The Dick Cavett Show is the title of several talk shows hosted byDick Cavett on various television networks, including:

• ABCdaytime, (March 4, 1968 – January 24, 1969) originally titledThis Morning
• ABC prime time, Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays (May 26 – September 19, 1969)
• ABClate night (December 29, 1969 – January 1, 1975)
• CBS prime time, Saturdays (August 16 – September 6, 1975; this version was actually more of a variety show)
• PBS, early evenings, weeknights (October 10, 1977 – October 8, 1982)
• USA Network prime time (September 30, 1985 – September 23, 1986)
• ABC late night, Tuesdays & Wednesday nights (September 22 – December 30, 1986)
• CNBC (April 17, 1989 – January 26, 1996)
• TCM (2006–2007)

The Dick Cavett Show
Dick Cavett in 2008
Created by	Dick Cavett
Presented by	Dick Cavett
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Running time	90 minutes
Original release
Release	March 4, 1968 (1968-03-04) – December 30, 1986 (1986-12-30)

Cavett normally taped his programs inNew York City, though occasionally he would venture elsewhere, including Los Angeles, New Orleans and London.

The Dick Cavett Show refers to television programs on the ABC, PBS, USA and CNBC networks hosted by comedian, comedy writer and authorDick Cavett between 1968 and 1995 in New York. The firstdaytime show featuredGore Vidal,Muhammad Ali andAngela Lansbury. ABC pressured Cavett to get prominent celebrities on the show, although subsequent shows without them got higher ratings and more critical acclaim.

A well-received summer replacement prime-time series that aired three times per week led to the memorablelate-night talk show that ran from December 29, 1969, to January 1, 1975, oppositeNBC'sThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Cavett took the time slot over fromThe Joey Bishop Show. In addition to his usual monologue, Cavett opened each show reading selected questions written by audience members, to which he would respond with witty rejoinders. ("What makes New York so crummy these days?" "Tourists.")

While Cavett and Carson shared many of the same guests, Cavett was receptive torock and roll artists to a degree unusual at the time, as well as to authors, politicians and other personalities outside the entertainment field. The wide variety of guests, combined with Cavett's literate and intelligent approach to comedy, appealed to a significant enough number of viewers to keep the show running for several years despite the competition from Carson's show. Carson's move to southern California in the early 1970s to focus onHollywood celebrities also helped to minimize guest overlap.

The late-night show's 45-minute midpoint would always be signaled by the musical piece "Glitter and Be Gay" fromLeonard Bernstein'sCandide. TheCandide snippet became Cavett's theme song and was used as the introduction to his later PBS series, and was played by the house band on his various talk show appearances.

Typically each show had several guests, but occasionally Cavett would devote an entire show to a single guest. Among those receiving such special treatment (some more than once) wereGroucho Marx,^[1]Laurence Olivier,Judy Garland,Katharine Hepburn (without an audience),Bette Davis,Orson Welles,Noël Coward (who appeared on the same show withAlfred Lunt,Lynn Fontanne,Tammy Grimes andBrian Bedford),John Lennon andYoko Ono,Janis Joplin,Ray Charles,Alfred Hitchcock,Fred Astaire,Woody Allen,Gloria Swanson,Jerry Lewis,Lucille Ball,Zero Mostel ("on some shows I've had just one guest, but tonight I have Zero"),Bob Hope andDavid Bowie. These shows helped showcase Cavett's skills as a host who could attract guests that otherwise might not do interviews, at the expense of some of the excitement that might ensue from the multiple-guest format.

In January 1973, despite a vociferous letter campaign, ratings forced the show to be cut back to occasional status, airing one week a month under the umbrella titleABC's Wide World of Entertainment.Jack Paar, whom ABC had tried to recruit as Cavett's successor, insisted that both he and Cavett would be given at least one week per month as a sign of respect for Cavett. By the end of 1974, Cavett's show was airing only twice per month.

The PBS series featured single guests in a half-hour format and was produced byChristopher Porterfield, a former roommate of Cavett's atYale University who had coauthored the bookCavett that was published in August 1974. The show remained on the PBS lineup until affiliates voted it off the schedule in 1982.

