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A cold open (also called a teaser^[1]) in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. On television this is often done on the theory that involving the audience in the plot as soon as possible will reduce the likelihood of their switching away from a show during the opening commercial.^[2]

In some movies the title card does not appear until the end. In such cases one cannot refer to the entire movie as the "opening"; the term "cold open" in these instances refers to the opening moments or scenes. Likewise, in movies with excessively long pre-credits sequences, the "cold open" does not necessarily refer to the entire pre-credits sequence. For example, James Bond films often use pre-credit sequences with little or no relation to the subsequent plot; these are not considered teasers.

History[link]

Cold opens became widespread on television by the mid-1960s. Their use was an economical way of setting up a plot without having to introduce the regular characters, or even the series synopsis, which would typically be outlined in the title sequence itself. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–68) and Star Trek (1966–69) are examples in the United States; in the United Kingdom, it was usually series destined for the American market which utilised the format, such as The Avengers (1961–69) and The Saint (1962–69).

In the early 1960s, few American series used cold opens; and half-hour situation comedies almost never made use of them prior to 1965. But many American series that ran from the early 1960s through the middle years of the decade (even sitcoms) adopted cold opens in later seasons. For example, Gilligan's Island did not use cold opens during its first two seasons, but did use them in its third and final year (1966–67); they were used on some seasons of Mission: Impossible, likewise with “Hawaii Five-O”. Many other long-running TV series used cold opens. Similar patterns can be seen with sitcoms, including Bewitched and The Beverly Hillbillies. Many cold openings in sitcoms do not set up the plot but usually involve physical comedy or bantering. Closing credits of a sitcom usually feature a scene between characters that does not have any relevance to the plot.

British producer Lew Grade's many attempts to break into the American market meant that various of the shows which he was involved with incorporated the cold open, such as The Persuaders! (1971) and Space: 1999 (Series One only, 1975). Later, many British action-adventure series employed the format, such as The New Avengers (1976–77) and The Professionals (1977–81). The video game Sonic Unleashed begins with one as well. Also, a Sgt. Frog episode had one.

Toying with many television conventions, Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–74) played around with the concept of cold opens, sometimes having an entire episode before the starting credits, and, in two instances ("The Cycling Tour", the first episode to have a full-length story, and "The Golden Age of Ballooning", the first episode of series four) had no opening credits at all (the former has a brief title card with the episode's title, and the latter has no titles because Terry Gilliam had not finished the new opening sequence).

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, daytime soap operas became the main user of cold opens, with most American soaps employing the format. While several soaps experimented with regular opens in the early 2000s, all are currently using cold opens. Typically, a soap opera cold open begins where the last scene of the previous episode ended, sometimes replaying the entire last scene. After several scenes, usually to set up which storylines will be featured in the episode, the opening credits are shown.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, some shows began with highlights from the previous episode.

US sitcom and drama episodes often have a traditional cold opening, which usually sets up the plot using the main cast members. Some sitcoms, however, use cold opens which have nothing to do with the plot of an episode (e.g. Malcolm in the Middle). In the US, TV shows will occasionally forgo a standard cold open at the midway point of a two-part episode, or during a "special" episode. For example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's fourth season finale lacked a cold open, as it was an unusual dream-centric episode. The cold open has become common if not standard for sitcoms in the 2000s, while in the 1970s and 1980s many traditional multi-camera sitcoms usually launched straight into the opening theme song.

The long-running NBC sketch variety show Saturday Night Live has always employed a cold open (except for season 7 and other rare exceptions). The cold open usually ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

The current revamped version of The Electric Company features a cold open introducing the plot, ending with one of the Company members yelling "Hey, you guys!!"

Documentaries do not use cold openings as frequently as fictional shows. The World at War is one famous exception, where in a few short minutes an especially poignant moment is featured. After the title sequence, the events that explain the episode are outlined more fully.

Modern video games have included cold opens, either beginning with a lengthy opening sequence or, like the Metal Gear Solid games, including an entire level before the titles. Both Wild Arms and Kingdom Hearts II went as far as including an entire subplot, often taking upwards of three hours to play through, before showing the game's logo. Another example is Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, in which Ezio escapes Rome. After performing a leap of faith, the camera does not follow him and the Assassin's Creed logo is shown.

