Tom Snyder | |
|---|---|
 Snyder as host of the TV programTomorrow in 1977 | |
| Born | Thomas James Snyder (1936-05-12)May 12, 1936 |
| Died | July 29, 2007(2007-07-29) (aged 71) San Francisco,California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Marquette University |
| Years active | 1955–2005 |
| Notable credit(s) | The Late Late Show, Tomorrow with Tom Snyder, NBC Nightly News |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality,news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk showsTomorrow, onNBC in the 1970s and 1980s, andThe Late Late Show, onCBS in the 1990s.[1] Snyder was also the pioneer anchor of theprime timeNBC News Update, in the 1970s and early 1980s, which was a one-minute capsule of news updates.[2]
Snyder was born inMilwaukee,Wisconsin, to Frank and Marie Snyder, who were ofGerman,Dutch, andIrish descent. He received aRoman Catholic upbringing,[3] attending St. Agnes Elementary School and graduating fromJesuit-runMarquette University High School.[4] He then attendedMarquette University, after which he had originally planned to study medicine and become a doctor.[5] He graduated in 1959 with a major in journalism.
Snyder loved radio since he was a child and at some point he changed his field of study frompre-med to journalism. He once toldMilwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tim Cuprisin that broadcasting became more important to him than attending classes, and he skipped a lot of them.[6] Snyder began his career as a radio reporter atWRIT-AM (unrelated to the present-dayFM station) in Milwaukee, now WJYI-AM and atWKZO inKalamazoo (where he was fired byJohn Fetzer) in the 1950s. For a time he worked atSavannah, Georgia, AM station WSAV (nowWBMQ).
Snyder moved into television in the 1960s; he talked about driving cross-country in an earlyCorvair fromAtlanta toLos Angeles around 1963.[citation needed] After a year-long stint in a news job atKTLA, he became a news anchor for KYW-TV (nowWKYC-TV) in Cleveland in 1964.[7] In 1965, whenWestinghouse Broadcasting movedKYW-TV back to Philadelphia as the result of an FCC ruling,[7][8] Snyder went along and remained in Philadelphia for five years.[7]
In July 1970, Snyder returned to Los Angeles and joinedNBC News, who assigned him to anchor the 6:00 pm (Pacific time) weeknight newscast onKNBC. Snyder remained in this capacity even after NBC launched theTomorrow show with him as host in October 1973, working alongsideTom Brokaw,Jess Marlow andPaul Moyer at the KNBC anchor desk. Another KNBC broadcaster,Kelly Lange, later became Snyder's regular substituteguest host on theTomorrow program, prior to the hiring of co-hostRona Barrett in the program's last year. Snyder moved toNew York City in late 1974, taking theTomorrow program with him and kept his hand in news, anchoring weeknight newscasts onWNBC-TV until 1977, and Sunday broadcasts ofNBC Nightly News during 1975 and 1976.
Snyder returned to local news in 1982 after endingTomorrow, to become an anchor atWABC-TV in New York City.[7] In 1985, he returned to Los Angeles but stayed withABC, to anchor atKABC-TV.[7]
Snyder gained national fame as the host ofTomorrow with Tom Snyder (more commonly known asThe Tomorrow Show), which aired late nights afterThe Tonight Show onNBC from 1973 to 1982. It was a talk show unlike the usual late-night fare, with Snyder, cigarette in hand, alternating between asking hard-hitting questions and offering personal observations that made the interview seem more like a conversation.
Unique one-on-one exchanges were common to the program, notably withJohn Lennon in 1975,John Lydon ofPiL and theSex Pistols in 1980,Charles Manson in 1981, actor and writerSterling Hayden, authorHarlan Ellison, and author and philosopherAyn Rand. A one-on-one program withDavid Brenner as the sole guest revealed that Snyder and Brenner worked together on several documentaries. In 1981,"Weird Al" Yankovic had his first appearance on national TV performing "Another One Rides the Bus".[9]
An infamous edition ofThe Tomorrow Show broadcast on October 31, 1979, saw Snyder interview the rock groupKISS. During the episode, a visibly irritatedGene Simmons (bass) andPaul Stanley (guitar) tried to contain the bombastic (and drunk)Ace Frehley (lead guitar), whose nonstop laughter and joking overshadowed the rest of the band. Snyder andPeter Criss (drummer) were obviously enjoying it though, chiming in with several jokes, much to Frehley's delight, and Simmons' disgust. Criss made repeated references to his large gun collection, to the chagrin of Simmons. Some of the footage from this show was later included on theKissology—The Ultimate KISS Collection Vol. 2: 1978–1991 (2007) DVD.
