tom snyder

About the best thing to be said for Sunday's seemingly endless Emmy Awards show on Fox was that Britney Spears did not make an appearance.

For the 59th edition of the TV awards-giving blowout, instead of a dazed pop starlet, we got "American Idol's" ubiquitous Ryan Seacrest. I'm not sure that qualifies as trading up.

Not surprisingly, the night served up some wins for "The Sopranos," the HBO show that has often dominated the Emmys since its 1999 debut; it took home awards for best drama, writing and directing.

The Emmys spread the love around a bit, with Second City veteran Tina Fey picking up a best comedy award for her freshman series "30 Rock." "Grey's Anatomy," "The Office" and "My Name Is Earl" also won Emmys, and Chicago's Jeremy Piven got another supporting actor award for his work in "Entourage."

Beyond the wins, there were plenty of low points in the three-hour, 11-minute broadcast.

As Fox grappled with a series of winners who swore onstage, viewers were treated to strange cutaway shots of a disco ball high above the theater.

Sally Field got the longest bleep of the night when she said that "if mothers ruled the world, there would be no more (expletive) war."

Told backstage that she had been bleeped, Field responded: "Oh, well. I've been there before. Well, good. I don't care. I have no comment other than, Oh, well.' I said what I wanted to say. I wanted to pay homage to the mothers of the world, and let their work be seen and valued." Pressed for more comment, she said: "I think I probably shouldn't have said the God in front of the.

"I would have liked to have said more bleeped-out words."

Some highlights and lowlights from Sunday's Emmy death march:

Most honestly tender moment: The montage of late-night talk-show hosts paying tribute to the passing of Tom Snyder, a presence who will truly be missed. Can you imagine Snyder hosting the Emmys? Now that would have been must-see TV.

Embarrassing goof No. 1: During a rather pointless comedy routine by presenter Ray Romano, the camera cut away to that strange angle and the sound went out, apparently because of a saucy line or two from Romano.

Embarrassing goof No. 2: An announcer mispronounced "Grey's Anatomy" star Katherine Heigl's name (as high-jell) as she took the stage.

Embarrassing goof No. 3: Although Fox muted the sound, it was obvious Heigl said a profanity when her name was announced as best supporting actress in a drama. But she quickly recovered by giving an entertaining speech in which she said her own mother had predicted that she "didn't have a shot in hell." At least, though, she pointed out, that time the announcer got her name right. (It's pronounced High-gull.)

Best decision by an Emmy winner: Judy Davis, who won as best supporting actress in a miniseries for "The Starter Wife." She didn't bother showing up.

Most deserved tribute: The standing ovation for the cast of "The Sopranos."

Best rant: Lewis Black screaming about promotional bugs appearing onscreen during TV shows. "Here's a message from all the viewers: We don't care about the next show!" Black yelled.

Grossest joke: Count on Brad Garrett to say crass and unprintable things. Trust me, you don't want to hear the liberty he took with the name of the miniseries "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."

Most honest statement: Broadway legend Elaine Stritch struggled to read her TelePrompTer at one point, and her ad-lib could have served as the broadcast's slogan: "I'm not faking this; I really don't know what the hell I'm doing."

If there was a theme to the Emmys on Sunday night, it was share the love.

After all, nothing dominated the night. In its final season, The Sopranos took home three trophies including best drama, but nothing in the acting categories. The fabulous 30 Rock was named best comedy, but stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin lost out in the acting sweepstakes (Fey thanked the show's "dozens and dozens of viewers.").

That was the general pattern: That is, there seemed to be no overall pattern when it came to the series awards. Ugly Betty won for star America Ferrera and direction; but for the most part, things were spread between the likes of HBO's Extras (star Ricky Gervais won best actor in a comedy), My Name Is Earl (Jaime Pressly, supporting actress, comedy) and Terry O'Quinn of Lost (supporting actor, drama), whose hot-pink shirt must have played havoc with TV sets across the country. advertisement




Among the night's highlights:


? Ryan Seacrest proved to be a capable emcee. He's self-aware enough to know that people were gunning for him to fail. He talked about previous Emmy hosts such as Conan O'Brien and Ellen DeGeneres. "Sure, they were hilarious, if that's what you're into," Seacrest cracked. There also was a great bit when he wandered into the crowd and greeted Teri Hatcher, who dated and then dissed Seacrest on The Oprah Winfrey Show.


? Family Guy characters Brian and Stewie opened the show with a flat song lampooning the state of TV. It would have been a total bust if not for a mention of ousted Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington. The camera focused on Grey's co-star T.R. Knight, who pretty much defined the word "uncomfortable."


