John Melendez is best known for being on The Howard Stern Show from 1988 to 2004.
28 Facts About John Melendez
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John Melendez left the show to become the announcer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and worked on Leno's later shows.
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John Melendez grew up in Massapequa, New York on Long Island and attended Plainedge High School.
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John Melendez was born to a Puerto Rican father and a Danish mother.
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John Melendez attended Plainedge High School, where he was picked on by the neighborhood bullies because of his stuttering.
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Over time, John Melendez became known for segments in which he asked celebrities confrontational questions at red carpet events, functions, promotional appearances, and press conferences.
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John Melendez sported long hair and metal T-shirts, asking questions by reading them from a sheet of paper.
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John Melendez's interviews were characterized by punchline-free "joke" questions, such as asking actress Melanie Griffith how her father, Andy, was.
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The absurdity of the questions John Melendez asked was often amplified by the fact that he himself appeared to lack common pop culture knowledge and often did not even seem to know who the subjects of his interview were or why they were famous.
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John Melendez notably interviewed Gennifer Flowers, Ringo Starr, and the Dalai Lama.
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In 1994, John Melendez signed a record contract with Atlantic Records and released his self-titled album with a music video broadcast on MTV's Headbangers Ball.
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John Melendez has appeared on television in episodes of Wings, Baywatch Nights, and the 2003 United States version of the reality series I'm a Celebrity.
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John Melendez was the protagonist of some of the show's more outrageous moments.
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Benza's appearance, John Melendez got slapped in the face by Benza who did not appreciate the incessant lampooning of his failed late-night show, seeing John Melendez as the main culprit.
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John Melendez claimed that he turned down the offer because he could not get a private conversation with Stern to ask him about it.
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In parallel with his duties on the Stern show in the morning, John Melendez got a daily afternoon show on New York City's WXRK from noon to 1 pm called Out to Lunch, consisting mostly of taking musical requests by e-mail and playing them.
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In February 2004, the New York Post revealed that John Melendez had been offered the announcer position on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno while Stern's show was on vacation.
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John Melendez's offer, which was made without Stern's knowledge, prompted a rift between Stern and Leno.
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Also, in his latter years on the Stern show, John Melendez had become too recognizable for the type of celebrity interviews for which he became niche-famous.
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John Melendez debuted on The Tonight Show on March 29,2004, taking over for Edd Hall.
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In late September 2004, only six months after John Melendez joined the show, NBC announced that Leno would be succeeded by Conan O'Brien in 2009.
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In late July 2009, John Melendez was confirmed as a writer on upcoming The Jay Leno Show.
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In September 2009, John Melendez reunited with Leno and former Tonight bandleader Kevin Eubanks as a member of the writing staff on The Jay Leno Show.
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Just like previously on The Jay Leno Show, with the return of Leno's The Tonight Show in March 2010, John Melendez continued in the writing role.
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John Melendez did not return as an announcer on the second incarnation of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, but instead was employed as a staff writer and occasional on-air segment host until Leno's departure from The Tonight Show on February 6,2014.
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John Melendez ultimately received a call back from President Donald Trump as he was traveling on Air Force One.
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John Melendez then impersonated Senator Menendez and had a four-minute conversation focusing on immigration reform and the Supreme Court vacancy.
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On July 2,2018, John Melendez announced that he had retained lawyer Michael Avenatti to represent him in relation to the prank call after being visited by Secret Service agents over the previous weekend.