Good morning from sweltering Washington DC.
If you haven't bookmarked it already, which you should, hit www.washingtonpost.com
Read Tom Shales' piece on the passing of television talk giant Tom Snyder.
Shales writes-about-television as well as as the Post's gifted Thomas Boswell writes-about-baseball.
You want to clip-out the columns and save 'em somewhere.
Shales quoted Snyder's executive producer Peter Lassally, who worked with greats like Johnny Carson and David Letterman:
"Tom did what a true broadcaster can do: He made the camera disappear and talke directly to the viewer, and it was just 'conversation.'"
This is THE OPPOSITE OF Rush Limbaugh saying "you people."
Or self-centered local blowhards who feel important talking to their producer on-air.
See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXnCpz5DdCQ
If the-show-after-Johnny was after-your-bedtime in the 70s, poke-around YouTube for clips from a rich archive.
His Howard Stern interview was electric.
He got John Lennon to open-up like few other interviewers.
Charles Manson!
What was YOUR most memorable Tomorrow Show?
If you watched it, you can quote one.
The Ron Burgundy-style helmet-shaped haircut, the smoldering cigarette, the unguarded staccato "HA-HA-HA-HA" laugh.
THIS was appointment television, before VCRs.
I'd get home from playing "Rock The Boat" and "Moonlight Feels Right" 7-midnight on WPRO-AM ("Pro" at the time), and sit rapt in my Waterman Street walk-up as he brought ME into the conversation. Imagine being able to do THAT on the radio.
Gary DeGraide still tells the story of me-egging-him-on to send Snyder a Western Union Mailgram -- I THINK about Sonny & Cher not-breaking-up or breaking-up, or somehow contradicting published reports -- and Snyder read it on the air at the top of his show.
Shales rightfully called Snyder part of "a vanishing breed, especially as narrowcasting replaces broadcasting, 'online' replaces 'on the air,' and any Tom, Dick, or Mary can be a monarch of a desktop domain."
At the beginning of the show, Tom Snyder would invite you to "fire up a colortini and watch the pictures fly through the air." At the end, he'd not-always-smile, look you right in the eye, and say good night "from all of us on the late, late shift here in New York."
I met Snyder at a convention when he was doing a late-night show on ABC Radio in the 80s, and told him "I must've seen most of those Tomorrow Shows." He did That Laugh, then deadpanned, "you really should get out more." "Get out?" I replied; "I was just getting home!"
Imagine how big The Tomorrow Show would be in the TiVo era.
With NO home timeshifting, it still managed to air at 1AM and be topic du jour the next day.
HC
www.HollandCooke.com
If you haven't bookmarked it already, which you should, hit www.washingtonpost.com
Read Tom Shales' piece on the passing of television talk giant Tom Snyder.
Shales writes-about-television as well as as the Post's gifted Thomas Boswell writes-about-baseball.
You want to clip-out the columns and save 'em somewhere.
Shales quoted Snyder's executive producer Peter Lassally, who worked with greats like Johnny Carson and David Letterman:
"Tom did what a true broadcaster can do: He made the camera disappear and talke directly to the viewer, and it was just 'conversation.'"
This is THE OPPOSITE OF Rush Limbaugh saying "you people."
Or self-centered local blowhards who feel important talking to their producer on-air.
See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXnCpz5DdCQ
If the-show-after-Johnny was after-your-bedtime in the 70s, poke-around YouTube for clips from a rich archive.
His Howard Stern interview was electric.
He got John Lennon to open-up like few other interviewers.
Charles Manson!
What was YOUR most memorable Tomorrow Show?
If you watched it, you can quote one.
The Ron Burgundy-style helmet-shaped haircut, the smoldering cigarette, the unguarded staccato "HA-HA-HA-HA" laugh.
THIS was appointment television, before VCRs.
I'd get home from playing "Rock The Boat" and "Moonlight Feels Right" 7-midnight on WPRO-AM ("Pro" at the time), and sit rapt in my Waterman Street walk-up as he brought ME into the conversation. Imagine being able to do THAT on the radio.
Gary DeGraide still tells the story of me-egging-him-on to send Snyder a Western Union Mailgram -- I THINK about Sonny & Cher not-breaking-up or breaking-up, or somehow contradicting published reports -- and Snyder read it on the air at the top of his show.
Shales rightfully called Snyder part of "a vanishing breed, especially as narrowcasting replaces broadcasting, 'online' replaces 'on the air,' and any Tom, Dick, or Mary can be a monarch of a desktop domain."
At the beginning of the show, Tom Snyder would invite you to "fire up a colortini and watch the pictures fly through the air." At the end, he'd not-always-smile, look you right in the eye, and say good night "from all of us on the late, late shift here in New York."
I met Snyder at a convention when he was doing a late-night show on ABC Radio in the 80s, and told him "I must've seen most of those Tomorrow Shows." He did That Laugh, then deadpanned, "you really should get out more." "Get out?" I replied; "I was just getting home!"
Imagine how big The Tomorrow Show would be in the TiVo era.
With NO home timeshifting, it still managed to air at 1AM and be topic du jour the next day.
HC
www.HollandCooke.com
