Moments that made you think - is that guest stoned? or drunk? or stupid?
Last night I watched a Letterman rerun. Kristin Stewart, the ingenue from “Twilight”, was on plugging the movie. Or supposedly plugging the movie - she sounded like she’d wandered in from a shelter or a ward or something. Had absolutely nothing coherent or interesting to say. (except that her parents were both in show business). and she had no enthusiasm. her body language said either “I’m too cool for this” or “I’m obviously here just cause I have to be”. Now - she may be an interesting, nice person in real life, but, like, Wow. When I get my big movie, that’s sure not I’m gonna promote it (not that “Twilight” neede much promo, I guess).
Is this the one where Letterman starts out with a bewildering barrage of bizarre questions & assertions about vampires and bats? 'Case I kinda think she got lost in the dust.
I think the classic in this category must be Crispin Glover’s 1987 appearance on the Letterman show.
It wasn’t a talk show, exactly, but it was definitely a WTF moment, and was an almost shocking reminder of how much things have changed in a generation. It was watching an old Password show. And I mean old, like black and white. Two new players came on, a man and a woman. The host turned to the man and said, “What do you do for a living?” The man gave a brief (probably rehearsed) answer. Then the host turned to the woman.
“And what does your husband do?” he asked her.
Without so much as a blink, she answered. There was no blink from anyone. Not the host. Not the stars. No moan from the audience. Nothing. It was just perfectly natural to assume that the woman did not work, and that if she did, her work was insufficiently significant to merit any mention.
I remember thinking Owen Wilson looked TOTTALY gone on The Daily Show. I thought it was just me, because I was smoking at the time. Then Jon ask; “How high are you!?”. Wilson blamed it on “runner’s high”. I don’t think it was THAT long ago.
There were two other weird interviews with Jon. One, in which he interviewed two of the Spice Girls. The other, (I really should look for), he interviewed John Cusack, and it felt VERY weird if I remember correctly.
Other’s include Crispin Glover on Letterman, (where he came a few feet away of kicking in the face). Tom Green on Leno, (where he drank the whole time, so imagine Tom Green, but wasted, and you get a clear idea of what that was like).
Does Spaghetti Cat count?
Yeah Nametag, that’s the one I was thinking of. Sure Dave rambled about bats: “Twilight’s” a Vampire movie.
Still haven’t figured Crispin Glover out. The others mentioned so far I haven’t seen.
(As for funny moments, there was Groucho’s cigar comment on “You Bet Your Life”. He says to the woman who has numerous kids that he likes his cigar but he takes it out once in a while.
Also - on an old “Newlywed” Show, the winning couple were shown their OOOh brand-new huge TV. They said ‘but we don’t watch TV’. The host replied 'you do now."
And those two shows were more talk than game, weren’t they?
I would think Tom Cruise trying to kill Oprah and break her couch, or whatever the hell he thought he was doing, would rank pretty high on this kind of list.
some others:
Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler on Letterman.
Harvey Pekar on Letterman.
Tracy Jordan on Conan.
Two other unusual Daily Show interviews- Roger Ebert (weird in a good way) and (I believe) Chris Matthews (weird in a weird way).
Obviously the Tom Cruise interview with Matt Lauer when he was talking about how well read he, Tom Cruise, was on the subject of anti-depressants and postpartum depression, and so his opinion was just so much more informed, and important, than anyone else’s. That was definitely an eye opening interview, in not a good way.
Madonna’s interview with David Letterman was just embarrassingly awful. I think she was trying to be flip and cool and just came off as a disrespectful hag.
I kind of always knew Farrah Fawcett was a druggie, but nothing prepared me for her rambling David Letterman interview. I don’t know what was worse – the way she looked or the way she acted.
Could you elaborate? This doesn’t really tell me anything, I barely know who they even are.
While you do have a point, the host (I’m assuming Alan Ludden) already had a short bio of the woman and knew she didn’t have a job. In addition, if the husband had a job out of the ordinary, it would get right to the more interesting answer.
Ludden’s wife* worked, of course, so I doubt he’d automatically assume a woman didn’t work outside the home.
Back to the OP, I recall one appearance of Groucho Marx on the Dick Cavett show in the early 70s where Groucho seems really out of it – rambling on and jumping from subject to subject.
*Betty White
Kaufman vs Lawler:
Harvey Pekar on Letterman:
(As shown on “American Splender”)
The last one was a joke example for 30 Rock fans. Sorry for ambiguity.
I can elaborate on “Tracy Jordan on Conan”- a fictional encounter from 30 Rock in which Conan was nearly killed by his guest, mimicking a knife-wielding “stabbing robot.”
Anyone who’s interested in this thread should check out The Larry Sanders Show. I heard A lot of the scenarios were based on real life events.
Kaufman vs Lawler was even recreated in the motion picture “Man On the Moon” with David Letterman, Paul Schaeffer and Jerry Lawler as themselves and Jim Carrey playing Andy Kaufman. Although it was very distracting seeing Letterman and Schaeffer looking their true ages in 1999 and not as their 1982 selves, which a little makeup and some new hairpieces probably would have taken care of.
I should also clarify that Harvey Pekar on Letterman was REFERENCED in the movie “American Splender”, not shown as I previously said.
When Michael Douglas and Danny Devito were plugging the movie “The War of the Roses” on the Arsenio Hall show and Arsenio Hall gives away the ending of the movie. Michael Douglas was so pissed off that he almost walked off the show.
Danny DeVito on The View a couple of years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46wakJ8oggM