Article: 5055 of alt.zines Path: news.cic.net!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!zip.eecs.umich.edu!yeshua.marcam.com!news.kei.com!ddsw1!not-for-mail From: barnhart@MCS.COM (Aaron Barnhart) Newsgroups: alt.fan.letterman,alt.fan.conan-obrien,alt.tv.talkshows.late,alt.zines,rec.arts.tv,alt.fan.jay-leno Subject: LATE SHOW NEWS 8/16/94 Followup-To: alt.fan.letterman Date: 16 Aug 1994 01:24:41 -0500 Organization: The Colorcast Lines: 252 Message-ID: <32pm39$fs0@Mercury.mcs.com> Reply-To: late-show-news@mcs.net NNTP-Posting-Host: mercury.mcs.com Summary: Send the message "subscribe late-show-news" to listserv@mcs.net to join the LATE SHOW NEWS distribution list! Xref: news.cic.net alt.fan.letterman:30121 alt.fan.conan-obrien:2304 alt.tv.talkshows.late:1287 alt.zines:5055 rec.arts.tv:117593 alt.fan.jay-leno:45 >From Chicago: Try our famous potatoes ... it's --------------------------------------------- LATE SHOW NEWS for Tuesday, August 16, 1994 ** Happy TV Nation Day ** Issue #26 A weekly electronic sheet by Aaron Barnhart --------------------------------------------- THIS COULD BE THE START ... This issue marks six months of publishing LATE SHOW NEWS. In that time, more than three thousand of you have joined the mailing list, while literally countless others read the newsletter on Usenet, the WELL, and a handful of small BBSes. LATE SHOW NEWS is read at CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, the Washington Post, and even the public library in our hometown of Billings, Montana. More important, our readers have written back with praise, corrections, tips and information that have helped improve the quality of the newsletter and boost our confidence in publishing it. LATE SHOW NEWS will continue weekly publication for at least another six months, at which point a self-examination will likely be in order. We've expressed gratitude privately to many of you over the months, and at this milepost we'll say it to you all: thank you for reading this newsletter. "TOMORROW" AND TOMORROW "It's not like I want to get emotional about this, but I sometimes think to myself that any moment now the alarm clock's going to go off and this is going to be a very, very pleasant dream. I mean, when you think about the odds on this and the serendipity of this ... it's quite something. And it makes me happy." -- Tom Snyder Following last week's hilarious and sentimental press conference held at the Ed Sullivan Theater to announce the creation of _Late Late Show with Tom Snyder,_ we visited our local t.v. archives in an attempt to answer the question we heard raised several times that evening: What, if anything, will Tom Snyder do now that he has a program in the modern age of late-night television, with higher stakes and stiffer competition than he's ever known before? Will viewers really get to see the same T.S. they enjoy every night at present on CNBC? So we tromped down to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in downtown Chicago and ordered up a few of them _Tomorrow_ show reruns. We began, of course, with the broadcast that introduced Snyder to his latter-day patron Letterman, a May 25, 1978 program with "three rising young comedians": Dave, his girlfriend Merrill Markoe, and the star of that night's show, Billy Crystal. Billy had finished up his first season on the pathbreaking sitcom _Soap_ and already made several appearances on the _Tonight_ show. In fact, that night Tom asked him what it was like to be a guest on Johnny's program, and Billy said it was very important for a comedian to have "five shots ready" -- enough material to cover five Carson appearances, down cold -- before the first booking, because if you're good they'll ask you back in three or four weeks and you've gotta be ready with new stuff or Johnny will fade you out. If you've followed Letterman's career in the slightest, you probably know that this is exactly what Dave did in preparation for his first gig on _Tonight_ later that year; it's amazing what you can learn from talk shows. Crystal, then, is a talk-show whiz and is killing Tom with his little stories (unlike, conspicuously, Dave or Merrill). He has just made _Rabbit Test_ and, with it, begun his slow transition from t.v. into movies. Merrill, who gets short shrifted amidst this circle of