How Jimmy Kimmel Rose From Beer-Drinking Bozo To America’s Favorite Emcee
Jimmy Kimmel (left, look how little he is!) will host the Emmys on Sunday, Sept. 23. But how did this lovable goof come to be one the reigning kings of late night?
A few years after Mike and Karen Schilling moved onto Meadowlark Lane in 1977, their doorbell started ringing in the wee hours. Mike would usually wake to find a delivery man with pizza or Chinese food on the doorstep. Other times, an impatient cabbie stood waiting. Eventually, the local Chinese, pizza and taxi vendors all refused to send anyone to Meadowlark Lane.
Then there was the shrub Mike left on the curb for the garbage men to pick up. The next morning, he found the plant on his front step. Back to the curb he took it –- only to find it waiting for him again the next morning. The charade continued for weeks; Mike got so annoyed that he started sleeping on the couch in an effort to catch the culprit. But he never did.
Then, 30 years later, Schilling’s torturers confessed their crimes on national television. He was surprised to hear Cleto Esposedo III confess — Schilling had always pegged him as “an altar boy.” But the other guy had always been Schilling’s chief suspect. His name? Jimmy Kimmel.