On all three of the early ABC shows the bandleader wasBobby Rosengarden and the announcer wasFred Foy ofThe Lone Ranger fame. The morning show was produced by Woody Fraser. Tony Converse was the producer of the 1969 ABC prime-time show and the original producer of the ABC late-night show, succeeded by John Gilroy. Cavett's writer wasDave Lloyd.

The Dick Cavett Show was also the name of a short-lived radio show.

In the first broadcast of his 90-minute morning show, Cavett had as his first guest engineer, designer and futuristBuckminster Fuller. The two discussed how politicians would eventually become obsolete through technological advances, and the wide-ranging discussion included a comment from Fuller that a woman is a baby factory and that a man's role is to simply press the right button. Later on in the program, Cavett chatted with actressPatricia Neal, who discussed her long rehabilitation from a near-fatal stroke in 1965.

During an interview withChristine Jorgensen, the first widely knowntrans woman to havesex reassignment surgery (in this case a complete male-to-femalevaginoplasty), Jorgensen walked off the show when she felt offended after Cavett asked her about the status of her romantic life with her wife; because Jorgensen was the only scheduled guest, Cavett spent the rest of that show talking about how he had not meant to offend her.

As a result of continuing coverage of theRobert F. Kennedy assassination that took place earlier that morning, Cavett's show did not begin until 11 am, and was interrupted at 11:20 for 30 minutes of further updates on the unfolding tragedy. At 11:50, Cavett's show returned for its final 10 minutes. The assassination was the only topic discussed during the 30 minutes of the show. On the following two mornings, the show began at its regular time of 10:30 am, and was once again devoted exclusively to assassination coverage, and presented without commercial interruption.

Because of conflicting network broadcasts, Cavett pre-taped a one-man, 60-minute episode with Groucho Marx.^[1]

In the July 7, 1969, interview, rock starJimi Hendrix modestly downplayed his abilities and displayed his sense of humor. Perhaps most importantly, he revealed some of his aesthetic ideals and the purpose of his music when he discussed his concept of the "Electric Church":

[Music] is getting to be more spiritual than anything now. Pretty soon I believe that they are going to have to rely on music to get some kind of peace of mind or satisfaction—direction, actually—more so than politics, because politics is really on an ego scene…[Politics] is the art of words, which means nothing. So, therefore you have to rely on more of an earthier substance like music or the arts, theater, acting, painting, whatever…[The Electric Church] is a belief that I have. We do use electric guitars. Everything is electrified nowadays. So, therefore the belief comes through electricity to people. That's why we play so loud. Because it doesn't actually hit through the eardrums like most groups do nowadays. They say 'Well, we're going to play loud too, because they're playing loud.' And they've got this real shrill sound that's really hard. We plan for our sound to go inside the soul of the person…and see if they can awaken some sort of thing in their minds, because there are so many sleeping people.

Hendrix then performed "Hear My Train A Comin'" with the house band and played the guitar with his teeth at the end of the song.

On Tuesday, August 19, 1969,Jefferson Airplane,Joni Mitchell,David Crosby andStephen Stills (ofCrosby, Stills, Nash & Young) all appeared on the show. The episode is now often referred to as "TheWoodstock Show", as many of the performers, and Cavett's audience, came directly from the concert for the taping the afternoon before the show aired. Stills pointed out the mud from the concert venue still on his pants. Jefferson Airplane's performance of "We Can Be Together" marked the first time the word "fuck" was uttered on television in the US (the actual line is "In order to survive we steal, cheat, lie, forge, fuck, hide and deal". Another line with the forbidden word was "Up against the wall,Up against the wall, motherfucker".). Mitchell sang "Chelsea Morning", "Willy" and "For Free".Grace Slick purposefully called Cavett "Jim" and briefly talked about her school days atFinch College. Stephen Stills performed "4 + 20". Joni Mitchell sang "The Fiddle and the Drum"a cappella. Jefferson Airplane (with Crosby) then launched into "Somebody to Love". The credits rolled as the musicians, without Mitchell, engaged in an instrumental jam as the audience danced.

