Remembering Tom Snyder by Remembering Trek

[TiberiusK]

Snyder's hour long interview with Kelley, Doohan, Koenig, and Ellison has been posted before, but I thought it would be nice to post again. Tom Snyder passed away today. RIP Tom Snyder.

http://startrekdom.blogspot.com/2007/07/remembering-tom-snyder-by-remembering.html

 

[seigezunt]

Sad news. I always enjoyed watching his show before the late late late show. I will never forget his very weird interview with Charles Manson, where he tried to "reason" with a clearly insane individual. Made great TV, though.

 

[TiberiusK]

seigezunt said:
Sad news. I always enjoyed watching his show before the late late late show. I will never forget his very weird interview with Charles Manson, where he tried to "reason" with a clearly insane individual. Made great TV, though.

I never saw that. It sounds like the scenes from Natural Born Killers.

 

[Plum]

^^^
No, Charles Mason is sane compared to that movie (though Julia, the actress, is sooo fun to watch).

I think it was Natural Born Killers that made me committed to beating Oliver Stone with a rusty pipe for being such an artless twat.

 

[scottydog]

Thanks for this link! That's a great interview. Tom Snyder didn't know jack about star trek, but at least he got them all talking and debating intelligently. Harlan Ellison comes across better than I thought he would -- I loved his line about "getting diabetes" from hearing all the sickeningly sweet talk about star trek.

 

[TiberiusK]

^^^
Ellison has no social grace though. He makes some good points, but he still comes off as an arrogant prick in this interview.

Why come on a show about Trek just to bash it along with his ONE contribution that he is ashamed of? He loved the attention, even when he hated his contribution.

It's like asking a disgruntled employee, who worked for a company for a month, to join in a round table discussion about the company's success and history.

 

[scottydog]

True, Ellison was hardly an integral part of the show. But he wasn't far off the mark in implying that much of TOS could have aimed higher, quality-wise. I enjoyed hearing Koenig, Kelley, and Doohan rebut him. Ellison was probably not deserving to be on that panel, but he definitely spiced things up.

 

[TiberiusK]

^^^ I agree. Koening was especially articulate. I wonder though, did GR really have the flu, or was he intentionally avoiding a confrontation with Ellison?

 

[omnirad]

Ah, the good ol' 1970's! Snyder, Doohan and Kelley all smoking cigarettes on national TV. Now-a-days that program would have to come with a warning label and a network disclaimer.

And Dee did tell his 'this joint is for turning me on' story, if I remember correctly. Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

 

[AC84]

I still think Ellison was flat-out wrong in his assessment of Star Trek being a "cop show". If anything, it was a sea-faring naval adventure show where every week they got tangled up with the local port natives, had ship to ship battles or crew mutinies and pirate boardings.

Plum said:
I think it was Natural Born Killers that made me committed to beating Oliver Stone with a rusty pipe for being such an artless twat.

He wasn't an artless twat. Much worse actually. He was an arrogant artist type that shows off his experiments as oppose to final products the public would enjoy. Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich are artless twats.

 

[Ward Fowler]

Off-topic, but I'm afraid Tom Snyder was one of the last of a dying breed on television. Watching those interviews, you can tell it was of a different time and sensibility. He was a master at the art of simple conversation. I'm afraid tv is going in the opposite direction these days. More flash and less substance. I found it amazing that Tom actually got back on a major network in the 90's, but I guess we owe that to Letterman's good taste. Anyhow, I'm grateful that Tom entertained for as long as he did. He will be greaty missed.

 

[AC84]

I also can't stand how utterly informal the news and interview/talk shows are becoming.

 

[Saxman1]

Ward Fowler said:
Off-topic, but I'm afraid Tom Snyder was one of the last of a dying breed on television. Watching those interviews, you can tell it was of a different time and sensibility. He was a master at the art of simple conversation. I'm afraid tv is going in the opposite direction these days. More flash and less substance. I found it amazing that Tom actually got back on a major network in the 90's, but I guess we owe that to Letterman's good taste. Anyhow, I'm grateful that Tom entertained for as long as he did. He will be greaty missed.

How true. My wife and I viewed the ST segments on you tube, lamenting how far television has fallen since's Snyder's heyday. My God.

 

[Plum]

^^^
Quite so... actual conversational interviews are long gone and replaced with blurbs to sell movies, products, wars...

AC84 said:
<SNIP!>

Plum said:
I think it was Natural Born Killers that made me committed to beating Oliver Stone with a rusty pipe for being such an artless twat.

He wasn't an artless twat. Much worse actually. He was an arrogant artist type that shows off his experiments as oppose to final products the public would enjoy. Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich are artless twats.

Ya got me there.