I remember quite clearly thinking something was off with him. And he was selling a book so he wasn’t just there to bullshit.
I was never particularly impressed with Letterman as a generic interviewer. If he was interviewing about something he wasn’t personally knowledgeable about or interested in, it always came across as mocking. On the other hand, his interviews with Warren Zevon, when it was known that Zevon was dying of cancer, were incredible. He could rise to the occasion when it was someone he cared about and respected.
I remember an interview with O’Toole that was amazing. I even commented on it at the time. Don’t worry, it’s a short thread.
I can think of two memorably disappointing interviews. The first was on Later with Bob Costas. I liked Costas as an interviewer, even (or maybe especially) with people who weren’t sports stars. He did two episodes, back-to-back, with Paul Simon that were great. But he had Chuck Jones on once and just couldn’t really draw any real insights out of him. Kind of a shame, but I suppose Jones’s genius manifested at the point of his pen, and not out of his mouth. I can live with that. Age may have played a factor as well. I caught a rerun of an old Dick Cavett show (I think) with Jones that was pretty good, with him sharing some details about his characters and how their body language reflected their attitude.
The other one was on a local Seattle show called Almost Live. It began as a Sunday evening talk show, with some sketch comedy and interviewing celebrities who happened to be in the city that week. The original host, Ross Shafer, moved on to Hollywood and some national hosting gigs, and the show eventually morphed into just comedy on Saturday nights.[sup]*[/sup] But there was an awkward transition phase when the former sidekick and comedian tried to carry it on as an interview show. The one with Jackie Stewart was painful. The host, John Kiester, didn’t seem to know anything about Stewart, except to ask him to say “the dilithium crystals can’t take it anymore, captain!”
- As a comedy show it launched the careers of Bill Nye and Joel McHale.
Long before Brian Williams lost his seat as the NBC anchor, he interviewed Dick Cheney. He spent the entire interview lobbing softball questions at someone who is arguably a war criminal and a giant flaming asshole. It put me off Williams forever.
I saw Conan O’Brien interview Don Martin (from Mad magazine), and it was pretty similar to what you describe: an old man who wasn’t particularly garrulous.
Did he at least have good sound effects.
Dan Rather interviewed Eddy Money a month or so ago. Is Money just stupid or what? He couldn’t answer a single question without going on a tangent.
They played a game where Conan would describe an event and Don Martin would say the sound effect to go with it. When I describe it, it sounds funny. But it was mostly a dud.
You had Barbara Walters lobbing softballs to Hillary Clinton over Monica Lewinsky “how do you feel when people say nasty things about you?”. Hey Hillary, since you stand by your husband the perjurer and rapist, what does that make you? Walters also sympathized with Rosario Ames, wife and helper to her husband the convicted Russian spy. Baba Wawa wasn’t interested in footage showing the Ames discussing what he was doing, she tried tp paint her as an innocent victim.
Back when Howard Cosell had a Saturday night variety show, he had on F Lee Bailey who had just become Patty Hearst’s attorney for her trial. The judge gave Bailey permission to talk about the case. But the corporate ABC suits said no and Cosell and Bailey were reduced talking about what a nice woman Hearst was. As producer Roone Arledge said, we deserved the reaming the critics gave us.
I’ll never forget the night Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino were both on Letterman. It was clear neither of them wanted to be there and didn’t give a shit as to how they came on. They sleepwalked through the Top Ten list and gave monosyllabic answers to Dave’s questions when he interviewed them. I think they were probably stoned to the gills.
I recall that Eddie Money drank and did a lot of drugs, and had a stroke at one point. Takes a toll, I imagine.
<googles>
Nope, I don’t see a stroke, just an overdose wherein he damaged his sciatic nerve and needed therapy to walk again. Ahh, what fun. . . He joined a 12-step program in 2001, seems mostly or entirely sober. I just went to wikipedia. Got lazy.
The Cosell show was called Saturday Night live with Howard Cosell , it started 3 weeks before the more famous SNL show. It only lasted 18 shows.
I heard Terry Gross interview Frank Oz recently. That was disappointing. He came off as unfunny, pedantic, and petty.
At one point, Terry misspoke and called Jim Henson “John Henson,” and Oz wouldn’t let it go. Ten minutes later and he’s still gong on about how Terry Gross doesn’t respect Henson blah blah blah…
I saw an interview of Phillipe Cousteau (Jacques Cousteau’s son) by Oprah that was painful. All about plastic in the Pacific Ocean. Phillipe had no where near the ability of his father to communicate. Oprah was trying to drag some information and animation out, but it was useless.
Of the two or three of these episodes of Letterman’s new show that I have seen…eh, his interviewing chops are pretty lame. He’s not nearly as engaging, provacative and funny as he was on LNWDL back in the day.
Mostly I see an old guy being sentimental. And honestly, I don’t think his new show is bad, per se…it’s just kinda there. A little boring.