I'm a fan, but his stuff is salacious for the era he was in and doesn't really hold up that well. Saying the word faggot and hating on women is mainstream culture these days.
Sam would bring in some great guest after they were out all night partying. There were some good stories.
He would be in the seen in the same light as Dice Clay. Just a gimmick that didn't age well. He would be completely irrelevant today.
Sam would have sold out like Howard. In fact, he was starting to sell out prior to his death to get mainstream roles as his career started to wane. Either way, he would likely be a Gilbert level comedian at this point and Howard would never have him on.
Sam Kinison was originally slated to play the part of The Ghost of Christmas Past in Scrooged. The part eventually went to David Johansen due to his friendship with Bill Murray. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/trivia?item=tr0670048
His first appearance on Letterman still holds up well-He killed and towards the end you can see Letterman laughing his ass off into the monitor.
1000X funnier than any comedian working today. I was lucky enough to see Sam 3 times. The first time I saw him live, I literally fell out of my chair laughing. I don't think I have ever laughed as hard in my entire life, before, or since. Sam was one of those people who had to burn out. He couldn't have stayed so good forever. Toward the end, his material was starting to slip. Sobriety didn't agree with him. He also wasn't a very good person IRL. Rust never sleeps. That morning he was killed, I truly felt like I had lost a close friend. It's how others felt hearing of the death of John Lennon, or Elvis. Like a hollow, empty feeling that the world will never be the same again. It won't.
Its trendy to crack on dice but the truth is he is still one of the most succesful standups, had big appearances on entourage, and got a lot of critical acclaim for his role in blue jasmine. Hes not selling out the garden anymore but he never sold out to the mainstream and stayed true to his base. The same thing people hate on the pelican for not doing. Dice has enough money and his last showtime special was actually pretty good. I'd take that over howard's shitting on his own legacy. Kinison would not have sold out. He had 2 possible paths in life, one was to self destruct. If he would have lived he would have eventually been overtaken by his religious upbringing, cleaned up and gone back to preaching and living a low profile life with his brother.
I wonder (had he lived), would Sam have been offered the Jackie chair? I guess the end result would have been the same. Instead of Artie, it would have been Sam who tried the drugged out suicide attempt...or maybe -- a murder suicide where he'd take out Howard & Robin on the air before offing himself. Would have been great radio.