Cold opens were also an occasional device in radio. Jack Benny's weekly program would usually begin with Don Wilson reading standard copy announcing the name of the program and introducing the stars. Sometimes however, particularly for a show at the start of a new season, the actors would launch into material without any announcement and perform a sketch written to give the audience the impression they were eavesdropping on the stars' off-microphone lives. That would be followed by the more standard Don Wilson introductions and the show would proceed as normal after that.

Cold opens are common in crime dramas, such as all Law and Order variants and the CSI shows, with the crime being committed before the title sequence. CSI: Miami's version of this cold open style is famous and widely parodied; generally, Horatio Caine makes a dramatic comment on the crime (and then puts on or removes his sunglasses while doing so), immediately followed by the "Yeah!" of "Won't Get Fooled Again", the show's opening theme.

Cold openings did feature in several Australian drama series including McLeod's Daughters. Popular Australian soap opera Home and Away used cold opens for several episodes following the recap during its 2006 season.

Nomenclature[link]

Cold opens sometimes employ a segment known as a "teaser". The following memorandum was written on May 2, 1966 as a supplement to the Writer-Director Information Guide for Star Trek, and was authored by Gene Roddenberry, describing the format of a typical episode. This quotation refers to a cold open, commonly known as a teaser:

a. Teaser, preferably three pages or less. Captain Kirk's voice over opens the show, briefly setting where we are and what's going on. This is usually followed by a short playing scene which ends with the Teaser "hook."^[3]

The "hook" of the teaser was some unexplained plot element that was alluded to in the teaser, or cold open, which was intended to keep audiences interested enough in the show to dissuade them from changing stations while the titles and opening commercial roll. Star Trek writer David Gerrold, to tweak William Shatner on set, once joked he was writing a Star Trek episode in which Kirk lost his voice in the teaser (the hook), and didn't get it back until the tag. Gerrold states that Shatner's comment about this suggested episode was unprintable.^[4]

In television series, a similar technique called cliffhanger is often placed before commercial breaks, to keep the audience from switching channels during the break. For instance, in Law & Order this second hook is often the arrest of the suspected perpetrator of the crime committed in the cold open.

The teaser is sometimes referred to as the "tease"; the companion closing-scene at the end of the show is the "tag".

Film[link]

See also[link]

• Title sequence
• Hot switch
• In medias res

References[link]

An iceberg

Look up cold in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Cold refers to the condition or subjective perception of having low temperature. A cold body is often described as the opposite of hot, or as having less heat, although the latter use of "heat" would be incorrect in the context of physics, as heat refers to the transfer of energy between bodies, which do not "have" heat themselves.

A lower bound to temperature is the absolute zero, defined as 0 K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale. This corresponds to −273.15 °C on the Celsius scale, −459.67 °F on the Fahrenheit scale, and 0 °R on the Rankine scale.

Since temperature relates to the thermal energy held by an object or a sample of matter, which is the kinetic energy of the random motion of the particle constituents of matter, an object will have less thermal energy when it is colder and more when it is hotter. If it were possible to cool a system to absolute zero, all motion of the particles in a sample of matter would cease and they would be at complete rest in this classical sense. The object would be described as having zero thermal energy. Microscopically in the description of quantum mechanics, however, matter still has zero-point energy even at absolute zero, because of the uncertainty principle.

Mammalian perception[link]

Mammals have an endothermic ("warm-blooded") physiology. Therefore they have a perception of thermal comfort that is centered around their body temperature. Their thermal comfort is dependent upon their metabolism and environmental surroundings, and is affected by heat conduction, convection, radiation, and evaporative heat loss. Thermal comfort is maintained when the heat generated by their metabolism is allowed to dissipate, thus maintaining thermal equilibrium with the surroundings. When this equilibrium is not maintained due to excessive heat loss, then they will perceive the feeling of being too cold, and in varying degrees of discomfort depending upon how far this equilibrium is skewed.^{[citation needed]}

Cooling[link]

Cooling refers to the process of becoming cold, or lowering in temperature. This could be accomplished by removing heat from a system, or exposing the system to an environment with a lower temperature.