? It was apparently a good thing that the Valley got the show on delay (it actually started at 5 p.m., but our broadcast didn't begin until 7 p.m.). Ray Romano, of all people, got bleeped for a joke involving his former TV wife, Patricia Heaton. And Katherine Heigl, who won the supporting actress trophy for Grey's Anatomy, dropped an expletive when her name was announced. Charming.


? A segment about one-liners featured clips from talk-show hosts discussing the subjects of the day. It wasn't bad, but then it weirdly segued into a tribute to the late Tom Snyder, which felt completely out of place. Later in the show came a roll call of deceased TV veterans, which included Ed Bradley, Merv Griffin and, again, Snyder.


? Broken Trail's Robert Duvall was named best actor for a movie or miniseries, and he gave a rather awkward speech that was thankfully cut off by the band. Later, the program picked up the best miniseries award, and Duvall again took the mike, sounding just as confused as before.


? Has it really been 30 years since Roots aired? There was a touching, if brief, reunion featuring several key cast members, including Louis Gossett Jr., Levar Burton, Ed Asner and John Amos. Cicely Tyson and Leslie Uggams both looked fabulous, by the way. The audience gave the group a standing ovation.


? The show's comedic bits were wildly uneven. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert talking about the Emmys going green? Funny. But a bit involving Rainn Wilson and Kanye West competing in a Don't Forget the Lyrics! bit went on too long.


? Ferrera's acceptance speech was heartfelt and gracious. Plus, whenever she smiles, you can't help but believe everything she says. The woman would make a great used-car salesman.


? Putting the show in the round simply felt strange. It made a prestigious show feel like it was being housed in Celebrity Theatre. You seriously doubt that was the vibe they were going for.


Snyder was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was raised Roman Catholic and graduated from the Jesuit-run Marquette University High School. He also attended Marquette University.


[edit] Newscasting career
Snyder began his career as a radio reporter at WRIT-AM (unrelated to the present-day FM station) in Milwaukee in the 1960s. For a time he worked at Savannah, Georgia AM station WSAV (now WBMQ). After moving to television in the 1960s, he was a news anchor for KYW-TV in Philadelphia, WNBC-TV and WABC-TV in New York City. He talked about driving cross country in an early Corvair from Atlanta to Los Angeles around 1963, where he landed a news job at KTLA-TV "Live On 5" then onto KNBC-TV also in Los Angeles, where he was an anchor for the evening news program, working with KNBC broadcaster Kelly Lange, who was then a weather reporter before serving as a longtime KNBC news anchor. Lange was also his regular substitute guest host on the "Tomorrow" program.


[edit] Tomorrow with Tom Snyder
Snyder gained national fame as the host of Tomorrow with Tom Snyder (more commonly known as The Tomorrow Show), which aired late nights after The Tonight Show on NBC from 1973 � 1982. It was a talk show unlike the usual late-night fare, with Snyder, cigarette in hand, alternating between asking hard-hitting questions and offering personal observations that made the interview closer to a conversation.

Unique one-on-one exchanges were common to the program, notably with author Harlan Ellison, actor and writer Sterling Hayden, and author and philosopher Ayn Rand. A one-on-one program with David Brenner as the sole guest revealed that Snyder and Brenner worked together on several documentaries. When not grilling guests, Snyder would often joke around with off-stage crewmen, often breaking out in the distinctively hearty laugh that was the basis of Dan Aykroyd's impersonation of Snyder on Saturday Night Live. His seemingly mismatched jet black eyebrows and grey hair were also lampooned on SNL. Snyder was, as well, the inspiration for the cartoon "Tom Morrow", which appeared in Playboy in the late 1970s. The title card on Snyder's show had dovetailed "Tom" and "Tomorrow", by highlighting "Tom" in a different color.

Peak moments with Snyder on Tomorrow included John Lennon's final televised interview, in April 1975 (replayed in December 1980 as a tribute to Lennon, and later released on home video), and Irish rock band U2's first American television appearance in June 1981. Also memorable was the 1980 cigarette smoke-filled appearance of Public Image Ltd.'s John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) and Keith Levene, whose thoroughly uncooperative twelve-minute appearance on the show acquired a long-term notoriety. "Weird Al" Yankovic's first television appearance was on the show in April 1981.

Another notorious segment was a 1981 prison interview with mass murderer Charles Manson. Manson was by turns quietly mesmerizing and disturbingly manic, suddenly getting a wild look in his eyes and spouting wild notions at Snyder before temporarily returning to a calm demeanor.[2]

Bizarre moments included a 1979 appearance by Chicago shock-jock Steve Dahl, and a March 1981 appearance by the rock band, The Plasmatics, during which lead singer Wendy O. Williams sledgehammered a TV in the studio. The explosion disrupted a live broadcast of NBC Nightly News being produced in a studio two floors above. Snyder himself referred to this occurrence on a May 1981 followup appearance in which the Plasmatics blew up a car.