In the late 1970s Snyder interviewed Disney animator Ward Kimball regarding his toy train collection and his full-size trains. Snyder appeared to be as happy as a "kid in a candy store," picking up various locomotives and asking lots of questions. Snyder's love of toy trains started with his first Lionel locomotive, a scale steam switcher, which he claimed never worked too well. His collection was later donated to a New Jersey toy train club, the NJ Hi-Railers.
When not grilling guests, Snyder would often joke around with offstage crewmen, often breaking out in the distinctively hearty laugh that was the basis ofDan Aykroyd's impersonation of Snyder onSaturday Night Live (12 occasions, 1976–79 and 1995).[10] Following a disastrous experiment with turningTomorrow into a more typical talk show—renaming itTomorrow Coast to Coast and adding a live audience and co-hostRona Barrett (all of which Snyder resented)—the show was canceled in fall 1981, to make way for the up-and-coming young comedianDavid Letterman, after Snyder turned down moving to the 1:30 to 2:30 am time slot after Letterman.
In 1982 Snyder joined WABC-TV in New York, anchoring the 5 pmEyewitness News program withKaity Tong. He stayed at WABC for two years,[11] then returned to the talk format in 1985 atKABC-TV in Los Angeles with a local afternoon show. He had hoped to syndicate the program nationally the following year, but those plans were scratched afterOprah Winfrey'sChicago-based syndicated show entered the market first, and took over Snyder's time slot on KABC-TV.
In 1988 Snyder inaugurated a similar three-hour program onABC Radio. The first hour was spent chatting with a celebrity guest; during the second hour Snyder engaged someone in the news; and the final hour was consumed chatting with his legion of fans. Occasionally the caller would be a well-known fan like David Letterman orTed Koppel. One of Snyder's favorite callers wasSherman Hemsley, the actor who playedGeorge Jefferson on the hit television sitcomThe Jeffersons. TheTom Snyder Show for ABC Radio Networks went off the air in late 1992.
Snyder returned to television onCNBC on January 21, 1993, adding the opportunity for viewers to call in with their own questions for his guests. Snyder nicknamed his show the Colorcast, reviving an old promotional term NBC-TV used in the early 1960s to brand its color broadcasts. He also continued his trademark of talking to offscreen crew and made frequent reference to the studio, reminding viewers of its location inFort Lee, New Jersey. The final CNBC show aired on December 1, 1994.
Meanwhile, Letterman had moved on to CBS and was given control of creating a new program to follow his at 12:35 am. Letterman, who had idolized Snyder for years, hired Snyder in 1994 as host ofThe Late Late Show; the announcement was made by Letterman and CBS president Howard Stringer on August 9 that Snyder's show would begin on January 9, 1995. The idea had actually begun as a running joke on Letterman's show that Snyder would soon follow him on the air as he had once followedJohnny Carson onThe Tonight Show; the unlikely suggestion caught on. As part of the joke, Snyder appeared as himself in 1993 inThe Larry Sanders Show episode "Life Behind Larry," in which talk-show host Sanders (Garry Shandling) steals Snyder from Letterman to host a talk-show in the slot immediately after his.
The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder aired live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and was simulcast to other time zones on radio to allow everyone a chance to call in. Snyder's CNBC show was taken over, largely unchanged in format, byCharles Grodin. One of the many interviews conducted onThe Late Late Show was withGloria Vanderbilt about her son's suicide, told dramatically over an entire hour. Another was a lengthy interview withRobert Blake very soon before Blake was charged with murder. When Snyder took ill with the flu, comediansMartin Mull andJon Stewart filled in as hosts. Snyder's finalLate Late Show aired on March 26, 1999. It was then reformatted for his successorCraig Kilborn, as a more traditional late night show with an audience, comic monologue, comedy segments, shorter interviews, and a greater emphasis on guests from the entertainment industry. Scottish comedianCraig Ferguson maintained a similar format when he succeeded Kilborn in 2005, though Ferguson cited Snyder as an influence in his interview style, and even experimented with an audience-less episode, in the style of Snyder's tenure, on February 23, 2010.