Fluids used to cool objects are commonly called coolants.

Air cooling is the process of cooling an object by exposing it to air. This will only work if the air is at a lower temperature than the object, and the process can be enhanced by increasing the surface area or decreasing the mass of the object.

Another common method of cooling is exposing an object to ice, dry ice, or liquid nitrogen. This works by convection; the heat is transferred from the relatively warm object to the relatively cold coolant.

Laser cooling and Magnetic evaporative cooling are techniques used to reach very low temperatures.

Notable cold locations and objects[link]

• The coldest known temperature ever achieved is a state of matter called the Bose–Einstein condensate which was first theorized to existing by Satyendra Nath Bose in 1924 and first created by Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman, and co-workers at JILA on June 5, 1995. They did this by cooling a dilute vapor consisting of approximately two thousand rubidium-87 atoms to below 170 nK (one nK or nano K is a billionith (10^-9) of a degree Kelvin) using a combination of laser cooling (a technique that won its inventors Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, and William D. Phillips the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics) and magnetic evaporative cooling.
• The Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known natural location in the universe, with a temperature that is estimated at 1 K (kelvin) (−272.15 °C/−457.87 °F).^[1]
• Herschel Space Observatory instruments and detectors are kept at temperatures below 2 K, using a large helium tank for cooling.^[2]
• Absent any other source of heat, the temperature of the Universe roughly 2.725 kelvin, due to the Cosmic microwave background radiation, a remnant of the big bang.^[3]
• Neptune's moon Triton has a surface temperature of −235 °C (−390 °F).
• Uranus with an atmospheric temperature of −215 °C (−355 °F).^[4]
• Saturn with a temperature of −175 °C (−285 °F) at cloud tops.^[5]
• Mercury, despite being close to the Sun, is actually cold during its night, with a temperature of about −170 °C (−275 °F). Mercury is cold during its night because it has no atmosphere to trap in heat from the Sun.^[6]
• Jupiter with a temperature of −145 °C (−230 °F) at the cloud tops.^[7]
• Mars has a temperature of about −125 °C (−195 °F).^[8]
• The coldest continent on Earth is Antarctica.^[9] The coldest place on Earth is the Antarctic Plateau,^[10] an area of Antarctica around the South Pole that has an altitude of around 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). The lowest reliably measured temperature on Earth of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) was recorded there at Vostok Station on 21 July 1983^[11] (See List of weather records).

See also[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cold

Look up open, opened, or overt in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Open may refer to:

Philosophy[link]

• Openness, term being used to define the basis of how various groups and organizations operate

Mathematics[link]

• Open problem, a well-defined problem with no known solution in science and mathematics
• Open set, set in topology and related fields of mathematics
• Opening (morphology), an operator in mathematical morphology
• Open map, a function that is open

Music and media[link]

• Open (Shaznay Lewis album), 2004 album by Shaznay Lewis
• Open (Blues Image album), Blues Image's second album
• Open (Cowboy Junkies album), an album by the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies, released in 2001
• Open (Gotthard album), the fourth studio album by the hard rock band Gotthard
• Open (YFriday album), the second studio album from the Christian band YFriday, released in 2001
• Open, 1967 album by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity
• Open (band), Australian pop/rock band
• "Open", a song by The Cure on their album Wish
• Open Season (film), a 2006 movie made in Sony Animation
• Open...., the original interactive television service on BSkyBs Sky Digital platform
• Open (Jon Anderson album), a 2011 album released through Digital Download

Language and literature[link]

• Open vowel, vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages
• Open (magazine), a lifestyle Mexican publication
• OPEN (Indian magazine), an Indian weekly English language magazine featuring current affairs
• Open: An Autobiography, by Andre Agassi (2010)

Electronics and computer science[link]

• open (process), Nextstep & Mac OS X command line application that opens its argument(s) in the GUI as if the user had double clicked
• Open-circuit voltage, in electronics, the absence of a load through which electric current would flow
• Open-source software, computer software modifiable by all, where users are treated as co-developers
• Open system (computing), computer systems that provide interoperability
• Open (system call), standardized system call for opening files

Other fields[link]

• Open (sport), type of competition in tennis, golf and other sports where entry is open to all qualifiers regardless of age or ability
• Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America, inclusive, not-for-profit organization
• Open surgery as opposed to minimally invasive surgery
• Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act, or OPEN Act, a bill in the United States Congress to prohibit internet censorship.

