[8][9] In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked her sixth on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time,[10] and in October the same year, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

[26][27] Before entering show business, Rivers worked at various jobs such as a tour guide at Rockefeller Center,[28] a writer/proofreader at an advertising agency[29] and a fashion consultant at Bond Clothing Stores.

That was the end of Jim, Jake & Joan..."[36] Rivers also made a guest appearance on The Tonight Show, hosted by Jack Paar,[37] which originated in New York.

Rivers made her Broadway debut in the play Fun City, which opened on January 2, 1972, and co-starred Gabriel Dell, Rose Marie and Paul Ford.

[48] Janet Maslin of The New York Times concluded: "Miss Rivers has turned to directing without paying much heed to whether a whole movie constructed from one-liners is worth even the sum of its parts.

"[49] During the same decade, she was the opening act for singers Helen Reddy, Robert Goulet, Paul Anka, Mac Davis, and Sergio Franchi on the Las Vegas Strip.

The year 1983, in particular, was very successful; she performed at Carnegie Hall in February,[51] did the March stand-up special An Audience with Joan Rivers, hosted the April 9 episode of Saturday Night Live, and released the best-selling comedy album What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most?, which reached No.

[55] In 1984, Rivers published a best-selling humor book, The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abramowitz, a mock memoir of her brassy, loose comedy character, which was mostly jokes about promiscuity – of a type that would have been considered unacceptable even in burlesque a generation earlier.

A television special based on the character, a mock tribute called Joan Rivers and Friends Salute Heidi Abramowitz: Tramp of the Century, later aired on Showtime.

In fact, Bert Hacker was a pseudonym used by former Nixon speechwriter and sometime comic Ben Stein, who had never met Rivers and simply made up the entire account.

[63] During the airing of her late-night show, Rivers made the voice-over role of Dot Matrix in the science-fiction comedy Spaceballs (1987), a parody based (mainly) on Star Wars.

[65] Entertainment Weekly, in a September 1990 article, asserted: "The Joan Rivers Show is a better showcase for her funny edginess than her doomed 1988 Fox nighttime program was.

[78] Beginning in March 1997, Rivers hosted her own radio show on WOR in New York City for several years,[79] and wrote three self-help books: Bouncing Back: I've Survived Everything ... and I Mean Everything ... and You Can Too!

[82] Rivers was a guest speaker at the opening of the American Operating Room Nurses' San Francisco Conference in 2000, and by the first part of the decade, she continued to host the awards' red carpet for the E!

[83] The Telegraph felt that her "hilarious assaults on fellow celebrities and tirades about the perils of ageing and plastic surgery are well worth the expense",[84] while The Guardian remarked that "Rivers returned triumphant, a victorious heavyweight after a great fight, conscious that she is still the champion".

[86] Meanwhile, Rivers guest-starred as herself in several television series, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Nip/Tuck, and Boston Legal,[87][88][89] and also voiced herself for a brief scene in the 2004 animated fantasy film Shrek 2.

[91][92] On December 3, 2007, Rivers performed at the 79th Royal Variety Show at the Liverpool Empire Theatre, England, with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip present.

[96] After a falling out with poker player Annie Duke, following Melissa's on-air firing (elimination) by Donald Trump, Rivers left the green room telling Clint Black and Jesse James that she would not be in the next morning.

The New York Times remarked that there were "more punch lines per paragraph than any book I've read in years",[108] and Publishers Weekly felt that "Rivers is equally passionate and opinionated on every subject she discusses.

But May became her and fellow comedian Treva Silverman's role model, as Rivers saw her as "an assertive woman with a marvelous, fast mind and, at the same time, pretty and feminine".

"[144] As a philanthropist, Rivers supported causes which included HIV/AIDS activism,[12] and in May 1985, she appeared along with Nichols and May at a Comic Relief benefit for the new AIDS Medical Foundation in New York City, where tickets at the Shubert Theatre sold for as much as $500.

"[154][155] On August 28, 2014, Rivers experienced serious complications and stopped breathing while undergoing what was scheduled to be a minor throat procedure at an outpatient clinic in Yorkville, Manhattan.

Among those were the clinic's failure to respond to Rivers' deteriorating vital signs, including a severe drop in her blood pressure, possibly administering an incorrect anesthetic dosage, performing a surgical procedure without her consent, and other medical-clinic irregularities.

[161][162] On September 7, after the cremation of Rivers' body at Garden State Crematory in North Bergen, New Jersey,[163] a private memorial service took place at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.

[165] The guest list included Rivers' many celebrity friends and public figures such as Howard Stern, Louis C.K., Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Joy Behar, Michael Kors, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie O'Donnell, Bernadette Peters, Kathy Griffin, and Donald Trump.

[164] Talk show host Howard Stern, who delivered the eulogy, described Rivers as "brassy in public [and] classy in private ... a troublemaker, trail blazer, pioneer for comics everywhere, ... [who] fought the stereotypes that women can't be funny.

[177] Numerous talk show hosts, including David Muir, Graham Norton, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael, Wendy Williams, Geraldo Rivera, Regis Philbin, Arsenio Hall, Ellen DeGeneres, and David Letterman, paid tribute to Rivers, often including video clips of her appearances.

"[186] Amy Schumer, speaking at the 2014 Glamour magazine "Woman of the Year Awards" ceremony in Carnegie Hall, paid tribute to Rivers, calling her the bravest female comedian.

[76] As a female comic, Rivers felt indebted to, but also very distinct from, other female standups and comedians including Phyllis Diller (a close friend and companion), Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker,[193] Pearl Williams, Belle Barth,[193] Totie Fields, Jean Carroll, Minnie Pearl, Jackie "Moms" Mabley, Johnny Carson, Zsa Zsa Gabor,[194] Bob Newhart,[194] Woody Allen, Don Rickles, Imogene Coca, Elaine May, Carol Burnett, and Gracie Allen.

[198] Mainstream comedians and contemporaries who have claimed that Rivers was an influence on them include: Kathy Griffin, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho,[199] Whitney Cummings, Chris Hardwick, Joy Behar, Amy Schumer,[193] Whoopi Goldberg, Chelsea Handler,[200] Louis C.K., Roseanne Barr,[200] Greg Proops[201] and David Letterman.