David Frost Dead at 74

[Miller]

@njtt

If you had lived in Britain in the '60s and early '70s you would have been aware of TW3 as a huge sensation that changed British culture and politics irrevocably, then you would have known The Frost Report, a major success in the more more mainstream comedy market, that launched the careers of people (Cleese, Barker, Corbett) who would dominate British comedy for a decade or more to come, you would also know how Frost went on to be instrumental in launching a new TV company, London Weekend Television, with himself presenting major chat shows (not just to London, but to the nation) three nights a week. If you had lived through all that there is no way you would regard his interview with Nixon as anything approaching his most significant achievement. His interview with Nixon is merely his most significant achievement (maybe his only significant achievement) in the American market. It is all most Americans (who have heard of him at all) know about him. In Britain, where he is from and where he had most of his career, it is a mere footnote.

In other words, Frost was more famous in Engalnd for things that are important to English people, and more famous in America for things that are important to Americans.

Boy, there’s a fucking insight for ya.

[SanVito]

To be fair to njtt, I grew up in Britain in the 70s, have known Frost all my life as a very familiar TV journalist and interviewer, knew about his most famous programmes, and had never heard of the Nixon interviews until the film came out.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Miller

In other words, Frost was more famous in Engalnd for things that are important to English people, and more famous in America for things that are important to Americans.

Boy, there’s a fucking insight for ya.

You say that as if the two things were similar and equal. It’s a little like an American saying, “Cliff Richard. Wasn’t he that one-hit wonder who did ‘Devil Woman’?”

I’ll bet Frost is better known in America for being the butt of Monty Python jokes than for his actual work. That Was the Week That Was is remembered far more often today for the Tom Lehrer satiric songs than anything else. Even most Tom Lehrer fans probably forget that Frost was the host of the show.

You can’t blame Americans knowing him only from one interesting footnote to his career, but that needs to be put in its place. Firmly.

[ftg]

As an American, he is most famous to me for the American version of TW3 and his talk show The David Frost Show from the late 60s. The Nixon stuff came and went.

It is only thru the recent Frost/Nixon play and movie that many younger Americans and older ones with bad memory have any memory.

But if you are old enough, with a decent memory, it’s his 60s stuff that stands out.

(And if you’re a Python fan …)

[Prof.Pepperwinkle]

Eric Idle tweeted: “Very sad to hear of the loss of David Frost. He gave most of us our first big break in TV. Wrote for him for many years.” as reported by BBC News, which also highlights the Frost/Nixon interview.

[Sampiro]

Not to be indelicate, but pondered as curiosity: he died on the QE2 a short way into a 10 day voyage.
I wonder if they remove him from the boat when they go to port, or if the QE2 has a morgue, or… just what the procedure is. (Given the large number of elderly people who take cruises I’m sure it’s an existing policy.)

[Siam_Sam]

I’m surprised at the Brits in this thread positively seeming to take offense at Frost being remembered for the Nixon interviews. BBC has repeatedly highlighted that to the exclusion of almost everything else, or at least they have on the international service that I watch. The local English-language press here, which is run largely by Brits and Brit types, have heavily focused on that.