Television Past Ov Tomorrow

Before we had Jerry Springer parading around the best of trailer park and ghetto trash, there was something actually called a "talk show."

As a pre-teen in the early 1980s, there was talk shows featuring hosts like Phil Donahue and Tom Synder. It didn't stoop to the level of the gutter; instead it presented its subjects in an intelligent manner. It was through Phil Donahue that I learned about Susie Bright, the feminist 'sexpert.' I'm also quite sure that's how many American (pre-MTV) learned about 'Punk Rock' and 'New Wave' thanks to Tom Synder.

 

 

I found out this morning that Tom Synder had passed away from cancer. Kinda made me sad, I wish we had more talk shows like 'The Tomorrow Show' during its prime. Sure as hell beats today's chants of "JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!"

And people wonder why I'm not much of a television fan...

 

 

Tom Synder interviewed a wide range of people from Johnny Rotten of The Sex Pistols, to Charles Manson at his cell, to John Lennon. Ironically, his show was cancelled and in his place was a wise-cracking comedian known as David Letteman.

In his tribute I thought I would share some of these clips I found on YouTube: