RIP: Tom Snyder

Tom Snyder was the enigma of talk show hosts when I was very young.  In my teen years, I would stay up late when I could to watch his show on on a static snow filled channel from over the border, as he smoothly and eloquently handled all sorts of guests in all sorts of ways.  Considering that the gold standard at the time was the light and fluffy Johnny Carson tonight show, Snyder’s Tomorrow show was a much more thoughtful and meaningful late night source.

There are two episodes as a teen that I remember that stood out for me.  Tom Snyder had an eye for the counter culture of the day, which at the time was visibly represented by punk rock.  One fine night he had punk rocker Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols on.  Now, at the best of times Rotten is a weird egg and certainly prone to odd behavior.  Well, he got on the show, sat down in front of Tom, and decided that he truly didn’t want to be interviewed.  For 12 minutes, Tom fought the good fight and got more out of Johnny than Mr Rotten even intended.

On two different occassions, Tom welcomed the insanity that was the late Wendy O. Williams and Plasmatics.  Their version of punk was very extreme, and inclued sawing a guiltar in half (while it was hooked to an amplfier, of course, the the blowing up of both a television and a car.   Through it all, Tom Snyder sat there sort of like the semi-disapproving parent, shocked, entertained, and in awe of the disaster around him.

The Tomorrow show was cancelled too soon, and soon enough the space was filled by a young comic named David Letterman.  Tom Snyder passed away today at age 71, and the world has lost a great, entertaining, and intelligent man.