His laugh was lampooned multiple times on SNL in their parodies of the Tomorrow show. I hope their love for his idiosyncratic honesty was their motivation.
@@david203 There's the old Oscar Wilde quote, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery..." I think it was used and worked on SNL because it was distinctive and infectious. Like Ed McMahon's laugh. Or the voice of Morgan Freeman or Christopher Walken.
It’s amazing how self-critical and dismissive letterman is today about his contribution to TV history and comedy. If you watch his recent interview with Jerry Seinfeld on netlfix it’s quite entertaining to see Jerry try to argue with him about Letterman’s influence. It’s like letterman lived and still lives in a bubble of his own feelings of complete worthlessness.
It's false modesty. It's a way of getting even more attention. Knowing how to take a compliment is a healthy thing. Carson, Snyder and most other knew how to do it.
@@waynemizer4912 Its absolutely not false, which indicates you have no familiarity with the typical comic mind. Self doubt, self loathing, cynicism and contempt are the driving forces for many comics
@@waynemizer4912 Not with Letterman it doesn't. Countless interviews with people that knew him at every stage of his career talked about his insecurity. Countless opportunities to get more attention, yet only used when attention has little meaning?
I inadvertently deleted a comment from "larrybudmelman," where he gave a link to a January 1990 radio interview Tom Snyder had with Dave to promote Late Night's 8th anniversary. Here's the link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Y2YrnhL8xQU.html My apologies, larrybudmelman! It wasn't intentional.
Me too. He had that way of just putting me at ease no matter how bad a day I had. Think of him often. Nice to know their are still others out there who can relate. Best of luck to you, and I mean it
My dad, also named Tom, was an artist who used to watch Tom Snyder every night in his studio. He made a baseball field and with 200 small sculptures of ceramic figures playing the game and sitting in the crowd, all laughing with the influence of Toms' facial expressions. What a kind soul Tom Snyder was. How lucky we were to have him on the air and on the radio for so may years. There was truly no one like him on television. I remember how thrilled my parents were with his return to television with Late Late Night in the mid 90's.
When Synder mentioned that his dad died "way too young" at 67 it made me feel sad because Tom himself was only 71 when he died. He deserved at least 15 more years to enjoy retirement and his grandchildren.
Tom's rumination on how his father had just barely gotten to celebrate his hard earned and well deserved accomplishment at age 67, right before he died, strikes the most powerful chord with me. My Dad died a few years ago, at age 66, only fifteen years from now for me, but he got to see and especially hear me make my way in the world. This is powerful stuff. Thank you so much for posting this...
I'm too young to have grown up with Tom... 1995... but by God this made me wish I had. What an endearing personality. Today's Late Night TV could take some lessons here.
@@richardwatson5437 Let’s be honest, the real reason he couldn’t talk about his book is because he didn’t know what was in it. He didn’t write one word of that. He owed his comedy career to Letterman and his writers, and his oddly endearing natural cluelessness.
@@chadjones8499 I remember Sitting at home as a Kid from the Age of 7 in 2007 Onward and Watching Dave on TV I was Gutted in 2015 that he had his Last Show But i have alot of memories of watching David the only 1 person that Could Top David as a Talk show Host Was Johnny Carson But apart from Carson Dave Was the best He was Just 👌👌👌 there'll never be another LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN and There'll never be another David Letterman
And the enormous respect that Dave had for Tom Snyder, and the debt that he knew he owed him for stealing his slot, through no fault of his own, but the caprice and greed of network is so profound, and frankly fascinating. Wow. This has so many layers...
Don Giller Thank you very much for finding, compiling, and posting these compilations. I feel like I grew up in the wrong era, but I have to keep reminding myself that any earlier in human history means I wouldn't have the opportunity to find these amazing clips.
@Don Giller: Thank you so much for putting this together and posting it. I can date the onset of my insomnia to Tom Snyder's debut on 'Tomorrow'. What I liked about Tom was that he was almost always present, that is, he really listened to his guests and kept asking questions to draw them out to enhance his understanding. And despite critics complaining about his ego, he was an excellent audience -- evidenced by his _genuine_ hearty laugh. Very different than the current host of 'Tonight'. Ahem.
Oh goodness, Tom was a force of nature. In the 90s, I taped his show religiously and almost always had a good laugh while learning something. Pure genius. The intelligence, grace, humor and ability to get at things no one else could was his specialty. If you 'got' Tom, you really GOT him. An amazing broadcaster.
