Former Late Late Show host Tom Snyder died Sunday at the age of 71 from leukemia.

His work on the Late Late Show, which followed David Letterman’s Late Show on CBS for three years and featured just him and a guest, and his prior work on NBC’s Tomorrow Show, following the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was notable for its hard hitting, hold-nothing-back celebrity interviews cutting through celebrities’ crap.

Just check out this clip where Tom interviews Elton John, Stephen Spielberg, Johnny Rotten, Bono and “The Edge” from U2, Cheech and Chong, Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Manson, and Muhammad Ali:

That’s some crazy stuff that you never see on late night talk shows these days. This Late Late Show interview with David Letterman sums up perfectly the change television was going through at the time and gives some insight into the relationship between the two hosts:

And now some interesting trivia about Tom Snyder’s career:

• Snyder’s Tommorrow Show was replace on NBC with Letterman’s Late Show and his CBS Late Late Show was produced by Letterman
• The Late Late Show actually started as a running joke on the Late Show and actually caught on.
• Tom Snyder filmed the Tomorrow Show in NBC’s studio 6A at Rockefeller Center: the same studio where Late Night with Conan O’Brien is filmed today.
• Snyder co-anchored WABC’s evening newscast with now-CW11 anchor Kaity Tong between 1983-84.

Thanks Tom for the irreverent interviews, the celebration of the novelty of color TV, and exposing and cutting through the fakeness and nonsense coming out of people’s mouths that nowadays most people on television fail to address. I dedicate this colortini to you…

Tortoises!

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Originally uploaded by CityCynic.com.

Great Moments In Presidential Speeches Compilation

Download | Link

Duration: 4:49

Created: Sat, 28 Jul 2007

Category: Humor

Actor: George W. Bush

Producer: Late Show with David Letterman

Tags: bush, david+letterman, george+bush, bushisms, speeches, late+show, compilation, great+moments+in+presidential+speeches, presidential+speeches

The CNN-YouTube Democratic debate in South Carolina was an interesting blend of citizen-submitted questions, CNN editorial control, and all of the Democratic candidates participating.

You might assume the CNN-YouTube Republican debate in September will be similar, but that might not be the case, especially if no one shows up:

Four days after the Democratic debate in Charleston, S.C,. more than 400 questions directed to the GOP presidential field have been uploaded on YouTube — targeted at Republicans scheduled to get their turn at videopopulism on Sept. 17.

But so far, only Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) have agreed to participate in the debate, co-hosted by Republican Party of Florida in St. Petersburg.

“Aside from those two candidates, we haven’t heard from anyone else,” said Sam Feist of CNN, who’s co-sponsoring the debate with the popular videosharing site.

It seems like Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani aren’t up to the challenge of answering real questions from citizens. It will be interesting to see if Fred Thompson signs up for the debate, considering his television experience, which may help him along. That is, if he ever declares his candidacy.

Likely, we will see more candidates sign up to participate as we get closer to the debate, which, incidentally, is being held in a monster swing-state called Florida. As of now, however, the hesitancy of candidates to join in this debate now shows an overall difference between Democratic candidates and Republican candidates: their proximity to the people.

Senator Patrick Leahy said he will subpoena White House Advisor Karl Rove, as the Congressional investigation into Alberto Gonzales’ involvement in the firing of 9 U.S. Attorneys continues:

“We’ve now reached a point where the accumulated evidence shows that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine U.S. attorneys last year. Testimony and documents showed that the list was compiled based on input from the highest political ranks in the White House, including Mr. Rove and Mr. (Scott) Jennings, and today I will subpoena Mr. Rove and Mr. Jennings.”

This, of course, follows the failure of President Bush’s chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, and his former legal counsel, Harriet Miers to comply with their subpoenas, resulting in the two being held in contempt of Congress.

And, if that wasn’t bad enough, Democrats have recommended that a special counsel look into “potential perjury” committed by Alberto Gonzales in his confusing and obfuscating testimony:

“His inability to answer simple and straightforward questions was just stunning,” Schumer said. “Instead he tells the half-truth, the partial truth and everything but the truth.”

Schumer said a letter to the solicitor general calls for the special counsel to come from outside the Justice Department. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Dianne Feinstein of California and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin also said they signed the letter.

“I have never seen an attorney general so contemptuous of Congress and his role as chief law enforcement officer of the United States,” said Feinstein.

CNN is set to launch in high definition this September and the network announced it’s first HD documentary, “Planet in Peril”:

“Planet in Peril” looks at four main issues threatening the planet: climate change, deforestation, species loss and overpopulation.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet host Jeff Corwin are all part of the project.

“Some documentaries convey alarming statistics and others utilize stunning cinematography, but ‘Planet in Peril’ brings it all together,” CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein said in a statement. “This is a comprehensive and thorough evaluation of the state of our planet. We bring viewers right to the heart of the issue with CNN’s global perspective.”

CNN will be the first 24-hour news channel to debut an HD version. The idea of providing an HD look into developing news stories is definitely appealing.

Ah, the chance to see Anderson Cooper in high definition. I know a number of female news junkies that will relish that opportunity. But who wants to see Larry King in HD?

Today is a super lucky triplet date: 07/07/07.

I’ve mentioned previous triplet dates in the past, from 01/01/01 through 06/06/06, but this one has got to be the luckiest of them all.

So lucky, in fact, that the Lucky 7’s have induced hundreds of thousands of couples across the world to get married today, from Los Angeles to Belgium.

If they weren’t getting married today, people were packing the casinos in hopes of getting lucky.

And lottery players in Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Virginia maxed out 7-7-7 and 7-7-7-7 combinations for Pick 3 and Pick 4 games.

Triplet dates only happen once per century, and now we’re more than halfway through this century’s allotment.

Next up: 08/08/08, sure to be popular with the Chinese, who consider the number 8 lucky.