See also[link]

• Open-ended (disambiguation)
• Open mind (disambiguation)
• Open system (disambiguation)
• Open education
• Opening (disambiguation)
• Close (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Craig Ferguson
Performing stand-up in New York City, 2007
Born	(1962-05-17) May 17, 1962 (age 50) Glasgow, Scotland
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, music, books
Nationality	Scotland; United States
Years active	1980–present
Genres	Observational comedy, satire/political satire/news satire
Subject(s)	Everyday life, popular culture, self-deprecation, politics
Spouse	Anne Hogarth (1983–86) (divorced) Sascha Corwin (1998–2004) (divorced) 1 child Megan Wallace-Cunningham (2008–present) 1 child
Notable works and roles	Host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Nigel Wick on The Drew Carey Show Glaswegian in One Foot in the Grave Gobber in How to Train Your Dragon
Website	The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Craig Ferguson (born 17 May 1962^[1]) is a Scottish-American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, and producer. He is the host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning late-night talk show that airs on CBS. In addition to hosting that program and performing stand-up comedy, Ferguson has written two books: Between the Bridge and the River, a novel, and American on Purpose, a memoir. He became a citizen of the United States in 2008.^[2]

Before his career as a late-night television host, Ferguson was best known in the United States for his role as the office boss, Nigel Wick, on The Drew Carey Show from 1996 to 2003. He also wrote and starred in three films, directing one of them.

Early life[link]

Ferguson was born in the Stobhill Hospital in the Springburn district of Glasgow, Scotland to Robert and Janet Ferguson, and raised in nearby Cumbernauld, growing up "chubby and bullied".^[3][4] When he was six months old, he and his family moved from their Springburn apartment to a council house in Cumbernauld. They lived there as Glasgow was re-housing many people following damage to the city from World War II.^[4] Ferguson attended Muirfield Primary School and Cumbernauld High School.^[5] At age sixteen, Ferguson dropped out of Cumbernauld High School and began an apprenticeship to be an electronics technician at a local factory of American company Burroughs Corporation.^[6]

His first visit to the United States was as a teenager to visit an uncle who lived on Long Island, near New York City.^[7] When he moved to New York City in 1983, he worked in construction in Harlem.^[8][9] Ferguson later became a bouncer at a nightclub, Save the Robots.^[10]

Career[link]

British career[link]

Ferguson's experience in entertainment began as a drummer in a rock band called Exposure. He then joined a punk band called The Bastards from Hell.^[11] The band, later renamed "Dreamboys", and fronted by vocalist Peter Capaldi, performed regularly in Glasgow from 1980 to 1982.^[12] Ferguson credits Capaldi for inspiring him to try comedy.^[3]

After a nerve-wrecking, knee-knocking first appearance, he decided to create a character that was a "parody of all the über-patriotic native folk singers who seemed to infect every public performance in Scotland."^[3] The character, "Bing Hitler" (actually coined by Capaldi as Ferguson started with the monogram of "Nico Fulton" but admittedly later stole the name for his "own nefarious ends"),^[12] premiered in Glasgow, and subsequently became a hit at the 1986 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A recording of his stage act as Bing Hitler was made at Glasgow's Tron Theatre and released in the 1980s;^[13] a Bing Hitler monologue ("A Lecture for Burns Night") appears on the compilation cassette Honey at the Core.

Ferguson's first television appearance was as Confidence on BBC sitcom Red Dwarf during the episode "Confidence and Paranoia".

Ferguson made his starring television debut in The Craig Ferguson Show, a one-off comedy pilot for Granada Television, which co-starred Paul Whitehouse and Helen Atkinson-Wood.^[14] This was broadcast throughout the UK on 4 March 1990, but was not made into a full series.