Jimi Hendrix was scheduled to join the others, but was unable to appear at the afternoon taping that occurred only a few hours after he had performed at the late-running festival. Mitchell's manager, apparently fearing a similar situation that may have prevented her from appearing on the show, did not allow her to perform at Woodstock. He considered theDick Cavett Show too important for her career for her to risk missing the taping.^[2]

Mitchell wrote the song "Woodstock" based on descriptions byGraham Nash and from the images she saw on television, as she could not be there in person. The most famous version of the song is by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who recorded it for theirDéjà Vu album (1970). It appears in the filmWoodstock during the closing credits. Mitchell recorded it forLadies of the Canyon (1970).

Groucho Marx remarked about the Musical theatre musicalHair, which had just opened and was notorious for its ground-breaking use of explicit nudity: "I was going to go, but I saw myself in the mirror one morning, and I figured, why waste five and a half dollars?"

In an interview with Jimi Hendrix, Cavett spoke about Hendrix's performance of the "Star Spangled Banner" at Woodstock, and called the style "unorthodox". Jimi commented that the song was "not unorthodox" and that what he played was beautiful. The audience clapped, and Dick blushed.

Hendrix performed "Izabella" & "Machine Gun" with his band,Billy Cox,Mitch Mitchell andJuma Sultan.

During an interview with singerJudy Collins in which Cavett and Collins discussed her experiences as a defense witness at theChicago Seven trial, several of Collins' comments were censored at the direction of the ABC legal department. Collins wrote a protest letter to theFederal Communications Commission (FCC), claiming a violation of her free-speech rights and the network license granted to ABC by the FCC. Her protest was denied, with the FCC ruling that a television network could, at its discretion, delete or edit remarks on its programs.Elton Rule, president of ABC Television, noted that in the network's judgment, "her remarks ... were not within the bounds of fair comment."

Blues guitaristEric Clapton appeared on the show with a new group calledDelaney & Bonnie & Friends, which was Clapton's first attempt to break from his lead role and operate as an anonymous sideman. This was also possibly the first time Clapton had appeared on American television with aFender Stratocaster; up to that time, he was famous for only playingGibson guitars. Cavett briefly interviewed the band but the shy Clapton did not have much to say.

To honorNoël Coward on the occasion of his knighthood, Cavett interviewed Coward and his close friends, the Lunts. Tammy Grimes and Brian Bedford, who were appearing on Broadway in a revival of Coward's classic playPrivate Lives, performed a medley of Coward's most popular songs. At one point during the interview, Cavett asked Coward, "What is the word for when one has terrific, prolific qualities?" to which Coward answered in a deadpan manner, "Talent", drawing a great amount of laughter.

ActorsMark Frechette andDaria Halprin appeared together with movie producerMel Brooks and movie criticRex Reed. The interview went poorly from the outset, with Frechette giving abrupt, non-conversational answers and Halprin staying silent. Cavett apparently believed that they lived in acommune, when they in fact were followers of guruMel Lyman. When Cavett asked about the "commune" where they lived, Frechette denied that it was a commune and said that "The community is for one purpose, and that's to serve Mel Lyman, who's the leader and founder of that community." At that point, Halprin finally tried to speak, but Cavett went to commercial. When the show returned, the next guest, Dr. Aaron Stern, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist and director of theMPAA'scode and rating administration, was brought out, and Frechette and Halprin were not interviewed further.

Around halfway through Cavett'sOrson Welles interview, Welles reversed the roles and began asking Cavett questions about his life and career. This impromptu interview was well received by the audience and, among other things, humorously acknowledged Cavett's talk-show competitors such asJohnny Carson andMerv Griffin.

