Many of those same people have also grown to dislike Gary Dell'Abate, the executive producer of the show. For years Gary was known as the dim-witted loser 'boy Gary', who was the frequent target of Stern's barbs, but he has evolved into a dim-witted pompous fool who seems to think of himself as superior to the peasants who faithfully listened to the show for years.
It is sickening to hear Gary respond to a caller who dares to question whether Howard 'hit it out of the park' with another interview of [fill in the blank: Mike Tyson, Whitney Cummings, Seth Rogen, Matt Lauer, etc.] by condescendingly asking the person "what do you do for a living?"
Gary certainly has a lofty opinion about himself now that he is an esteemed member of the Greenwich CT community. It's a good thing embarrassing moments like his live read for The Erotic Review weren't presented in connection with his appointment to the Greenwich Parks and Recreation Board.
Gary has provided many memorable moments over the years (many of them unintentional) - here are some things to remember about Gary, who may get knocked off of his high horse once grandpa Stern officially retires from radio to spend all of his time doodling and taking pictures of kittens while wearing a John Varvatos scarf.
Don't Be Fooled by the Title
Although his lofty title of "Executive Producer" sounds impressive, Gary isn't very bright, and the key to staying in good graces at the Stern show seems to be the ability to suck up to the boss (and hire Don Buchwald as your agent, as Fred, Gary and Robin have all done).
One time genius Gary argued with fellow Mensa member Yucko the Clown after Yucko pointed out that Gary had misspelled "vicious" as "viscous".
The technical aspects of Gary's job don't seem too difficult. He waits for guests to call and book themselves, shoots the breeze with his buddy Ross Zapin, plays trivia games on the Sporcle website and talks to Howard for a few minutes when they take a commercial break to promote the Squatty Potty or other fourth tier sponsor.
Gary has been busted falling asleep on the job and although he sometimes rocks a sport jacket in order to pretend that he's important, he was stuck with the menial task of cleaning up cat litter after Beth Stern's kitten hour segment on her shock jock husband's radio show.
Uncoordinated Oaf
Gary and Jon Hein (his bloated co-host of the Wrap-Up Show) seem to think of themselves as sports experts because they spend a lot of time watching sports on television. Gary also fancies himself an athlete and once busted the balls of a backroom staffer who didn't know how to throw a ball properly in Gary's expert opinion.
Of course Gary later embarrassed himself by throwing an infamous first pitch at a Met game after spending lots of time preparing for the special moment.
Gary tried to play it off as a fluke but his utter lack of athletic ability was revealed when he made an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show while promoting his horrid book "They Call Me Baba Booey". Jimmy gave Gary a chance to redeem himself by throwing a proper first pitch but nonathletic Gary nearly injured audience members with more wild throws. Robin Quivers was able to easily throw the ball better than Gary when she appeared on Kimmel's show.
Gadget Gary
Some genius at the Don Buchwald Agency must have decided that it would be a good idea to try to promote Gary as a tech expert a few years back. Do you know a teenager who has used a smartphone and/or set up a home stereo? This person has as much (or more) tech expertise as Gary.
Someone should have known there was a problem when Gary went on a TV show in 2010 to give his opinion on Apple's release of the iPad and the fool predicted that it would be a "bit of a stumble" for Apple.
In 2012, old Gadget Gary was back showing off his tech ignorance at the San Diego Comic Con during an appearance on a panel with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Fun parts of the video below are at 7:30 (Gary doesn't know what the term "vaporware" means) and at 11:30, in which he shares his insights on "thumbnail" drives made by Kingston.
Starstruck
Gary seems to relish the chance to meet and interact with celebrities of any sort, and is always available to work on the celebrity super fan round table show whenever this great content airs on the Stern channels. He also drops show biz terms like "go dark" or "on hiatus" to show the few remaining Stern show listeners that he's a regular Hollywood insider.
Gary also managed to finagle a trip to the White House correspondents dinner in 2014 which gave him more chances to meet famous people like Diane Sawyer.
Gary claimed that it was necessary to go there to "network" with people for the show, but as of this date, it doesn't seem like the trip has generated any results for the Stern show, which continues to trot out tired guests like Whitney Cummings, Mike Tyson and William Shatner after Gary's alleged DC networking.
Gary better enjoy the big bucks he's making from the Stern show now, as I don't think he'll be able to earn the same amount of money once Howard calls it a day. Terrestrial radio stations don't pay that kind of dough and having Tan Mom and David Arquette on speed dial won't be opening doors for him on TV shows. In 2014, any name guests that come on the Stern show are making the rounds to pretty much every other show in NYC, so Gary doesn't have any special connections due to the rare appearance of a relevant guest.
Lest anyone forget that Gary's "star power" led to his ill-fated For What It's Worth TV show pulling an infamous 0.0 viewer number in 2013 and he and the gang didn't exactly pack the house at the San Diego Comic Con earlier this year.
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