The Mouseketeers (And A Mooseketeer) on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show, 1975

The original Mickey Mouse Club presented five new hour-long episodes each week during the 1955-'56 and 1956-'57 TV seasons.

In '57-'58, the show started slipping away, cut to five half-hour programs per week.

In '58-'59, the lights were still on in Mickey's Clubhouse, but nobody was home.

Production had shut down, and Disney resorted to re-cut half-hour reruns. The loyal viewers who remained to watch the repeats had the unusual opportunity to relive a portion of their childhood while they were still children.

By the Autumn of 1959, these kids had no idea what to do with themselves at 5 p.m. on weekdays. It was in that forlorn condition that they entered the sixties, mere months later, which might just explain the entire decade.

After three years of clublessness, reruns of the show again became available through local syndication, and MMC ran in this manner for another three years, from 1962 through 1965.

If you were eight when the show had premiered, you were a teenager by the second go-round, and distinctly embarrassed if not appalled by how much you used to love this juvenile entertainment. It was left to a new group of eight-year-olds to pick up Mickey's fallen banner.

As the Mickey Mouse Club returned to the air in September of 1962, the Beatles went into the studio with their new drummer, Ringo Starr, to record six tracks. By the time the MMC "went dark" again, the Beatles had played Shea Stadium and received their MBE's.

The show then made a strong bid for obscurity, remaining "dark" for ten long years. Depending on my math skills - and the month of our fictional eight-year-old's birthday - the kid is now 28.

Not old - but not feeling so young, either. "The Sixties" really began in '63 or '64 (the Kennedy assassination or The Beatles, take your pick) and really ended in '74 or '75 (Watergate or the draft, your pick once again). This third time around elicited acute nostalgia from the original audience, now fueled by memories of what, in retrospect, seemed a far simpler time. Some of them were watching as the Club reconvened on January 20th, 1975, when the second series of reruns began.

That same evening, The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder videotaped an episode featuring original Mouseketeers Darlene Gillespie, Sharon Baird, Lonnie Burr, Cubby O'Brien, Tommy Cole, and Cheryl Holdridge (who died earlier this month at 64). For the many original viewers who were now allowed to stay up late and watch people smoke, the hour-long Tomorrow Show was the electronic equivalent of a grade-school reunion. And, especially for those who were watching their first rerun, it must have been something of a shock.

You see, each morning, you get up, you look in the mirror, and, barring misfortune, you see almost exactly the same face you saw yesterday and will see tomorrow. You never see yourself age. You only come to realize how old you are obliquely, by encountering some other face you haven't seen in a long while. At that point, logic kicks in: I don't feel older, but if that person is older, then I must be older.

If it weren't for those damn Mouseketeers, and those damn memories of winter days when the fading sunlight in our TV rooms imperceptibly accomplished a cross-dissolve with the blue glow from our black and white sets, we could have stayed young forever.

The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder Jan. 20, 1975, Part 1

The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder Jan. 20, 1975, Part 2

As always, I suggest a visit to The Original Mickey Mouse Club Show fan site.
Why? Because I like you.

Late Late Show with Tom Snyder and Harlan Ellison

Tom Snyder always seemed to get a kick out of Harlan Ellison, who here looks amazingly good for a guy only seven weeks past open-heart surgery in April 1996. Ellison has always been as outspoken as he is talented... and he's very talented, which makes him an ideal talk show guest.

His lawsuits are written with the same gusto that infuses his books - a recent one described Ellison as "...a famous author, screenwriter, commentator and public speaker. He is the winner of countless literary awards..." and described the person he was suing as "...a scheming pathological liar and little more than an obsessively vindictive and petty man trying to be a mover and shaker."

If you ever need to sue someone, try to get Harlan and his team on retainer. (He usually wins).

Alas, the Edgeworks series promoted in this appearance, which promised to be for Ellison what the Atlantic Edition is for H.G. Wells, ceased publication after only four volumes. But here is the highly entertaining Late Late Show appearance (30m), smacked and cracked into three bite-sized chunks.

Part 1 is above Part 2 is below

Part 2 is above Part 3 is below

Tom Snyder Radio Shows With Norman Lear And Bonnie Hunt

Here's why I like Tom Snyder, right here.

The hour he spends with Bonnie Hunt.

Tom Snyder falls head over heels in love with Bonnie Hunt right on the air. You can hear it happen. It can't be anything else.

And, of course, why not? Bonnie's beautiful, funny, talented, easy-going... and Tom means no harm; he just lets himself fall completely under her spell, and it's lovely. Tom and Bonnie recall their respective strict Catholic upbringings, and Tom makes a couple of remarkably intimate and revealing statements about his life and philosophy.

First up is a segment with Norman Lear, followed by some "open phones" calls. The Lear show is from May 29, 1991 and the Hunt show is from April 19, 1992. And no, we never do get to hear how Norman Lear got through to Danny Thomas.

Two shows, both a little incomplete (The Lear segment is joined in progress, as is the Bonnie Hunt interview), but still a treat. Just under an hour and a half in total; commercials have been painstakingly removed. This program will stream in Box.net's audio player, or you can download it.