DirectorJohn Cassavetes and actorsPeter Falk andBen Gazzara appeared on the show to promote the movieHusbands. All three guests were highly intoxicated, and "for thirty-five minutes they smoked, flopped around on the floor, and generally tormented Cavett, whose questions they'd planned to ignore."^[3] Dick Cavett pronounced it "one of the most interesting evenings of my life."^[3]

Retiring Georgia governorLester Maddox, appearing in a panel discussion with authorTruman Capote and football greatJim Brown, walked off the show in the middle of a conversation aboutsegregation. Cavett had made a reference to the "bigots" who had elected Maddox. Following an exchange about how insulting the remark might have been and Maddox's demand for an apology, Cavett finally apologized to those Georgians who had supported Maddox that might not be bigots. Not satisfied, Maddox left the studio. During the hastily called commercial break, Cavett tried to coax Maddox back to no avail. Cavett suspected that the behavior was mere showmanship and a calculatedpublicity stunt. The incident was reported on the news before it aired that night, increasing viewership. InGreenwood, Mississippi, the hometown of Cavett's wifeCarrie Nye, the guests at acountry club dance abandoned the dance floor to watch the show on the TV in the lounge. InAtlanta, then-ABC affiliate WQXI-TV (nowWXIA) led with the story on its 11 p.m. newscast, but as it was a Friday night, when the station normally aired movies and delayed Cavett's Friday show to Sunday, Atlanta viewers had to wait until Sunday night to see the incident.

Capote, after watching Maddox walk offstage, paused and quipped, "I've been to his restaurant and his chicken isn't thatfinger lickin' good." Years later, Cavett said he got more comments about the show (including some 6,000 pieces ofhate mail) than any other he had done.^[4]

Maddox later returned for another appearance, and this time Cavett walked off as a joke. Left alone on stage, Maddox cued the band and began singing "I Don't Know Why I Love You Like I Do" as Cavett reappeared in the wings to join in.

The walk-off incident is mentioned at the beginning of theRandy Newman song "Rednecks".

Surrealist artistSalvador Dalí appeared on the show with silent-screen starLillian Gish and baseball legendSatchel Paige. Dalí brought an anteater on a leash with him when he came on stage, and he tossed it in Gish's lap, much to her consternation.

Cavett asked Dalí why he had once arrived to give a lecture at theSorbonne in an open limousine filled with heads of cauliflower. Dalí responded with a barely coherent discourse regarding the similarity of the cauliflower head to the "mathematical problem discovered byMichelangelo in the rhinoceros' horn."

Cavett interrupted him by waving his hands in Dalí's face, exclaiming "Boogie boogie!" (imitatingGroucho Marx in the filmA Night at the Opera). The audience broke up, and Dalí appeared at a loss.

ActorRobert Mitchum, known for avoiding public appearances, gave a rare interview as the sole guest. Mitchum talked about his childhood, Hollywood, his disdain for politics and politicians and his 1948 arrest. The show featured film clips fromRyan's Daughter (1970) andThe Night of the Hunter (1955).

On June 7, 1971, publisherJ. I. Rodale, founder ofRodale, Inc., a health and wellness publishing conglomerate headquartered inEmmaus, Pennsylvania, died of a heart attack during the taping of a segment for the show.^[5] Cavett was speaking with journalistPete Hamill when Rodale began to make a snoring noise. Cavett's reaction to this is contested: he claims that both he and Hamill realized immediately that something was wrong, while other accounts have him addressing the unconscious man with "Are we boring you, Mr. Rodale?" The audience did not realize anything was seriously wrong until Cavett asked if there were any medical doctors present.^{[citation needed]}

The program was never aired and a rerun was shown in its place.^[6] On the following night's program, Cavett discussed the previous night's event in depth. He has said that he is often approached by people wanting to discuss the incident, mistakenly convinced that they saw it on television. He would usually ask if the person was in the studio audience, which was the only way to witness it since the episode was never broadcast.^[7]

During a debate about the Vietnam War, Cavett had two veterans debating on the show. The anti-war side was led by a youngJohn Kerry and the pro-war side byJohn E. O'Neill, later the founder ofSwift Boat Veterans for Truth. It was later revealed through then-PresidentRichard Nixon's secretWhite House tapes that Nixon wanted to "get rid" of Cavett because of this debate.

DirectorIngmar Bergman appeared for the first time on a US talk show, one of the few television interviews he ever granted.

Actor/singerDanny Kaye appeared for the entire show with film clips, performing and promotingUNICEF.

