]] |date=1999-09-20 |quote=his syndicated TV talk show got yanked off the air back in 1996. Bey told the ''[[New York Post]]'' that, even though his show had high ratings and he himself had a brand-new contract, "the day after [the Flowers episode] airs, I'm called into the office and told that we're going out of production." |access-date=2008-03-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417030457/http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/1999/09/20/nipmon/index.html |archive-date=April 17, 2008 }}(scroll down)</ref>

A scene from the 2009 film ''[[Brüno]]'' depicts the filming of an episode of a fictional variation on the show called ''Today with Richard Bey''. The production team, along with Bey, set up the program to invite an unsuspecting audience to participate in a segment where Brüno ([[Sacha Baron Cohen]]) appears as a guest, talking about his Black adopted son. In response to questions from the audience, Brüno reveals that he gave his son the "traditional African name" ''[[O. J. Simpson|O.J.]]'' and claims that he "swapped" an [[iPod]] for his son. The predominantly Black audience becomes outraged over Brüno's responses.

A scene from the 1996 (season 9, episode 16) ''[[Married... with Children]]'' has Steve Rhodes asking his ex-wife Marcy if her new husband is at home watching Richard Bey.

==Radio years==
After the TV show was canceled, Bey was an evening and later afternoon radio co-host along with [[Steve Malzberg]] on ''The Buzz'', which aired on New York's [[WABC (AM)|WABC]] from 2000 to 2003.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.bostonradio.org/nerw/nerw-020401.html| title=North East RadioWatch| publisher=bostonradio.org| date=2002-04-01| quote=Over on the AM dial, WABC (770) moved Michael Savage's show to a live airing last week. Savage is now heard weeknights from 8-10 PM, cutting Steve Malzberg and Richard Bey back to two hours, from 6-8 PM, and ending Malzberg's solo hour at 9.| access-date=2008-03-20}}</ref>

According to the ''[[New York Post]]'', he was one of only two talk hosts at the time on commercial New York radio to openly oppose the [[Iraq War]], contesting the [[Weapons of mass destruction|WMD]] evidence.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} He has since hosted on [[Sirius Satellite Radio]], ''The [[Bill Press]] Show'', and for the syndicated ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]: This Morning''.

Bey hosted for a week on [[WINS-FM|WXRK]] 92.3 FM from February 5 to February 9, 2007, from 10:00{{nbsp}}pm to midnight.  He regularly filled in for [[Lynn Samuels]] and [[Alex Bennett (broadcaster)|Alex Bennett]] on the [[Sirius Satellite Radio]] channel ''[[List of Sirius Satellite Radio stations|Talk Left]]'' when they went on vacation or took a day off.

In August 2007, Bey began hosting a new show on [[WWRL]] in New York City from 8 to 10{{nbsp}}pm. In November 2007, he was teamed up with [[Mark Riley (American radio host)|Mark Riley]] and moved to the [[Drive time|morning drive]], replacing the team of Sam Greenfield and [[Armstrong Williams]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2007/10/26/2007-10-26_morning_show_overhaul_coming_monday_at_w.html| title=Morning show overhaul coming Monday at WWRL| work=[[Daily News (New York)]]| date=2007-10-25| quote=Mark Riley and Richard Bey will take over the morning show Monday at WWRL (1600 AM), replacing Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams.| access-date=2008-03-20}}</ref>

In March 2008, family reasons caused [[Mark Riley (American radio host)|Mark Riley]] to leave [[WWRL]] by mutual agreement<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2008/03/10/2008-03-10_richard_bey_leaves_wwrl_mornings_to_chan.html| title=Richard Bey leaves, WWRL mornings to change again| work=[[Daily News (New York)]]| date=2008-03-10| quote=Bey said on the air Friday that his departure is purely for personal reasons. He has obligations that include a young son, he said, and he can't fulfill those when he has to get up at 3 or 4 a.m. for a morning show.| access-date=2008-03-20 | first=David | last=Hinckley}}</ref> to return to [[WLIB]], and Richard was teamed up with longtime broadcaster Coz Carson. Bey later decided to leave WWRL himself, citing personal reasons (namely spending time with his son).

Until December 2009, he appeared daily on internet TV station UBA-TV from noon until 1:00{{nbsp}}pm.  Until 2019, he filled in on Sirius Left and hosted a blog on his now defunct website. In December 2013 he hosted the morning show in the final weeks of WWRL before it switched to Spanish language broadcasting.

== Personal life ==
As of 2009, Bey had never been married.<ref name="OBSERVER2009">Haber, Matt, [https://observer.com/2009/05/richard-beys-infinite-punyverse/ "Richard Bey’s Infinite Punyverse"], ''[[The New York Observer]]'', May 12, 2009</ref><ref name="MRNYC09302009" /> He lives in [[Midtown Manhattan]] in New York City.<ref name="OBSERVER2009" />

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://richardbey.org Richard Bey's website]
*{{IMDb name|id=0079866|name=Richard Bey}}
*{{IMDb title|id=0268840|title=The Richard Bey Show}}
*[http://apps.facebook.com/beyboard/?ref=ts Richard' Bey's Facebook Message App]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bey, Richard}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American talk radio hosts]]
[[Category:American television talk show hosts]]
[[Category:Far Rockaway High School alumni]]
[[Category:People from Far Rockaway, Queens]]
[[Category:David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni]]