Worldwide Pants Incorporated is an American television and film production company owned by comedian and talk show host David Letterman. Its ongoing productions are Late Show with David Letterman (since 1993) and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (since 2005). It has produced the Late Show since 1993, and The Late Late Show since 1995.
The company is headquartered at the Ed Sullivan Theater Building in New York City. The president and CEO is a former Late Show executive producer Rob Burnett. Peter Lassally (a former Tonight Show and Late Show executive producer) is the senior vice-president; he is also the current Late Late Show executive producer.
A predecessor company, Space Age Meats, produced Letterman's first television talk show, The David Letterman Show.
The first Worldwide Pants production was Late Night with David Letterman, produced in partnership with NBC and Carson Productions. The company, then known as Worldwide Pants Productions, shared a 1991 Peabody Award, saying the three production companies managed to "take one of TV's most conventional and least inventive forms — the talk show — and infuse it with freshness and imagination."
Everybody Loves Raymond is an American television sitcom, starring Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton. It originally ran on CBS from September 13, 1996 to May 16, 2005. Many of the situations from the show are based on the real-life experiences of Romano, creator/producer Phil Rosenthal and the show's writing staff. The main characters on the show are also loosely based on Romano's and Rosenthal's real-life family members.
The show reruns in syndication on different channels such as TBS, TV Land, and in most TV markets on local stations. From 2000 to 2007, KingWorld distributed the show for off-network syndication. In 2008, CBS Television Distribution took over King World's distribution, although its logo is retained on TBS. CBS only owns American syndication rights; ancillary rights are controlled by HBO and Warner Bros. Television (WBTV distributes the series outside the US in conjunction with HBO; while HBO Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video own DVD rights worldwide).
The show revolves around the life of Italian-American Raymond Barone, a newspaper sportswriter for Newsday living with his family in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York. Whiny and flippant, Raymond does not take many things seriously, making jokes in nearly every situation, no matter how troubling or problematic, and constantly avoiding any sort of real responsibility.
Larry King (born November 19, 1933) is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards. He began as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and 1960s and became prominent as an all-night national radio broadcaster starting in 1978. From 1985-2010, he hosted the nightly interview TV program Larry King Live on CNN.
King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York City, to an Austrian immigrant Edward Zeiger, a restaurant owner and defense plant worker, and his wife Jennie Gitlitz, a garment worker, who emigrated from Belarus. King grew up in a religiously observant Jewish home, but in adulthood became an agnostic.
King's father died at 44 of heart disease, and his mother had to go on welfare to support her two sons. His father's death greatly affected King, and he lost interest in school. After graduating from high school, he worked to help support his mother. From an early age, however, he had wanted to go into radio. King is a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Miranda May Kerr (born 20 April 1983) is an Australian model. Kerr rose to prominence in 2007 as one of the Victoria's Secret Angels. She is the first Australian to participate in the Victoria's Secret campaign and also represents Australian fashion chain David Jones.
Kerr began modeling in the fashion industry when she was 13, starting at Chaay's Modelling Agency, and soon after winning a 1997 Australian nationwide model search hosted by Dolly magazine and Impulse fragrances. She is married to English actor Orlando Bloom.
Kerr was born in Sydney and raised in the small town of Gunnedah, New South Wales. She is the daughter of Therese and John Kerr. She has a brother, Matthew, who is two years younger. In an interview, Kerr stated she is of English, French, and Scottish descent. During her childhood, Kerr "raced motorbikes and rode horses on her grandmother's farm." She describes her early life in the Australian countryside as "very grounding ... there wasn't any pretentiousness and no one really cared what you were wearing. You could just be you."
Craig Ferguson (born 17 May 1962) 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.
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.
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". 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. Ferguson attended Muirfield Primary School and Cumbernauld High School. 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.