Link

More Of "The Radio Show with Tom Snyder"

I've had requests for additional episodes of The Radio Show with Tom Snyder, and I'm happy to make four additional episodes (complete with commercials; we're talking nearly 12 hours here) available for download:

09-14-90 - With guests Irwin Schiff and Donald O'Connor. In case you're swayed by any of Mr. Schiff's "Don't Pay Your Taxes" philosophy, may I point out that Mr. Schiff is currently in prison and won't get out until 2016. (This one will play in Box.net's player) about 3 hrs.

10-01-91 - With guests Curt Gentry, author of a J. Edgar Hoover biography, and Elayne Boosler. (This one must be downloaded first; and it's joined in progress) 2hrs, 45min

10-09-91 - With guest Molly Ivins plus a discussion of the political correctness, or lack thereof, in Amos and Andy. (Will stream in Box.net's player) about 3 hrs.

10-10-91 - With guests Joe McGinniss (Cruel Doubt) and Dr. Demento. (Will stream) about 3 hrs. (Remind me to tell you about my dinner with Joe McGinniss in Saratoga, or I guess you could look it up in The American Spectrum Encyclopedia, which seems to have every fact known to man between its covers)

Great listening; The Radio Show is one of the greatest radio talk/call-in shows ever.

More Tom Snyder Audio - and Video

Some more Tom Snyder for those of us still in TS withdrawal. These won't play in Box.net's player, you'll have to download first.
1) With Jack Haley Jr. on Wizard of Oz (joined in progress; this is a good time to remind you to take Isn't Life Terrible's Impossible Wizard of Oz Quiz.)

2) With Tim Conway.

3) The Nightside Hour. Tom reserved the final hour of his three-hour radio show for audience members who wanted to call in. This is from Sept. 8, 1992.

And for those of you who may have missed it, from The Tommorow Show, a favorite episode featuring Disney animator Ward Kimball that somehow survived the years on my 3/4" video copy, taped off the air.

Tom Snyder - Tim Conway / Leslie Nielsen

Two more great Tom Snyder Interviews:

Tom Interviews Tim Conway, Leslie Nielsen.

For those of you who don't want to scroll down to see what Tom Snyder Radio Shows are online from Isn't Life Terrible - here's the list:

Stan Freberg
Jay Leno
Gary Shandling
Soupy Sales
Ray Bradbury (Radio)
Ray Bradbury (CNBC TV)
Jerry from Tipton, IN (Excerpt)
Show closed on account of lightning (Excerpt)
Call It A Century (Excerpt - See post below)

I'm learning to encode at 44.1, because those MP3 files will 'stream' through the Box.Net player. For others, you'll have to download the file and play it in your own MP3 player.

Tom Snyder - Live from Summerfest

Harmonica man calls; show closed on account of lightning.

Tom broadcasts from the great outdoors and literally shares the stage with his audience in his home town of Milwaukee.

Tom Snyder - A Memorable Call

Tom Snyder's "Call it a Century."

Tom Snyder, R.I.P.

I was just informed by Mark Evanier, via his blog, that Tom Snyder has passed away at the age of 71.

The post below was added before I had heard.

I'm a strong believer in coincidences... coincidences and nothing more. The fact that I've been posting old Tom Snyder interviews here for the past couple of weeks is a coincidence, and whether it is a sad coincidence or a happy coincidence, they're here and will continue to be posted here because - even though he hasn't been on the air for a while - I've never stopped listening to my buddy Tom.

Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax and listen to the sounds I've posted here... or watch the pictures I've posted to YouTube... now, as they fly through the air.

Life was a little bit less terrible when we had Tom Snyder around. He was the real deal. I've always believed that his work on radio was every bit as good as his best work on TV. We miss you, Tommie.

MOB becomes MTR and then WPCFM; Tom Snyder Interviews Ray Bradbury - 1992 and 1996

First it was simply The Museum of Broadcasting. Then, it became "The Museum of Television and Radio." This year, the name changed again, and it's now "The Paley Center for Media."

Anybody else think that the new name is awful and meaningless, especially when compared to the older appellations?

It's like we had "The Museum of Ketchup," changed it to "The Museum of Tomatoes, Sugar and Spices," and finally got to "The Heinz Center for Redness Enclosed by Glass."

Who's responsible for the latest name change? We'll never know their names.

From the New York Times:

"‘Museum’ is not a word that tests really well with the under-30 and 40-year-olds,” especially in the context of radio and television," said Pat Mitchell, the Museum’s President and Chief Executive.

Don't you love that they called Pat "the Museum's president" in a quote where she knocks the word "museum"?

I guess we should be grateful that they maintained some small level of control over the process, because "The William S. Paley Center for Free Beer" would have been equally uninformative and misleading, and it would have tested off the charts.

