Theres been many talk shows where a guest was just funny, engaging, etc. Do you recall any where the guest was just boring, too quiet, or obnoxious?
For years Meryl Streep wouldn’t appear on talk shows, even when she had a movie to plug. She finally changed her mind (I think it was for The Devil Wears Prada). I saw her one of her appearances and she was so stiff and uncomfortable I felt sorry for her. When it came time for her to tell the mandatory humorous anecdote, she was so awkward it felt like, “Okay, here is the part of the interview where I am supposed to tell a humorous anecdote. I will now begin with the setup.”
I remember when Crispin Glover got kicked off the Letterman show. What was wrong with him?
The classic example is Robert Mitchum. He was notorious for giving one-word answers and revealing nothing about anything.
I don’t recall them BECAUSE they are boring or too quiet. I would say MOST talk show guest are boring. I only remember the good ones. Or the horribly bad ones.
Every time I’ve seen Harrison Ford on a talk show, he seemed kind of awkward.
Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro on Letterman. Not only were they dressed like slobs with no grooming, it was clear they didn’t want to be there. (Why they were on the show at all I don’t remember.) They barely answered David’s questions and basically fumbled their way through that night’s Top Ten. You could tell they just didn’t give a shit and were quite possibly stoned to the gills.
This was maybe seven–eight years ago; I don’t recall exactly.
Chevy Chase on Johnny Carson. His ego is in proportion to his talent. It was horribly uncomfortable. Richard Pryor told him no one liked him.
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And then on Tom Snyder the dingleberry had this to say about Carey Grant: “I understand he was a homo. He was brilliant. What a gal!” CG slapped him with a slander suit for his troubles. Not sure if it was the same Carson show above, (and can’t remember the guest), but as the guest was talking to JC, Chevy, sitting on the couch next to the guest, acted like a grandstanding poopypants, blowing kisses and making goofy faces at the camera.
Awkward, like, dazed-as-fuck awkward.
Intentionally slow? Just to be, I dunno, douchey?
Somewhat related link
I don’t remember who she was, but Tom Snyder had a female guest circa 1982 who was ranting about men being rapists. Snyder said something like, “I suppose you think I’m here to rape you,” and she responded with, “You’d like to.” Then Snyder lit into her and she was gone after the commercial break. Don’t recall if all guests were gone after commercials breaks or if they hung out like on Carson, so it may not be unusual that she was gone. The next guest commended Snyder on how he handled the situation, but Snyder cut him off and said that since the person was no longer there to defend herself, he didn’t want to talk about her.
Most talk show interviews of film of TV stars are not even worth watching, because most of them have nothing to say worth hearing. They’re actually not funny and engaging; the host is just dancing around verbally to make them seem that they are. It’s a completely pointless waste of time to watch.
He was OK on Graham Norton, but then the guests are all on at once, so there’s less individual pressure to perform. De Niro seems to relax a bit in that format too.
Yeah, Ford was the first one to come to mind for me. Seems really uncomfortable in front of a camera if he isn’t playing a character.
I can’t think of any specific people, but my favorite talk show used to be The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. There used to be guests that would come on and already be familiar with the show and Craig Ferguson’s sense of humor and would go with. But then occasionally someone would come on completely clueless and unreceptive, and you could see Craig deflate and all life go out of the conversation. (You would also catch liars, who would come on and at the beginning of the interview tell Craig how much they loved his show, then notice the guys in the horse suit and the gay robot skeleton and be baffled about it, exposing that they had never watched the show at all.)
I thought it was performance art, sort of a poor man’s Andy Kaufman.
I suspect that Harrison Ford is usually high as balls when he appears on a talk show.
Speaking of obnoxious, I think that David Letterman genuinely despised Richard Simmons. The time that Dave sprayed Simmons with a fire extinguisher and he had to be taken away in an ambulance? That wasn’t playing.
I think you’re remembering it wrong. Dave was the one who almost got kicked. 
Letterman had some real doozies when he was on NBC. There was Oliver Reed, who came on the show completely smashed and just acted like a total dick. There was one night when Dave had Jane Pauley on, and it also happened to be one of their “gimmick” shows, this one where everyone’s voice was electronically sped up to sound like chipmunks. Jane Pauley refused to open her mouth, so the entire interview was pretty much just Dave talking. I think she may have said one or two words right at the end.
Bo Derek on the old Letterman show (when he wasn’t afraid to poke fun at someone). She was dumb dumb dumb. Dave had a copy of her high school yearbook and showed her photo in it. She vehemently denied every having gone to school there. Actually, it seemed she couldn’t remember going to high school at all.
Ha! I saw that one. That’s exactly how I remember it.
Saw Chevy on a recent Carson rerun. Also agree with above. Painful to watch. I didn’t think he was particularly funny on SNL, either, but I actually more or less liked most of his movies.
Saw Joe Flynn (Capt. Binghamton from “McHale’s Navy”) on Carson. Seemed to mumble and pause constantly.
Saw Mitchum on an Carson rerun. Much more talkative with Carson–and much more polite about not watching his own movies.
DeNiro was the worst guest on every show. He hated talk shows and went only when forced. Never uttered a complete sentence or engaged in repartee.
Nobody remembers the merely boring guests though. They are legion. I’ve pretty much given up watching guests who aren’t comedians. I don’t care about how the third lead on You’ve Not My Uncle broke into showbiz.