Perhaps the most outrageous interview seen on Snyder's show occurred on Halloween 1979, when the rock band KISS appeared to promote their album, Dynasty. During that 25-minute "interview", the conversation degenerated into a somewhat chaotic exchange between Snyder and a very drunk Ace Frehley, who picked up Snyder's teddy bear, put the wristlets from his costume on the bear, and laughed, "the only Spacebear in captivity! I've got him ― he's captured!". When Snyder asked Ace if his costume was that of some sort of spaceman, Frehley quipped, "No, actually I'm a plumber." Snyder shot back, "Well, I've got a piece of pipe backstage I'd like to have you work on." The inebriated Frehley replied "Tell me about it!" and clapped his hands and cackled hysterically at the exchange. Years later, Gene Simmons revealed on his website that he felt "betrayed" by the other band members during this interview. Shortly thereafter, drummer Peter Criss officially left the band and subsequently appeared on the show, making Snyder the first host to have a member of KISS appearing without makeup in public.

Following a disastrous experiment with turning Tomorrow into a more typical talk show ― renaming it Tomorrow Coast to Coast and adding a live audience and co-host, Rona Barrett (all of which Snyder resented) ― the show was canceled in 1982, to make way for the up-and-coming young comedian, David Letterman.


[edit] After Tomorrow
Soon after the cancellation of The Tomorrow Show, Snyder returned to work as a New York television news anchor, this time sharing the anchor desk with Kaity Tong on the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eyewitness News broadcasts on WABC-TV.[3]. In 1985, he returned to the talk format at KABC-TV in Los Angeles, with a local afternoon show he had planned to gear up for national syndication the following year; those plans were scratched after Oprah Winfrey's Chicago-based syndicated show entered the market first and took over Snyder's time slot on KABC-TV.

An older, slightly more mellow Snyder returned to virtually the same format on ABC Radio. The show's three-hour format was a natural for Snyder. The first hour was spent chatting with a celebrity guest, during the second hour Snyder engaged someone in the news, and the final hour was consumed chatting with his legion of fans. Occasionally the caller would be a well-known fan like David Letterman or Ted Koppel. One of Tom's favorite callers was Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson on the hit television sitcom, The Jeffersons. The "Tom Snyder Show" for ABC Radio Networks went off the air in late 1992. Snyder returned to television on CNBC in the early 1990s, adding the opportunity for viewers to call in with their own questions for his guests. Snyder nicknamed his show "the Colorcast", reviving an old promotional term NBC-TV used in the early 1960s to hype its color broadcasts. He also continued his trademark of talking to off-screen crew, and made frequent reference to the studio, reminding viewers of its location in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Meanwhile, Letterman had moved on to CBS and was given control of creating a new program to follow his at 12:35 am. Letterman, who had idolized Snyder for years ― hired Snyder in 1995 as host of The Late Late Show. The idea had actually begun as a running joke on Letterman's show, that Snyder would soon follow him on the air as he had once followed Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show; the unlikely suggestion caught on. This show aired live on the East Coast and was simulcast to other time zones on radio to allow everyone a chance to call in. Snyder's CNBC show was taken over, largely unchanged in format, by Charles Grodin. One of the many memorable Late Late Show interviews was with Gloria Vanderbilt about the suicide of her son, told dramatically over an entire hour. Another was a lengthy interview with Robert Blake very soon before Blake was charged for murder. In 1999 Snyder left The Late Late Show, which was then reformatted for Craig Kilborn. It has since been turned over to Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson.

Snyder also hosted a video production called "A Century of Legendary Lionel Trains", commemorating 100 years of Lionel Trains. Additionally, he hosted another program from the same production company called "Celebrity Train Layouts 2: Tom Snyder," featuring his own collection of trains.


[edit] Colortini.com
Snyder posted regular messages on his own now-defunct website, colortini.com during the early 2000s. A "colortini", according to Snyder in the CNBC era, was the drink you should enjoy while watching the show ("Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."). For the CBS show, he redubbed the mythical drink a "simultini".

On July 28, 2005, Snyder announced he was deleting his website after six years, stating: "The novelty of communicating this way has worn off." On August 1, 2005 his page was abruptly taken offline. The front page was replaced with a white screen with the simple phrase: "Colortini is gone. Thanks for the Memories". However, some 140 pages have been preserved at web.archive.org.[1] The domain name has since been reused for other purposes.