He has also found success in musical theatre. Beginning in 1991, he appeared on stage as Brad Majors in the London production of The Rocky Horror Show, alongside Anthony Head, who was playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter at the time.^{[citation needed]} In 1994, Ferguson played Father MacLean in the highly controversial production of Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom at the Union Chapel in London. The same year, he appeared again at the Edinburgh Fringe, as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, opposite Gerard Kelly as Felix and Kate Anthony as Gwendolin Pidgeon, who is now much better known as Aunty Pam in Coronation Street; the play, which was relocated to 1990s Glasgow, later toured Scotland.^[15]

After enjoying success at the Edinburgh Festival, Ferguson appeared on Red Dwarf, STV's Hogmanay Show,^[16] his own show 2000 Not Out, and the 1993 One Foot in the Grave Christmas special One Foot in the Algarve.

In 1993, Ferguson presented his own series on Scottish archaeology for Scottish Television entitled Dirt Detective.^[17] He travelled throughout the country examining archaeological history, including Skara Brae and Paisley Abbey.

U.S. career[link]

After cancellation of his show The Ferguson Theory, Ferguson moved to Los Angeles in 1994. His first U.S. role was as baker Logan McDonough on the short-lived 1995 ABC comedy Maybe This Time, which starred Betty White and Marie Osmond.

His breakthrough in the U.S. came when he was cast on The Drew Carey Show as the title character's boss, Mr. Wick, a role that he played from 1996 to 2003. He played the role with an over-the-top posh English accent "to make up for generations of English actors doing crap Scottish accents." In his comedy special "A Wee Bit O' Revolution", he specifically called out James Doohan's portrayal of Montgomery Scott on Star Trek as the foundation of his "revenge". (At the end of one episode, though, Ferguson broke the fourth wall and began talking to the audience at home in his regular Scottish accent.) His character was memorable for his unique methods of laying employees off, almost always "firing Johnson", the most common last name of the to-be-fired workers.^[18] Even after leaving the show in 2003, he remained a recurring character on the series for the last two seasons, and was part of the 2-part series finale in 2004.

During production of The Drew Carey Show, Ferguson devoted his off-time as a cast member to writing, working in his trailer on set in-between shooting his scenes. He wrote and starred in three films: The Big Tease, Saving Grace, and I'll Be There, which he also directed and for which he won the Audience Award for Best Film at the Aspen, Dallas and Valencia film festivals. He was named Best New Director at the Napa Valley Film Festival. These were among other scripts that, "... in the great tradition of the movie business, about half a dozen that I got paid a fortune for but never got made."^[19] His other acting credits in films include Niagara Motel, Lenny the Wonder Dog, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Chain of Fools, Born Romantic, The Ugly Truth, How to Train Your Dragon, Kick-Ass and Winnie the Pooh.

Ferguson has been touring the United States and Canada with a stand-up comedy show, and performed at Carnegie Hall on 23 October 2010.

[edit] The Late Late Show

In December 2004, it was announced that Ferguson would be the successor to Craig Kilborn on CBS's The Late Late Show. His first show as the regular host aired on 3 January 2005. By May 2008, Ben Alba, an American television historian and an authority on U.S. talk shows, said Ferguson "has already made his mark, taking the TV monologue to new levels with an underlying story. But he is only just starting ... He is making up his own rules: It's the immigrant experience."^[18]

The Late Late Show averaged 2.0 million viewers in its 2007 season, compared with 2.5 million for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.^[20] In April 2008, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson beat Late Night with Conan O'Brien for weekly ratings (1.88 million to 1.77 million) for the first time since the two shows went head-to-head with their respective hosts.^[21]

By the end of 2009, Craig Ferguson topped Jimmy Fallon in the ratings with Ferguson getting a 1.8 rating/6 share and Fallon receiving a 1.6 rating/6 share.^[22]

Ferguson's success on the show has led at least one "television insider" to say he is the heir apparent to take over David Letterman's role as host of The Late Show.^[18]

Television and appearances[link]

Craig Ferguson has made guest appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Rachael Ray, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Howard Stern Show, The Daily Show, The View, Loveline, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Soup, The Talk and The Dennis Miller Show. He also co-hosted Live with Regis & Kelly with Kelly Ripa.

On 4 January 2009 Ferguson was a celebrity player on Million Dollar Password.

