George Carlin
The man who made a billion laugh
A timeline featuring the life of George Carlin:
- 1937 - Born in New York, NY on May 12th.
- 1954 - Enlists in the U.S. Air Force. Works in Shreveport, LA as an off-base disk jockey.
- 1957 - Discharged from the U.S. Air Force. Starts work at Radio Station WEZE in Boston, MA as an announcer. Then moves to Fort Worth, TX and works with Jack Burns while being a disk jockey at a radio station.
- 1960 - Moves to Hollywood, CA with Jack Burns and works as a comedy duo "Burns and Carlin." First appearance on "The Tonight Show" with "Burns and Carlin."
- 1962 - First solo appearance on "The Tonight Show."
- 1965 - The first of 29 appearances on "The Merv Griffin Show."
- 1967 - First comedy album, "Take-Offs and Put-Ons," is released to rave reviews.
- 1970 - Carlin reinvents himself, ditching the suit and tie, then emerges with long hair and jeans.
- 1972 - Releases Grammy Award winning album "AM and FM." "AM" included older, cleaner material. "FM" included newer, more rambunctious routines. Carlin also released his third album "Class Clown." The "Seven Dirty Words" monologue would become part of his "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television."
- 1975 - Hosts first episode of NBC's "Saturday Night Live."
- 1977 - The first of 14 HBO specials is aired.
- 1987 - Honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 1997 - The first of 3 books is written containing expansions on his comedy routines.
- 2008 - George Denis Patrick Carlin dies at the age of 71. He is posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. His autobiography, "Last Words," is published.
- 2014 - The city block where he grew up is renamed "George Carlin Way," in his honor.
"For all his antiestablishment cred, he was a working man. He punched in. He sat down and he wrote"