On Feb 15, 6:53 pm, PGage <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 10:19 AM, Gary <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > With all the compilations this week of crazy guest appearances over
> > the years on Letterman's show, nobody asks why this never seems to
> > happen on any other late night show.
>
> > Anybody any theories on what it is about Dave that seems to bring out
> > the worst (or best) in guests?
>
> As Evanier and others have noted, a lot of this is overblown. A big
> chunk of the "disaster" interviews on Time's list were either obvious
> schtick (e.g. Kaufman) or not disasters at all (e.g. Barrymore). They
> include the Michael Richards as a disaster, which seems to stretch the
> category so much as to make it meaningless. Richards himself was
> having a disaster, but I thought that was interesting and good tv.
> They include the recent interview with that Vampire actresss, which
> was mostly a case of a young actress being a little more obviously
> stupid and vapid than usual. Madonna, Fawcet, Hilton probably qualify
> as disaster interviews - though that Hilton interview is more a case
> of her being herself and finding out that was a disaster.
>
> Dave (especially in the early days) did more segments that were
> subversive of regular tv, and that may have motivated some guests to
> go in that direction more on their own than they would on another
> show. Dave also may be more likely to draw attention to the
> self-involvement or stupidity of a guest than other hosts. But a lot
> of this is exaggerated.
Thanks for the reply. My own simple theory is that Dave is the only
host on TV that doesn’t feel any responsibility to make guests feel
comfortable, and this seems to spook a lot of celebrities. As Don
Rickles once noted on Charlie Rose, Jimmy and Jay are like eager
beavers with guests whereas Dave plays a different game and just sits
there and waits.
As noted over on the Letterman NG, you can add Harvey Pekar, Shirley
MacLaine and Oliver Reed to the list of genuine disaster interviews
(Although Dave is hardly unique in the case of Reed)
Gary
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