guys, is asked what she'd like to do in the future and offers, almost sheepishly, "I want to have creative control over a television show." Dave ad libs the best line of the show as Billy is recounting a night on stage that a patron fired a gun, apparently at him. "Well, you're lucky," said Dave, "because some clubs have a two-shot minimum." In hindsight we see three people performing an admittedly awkward broadcast waltz with their interrogator, yet already flashing us signals of what pathways they would choose in the future. Then you look at Snyder and see the past, present and future all at once. First, you're struck by how '70s he looks, beginning with the sideburns. Everybody who used to have chops like that has since wised up and shaved them off (well, everybody except Neil Young). And the cigarettes! T.S. in his prime could hang a one-inch ash off a square, talent we're not likely to see revived on the _Late Late Show_ (he enjoys a fine cigar these days). Also, his lapel size has been trimmed and his voice has deepened. Yet the format, the thrust-and-parry of Snydertalk, and the host's weird sense of humor have endured. One night Tom, who was in the habit back then of simply opening the show talking to the camera without any introductories, had apparently confused Carnation Breakfast Bars with General Mills Breakfast Squares on the previous broadcast. The one had been recently recalled after pieces of wire were found in a sampling, but of course Tom referred to the other, which happened to be made by one of the show's sponsors. This was brought to his attention by a man who once had been a hero of the 1963 Rose Bowl for the University of Wisconsin, in Snyder's home state, and was now a p.r. flack for the food company. The whole incident is told as only Tom can tell it, which is to say in five minutes instead of the thirty seconds you spent reading about it. Later in the show we learn that the _Tomorrow_ staff had received a singing telegram earlier in the day, and enjoyed it so much they ordered another one to be delivered on the air to Miz Markoe -- a complete disaster that leaves everybody, host included, speechless. Tom buries his head in his hands and is struggling to apologize when Dave offers, "So, I guess this is the gag show and we'll do the real one later." A self-confessed _Tomorrow_ show addict, Letterman is already mastering the ironic reference: of course the gag show *is* the real one, and he knows it. QUESTION. Tom, you've talked to so many people over your long career. Is there anybody left interesting to talk to and if so, who are they? T.S. (chuckles) Nooo, we've done 'em all. They are people we probably haven't even heard of. A year and a half, two years ago, who was (thinks for a moment) -- Heidi Fleiss? DAVE. Ohhhh, you knew who she was, Tom! You knew! Folks, this kind of t.v. isn't for everyone. As CBS Broadcast Group President Howard Stringer noted at the press conference, _Late Late Show_ will seek out no demographic in particular. Our friend Aaron Dickey thinks twentysomethings will watch it because "if Tom isn't camp incarnate, I don't know what is." CBS execs think Ted Koppel's legions, or at least those with a pinch of insomnia, will stay up another half hour for Snyder. T.S. himself hopes that the Pacific and Mountain time zones will join the live call-in segments via the CBS Radio simulcast, which is expected to be in place by the time the show goes on the air. (Western U.S. t.v. affiliates do not have the luxury of airing the show live.) It apparently will attract scores of journalists who have showered praise on the show ever since the rumors started -- they are as old as this newsletter -- and who turned last Tuesday's media event into a mutual appreciation drill. And despite the dominance of testosterone within Snyderspace, the program will probably attract a fair number of women viewers who cherish what Letterman calls the "illusion" of a man speaking directly at you from a studio that feels like everyone else has left the building and it's just you, a guest or two, and Tom. The last word was supplied by a friend who, while watching the press conference, heard a reporter ask Snyder what the difference would be between his audience and David Letterman's. Our friend looked over at us and said, "They'll be