Moments before the episode withGore Vidal,Norman Mailer andJanet Flanner, Mailer, annoyed with Vidal's less-than-stellar review ofPrisoner of Sex, headbutted Vidal and traded insults with him backstage.^[8] As the show began taping, a visibly belligerent Mailer, who admitted he had been drinking,^[8] goaded Vidal and Cavett into trading insults with him on air and continually referred to his "greater intellect". He openly taunted and mocked Vidal (who responded in kind), finally earning the ire of Flanner, who announced that she had become "very, very bored" with the discussion, telling Mailer and Vidal "You act as if you're the only people here." Mailer moved his chair away from the other guests and Cavett joked that "perhaps you'd like two more chairs to contain your giant intellect?"^[9][10] Mailer replied "I'll take the two chairs if you'll all acceptfinger bowls." As Cavett professed to not understand Mailer's "finger bowl" comment and made further jokes, Mailer stated "Why don't you look at your question sheet and ask your question?", to which Cavett responded "Why don't you fold it five ways and put it where the moon don't shine?"^[8][10]

A long laugh by the audience ensued, after which Mailer asked Cavett if he had "come up with that line himself". Cavett replied, "I have to tell you a quote fromTolstoy?"

The headbutting and later on-air altercation was described by Mailer in his short bookOf a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots, including a description that does not jibe with the videotape and which was disputed by Cavett decades later in hisNew York Times online column.^[11] Cavett noted that Mailer said that he received more mail about this episode than for anything else in his career.^[12]

CriticJohn Simon revealed on the air that during the most recent commercial break, fellow guestMort Sahl had threatened to punch him in the mouth.

Cavett did a two-part show on pornography; both parts were taped the same day and shown on two nights. During the first part, he discussed the depiction of oral sex in movies and made a parenthetical utterance: "oral-genital sex...mouth on sex organs." A flap ensued when executives demanded that the censor cut the second phrase.

An angry Cavett described the ongoing situation at the beginning of the second part, reusing the phrase. One of the guests, legal scholarAlexander Bickel, sided with Cavett. The result was that the show aired with the phrase cut the first night but intact for the second night.

During and following the Watergate scandal, which resulted in the resignation of PresidentRichard Nixon, Cavett's guests included:

• Barry Goldwater, senior Republican Senator from Arizona
• G. Gordon Liddy, former FBI agent, one of the headWhite House Plumbers one of the originalWatergate Seven
• Richard Kleindienst, Attorney General succeedingJohn N. Mitchell and followed byElliot Richardson
• Bob Woodward andCarl Bernstein,Washington Post metropolitan writers and Watergate investigative reporters
• Walter Cronkite,CBS Evening News anchor who aired segments on Watergate using Woodward and Bernstein'sWashington Post coverage
• John Ehrlichman, Nixon chief domestic policy advisor and one of the laterWatergate Seven
• Jeb Magruder, CRP coordinator turned witness
• John Dean, Nixon White House counsel and cover-up coordinator turned star witness
• Members of theSenate Watergate Committee in charge of theWatergate hearings
  • ChairmanSam Ervin (D-NC)
  • Vice chairmanHoward Baker (R-TN) and membersLowell Weicker (R-CT),Daniel Inouye (D-HI) andHerman Talmadge (D-GA) in the Senate Caucus Room with an audience
• Gore Vidal
• Gerald Ford, House Minority Leader, Vice President followingSpiro Agnew's resignation and President following Nixon's resignation
• Henry Kissinger, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State

It later emerged from theNixon White House tapes that Cavett was viewed as an enemy by Nixon and thus had staff who had taxes audited in retaliation. Cavett's Watergate coverage and interviews were later spotlighted in a PBS documentary calledDick Cavett's Watergate featuring Cavett, Woodward, Bernstein, Dean and former Nixon Presidential Library directorTimothy Naftali.^[13]

During the taping of this episode, actorChad Everett upsetfeminist actress/comedianLily Tomlin. Tomlin became so enraged when Everett referred to his wife as "my property" that she stormed off the set and refused to return.^[14]

Angela Davis, an activist who was associated with theBlack Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s, cancelled a scheduled appearance on June 27, 1972. The basis for the controversy was the continuing debate over the SST (supersonic transport) system. ABC had insisted on inviting eitherWilliam F. Buckley, Jr. orWilliam Rusher of the conservativeNational Review magazine to have a balanced viewpoint, but Davis declined.

