Althouse: Goodbye to Tom Snyder.

July 30, 2007

Goodbye to Tom Snyder.

Dead at age 71.

17 comments:

Bruce Hayden said...: I do remember Snyder with some fondness. I think though that the most memorable interview I can remember was of battered husbands. I was lucky enough to see it when it first aired. It later became somewhat famous when it was parodied on SNL.; 7/30/07, 6:02 PM
DirkDiggler said...: How weird I thought he had already died.

Where have he been the last 20 years?; 7/30/07, 6:22 PM
Ruth Anne Adams said...: One insomniac night, I got through his call screener and was allowed to say hello to him and ask a question of his interviewee, Tom Selleck.; 7/30/07, 6:23 PM
DirkDiggler said...: By the way I absolutely love the music in the background of this clip.

Relight My Fire-the ultimate 70's disco song.; 7/30/07, 6:24 PM
DKWalser said...: He was a master of serious, in depth, reflective, interviews. It's too bad there seems little room for that on TV anymore. Today's hosts seem to be in competition with their guests. (Leno competes with is guests for laughs, as if he were afraid the guest will be considered funnier than Leno. O'Riely argues with is guests rather than interviewing them.) Snyder allowed his guests' intelligence and humanity (or lack thereof) to show through.; 7/30/07, 6:28 PM
Karl said...: Stereogum rounds up the videosof his greatest rock moments.; 7/30/07, 6:29 PM
Bissage said...: You know, it’s funny the things we remember -- brain cells locked up forever, never to be used for profit or gain. Such is the cost of our whimsy.

Anyway, it was many years ago and I was up late on a Saturday night because I was babysitting the kids next door. There was nothing interesting on TV so I watched Tom Snyder.

He was interviewing porn actors, if you can believe that. I still remember him asking the woman (who described herself as too “zaftig” for legitimate movies) whether there was anything she wouldn’t do.

She was shocked.

She said, “Excuse me?”

Tom Snyder said, “You know, is there anything you wouldn’t do?

IIRC, there was a male porn actor, as well, who intervened by distracting Snyder away from the question.

And now it makes me wonder.

At the tender age of twelve, or so, did I bear witness to a great moment in history? Did I bear witness to the birth of infotainment?; 7/30/07, 6:42 PM
Modern Otter said...: Maybe Larry King's show is as close stylistically to Snyder's as anything today. But if so, the quality gap between their interviews only underlines how the art of interviewing has sunk. Snyder usually got good stuff and, as I recall, had a wide range of guests.

I have no idea why, but one of his interviews that sticks out in my mind was with a very superannuated Gloria Swanson--talking about the evils of refined sugar.; 7/30/07, 7:13 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: That was awesome. Everybody's so young! The Egyptians once thought to speak a person's name keeps them alive. The converse was thought true. I told myself a long time ago to never watch the one whose name must not be uttered, C.M. again. Because California failed to kill him, he lives still. It's up to me to erase him by not speaking of [it]. Hate it! When it's sprung on me. Nevertheless, even with that blotch, the video is great. Thank you for linking it. Someone on SNL, Dan Ackroyd possibly, did an hilarious take on Snyder.; 7/30/07, 7:27 PM
Eli Blake said...: (for lack of anyplace else to post this):

This week's Washington GOP scandal

Right on schedule.

One thing about the U.S. Attorney scandal: If it was true that Alberto Gonzales was calling off the attack dogs who were investigating corruption in Congress, he isn't holding them back now.; 7/30/07, 7:28 PM
reader_iam said...: Snyder bears some responsibility for helping to turn me into a night owl at a tender age, from which affliction I have never emerged, struggle though I might.

But I forgive him. Good times.

R.I.P.; 7/30/07, 7:58 PM
Susan said...: I always liked Tom's interviews with frequent guest Nancy Friday, pitting a strong, opinionated woman who wrote several books on sexuality against a somewhat embarrassed and overwhelmed Snyder.; 7/30/07, 8:19 PM
David53 said...: Mr. Snyder, with a cigarette in hand...

When I learned he died the first thing I thought was "lung cancer."

Because that's how I remember him, cigarette in hand.; 7/30/07, 8:58 PM
Zeb Quinn said...: How weird I thought he had already died.

Where have he been the last 20 years?

He had a show on CNBC in the early to mid 90s. After that he got sick. He'd been sick and getting steadily sicker for some time, and really wasn't too public during that time.; 7/30/07, 10:34 PM
TMink said...: I saw so many interesting and offbeat people on his show that were not common knowledge in Chattanooga.

I lost a bit of sleep, but it sure was interesting. And he was good at what he did, he would go soft on interesting people and slam the pompous.

God speed.

Trey; 7/30/07, 11:15 PM
J. Cricket said...: "Prickly" and "ego-driven." That's how he was described this morning in a story.

Geez, Annie, were you two separated at birth? No wonder you feel so strongly about him!

I am shedding faux tears right now, in honor of both of you.

Boo-hoo.; 7/31/07, 8:08 AM
Mike Ballburn said...: I remember seeing Wendy O Williams blow up a car on his show. Tom seemed kind of stunned.; 7/31/07, 11:48 AM