Exception to the rule:
Peter O’Toole has appeared on Letterman after having a shot or two and he was pretty funny.
TvTome synopses are one sentence long. I know what I saw. It was Summer 1995.
To be fair to Ms Jones, that was entirely Harty’s fault. He put the host’s chair between the guests. :eek: So whenever he was talking to the newcomers, he turned his back on Ms Jones.
Anyone would get annoyed, especially since Harty didn’t have the brains to stand up, apologise + move his chair.
It also gives complete guest lists. I know what I didn’t see.
He was pretty funny.
Would Bill O’Reilly walking out on an interview for NPR’s “Fresh Air” count?
I forget the name of the host…Terri something or other?
What happened with Michael Moriarty?
Even funnier on the Dean Martin Roasts. I’ve seen Dean literally fall out of his chair laughing.
How about the night when Letterman had Mr. T as a guest.
T answered the first question by going into a sermon about how he was a success because he didn’t do drugs and he stayed out of gangs. Apparently, Mr. T has done work with disadvantaged kids and he was deadly serious about his mission. Dave tried to lighten things up by throwing out a few zingers, teasing Mr. T about his self righteousness. Mr. T stayed on his message. After a few minutes, Dave said something and Mr. T just glowered in response. After about thirty seconds of dead air, with Mr. T’s eyes shooting daggers at Letterman, they faded to commercial.
Supposedly, Prince was on Arsenio Hall and answered every question with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Does anyone remember it?
Yes.
Jerry Lewis was on Conan O’Brien not too long ago (probably before the Labor Day telethon) and kept going into morbid discussions of the times he almost committed suicide even when Conan was trying to keep it light. (Jerry: write it in your autobiography or tell it to Dr. Phil- people watch Conan to see Abe Vigoda ride a donkey or hear the “In the year 2000” music.) Total buzzkill.
(Dennis Miller [remember when he was funny?] once said of Jerry Lewis “why is it that when he’s trying to be funny I don’t laugh but when he’s being serious I can’t stop laughing?”)
I remember a country singer going on and on about how only with the love of Jesus Christ was he able to get off drugs and how now it is his mission to bring non-believers to Jesus. This was on Joan Rivers, a talk show host not particularly known for her fanatical Christianity but who was nevertheless crying and supportive.
I did. I also remember Bobcat talking about it a year later in his standup routine.
“I had to do a PSA as part of my sentence. What the hell was I supposed to say? ‘Remember, kids: if you’re ever on a talk show, don’t set it on fire!’”
I remeber that, but I think it was all schtick.
Dave: Okay, Mr. T, what’s your real name?
Mr. T: [angry] First name’s Mister, middle name’s period, last name “T”
I think Mr. T was just playing on his tough guy persona, and Dave was cashing in.
Arsenio Hall had a few (funny) awkward moments in its heyday.
Malclom Jamal Warner appeared on the show with his Mom. The conversation veered toward outrageous behavior in child actors at that time and Warner was admiiting how he liked to party but emphasizing what a clean cut kid he was. Out of the blue Arsenio asked, “So does that mean you’re still a virgin?” The audience goes wild. Then Warner’s mom pipes up, “Yeah, I’d like to know the answer to that myself.” Poor Malcolm was sitting there… damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. I was too busy laughing to remember his answer…
Uncle Milty Berle. Came on the show. He was so old then… so out of it. The audience wasn’t interested in his jokes or anectdotes, he had nothing to promote… Arsenio asked him a softball, “Who’s a talent out there working now you like?” Milton Berle was at a loss to name any of the contemporary stars. Suddenly he remembered a singer he liked and said, “That one girl… Paula… Abdullah? I like her.” Arsenio at least had the grace not to correct Berle.
Danny DeVito and Michael Douglas - Came on promoting the movie, The War of The Roses and instead of answering questions about the movie’s black humor, kept reveling in the AHS’s loose party atmosphere and kept up a steady stream of bleeped-out obscenities.
Muhammad Ali - The segment was so slow when Hall tried to talk to Ali – it got immensely better when Mike Tyson and another boxer came out unannounced to talk about Ali’s career. It was alternately touching and sad to watch Ali, but I was stunned to see that even while struggling with Parkinson’s he could still outtalk and outquip Tyson. (hmmm as to the other boxer’s identity, I somewhat misremember. I want to say Evander Holyfield, but maybe it was Sugar Ray Leonard.)
Andrew Dice Clay. It was promoted as Dice being more outrageous than ever. Arsenio alluded to a beef with Clay and one of my all-time favorite stand-ups, Sam “The Fucking Man” Kinison. Arsenio asked him about that, and Clay ragged on Sam a minute got up from the couch and confrontationally faced the cameras dragging on his cigarette – and whatever he had in mind to do, he couldn’t go through with it and he broke down – and – cried. CRIED. Hurriedly Hall cut to commercial. When they came back on air even Arsenio looked embarrassed. Of course, Sam Kinison came on the show a few nights later and basically just tore Dice a new one. Even actress Lea Thompson, promoting Caroline In the City – his one-time co-star in Casual Sex? – referred to his behavior that night wonderingly, particularly his stand-up persona : “He’s nothing like that in real life.”
The famed final episode of Arsenio, that caused the show to get unceremioniously yanked off the air. Louis Farrakhan, easily one of the most hated men in America at the time, was the guest. THE ONLY GUEST, for the full hour. Watching Arsenio allow Farrakhan the full reign on his show, unchallenged about his frequently anti-Semetic statements or the more bizarre beliefs about the alien/mothership in NOI lore or how the Nation openly reputed scientific advances regarding HIV and AIDS and sold its own scientifically unproven concoctions to HIV stricken AIDS Muslim follwers – it was painful. I could only watch and think, “This is like watching someone deliberately break a lease and dare to be evicted.”
Maybe it was schtick, but when somebody that big looks like he’s going to kill somebody I think it’s better to err on the safe side.
IIRC, my take when I saw the show was that Mr. T’s stage persona didn’t allow Letterman to know that he was really pissing off his guest. T may be a joke, but he didn’t like the joke being pushed that far.
Embarassing talk show moments? The Magic Johnson Show.
Every. Single. Moment.
I contacted a guy who has a site dedicated to the Late Show. He has all the episodes and keeps a detailed log of each show and he says it didn’t happen.
Cindy Crawford was on Letterman, promoting her “makeup tips” book. Dave made fun of the makeup she was wearing, and she started crying.
Post “Little House on the Prarie” Michael Landon as guest on the tonight show with Joan Rivers subbing for Johnny. Very testy exchange re his disapproval of “people who gossip”.
Were the biting (and hilarous) Charles Grodin exchanges with David Letterman in the 80’s scripted or spontaneous? I recall one where he asked Dave if he was homosexual, and Ddave replied he had mounted a horse that evening (earlier skit on the show with live horse he rode briefly) but that was all that he mounted.