I read that Tom Snyder was a television pioneer, spending a hour with a single guest. I guess he was sort of the spiritual godfather to Charlie Rose, Ted Koppel, Tavis Smiley and a host of others who seem to value the power of the long form. All I know is that I watched him often in his first incarnation (1972-1982), “Tomorrow with Tom Snyder”, pretty much until Rona Barrett showed up as a co-host near the end. I’m sure I watched the John Lennon and Charles Manson pieces. People who only know him from Dan Ackroyd’s wicked parody on Saturday Night Live missed how well he could seem very laid back and yet was probing without necessarily feeling confrontational. He was replaced by some guy named David Letterman, who later got Snyder to follow HIS show on CBS. So I guess I’ll “fire up a colortini, sit back, relax and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air.”
Tom Snyder’s Greatest Hits:
Also, see ADD’s personal recollections and Fred Hembeck’s July 30 post.
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I’ve only seen a handful of Ingmar Bergman films that I recall: Fanny and Alexander (1982); A Little Night Music (1978); The Magic Flute (1975); The Virgin Spring (1960); and Wild Strawberries (1957); the latter two I saw in a museum theater when I was in high school. I think Strawberries, in particular, was important to me personally at that time; the message was that I needed to fight against what one reviewer described as “how life can become atrophied and sterile”.
But my favorite Bergman film, not so caught up in life and death and sex, was The Magic Flute, which put me THERE inside the gorgeous performance. Here’s a blog that has compiled some of Bergman’s best scenes.
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I was really excited to see on Ebert & Roeper that starting Thursday, August 2, there will be 20 years and over 4,000 video reviews from Siskel & Ebert and Ebert & Roeper, searchable by title, actor and director, including special segments, at the At The Movies TV.com site. Moreover, Roger Ebert will introduce the archive and hold a live online chat about the site and “whatever other questions you want to ask” that evening at 8 pm Eastern (7 pm Central, 5 pm Pacific). I expect that it’ll be a very busy, and I may not participate, but the database is very exciting. Roeper and guest host Michael Phillips thought the fashion statements alone would be worth checking out.
SISKEL & EBERT on LETTERMAN:
ROG