Off topic, but for a while now I’ve been thinking that if I became a celebrity then I’d love to go to the UK and be on The Graham Norton Show.
Umm, Parkinson was being a real jerk. Ryan might have been having an off day, but Parkinson was deliberately trying to cause something. In particular, explicitly pointing out how she wasn’t enjoying the interview is a big talk show host no-no. Once she realized he was being a jerk, she handled herself quite well.
there’s some good examples I and others posted here…
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=499174&highlight=kaufman
…of ‘WTF interviews’.
Daily Show interviews:
Here’s Owen Wilson:
Spice Girls:
John Cusack:
Other:
Kaufman vs Lawler:
Harvey Pekar on Letterman:
Richard Branson on Colbert:
Tom Selleck on the Rosie O’Donnell Show.
Ugh, not all of them work anymore.
John Cusack:
Spice Girls:
Owen Wilson:
Richard Branson on Colbert:
I don’t see it that way. He seemed to me to be conducting a perfectly fine interview but Ryan for whatever reason refused to respond to anything at all. it appeared as if se has never heard of an interview before. I think she was the one being unprofessional. It was only at the point that he gave up on her that he broke the fourth wall (in a sense) to point out how shitty a guest she was being.
Pekar was always great on Letterman. I’ve seen every interview Pekar did, when it was broadcast, except for one. I even had an “American Splendor” comic with Pekar’s take on one of his Letterman interviews. Great stuff.
Brother Theodore was another guest who would get into bitter arguments with Letterman. Theodore was awesome in his crankiness.
I used to get excited when I heard either of those names mentioned as being guests.
Letterman during that really long writers’ strike in the late 80’s or early 90’s (my memory fails me on the exact year) was compelling viewing. Lots of weird guests and performances. Not many meltdowns, but lots of weirdness.