@@robertsprouse9282 My favorite two things about Larry King are his face. - Tom Snyder A real quote from another Tom Snyder episode with a different guest. 😂
This is extreme comedy genius. Wow. I'm very, VERY impressed. This is a serious example of comedy royalty, rogue snark before it even had a chance to exist.
LAFOLLETTER of course he did. If anything, he admired and respected him so much, and felt so much guilt supplanting his slot, that he couldn't help but make these brilliant calls, on his own time, for free, and for the sheer joy of celebrating Tom and the world that he so humbly felt honored to be invited to be a part of. He had enormous respect for Johnny and Tom. I think he didn't even feel worthy to be a part of it, but he just wanted it so badly that it motivated him to be a part of the tradition.
Miss those days when Tom was on both radio and TV. I'd watch his TV show, then go to bed and then his radio show started and I'd listen and laugh in bed.
Snyder was always a genuinely decent bloke who appreciated the range of personalities he had the privilege of meeting and was not one to hold grudges like so many others in the business.
Thank you so much for your awe inspiring body of work here...have spent hours over the last week watching your stuff, but I think I might have laughed harder at this than any of the others.
Always bugged me when talk radio callers would begin a sentence with "Listen--" It's only a thing you'd hear on these type of programs. Dave sure knows how to impersonate a talk radio caller!
Pure loveliness of comedy. I miss Tom. And I miss those days of staying up for Dave and Tom and the Colorcast. And I miss the pictures flying through the air. Those days of broadcasting are gone.
I sure do miss Tom and his show....he was the best, and Dave and those prank calls...lol....very funny stuff. Thanks so much for posting these golden moments : )
More gold. There was also a prank call once where "Jerry" claimed to be a snack consultant. It was just as the whole consultant craze first started to take off.
I think that was CNBC. I know there was a call (maybe the same one) where at the end they changed the chyron to Dave Letterman. They finally outed him.
Something,in Mr. Snyder's(whom I, too, miss, terribly)demeanor, when he was greeting the caller, makes me believe he knew who "Elliott" was going to be. I love these!(and, haven't seen t.v., past 11.30 p.m., since Dave's retirement.)
Loved it when Freakazoid spoofed Tom talking with the Pope, who keeps trying to get a word in edgewise while Tom is off on a tangent talking with a caller. "Just a minute, Pontiff..." and then Tom vanishes, zapped by a villain's transporter. The Pope just puts his hands together, looks up and smiles.
Such great stuff - love Tom's laugh at 11:31 . Thanks for resurrecting memories of better times. Wonder how Tom's hair would be cut in 2018 - seems I only see those hairstyles in Congress these days.
Love it! Thanks for posting. And thanks to Dave for turning me on to Tom Snyder. It's unlikely I would've discovered him, had Dave not gotten him a show following his.
Had no idea Dave was moonlighting doing acting/character bits. Pretty funny stuff. I recognize some of these from his own show and used Tom's show to flesh them out I guess.
The NYU student film was called "King of the Z's." Its writers, Stephen Winer and Karl Tiedemann, went on to work for Late Night, and created Larry "Bud" Melman's recurring character: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0WKdrUJGTWg.html
These youngsters today don't even know who they are...They were a little before my time but I got turned onto them in the 70s via radio shows featuring nostalgia stuff, also Jean Sheperd
@@katiezee2 I heard their last national commercial radio work in the mornings on WSPD Toledo. Later on I would find out that my father wouldn't start his day in Manhattan in the early 50's without his dose of B&R on WINS radio. I caught up and caught everything I could.
You know, I never really understood Larry King's success. Unlike Tom, Dave, and others, I never found Larry to be a particularly likeable personality. Often, rather dislikeable, including at times during this interview. I guess I'm in the minority.
I think it's his voice, he was a radio guy for many years and his delivery is very matter-of-fact and engaging, I think that brings out the more interesting moments in his interviews. Incidentally, Tom and Larry were also good friends.
Why did Tom let Dave go so quickly in the very last segment with Larry King? He said "you're done" and Dave said "I'm not done yet" and Tom said, "Oh, yes you are." He hung up on his own boss!
It must have been all of dem fancy suspenders.. Norm MacDonald on SNL absolutely destroyed King’s blathering ennui= WHEN IT COMES TO WHAT MAKES A BREAKFAST SPECIAL, YOU CANNOT LEAVE OUT…. OATMEAL. That USA TODAY column he had was unintentionally HILARIOUS, too.. and the genius of NORM nailed it. R.I.P, to the funniest intentional comedian ever= NORM MAC..
