# Tom Synder dead at 71 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2007, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668 "2007-07-30T12:40:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/1 "2007-07-30T12:40:48Z")
[Cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Snyder) at Wikipedia ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/2 "2007-07-30T13:03:53Z")
Bummer ☹ . At least we still have Dan Ackroyd. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/3 "2007-07-30T13:11:29Z")
One of the most interesting interviews I ever saw Snyder do was with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and Ken Kesey. It was obvious that Jerry was coked to the gills (I think his moustache may have had flakes in it, IIRC, and he had the twitchy fidgets) and he was just a complete babbling mess. Weir and Kesey picked on him unmercifully and Snyder just sat there and was oblivious. He’d ask a question, Kesey would give a fairly lucid anwer, Weir would expound on it a bit, and Jerry would take it on some weird tangent. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/4 "2007-07-30T13:15:59Z")
No great loss, in a journalistic sense. The idiot would sit there and ask inane questions while laughing at his own jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/5 "2007-07-30T13:21:11Z")
[QUOTE=Dante] No great loss, in a journalistic sense. The idiot would sit there and ask inane questions while laughing at his own jokes. [/QUOTE] Are you basing that on actually watching Snyder work, or on parodies? I saw him do some great interviews. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/6 "2007-07-30T13:23:47Z")
I remember stumbling across his show as a kid, night owl that I was. It’s not the interviews that I remember so much as just how intoxicating it was to watch him sitting there having a conversation with himself, chain smoking like a coal locomotive and periodically engaging in laughterous banter with the off-camera crew members… and was _that_ a laugh! “Har har har har” _thumps cigarette ash into tray_ “Har har har” T’was a strange show but kinda perfect for when you were half asleep anyway. I liked him. Don’t see what he died of. Was it _wince_ cancer? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/7 "2007-07-30T13:30:38Z")
Ah, complications from leukemia. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/8 "2007-07-30T13:50:37Z")
[Ackroyd/Snyder mode on] Well, Tom- you were a master of the art of Talk, and I tip my hat to you, if I had a had, which I presently do not. Hah hah hah. _puts on hat, tips it_ [/off Ackroyd/Snyder mode] Goodbye, Tom - to a young 1970s late-night TV viewer such as myself, you were the Master! ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/9 "2007-07-30T14:16:13Z")
Didn’t the Tomorrow progam alternate with the one hosted by Linda Ellerbee and …oh, hell…shit…what was the guy’s name Lloyd \_\_\_\_\_? “And so it goes…” ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/10 "2007-07-30T14:19:20Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Are you basing that on actually watching Snyder work, or on parodies? I saw him do some great interviews. [/QUOTE] Admittedly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do a full interview. The first time I saw him, I watched for about 10 minutes, and it was just painful. I’d stumble across him again every so often, watch for about 10 minutes, and my opinion never changed. Although to be honest, I have an almost irrational hatred of people who laugh at their own jokes, so I’m probably prejudiced here. I’m sure he was a delightful fellow, a joy to his mother, and a fine judge of cheese, but I couldn’t stand him as an interviewer. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/11 "2007-07-30T14:43:58Z")
[QUOTE=plnnr] Didn’t the Tomorrow progam alternate with the one hosted by Linda Ellerbee and …oh, hell…shit…what was the guy’s name Lloyd \_\_\_\_\_? “And so it goes…” [/QUOTE] TOMORROW ran until 1982, at which time Linda took over with NBC News Overnight, which also had Lloyd Dobyns, who was replaced later by Bill Schechter. And yes, I consulted three Wikipedia articles for this post. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/12 "2007-07-30T15:52:55Z")
I was wondering if his mother is still alive. I remember when he hosted the Late Late Show in the late 1990’s that he would visit his mother weekly. I think she was nearly 100 back then. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/13 "2007-07-30T16:10:51Z")
The only time I ever saw him angry was when he was the guest host of _Later_ and got into several screaming matches with Howard Stern. “No, Howard. When Dan Ackroyd was poking fun at me, it was good-natured. When you do it, you insist that I have a fondness for young Asian girls!” That particular episode ended with Tom walking off the set, leaving Howard sitting there by himself. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/14 "2007-07-30T16:13:33Z")
I remember Weird Al Yankovic made his first network TV appearance on Snyder’s program. If I recall correctly, he performed “Another One Rides the Bus.” ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/15 "2007-07-30T21:19:08Z")
☹☹☹ _Remembers the time spent waiting up all night to see Tom at a nudist colony, only to see nothing but upper body shots and crossed legs._ :mad: ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/16 "2007-07-30T21:22:23Z")
[QUOTE=cochrane] I remember Weird Al Yankovic made his first network TV appearance on Snyder’s program. If I recall correctly, he performed “Another One Rides the Bus.” [/QUOTE] Darn, I was coming in here to mention that. It was indeed. I’m too young to have watched Tom Snyder, but he gets credit in my book for giving Al that air time. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/17 "2007-07-30T22:26:06Z")
I really don’t see the problem some people have with him. I had never watched him until his CNBC series in the 90s. I was astonished at how little Aykroyd’s impression actually resembled him. But honestly, if someone can have such diverse and interesting guests as Peter Ustinov and Harlan Ellison, what’s not to like? There are a number of Snyder interviews on YouTube. One of them from the 1970s (in multiple parts) is with James Doohan, Deforest Kelley, Walter Koenig, and Harlan. It was apparently at the same time as a Star Trek convention. There is also a clip of a Stern inteview with him in 1991 on the CNBC show. Snyder does walk off the set, but it’s while the credits and closing music are running. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/18 "2007-07-30T22:43:23Z")
I used to be a nightowl in college and I enjoyed having his show on in the background. He never took himself seriously, he was always very casual, but I never remember him asking an overtly stupid question. [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiSEbyhAR0k&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fthelede%2Eblogs%2Enytimes%2Ecom%2F2007%2F07%2F30%2Ffire%2Dup%2Da%2Dcolortini%2Dfor%2Dtom%2Dsnyder%2F)’s a nice compilation. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/19 "2007-07-30T23:20:47Z")
I barely remember his original TV show, but I used to watch it faithfully in the summer when I was a kid. I remember being shocked that he interviewed Dave Allen. I never thought I’d see Allen interviewed on an American TV program. Snyder, came off as a fan of Allen, which also surprised me. Snyder always blamed the death of the Tomorrow show on NBC management. He said that he knew the show was in trouble when Wendy O. Williams blew up a car on the show. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668/20 "2007-07-31T01:20:39Z")
I used to watch Tom Snyder in the early days of CBS’ “Late Late Show”, before Craig Kilborn replaced him. The great thing about Tom is he’s probably the last truly spontaneous talk show host. All the current late night hosts just sound so preplanned; their interviews are not really interviews but celebrities willing to be used as comic foils. True he sometimes seems as he’s ignorant of who the guests are, but that actually helps because he learns about them as the audience does. Check out “Tommorrow Show:Punk and New Wave” on DVD. Whether he’s discussing metaphysics with Patti Smith or getting in a pissing match with Johnny Rotten, he gets answers out of guests that no current host could. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-synder-dead-at-71/413668.md?page=2)