On the plus side, they're changing their policies about releasing footage from their seminars - check this page for a list of recent ones and a link to full-length DVD's with the creators and casts of Lost, Boston Legal, and Desperate Housewives, or this link to see a clip from a Conan O'Brien seminar. I only hope they release a DVD of an event they hosted quite a few years ago about NYC kid's TV that reunited Chuck McCann, Soupy Sales, Captain Jack McCarthy and others with their grownup audience.

But all of this is neither here nor there.

I went to see Ray Bradbury at a personal appearance and book signing at the Museum of Television and Radio in 1996. Ray took questions at the end of his presentation, and there were the usual cringe-inducing fanboy questions, asked not to get an answer, but rather to show off the questioner's vast knowledge of completely insignificant aspects of Bradbury's career and writings.

But I will never forget Bradbury's response to the final question. "What advice would you give to the people in this audience," someone shouted out.

And a split-second later, Bradbury gave his four-word answer.

"Don't watch local news."

It got a laugh; it got applause, but Ray was 100% sincere. And when Bradbury speaks, I listen: I have not watched local news since. He left it to the audience to figure out why local news is a brain-sucking waste of time.

You won't hear Ray offer that advice in either of the Tom Snyder interviews below, perhaps because Tom was a local TV news anchor for a portion of his career, although Ray does say a few things from which one could reasonably deduce his belief about the valuelessness of local TV news.

He might as well have said TV in general, however, because the 1996 CNBC TV interview with Snyder (joined in progress) is, at times, an amazing word-for-word recreation of the conversation they had four years earlier on ABC radio.

I guess Bradbury perfects his stories for interviews as carefully as he does his stories for print. Four years apart, promoting two different books, yet some of the same topics are spoken about in the same words. (I wonder if Tom and/or Ray have changed any political opinions since these two programs were broadcast?)

Tom Snyder / Ray Bradbury Radio Show 1992
Tom Snyder / Ray Bradbury CNBC TV Show 1996

Tom Snyder interviews Jay Leno - 1990

According to Wikipedia, Tom Snyder now lives up in northern California, retired from show business. Justly famous for his television work, he was equally great fun on radio. I saved some of his radio shows on cassette, and I'm working my way through "TS and the comedians."

The hour with Jay Leno (33m) is especially entertaining - mostly stories from Jay's youth and his days as a struggling comedian. This show was recorded at the time when Jay was "permanent guest host" for The Tonight Show on Monday nights. I remember at the time - and this is sacrilege, I know - avidly looking forward to the Monday night shows, because Carson had been coasting and Jay Leno was actually funny.

My all-time favorite moment from The Tom Snyder Radio Show? Easy. The two calls he got from "Jerry, in Tipton Indiana." (6m) HINT: It's not Jerry, it's a fellow talk show host pranking Tom in the grand tradition of the great Peter Cook, (5m) who used to call a radio talk show late at night claiming to be someone named "Sven."

GS on TS

More from the Tom Snyder Radio Show archives: Gary Shandling (36m) describes the 'living hell' of portraying Gary Shandling - and discusses his comeback. Not in his own voice, of course. We learn, among other things, the reason they stopped making new episodes of "It's Gary Shandling's Show," and which flowers sell well in hot weather. Gary enjoys the experience, so he doesn't implement the early-escape plan he set up with Tom's staff.

Stan Freberg with TS

Stan Freberg spends an hour with Tom Snyder. (36m) This dates from November 1991 - the time of Stan's one-shot NPR special. The feed for the interview came from WICC-AM, and they had the "D" team running the board this particular night, as you'll hear during those moments when the program is drowned out by extraneous material. And speaking of extraneous material...

The interview includes clips from the special, including one that would have been much more funny had Freberg simply performed it without introduction. Instead, fearing that his audience had no familiarity with Stephen Foster song titles, he carefully and painfully sets up the sketch with background material the audience 'needs' to get the jokes. Not only is this condescending - it's annoying. This is my gripe with later Freberg material - he started talking down to his audience, became more concerned with his 'message' (usually quite obvious) and lost track of what was funny. It's almost as if he came to believe than anything he said was funny, so long as he said it with a sneer and dragged the pronunciation out.

The interview is far more fun than the NPR Special (59m) itself.

Imagine if Stan's great record, "Wun'erful, Wun'erful!" [Side Uh-1 (4m), Side Uh-2 (3m)] had started with a detailed explanation of who Lawrence Welk was, what kinds of music he featured on his show, that he always thanked his audience for the cards and letters they sent, and the manner in which Welk created the sound of a champagne cork popping by using a finger in his cheek.

Why did Soupy look DOWN when the naked lady came to the door?

I've had a few remarkable experiences in my life. One was somehow getting onto the set of The Soupy Sales Show at WNEW-TV in New York in 1965. Another was finding the pictures I took on that occasion nearly forty years later (that's one of them above). I've posted Soupy videos here and here on YouTube, and to the available Soupy on the 'net, I now add Soupy Sales on The Tom Snyder Radio Show (36m) - an old hour-long interview (minus commercials) in which Soupy reveals why, in that famous NSFW outtake, he was looking down when he opened the door.