Every episode of Carson Daly in which the guest has a more than double-digit IQ and or, God forbid, works outside of light entertainment. It was literally painful seeing him interview Tom Brokaw (who was promoting one of his books at the time)- Daly had clearly not read the book, was not up enough on news events to talk about them, and literally after some awkward silences ended up talking about TV & movies. Luckily Brokaw had seen some recent movies and could make chatter about them, but it was clear he was irked. (I will never understand why Daly is a celebrity- he’s stupid, not particularly good looking and has the interviewing skills of Rainman.)
Another awkward Grodin moment was on his own show. The guests were (James van Praagh or John Edward or somesuch self professed channeler) and James Randi. Grodin, who firmly believed in the “psychic”, WOULD NOT let Randi talked and even yelled at him when he tried to explain how the faker could get info on Grodin’s mother (whom he claimed to be talking to).
Ha – I’ll see your Magic Johnson Show and raise you the Chevy Chase Show. When the host himself so obviously doesn’t want to be there, every second is like fingernails on chalkboard. Cancelling it was a mercy killing (although axing the Doritos commercials too was a bit cruel IMO).
And wot, no mention of Sean Young on [whatever show it was] in her Catwoman outfit? Another public career derailment, broadcast for our entertainment.
I didn’t see it the night it aired, but I’ve caught it when Letterman has them replay it. A few years ago, Richard Simmons comes out onto the stage in a turkey suit and kisses Letterman. At least, I think this is what started it all. Anyway, the next thing that happens is that Dave is cursing up a storm and attacking Simmons with a fire extingusher–the spray, not the bottle.
As I said, I’ve only see the replays, which generally start with Letterman attacking Simmons, but I’m told that that was what had happened.
Ford seems to have adopted a ‘don’t care’ attitude in the past few years (and hey, why not?). I remember an episode of Conan he was on, clearly high, ridiculing k-19:The Widwomaker. He was basically doing Conan’s job for him- mocking the Russian accents, the title, etc. More funny than awkward, I suppose, though a little surreal- he obviously couldn’t have cared less if it bombed.
Also, any promo work Ben Affleck did for Gigli. Admittedly, he was a pretty good sport, reading the negative reviews aloud on Jay Leno. But any time he tried to say something positive about the project, it was so hopelessly phony, the host just looked like an asshole for muttering the usual ‘It looks really funny’ ‘Can’t wait to see it’ lines.
Isn’t Fabio italian or something? I seem to remember he has a bit of an accent…and FWIW, a lot of professional models dont stay up late, they tend to have to be up wicked early to go on shoots and such, so he may have never really watched an episode of Conan’s show…or known who Triumph is [I will fess up that I have never seen conan, geraldo or most any talk show, and have no clue whoo triumph is…I dont like talk shows.]
Though I can relate to trying to explain american in-jokes. Ever tried explaining ‘wedgie’ to a german while playing everquest? Or explain exactly why ‘debrief’ makes me giggle when ever I hear the term…without getting too obscene? We never could figure outwhy a ‘noogie’ was so funny…
I seem to remember Tom Green possibly on The Tonight Show extremely drunk and it was painfully embarrassing. Then again watching Tom Green in any condition is painful.
This is my official “Favorite question of the week”.
How about after the final episode of Cheers when the cast was interviwed on the Tonight Show via satellite, and they were all smashed? Leno is such a tool, he didn’t know what to do!
I’m not certain if I would want Madonna peeing on my feet in the shower, but good for her in doing her part to rid the world of athlete’s foot.
Around 1988, the late Mr. Reed also showed up on David Letterman’s old NBC show thoroughly soused–and a bit surly. He didn’t seem to really want to talk about anything and clearly resented having to go on. At the end of the program, Letterman conspicuously left out Reed when he thanked his guests. Although, oddly enough, he did manage to get Reed to tape a bumper that appeared at the beginning of a repeat show the following week. (“It’s a bloody rerun! Go to bed!”)
Does anyone remember when Joan Rivers’ show was cancelled. I think a very young Chris Rock was a guest comedian on the final episode and things got a little weird. He didn’t perform very well and got ticked when Joan walked over to shake his hand. He angrily said something to her about them not cueing the music to let him know his time was up. At the end of the show, Joan and her guests knocked over the guest couch and she yelled that she’d be back and Chris Rock (?) looked at her like she was nutty.
