“Please Welcome, Sam Kinison”
Kinison got his break in 1984 on an HBO Rodney Dangerfield special. But it was really his performance on Late Night With David Letterman the year after that that really put him in the public eye.
Source: MGM
It was mostly thanks to Letterman’s introduction: “Brace yourselves. I’m not kidding. Please welcome Sam Kinison.” His film debut was in 1986, in Dangerfield’s movie, Back to School, playing a hot-headed professor. It was a fitting part, but acting wasn’t the right career for Kinison. He was a bit too weird-looking and a little too unpredictable.