The madman behind CNBC's 'Mad Money'

updated 5:53 p.m. ET July 5, 2005

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. - The main difference between Jim Cramer off the air and Jim Cramer on the air is the chair. He actually sits in one — but just barely.

The hyperactive host of CNBC's "Mad Money" scooches forward, then leans back. He props his feet up on the office waste basket, then shifts again and tucks a foot beneath his thigh.

It's this kind of non-stop energy that makes his show so different from the other programming on the channel, and has earned him the coveted 9 p.m. time slot once occupied by Dennis Miller, whose political talk show was canceled in May.

(CNBC content is distributed by MSNBC.)

Pacing around the set at CNBC's New Jersey headquarters, Cramer screams and points at the camera, throwing his arms in the air with his shirtsleeves rolled up. As the former hedge fund manager takes calls and gives investment advice, he resembles a cross between a pro wrestler and an air traffic controller. With the press of a button on his sound board, out comes the Hallelujah chorus, or the noise of a bear roaring or a bull snorting (with accompanying bear and bull graphics that fly across the screen). The camera roves almost constantly, adding to the fast pace.

"Other people want to make friends," he said during a recent episode, with a smile and an impish twinkle in his eye. "I just want to make money."

But at 50 and balding, Cramer has become an unlikely sex symbol. Women routinely call in and gush about how much they love him, what a cutie they think he is, how they can't get enough of his show. (The married father of two daughters, who lives with his family in Summit, N.J., seems genuinely embarrassed by such attention.)

"I think that the current way of doing it — you have a fund manager come on, he talks — it's not working. And I know that if you aren't educating and entertaining, it's not working. And I know that we can wait forever for the market to come back, but that's not a plan of action. And I think you have to reinvent," Cramer told The Associated Press.

"My attempt to reinvent it is to do it in a way that gets people interested in their money, makes them feel that they are better investors, better traders, more thoughtful people about their money. And that doesn't go out of style. I think that's the key."

No stranger to television — he previously shared the screen with Larry Kudlow on CNBC's "Kudlow & Cramer" — Cramer said he had an idea for a new series, which he brought to NBC Universal Television group President Jeff Zucker.

"I said, `Look, I want to do this show and it's never been done before. I don't know if anybody's ever seen it. I don't even know if I can describe it — I think I just have to do it. I think you just have to let me do it.' I said, `It will take a trait that I have, a manic trait, and turn it into a positive. And you've got to let me try it.' And he said, `You know, be my guest, we'll see what it's like.'"

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