more sleepy." Pleasant dreams, Tom. BREAKING LATE NEWS The _New York Post_ says that CNBC, which was given plenty of advance notice that its premier evening host might be leaving, is only weeks away from announcing a replacement to Tom Snyder for the nightly 10 p.m. slot. This, it is believed, will hasten the cordial departure date of Snyder, possibly as soon as November. CNBC has T.S. under contract through January and has agreed in principle to an early release ... S Trowbridge says Merrill Markoe has a book coming out this fall, a parody of self-help books entitled _How to be Hap-Hap-Happy Like Me_ ... And Dave, could you make a few more fat jokes during your show, please? Sheesh -- talk about binges. THE LINEUPS LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS, 11:35 P.M. ET Tu 8/16 Kirstie Alley, Julie Brown, Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry We 8/17 Bruce Willis, Dave Chapelle Th 8/18 Crosby, Stills and Nash Fr 8/19 Whoopi Goldberg, Marv Albert, Edie Brickell Mo 8/22 Julia Roberts, Stone Temple Pilots, Jake Johannsen, rerun Tu 8/23 Robin Williams, John Mellencamp, geography whiz kid Jonathan Estrada, rerun (show #2 on CBS) Old _Late Night_ fans may be surprised to know the show is taking only a one-week hiatus this August. It will return in time to turn 1 year old. THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC, 11:35 P.M. ET Tu 8/16 Geraldo Rivera, Linda Gray, Reggie Miller We 8/17 Ray Liotta, Tim Conway, Tori Amos Th 8/18 Siskel and Ebert Fr 8/19 David Alan Grier, Juliette Lewis, Babyface Mo 8/22 Sandra Bernhard, Bo Jackson Tu 8/23 Paul Reiser, Stevie Nicks LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC, 12:35 A.M. ET Tu 8/16 Richard Benjamin, Milla We 8/17 Julie Brown, David Cross, mountain biker Missy Giove Th 8/18 Boyd Matson, Gigolo Aunts Fr 8/19 College band search winners Mo 8/22 Mikal Gilmore Tu 8/23 Mazzy Star LATER WITH GREG KINNEAR, NBC, 1:35 A.M. ET Tu 8/16 Eric Stoltz We 8/17 TBA Th 8/18 MTV veejay Kennedy Mo 8/22 David Alan Grier Tu 8/23 Crosby, Stills and Nash -- Thanks to S Trowbridge Also, don't miss TOM SNYDER on CNBC, airing live Monday-Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern with a rerun of that evening's show at 1 a.m. Reruns also air at those times Friday through Sunday. The E! entertainment television cable network broadcasts reruns of _Late Night with David Letterman_ "seven Daves a week" at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Monday through Friday, reruns can also be viewed at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern. The following schedule was taken from the E! update line. Mo 8/15 Anthony Quinn, Tanya Maria, Super Dave Osborne (3-15-89) Tu 8/16 Rita Rudner, Guy Under the Seats (10-15-84) We 8/17 George Miller, Ernest Borgnine (10-20-88) Th 8/18 Jane Pauley, Sandra Bernhard (3-27-84) Fr 8/19 Fr. Guido Sarducci, Edd Hall, Geri Hall (8-5-88) Sa 8/20 Julian Lennon, Larry Miller (4-10-85) Su 8/21 Jay Leno, Mitch Ryder (8-21-85) --------------------------- Special thanks this issue to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. --------------------------- Entire contents Copyright (C) 1994 by Aaron Barnhart. All rights reserved. Redistribution prohibited without written permission of the author, with the exceptions that a single user (a) may retrieve LATE SHOW NEWS from the archive listed below by anonymous FTP, and (b) may send to another single user by electronic mail where an electronic mailing list such as Majordomo is not employed. LATE SHOW NEWS is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.mcs.net in the directory /mcsnet.users/barnhart/late-show-news. You may also browse LATE SHOW NEWS via the World Wide Web at the following URL: http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~jl8287/late.news.html Or get on the LATE SHOW NEWS distribution list. Just send mail to listserv@mcs.net with this message only ... subscribe late-show-news to get LATE SHOW NEWS in your mailbox every week. LATE SHOW NEWS is made possible with the generous assistance of MCSNet Services, Chicagoland's largest public access Internet provider, offering reliable service at great rates. Mail info@mcs.net for more details. -- Send late-night program news and comments about this electronic sheet to late-show-news@mcs.net