With movie and TV actors doing press tours in multiple countries - to include talk-show appearances and the like, it wouldn’t be unexpected for a British actor (say, Martin Freeman) to appear on an American talk show (say, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon). Nor would it be unexpected for an American actor (say, Jason Sudeikis) to appear on a British talk show (say, Nigel Dalrymple’s Hour Of Tea And Crumpets or whatever the hell they have over there).
When you’re about to go on a talk show, does your agent give you a heads-up about what to expect? Do you get warned that Jimmy Fallon is (mostly) family-friendly and avoids controversy and blue humor? Do you get warned that David Letterman can be a snarky asshole who might make fun of you?
Short answer, yes. The agents and the talk show people usually have a working relationship, and its in their mutual interest not to have a guest segment fall completely flat because the host wants to play beer pong and the guest wants to talk about normalization of relations with Cuba.
My company once told a client not to go on Letterman because our client had absolutely no sense of humor. It would have been a slaughter.
I’d say the one exception would be the Daily Show with John Stewart. It seems like they prey on people not knowing what there about. (In their corespondent segments, not the main interview.)
I would send the potential guests a few episodes on DVD. But judging by how some of them react, I don’t think that’s what happens, some of them seem completely blindsided by weirdness.
There used to be a very strange TV show here in Australia called Hey Hey It’s Saturday, and that confused a lot of international guests. It was sort of like if you took Craig Ferguson’s show, removed any real preparation, took any formula and twisted it upside down and into a knot, had not just a fake horse and robot but tripled the randomness (in this case an ostrich puppet, a lunatic in a duck suit, a sarcastic head on a stick, a cartoonist, a cheesy announcer, a cynical house band, a “talent” show, improvised on-screen graphics, and a lot more besides) and stretched it to two hours per episode. For a long time it was Aus’s most popular show. The guests didn’t know what hit them.
Back in 1985, Kate Bush was to appear on Letterman, according to a schedule we got from her record company. She decided not to. I assume she watched his show the night before and noticed that he is an asshole.
Why would you get that impression? I’ve watched Letterman for over 30 years and he very rarely interviews the musical guests. I could be wrong but doesn’t Kate Bush have (1) a fear of flying and (2) a problem with stage fright?
That being said, I’m sorry Kate didn’t perform on Letterman’s show back in 1985.
She was in New York for several days doing TV, print and radio interviews. She performed on none of them. She flew over on the Concorde.
As am I. She did appear on Saturday Night Live, and had a positive experience with Paul Schafer, so that is the only reason I can think of as why it was ever scheduled.
Not only do guests get a heads up on what kind of show they’re appearing on (if they don’t already know), the flow of conversation is outlined (not scripted) so both the host and guest know what they’re going to talk about and what kind of questions are going to get asked. Of course, there are some pieces that are done totally impromptu (and these often make the most interesting/funny television), but for the most part, the dialogue is prepared beforehand so the guest can give interesting anecdotes and funny quips.
In the old days of Carson they would have more people on who were not celebs. Partly because his show was 90 minutes back then. These days there are less “regular” people on the shows. I think for the most part they treated the non celebs with kid gloves.
This may have been true once upon a time, but corespondent segments don’t work like that anymore. The people they’re interviewing know exactly what show they’re on and DON’T CARE.
Can’t remember who this was, but I recall seeing a famous British actor on the Letterman show several decades ago who said that his agent warned against appearing on the show, because “Letterman’s a terrible interviewer.” The actor said he told his agent, “That’s okay - I’m a terrible interview!”
This thread made me think of a particularly awkward episode of the David Letterman show. A long time ago, David Letterman did a series of shows filmed in London, England. One of his guests was Annie Lennox (she performed “No More I Love You’s”, which was her big radio hit at the time.) She was also invited to sit at the desk and speak with him after a commercial break.
I never found out what happened during that commercial break, but when they came back Lennox was clearly pissed off and furious about something. Their conversation went something like this:
Letterman: “So, this is your second solo album?”
Lennox: “Yep.”
(Crickets)
Letterman: “Uhhhh, you sounded great.”
Lennox: “Whatever.”
(Crickets)
Letterman: “Um…we’ll be back after this commercial break.”
When they returned, Lennox was gone and Letterman was mugging furiously in a bit to fill up time on the program in which he expected to be interviewing her.
I don’t know if it was Letterman’s fault, or Lennox’s. I know that she had appeared on his show previously (as part of Eurythmics), so she had to have some idea of what she was getting into.
On the other side of the coin (and the ditch), I’ve seen a few american guests on UK shows (Jonathon Ross, Graham Norton) sitting blinking in the lights like stunned mullets. There are fewer language restrictions on language for post-watershed shows, and the lines of questioning and generalised willingness to take the piss throw american actors off-guard (if they are not pre-prepared).