Ferguson in April 2008

In 2009, Ferguson made a cameo live-action appearance in the episode "We Love You, Conrad" on Family Guy. Ferguson hosted the 32nd annual People's Choice Awards on 10 January 2006.^[23] TV Guide magazine printed a "Cheers" (Cheers and Jeers section) for appearing on his own show that same evening.^{[citation needed]} From 2007 to 2010, Ferguson hosted the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on 4 July, broadcast nationally by CBS. Ferguson was the featured entertainer at the 26 April 2008 White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, DC.^[24]

Ferguson co-presented the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama with Brooke Shields in 2008. He has done voice work in cartoons, including being the voice of Barry's evil alter-ego in the "With Friends Like Steve's" episode of American Dad; in Freakazoid! as Roddy MacStew, Freakazoid's mentor; and on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command as the robot vampire NOS-4-A2. Most recently, he was the voice of Susan the boil on Futurama, which was a parody of Scottish singer Susan Boyle. He makes stand-up appearances in Las Vegas and New York City. He headlined in the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal and in October 2008 Ferguson taped his stand up show in Boston for a Comedy Central special entitled A Wee Bit o' Revolution, which aired on 22 March 2009.

British television comedy drama Doc Martin was based on a character from Ferguson's film Saving Grace – with Ferguson getting writing credits for 12 episodes.^[25] On 6 November 2009 Ferguson appeared as himself in a SpongeBob SquarePants special titled SpongeBob's Truth or Square.^[26] He hosted Discovery Channel's 23rd season of Shark Week in 2010. Ferguson briefly appeared in Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup" music video released on 10 October 2011. ^[27]

Literature[link]

Ferguson's novel Between the Bridge and the River was published on 10 April 2006. Ferguson appeared at the Los Angeles Festival of Books, as well as other author literary events. "This book could scare them", Ferguson said. "The sex, the violence, the dream sequences and the iconoclasm. I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with that. I understand that. It was very uncomfortable to write some of it."^[28] Publishers Weekly called it "a tour de force of cynical humor and poignant reverie, a caustic yet ebullient picaresque that approaches the sacred by way of the profane."^{[citation needed]} His novel Between the Bridge and the River is dedicated to his son and to his grandfather, Adam. Ferguson revealed in an interview that he is writing a sequel to the book, to be titled "The Sphynx of the Mississippi".^[29] He also stated in a 2006 interview with David Letterman that he intends for the book to be the first in a trilogy.^[30]

Ferguson signed a deal with HarperCollins to publish his memoirs.^[31] The book, entitled American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot, focuses on "how and why [he] became an American" and covers his years as a punk rocker, dancer, bouncer and construction worker as well as the rise of his career in Hollywood as an actor and comic. It went on sale 22 September 2009 in the United States.^[32][33] On 1 December 2010 the audiobook version was nominated for a Best Spoken Word Album Grammy.^[34]

In July 2009, Jackie Collins was a guest on The Late Late Show to promote her new book Married Lovers. Collins said that a character in her book, Don Verona, was based on Ferguson because she was such a fan of him and his show.^[35]

Personal life[link]

As mentioned on The Late Late Show on 3 August 2009, Ferguson holds an FAA Private Pilot's License issued 31 July 2009.^[36] Ferguson announced on the 8 April 2011 broadcast that he is pursuing an instrument rating.

Ferguson is a fan of Scottish football team Partick Thistle F.C.^[12] as well as the British television show Doctor Who. He has three tattoos: his latest, the Join, or Die political cartoon on his right forearm;^[37][38] a Ferguson family crest with the Latin motto Dulcius ex asperis ("Sweeter out of [or from] difficulty") on his upper right arm in honour of his father;^[39] and the Ingram family crest on his upper left arm in honour of his mother. He has often stated that his Join, or Die tattoo is to signal his patriotism.^[37]

Family[link]

In an episode of The Late Late Show that aired 8 December 2008, a somber Ferguson talked about his mother, Janet (3 August 1933 – 1 December 2008). He ended the program by playing her favourite song, "Rivers of Babylon" by Boney M.^[40]

Ferguson has two sisters (one older and one younger) and one older brother.^[41] His elder sister's name is Janice and his brother's name is Scott. His younger sister, Lynn Ferguson Tweddle, is also a successful comedienne, presenter, and actress, perhaps most widely known as the voice of Mac in the 2000 stop-motion animation film Chicken Run. She is currently a writer on The Late Late Show.