After stepping down fromThe Late Late Show, Snyder was offered a news anchor position withKCBS-TV in Los Angeles, but he declined to join the station.[12] In February 2000, Snyder hosted two episodes ofThe Late Show Backstage that aired inThe Late Show time slot when Letterman was recovering from heart surgery.
Snyder also hosted adocumentary for TM Books & Video calledA Century of Lionel Electric Trains, commemorating 100 years ofLionel Trains covering Lionel from 1900 to 2000. Part 1 featuring Lionel history from 1900 to 1945 and Part 2 featuring Lionel history from 1945 to 2000.[13] Additionally, he hosted another program by TM Books & Video calledCelebrity Train Layouts Part 2: Tom Snyder, featuring his own collection of trains.
Snyder posted regular messages on his own now-defunct website colortini.com during the early 2000s. A "colortini," according to Snyder in the CNBC era, was the drink you should enjoy while watching the show ("Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."). For the CBS show, he redubbed the mythical drink a "simultini" as his show was also heard on selected radio stations.
On July 28, 2005, Snyder announced he was deleting his website after six years, stating: "The novelty of communicating this way has worn off." On August 1, 2005, his page was abruptly taken offline. The front page was replaced with a white screen with the simple phrase: "Colortini is gone. Thanks for the Memories."[14] However, some140 pages at theWayback Machine (archive index) have been preserved. Thedomain name has since been reused for other purposes.
In addition to being an avid model train collector, Snyder was also a car buff. On his radio and television programs, he would occasionally talk about current cars he owned as well as cars from the 1950s and 1960s he admired or owned in his teens and twenties. When Snyder leftThe Late Late Show in 1999, David Letterman gave him a white 1960Cadillac Series 62 convertible as a going-away present.[15]
In April 2005, Snyder revealed that he had been diagnosed withchronic lymphocytic leukemia. In June 2006, he sold his home in theBenedict Canyon area of Los Angeles, where he had lived for almost 30 years, and relocated toBelvedere, in theSan Francisco Bay Area, where he owned a second home.
Snyder died of complications from leukemia on July 29, 2007, in San Francisco at the age of 71.[1]
Snyder was posthumously inducted into theBroadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2008.[7]
He is played byEd Helms inA Futile and Stupid Gesture.
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| Year(s) | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | The Rifleman | Pete | Episode: "A Friend in Need" |
| 1966–1970 | Contact | Himself (host) | local talk show on KYW-TV in Philadelphia |
| 1973–1982 | The Tomorrow Show | Himself (host) | |
| 1977 | McCloud | Himself | Episode: "McCloud Meets Dracula" |
| 1979–1980 | Prime Time Sunday / Saturday | Himself (host) | news magazine show on NBC |
| 1980 | Tom Snyder's Celebrity Spotlight | Himself (host) | celebrity interview show on NBC |
| 1986 | Tom Snyder | Himself (host) | local talk show on KABC-TV in Los Angeles |
| 1993 | The Larry Sanders Show | Himself | Episode: "Life Behind Larry" |
| 1993–1994 | Tom Snyder | Himself (host) | talk show on CNBC cable channel |
| 1995–1999 | The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder | Himself (host) | |
| 1996 | Dave's World | Himself | Episode: "L.A. Times" |
| 1997 | Murphy Brown | Himself | Episode: "And That's the Way It Was?" |
| 1997 | Ink | Himself | Episode: "Face Off" |
| 1997 | Life... and Stuff | Himself | Episode: "Life... and Fisticuffs" |
| 2000 | Late Show with David Letterman | Himself (guest host) | hosted two "Late Show Backstage" shows |
| Year(s) | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Larry King Show | Himself (guest host) | |
| 1988–1992 | Tom Snyder Radio Show | Himself (host) | talk show on the ABC Radio Network |
| 1995–1999 | The Late Late Radio Show | Himself (host) | simulcast ofThe Late Late Show with Tom Snyder; pre- and post-show co-hosted by Elliott Forrest |
Tom Snyder, the idiosyncratic, cigarette-waving interviewer who was one of the pioneers of the late-night television talk show and a long-time anchor for both local and national news, died Sunday in San Francisco. He was 71. The cause was complications of leukemia, his friend and producer Michael Horowicz said yesterday. ...
KYW news reporter Tom Snyder going through his news report several times on a "day of no protests" at Girard College. Snyder also details the legal efforts to end segregation at the school without breaking Stephen Girard's will.
| Media offices | ||
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| Preceded by None | Host ofThe Late Late Show 1995–1999 | Succeeded by |
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