Dr. Drew Was the Host of ‘Loveline’? 8 Wild Things You Never Knew About the Doctor
Dr. Drew Pinsky is heading back to TV this summer as part of Fox’s new celebrity competition series Nation’s Dumbest, which premieres July 15. The show sends celebrities back to “summer school” for brain teasers and classroom-style games, but with a twist: Nobody wants to be left standing at the end with the title of the nation’s dumbest.
Long before that, Dr. Drew was the calm medical voice on Loveline, the late-night call-in show that made awkward questions about sex, dating, addiction, and health feel a little less awkward. But his career has stretched far beyond radio and MTV. Let’s find out some other interesting facts about his career.
Loveline started on the radio before it became an MTV staple
MTV/Everett Collection
Before Dr. Drew became a familiar face on MTV, Loveline was a radio show on Los Angeles station KROQ-FM, according to the Los Angeles Times. The show began airing in 1983, and Pinsky joined about a year later as the serious medical voice in a format that mixed comedy with advice and real health information. By the late ’90s, he and Adam Carolla were hosting both the radio and MTV versions.
Adam Carolla became his Loveline cohost after a last-minute shake-up
MTV/Everett Collection
The MTV version of Loveline almost looked very different. According to the Los Angeles Times, Riki Rachtman was originally expected to star in the TV show but backed out just eight days before the pilot was scheduled to be filmed. Pinsky recommended Adam Carolla, who was then known from KROQ’s Kevin and Bean morning show, and Carolla’s audition impressed the producers and KROQ management.
The MTV show got a huge number of calls
MTV/Everett Collection
Loveline had a serious pipeline of viewer questions. In 1997, the TV version received about 800 calls and 1,000 email messages each broadcast night. Since the show was taped, producers had to pick callers and arrange for them to be available when the episode was recorded.
He really is a doctor
MTV/Everett Collection
He graduated from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, completed a residency in internal medicine and became chief medical resident. He is also double board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Addiction Medicine.
He spent decades working in addiction medicine
VH1/Everett Collection
His work on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew came from a real medical background. Pinsky spent almost three decades practicing internal medicine at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, where he became the program medical director for chemical dependency services. His official bio says he served as program medical director there for 25 years.
He Wrote a Book About Celebrity Narcissism
Comedy Dynamics/Everett Collection
In 2009, Pinsky released The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism Is Seducing America, which looked at celebrity culture, reality TV and narcissism. Wired reported that the book grew out of a 2006 academic study Pinsky and co-author S. Mark Young published in the Journal of Research in Personality about celebrity psychology.
He was once the Eagle on The Masked Singer
Michael Becker/Fox/Everett Collection
Pinsky tried another kind of TV spotlight in 2019 when he competed on The Masked Singer as the Eagle. He performed Meat Loaf‘s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” and “These Boots Were Made for Walkin’,” but was eliminated early in the season. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said one reason he wanted to do the show was that people did not know he could sing opera.
He had a Sharknado cameo
Dr. Drew also has one of those credits that sounds made up. He appeared in Sharknado: The 4th Awakens as a pastor, joining a long list of celebrity cameos that also included Vince Neil, Wayne Newton, Patti Stanger, Stacey Dash and many, many more.
Did any of these fun facts surprise you? Let us know in the comments!
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TV's Top Doctors
March 2019
Is there a doctor in the house? These docs & nurses have a bad case of lovin' you!
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