A show withSecretary of the InteriorRogers Morton resulted in nine animals being added to the endangered species list after Cavett commented on them.

Marlon Brando, who just months earlier had rejected his Academy Award forThe Godfather to protest the plight ofAmerican Indians, appeared on the show with representatives of theCheyenne,Paiute andLummi tribes to promote his views.^[15] After the program ended, Brando assaulted photographerRon Galella, who ended up in the hospital after being punched in the face.

Having previously never appeared on television,Katharine Hepburn—for reasons still unknown—decided to visit Cavett's studio for a tour. After critiquing the carpet and rearranging the set, Hepburn suggested they "go ahead and do it now."^[16] During her two-part interview, Hepburn got up and left at the end of the first half of the interview, thinking her job was done. Cavett apologized to the audience, promising that she would be back the next evening (she was). However, this was actually staged by Cavett and Hepburn as a joke.^[17]

Actress Carol Burnett appeared and was interviewed for the entire 90-minute program.^[18]

PianistOscar Peterson expertly demonstrated the styles ofArt Tatum,Erroll Garner,Nat King Cole andGeorge Shearing. The show began with Peterson playing a solo piece and he then discussed his debut and his view on critics.

FilmmakerJean-Luc Godard appeared in two 1980 episodes promoting the filmEvery Man for Himself and discussing his philosophy of filmmaking. These are included as supplements on theCriterion Collection's DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film.

Five DVD sets have been released featuring various episodes of the series.

Global Image Works, the current owner of the footage of the show, has made a YouTube channel with clips from the show. It launched on June 7, 2018. As of February 2024, the channel has over 134 million views.^[19] News outlets have covered clips from the show, mostly because of the celebrities.^[20][21][22]HBO released a documentary calledAli and Cavett: The Tale of Tapes, which is about Muhammad Ali's friendship with him, making the show even more popular in the 2020s.^[23]

Reruns of the show currently air weeknights on theDecades cable network, though 90-minute episodes have been cut to fit a one-hour slot, and musical performances are almost always removed, presumably for licensing reasons. However, as of March 27, 2023, it will no longer be shown on Decades as it rebrands itself asCatchy Comedy.

In a scene from the 1977Woody Allen–directed film,Annie Hall, Allen appears on the show in character as comedian Alvy Singer, with Cavett interviewing. There is a scene in the 1994 filmForrest Gump, whereTom Hanks in thetitular role, appears in the show together withJohn Lennon. The creation of this scene was achieved via the use of ground-breaking specialvisual effects.^[24] Both films wound up winning theAcademy Award for Best Picture.

The Dick Cavett Show plays a prominent role in the season finale of the first season ofBojack Horseman. In the show, a young Bojack is watching a cartoon version of Cavett interview Secretariat. Cavett asks Secretariat a question from a rambling letter sent by Bojack: "What do you do when you get sad? How do you not be sad?" Secretariat responds by saying, in part: "BoJack, when you get sad, you run straight ahead a-and you keep running forward, no matter what." In the second season of Bojack Horseman it is revealed that Bojack did not hear the Secretariat response because of a loud argument between Bojack's parents.

The set ofThe Adam Friedland Show is a replica of the Dick Cavett Show set.

• List of late night network TV programs

• Dick Cavett and Christopher Porterfield,Cavett (Bantam Books, August 1974)ISBN 0-15-116130-5

• Dick Cavett's blog is published by theNew York Times:"Talk Show: Dick Cavett Speaks Again".
• Dick Cavett atIMDb
• The Dick Cavett Show atIMDb (1968–1972)
• The Dick Cavett Show atIMDb (1975–1982)
• The Dick Cavett Show atIMDb (1986)
• The Dick Cavett Show atThe Interviews: An Oral History of Television