Pictures Flying Through The Air

I am 35-years-old. I write this not to rub it in the faces of those who are older, but to explain why I am not entirely familiar with Tom Snyder’s early years on the NBC television network. VCRs were not standard fare when I was a toddler, and even if they were, my younger self probably would not have latched onto the concept of a one hour interview program, unless it featured Kermit the Frog.

By the mid-1980s, while my friends were thrilled to watch WWF wrestling or the movie “Stand By Me,” I was sneaking out of my bedroom late at night (those were the days when kids didn’t have TVs in their rooms) to watch Carson and Letterman. Snyder was an infrequent guest on Dave’s show, having burned a lot of bridges at NBC (as I understand it, he fought nearly every “creative” decision made in the last years of “The Tomorrow Show,” from the inclusion of a studio audience to whatever it was Rona Barrett contributed to the series), but somehow I was aware of him.

The benefit of living in the 21st century is the amount of random media dumped onto the World Wide Web for all to see. if you don’t mind a slightly blurry picture and/or some audio hiss, there is a repository of time-wasting material just waiting to be perused.

Case in point: Three interviews conducted by Tom Snyder that (in interviews others have done with him) Snyder counts as worth watching. He has his reasons, and I have mine. As usual, I’ll let Tom speak for himself and get down to my reasons.

Author Ayn Rand looks like somebody’s sweet grandmother; she is anything but. I cannot offer enough praise regarding Snyder’s handling of Rand. He gave her space to speak her opinions. He gave her time to spout her philosophy. He treated her as though her views were not shocking or abhorrent to most of society. He showed class and respect, and I would guess that Rand had to have been pleased with the interview. From my perspective, the interview revealed Rand to be, if not evil, at least amoral. I could not have sat in Snyder’s seat listening to her without completely losing it. This interview shows a version of Tom Snyder that is warm and good-natured in spite of his personal opinion of the subject of the interview.

By contrast, Snyder’s look into the mind of a madman was anything but genial. I only recently uncovered a complete (or near-complete) version of the interview Snyder did with Charles Manson. I would guess that people generally would consider Manson to be more evil than Rand. Frankly, I just consider Manson to be an a**hole. His brand of villainy was sinister, without question. But, with every word out of his lunatic mouth, I am less inclined to picture him rotting away in the bowels of hell and more inclined to want to punch him in his fat-f*ck face. Snyder is not genial in this interview, because there was no way he could be. He repeatedly asked Manson to come down of the space shuttle whenever Manson would twist away on a rant about nothing. Snyder asked and reasked a series of questions, hoping to get something resembling a coherent answer out of Manson, with varying degrees of success. In short, the interview is as close as most of us are ever likely to get into the mind of a madman, and I hope I (personally) never get any closer.

Finally, a classic interview Snyder did with one of his own Hollywood heroes. Alfred Hitchcock found success in film and television, and he achieved such cult status that even his silhouette is known worldwide. Snyder was, if not star struck, at least in high reverence of Hitchcock’s abilities. What makes this interview special is the way Snyder is fascinated with the WHY. Snyder, and most Americans at the time, knew what Hitchcock had done, but the underlying motivation was still a mystery. Snyder probed Hitchcock’s fears and loves, finding in the rotund man a sense of humor and even a childlike apprehension about certain things.

This was Snyder at the peak of his craft, bringing his A-game to an audience used to interviewers (and interview subjects) who routinely phone it in. He was something to see, even if I was too young to see it as-it-happened.

Next time: David Letterman!