I remember a bizarre appearance by folk artist Howard Finster on the Tonight Show. Johnny was trying to interview him, but Howard (who’d brought his banjo with him) kept jumping up and launching into badly off-key musical numbers. Johnny just sat there with a sheepish grin on his face, unable to control his eccentric guest.
And adding to the list of Madonna appearances there was the Madonna interview on MTV by Kurt Loder, wherein the interview was hijacked by a babbling Courtney Love (much to Madonna’s chagrin).
I remember an episode of Arsenio with Gilbert Gottfried. For the first (and possibly last) time, Gottfried was really funny. He was all over the place, talking non-stop, joking, insulting, not letting Arsenio get a word in edgewise. Then Gottfried went in for the kill and asked Arsenio about sleeping with Paula Abdul. Arsenio just sat there baffled, unable to think of a response.
Also, didn’t Letterman have Bill Murray as his first guest? And didn’t he show up drunk on tequilla? I don’t remember seeing the episode, but I remember reading about it.
He was the first guest on both the NBC and CBS shows. I have those on tape, but I can look at them again if you’d like.
I don’t believe he was drunk on the CBS show, though.
It was Richard Belzer. He challenged Hulk Hogan to put him in a headlock, and Belzer passed out. He wasn’t seriously injured. He just had a cut on his head where he fell.
IIRC, Dave asked Ted some general question, about where he was appearing, or his philosophy of life.
Ted answered with a creepy rant that repeated the words ‘death’ and ‘rotting’.
Dave responded (after a suitable pause): “Do you ever go waterskiing?”
And speaking of the Letterdude, I have somewhere a tape of Sam Phillips, the legendary music producer who first recorded Elvis Presley, appearing on the NBC show.
He was drunk off his ass, and totally uncooperative. (Paul Shaffer came and sat beside him).
The last thing Dave asked him was a softball question about his vision for Sun Records, to which he replied, “Now Dave, … that’s pretty serious,… what are you trying to set me up for?”
Dave replied, “Actually Sam, I’m just trying to think of a real nice way to say goodbye”.
(Disclaimer: 25 years or so after this may have happened, I don’t know if this is something I saw myself, or someone at the time told me about… so take with a grain of salt!)
Oprah was co-host of a talk show in Baltimore, MD called, IIRC, People Are Talking. One day they had as a guest a cranky old white geezer named Frank Perdue, the founder of Perdue Chicken (a large chicken company on the east coast of the US… haven’t heard of them in years, and don’t know if they’re still in business…).
After some mindless chit-chat about the chicken business, Oprah asked Mr. Perdue something along the lines of “So, how do you like it when people call you ‘the Chicken Man’?”
Perdue shot back, “How do you like it when people call you a ‘Porch Monkey’?”
They immediately cut to commercial… and when they came back from commercial, Perdue was nowhere to be seen, and no mention was ever made of the incident that I’m aware of…
An episode of Oprah that I am positive I saw was in the late '80s when Forsythe County, Georgia, all-white since a period of racial violence during Jim Crow, was constantly in the news due to their resistance to blacks moving into the county. Oprah filmed the show from a school gym in Forsythe where hundreds of county residents appeared to defend themselves in the media.
One woman stood up to be heard and said in a sweet heavily accented voice something to the effect of the following:
[QUOTE]
Something non-southerners have just got to understand is that when they hear a southerner use the word nigger, it doesn’t mean black. It means a particular type of person… a nigger can be white or black or any other color, it’s how the person lives their lives and acts in public and their values. There are niggers in this room other than Oprah…*
I remember watching this at the time and literally not being able to breathe from laughing so hard for about five minutes. The woman thought she was making such a wonderful point and then of course totally blew it. What totally made the scene even more priceless was Oprah’s expression, which was not “I BEG YOUR PARDON!” mad but more a bemused “Isn’t it sad when dumbasses try to be profound?” head shake.
(BTW- unless things were vastly different in Forsythe County, in the places in the south where I’ve spent almost my whole life thus far the N word is ALWAYS used with racist connotations [and if it’s used against whites it’s only in the sense that it’s comparing them to blacks with the understanding that blacks are automatically inferior], so the poor dope didn’t even have that part going for her.)