Tom Snyder (I) (qv), like eventual NBC NIGHTLY NEWS anchor Tom Brokaw (qv), had been a blow-dried newsreader in LA in the '60s and earliest '70s, but when Snyder came to the NBC network, he didn't continue in a straight-news format; TOMORROW, which followed THE TONIGHT SHOW (qv) when that program still ran 90 minutes, was (usually) a limbo-set interview program with Snyder sometimes chatting with off-camera staff and crew, and sometimes seemingly with himself, before getting around to his guests for a given episode. Dan Ackroyd (qv) did a remarkably good caricature of Snyder from the earliest episodes of "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" (qv). Among Snyder's most famous interviews was a relatively rare out-of-studio interview with Charles Manson (qv), wherein Snyder baited the convicted felon; among the other low points of the series was a disastrous interview with cartoonist and writer Gahan Wilson (qv), wherein Wilson was presumably asked to bring his collection of rare Teddy bears, only to be treated very rudely by Snyder while discussing them. A longer-term low point was the addition, by NBC, of gossip reporter Rona Barrett (qv) to the series, in its penultimate season, as co-host. However, in happier times, the show was unusually free-form and spontaneous for network television in the 1970s; Harlan Ellison (qv) was among the occasional guests to be seen only rarely, if at all, on other network programming. Snyder went on to a radio career and to be the founding host of THE LATE LATE SHOW (qv) on CBS-TV, as an employee of and followup to David Letterman (qv).
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