BERIGAN Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 Would have thought he was older....hadn't heard much from him since he went off the air in 1999. Rest in Peace.... Tom Snyder Dies: Newsman Tom Snyder Dead At 71 by Staff Tom Snyder, the veteran talk show host and newsman has passed away. Tom Snyder reportedly died from complications of leukemia. Snyder died yesterday at 4 p.m. in San Francisco. He was 71 years old. In April 2005, Snyder revealed that he is battling chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but said that his doctors had told him it was "treatable." Tom Snyder was born May 12, 1936 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was a graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee and began his broadcasting career at the age of 21, switched to television to work as a local news anchor. In 1965, Tom Snyder, along with Marciarose Shestack, made TV history when they anchored the first noon news show in the country. The show was broadcasted from the Eyewitness News studios in Philadelphia. He eventually would become the host of the NBC interview show "Tommorrow" (1973–81), for which he won an Emmy Award in 1974. He returned to late night in 1995 with the Late Late Show with Tom Snyder (1995–1999). He was always smoking on camera, so clouds of tobacco fumes floated around his head like a spiffy special effect. Snyder had a booming laugh and sometimes was perceived as caustic. Snyder's most memorable interviews included Ayn Rand, John Lennon, Charles Manson, and Johnny Rotten. Snyder's gray hair and probing manner got the boot when NBC went for youth, replacing Tomorrow with David Letterman's Late Night in 1982 http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original..._21294894.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 didn't help that he wasn't too bright - I remember an interview with Bill Russell where Russell was talking about the political atmosphere and the fact that things had changed in terms of how publicly people could express their prejudices,and that now people were more subtle in their racism - Snyder's reaction was completely straightfaced and sincere, to the effect that he knew what Russell meant, that he himself had to watch everything he said on TV or some crazy person at home might be offended - COMPLETELY missed Rissell's point and it was quite hilarious. I also loved Dan Aykroyd's impersonation of him on SNL - perfectly captured his pompous cluelessness - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 The two things I'll remember about Tom Snyder was Ackroyd's impression on SNL, and the time he was doing the local news on Channel 4 in New York, he was on screen fiddling with his earpiece and apparently someone off camera motioned to him in some way, and Tom flipped him the bird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stereojack Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 I was watching his show one night when Doc Severinson was his guest. They were taking phone calls and one caller asked Doc which of the current trumpet players Doc liked, and Doc answered Roy Hargrove. Doc returned the question, and the caller said Wynton Marsalis. At this point, Tom joined in and asked, in all sincerity, "Say, have you guys heard Kenny G? He's fantastic!" True story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Twizzle Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 Watching TS was a big part of my college years (which tells you how exciting my college years were) The worst panic attack I ever had occurred on a late Thursday night while watching the Tomorrow show. It was one of my first attacks and I thought it was something physical and I was about to die. I remember thinking that it was possible that the last thing I would ever hear would be Snyder's voice and that made the panic worse and forced me to walk a few miles in the cold to the nearest hospital emergency room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 Bit of a shock---I didn't hear that he had leukemia. Still, I have to agree with Allen Lowe's comments; Snyder's cluelessness was legendary, and Ackroyd's SNL impression was spot-on. RIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GA Russell Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 Apparently he was bitter about his Catholic upbringing and the Catholic Church in general. I think he referred to himself as a "recovering Catholic". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 He was a cousin of mine. We weren't close by any means, but he was always a family curiosity. RIP Tom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 Two highlights for me: 1) Garland Jeffreies was a guest. Snyder intorduced him as a purveryor of "Reggie" (sic) music. 2) Leo Sayer was a guest. Snyder compared him to Otis Redding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Twizzle Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 Tom Snyder was born to broadcast. He loved television and it loved him back. In that, he was a member of a vanishing breed, especially as narrowcasting displaces broadcasting, "online" replaces "on the air," and any Tom, Dick or Mary can be monarch of a desktop domain, uplinking themselves to satellites in space. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...=sec-artsliving Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 After I graduated from high school in '81 he interviewed The Clash & Charles Manson within a week of each other in June. Summer was not going to be boring. More than half the fun of watching him was how weirdly wound up he was, waiting for a screw up, and of course the laugh that Ackroyd imitated so well. He did an interview with Grace Slick in the final week of his show that was hilarious. For all his faults, I'd rather have him on late at night than what's out there now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 I recently watched on YouTube the interview he did with KISS back in '78 or '79, where a very drunk Ace Frehley constantly kept Tom off-balance. Everyone looked like they were having a blast, including Gene Simmons who, you could tell, was not too happy things weren't going as planned (i.e. Ace stealing the show). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 I can just imagine Tom's last moments: "Death, for crying out loud, I've just gotta ask: What's with all the black? Are you depressed or something?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmorin Posted August 1, 2007 Report Share Posted August 1, 2007 (edited) I recently watched on YouTube the interview he did with KISS back in '78 or '79, where a very drunk Ace Frehley constantly kept Tom off-balance. Everyone looked like they were having a blast, including Gene Simmons who, you could tell, was not too happy things weren't going as planned (i.e. Ace stealing the show). It was hilarious. Obviously reading off the cue card, he introduced Gene Simmons as KISS' bass player--mis-pronoucing it to rhyme with 'class'. Then the very drunk Ace Frehley chimed in that in the band Ace played 'lead trout'. Edited August 1, 2007 by nmorin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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