Ferguson has married three times and divorced twice as a result of what he describes as "relationship issues". His first marriage was to Anne Hogarth from 1983 to 1986, during which time they lived in New York. From his second marriage (to Sascha Corwin, founder and proprietor of Los Angeles' SpySchool), he has one son, Milo Hamish Ferguson, born in 2001. He and Corwin share custody of Milo, and live near each other in Los Angeles. On 21 December 2008, Ferguson married art dealer Megan Wallace-Cunningham in a private ceremony on her family's farm in Chester, Vermont.^[42] Ferguson announced 14 July 2010 on Twitter that they were expecting a child. He wrote: "Holy crackers! Mrs F is pregnant. How did that happen? ... oh yeah I know how. Another Ferguson arrives in 2011. The world trembles."^[43] The child, a boy named Liam James, was born 31 January 2011.^[44]

Alcoholism[link]

A recovering alcoholic, Ferguson has been sober since 18 February 1992.^[45] Because of this, he declared he wouldn't mock Britney Spears' much-publicized alcohol problems in 2007.^[46] He said he had considered committing suicide on Christmas Day 1991, but when offered a drink by a friend for celebrating the holiday, he was distracted from jumping off Tower Bridge in London as he had planned.^[3]

Citizenship[link]

Holding dual citizenship, Ferguson is both a naturalized citizen of the United States and a British citizen.

During 2007, Ferguson, who at the time held only British citizenship, used The Late Late Show as a forum for seeking honorary citizenship from every state in the U.S. He has received honorary citizenship from Nebraska, Arkansas, Virginia, Montana, North Dakota, New Jersey, Tennessee, South Carolina, South Dakota, Nevada, Alaska, Texas, Wyoming, Pennsylvania and Indiana, and was "commissioned" as an admiral in the tongue-in-cheek Nebraska Navy.^[47] Governors Jon Corzine (New Jersey), John Hoeven (North Dakota), Mark Sanford (South Carolina), Mike Rounds (South Dakota), Rick Perry (Texas), Sarah Palin (Alaska) and Jim Gibbons (Nevada) sent letters to him that made him an honorary citizen of their respective states. He received similar honors from various towns and cities, including Ozark, Arkansas; Hazard, Kentucky; and Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

Ferguson became an American citizen on 1 February 2008^[2] and broadcast the taking of his citizenship test as well as his swearing in on The Late Late Show.

Filmography[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Between the Bridge and the River. Chronicle Books. 2006. ISBN 978-0-8118-5375-0. 
• American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot. HarperCollins. 2009. ISBN 978-0-06-171954-7. 

Comedy specials[link]

• A Wee Bit o' Revolution. Comedy Central. 2009.
• Does This Need to Be Said? EPIX, Comedy Central. 2011.

Discography[link]

• Live At The Tron (as Bing Hitler). Jammy Records. 1986. Catalogue number JRLP 861.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Craig Ferguson

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Craig Ferguson

• Craig Ferguson at the Internet Movie Database
• Craig Ferguson on Twitter
• Craig Ferguson Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
• Craig Ferguson and Megan Wallace Cunningham
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Jordan Brady is an American director. He wrote and directed the feature film Dill Scallion, and directed the films Confessions of an American Girl, Waking Up in Reno and The Third Wheel.

Jordan Brady was also a stand-up comic in the 1980s. He was also one of the original members of Richmond's Comedy Underground, an improv group that was started in the early 80s and was the originator of the line, "Bow Chicka Bow Wow!".^[1] A marine style clean cut young man, his fresh and unique material ranged from impressions of G.I. Joe to re-enactments of entire porn film soundtracks.

His most recent film is the documentary on the art and occupational hazards of stand-up comedy entitled I Am Comic.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jordan Brady at the Internet Movie Database
• Jordan Brady at AllRovi
• [1]
• Podcast interview Part I
• Podcast interview Part II

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