Tomorrow (also known as The Tomorrow Show and, after 1980, Tomorrow Coast to Coast) was an American late-night television talk show hosted by Tom Snyder. The show aired on NBC from 1973 to 1982 and featured many prominent guests, including Paul McCartney, "Weird Al" Yankovic (in his first televised appearance), Ayn Rand, John Lennon (in his last televised interview), Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey, Charles Manson, The Clash, Johnny Rotten, and U2 (in their first American television appearance). Los Angeles news anchor Kelly Lange, a good friend of Snyder, was the regular substitute guest host.

History and format overview

In fall 1973 NBC's decision to launch a nightly program after the Tonight Show was prompted by the ban on tobacco ads that resulted in a revenue loss for the network. The thinking was that extending the broadcast day by one hour could help recover some of that income.[1]

Established as more of an intimate talk show, Tomorrow differed from the usual late-night fare, with host Tom Snyder conducting one-on-one interviews sans audience, cigarette in hand, alternating between asking hard-hitting questions and offering personal observations that made the interview closer to a genuine conversation. Making the show work financially became a challenge for NBC due to extremely low prices for commercial spots that a programme at 1 a.m. could command. Since, according to Snyder, a 30-second spot on the show brought in only US$3,000, the network's primary concern initially was cutting production and distribution costs. As satellite transmission was still not in use, the show was sent from coast to coast over telephone lines and it reportedly took NBC the entire first year of Tomorrow broadcasting before they suceeded in getting lower telephone line usage tariffs.[2]

Snyder was a veteran newsman, but often communicated like a comedian doing a standup routine, and seemed to like getting the off-camera technical crew to laugh.

When not grilling guests, Snyder would often joke around with off-stage crewmen, often breaking out in the distinctively hearty laugh that was the basis of Dan Aykroyd's impersonation of Snyder on Saturday Night Live. His seemingly mismatched jet black eyebrows and grey hair were also lampooned on SNL. Snyder was, as well, the inspiration for the cartoon "Tom Morrow", which appeared in Playboy in the late 1970s.

The title card on Snyder's show had dovetailed "Tom" and "Tomorrow", by highlighting "Tom" in a different color.

Notable interviews

Unique one-on-one exchanges were common to the program, notably with author Harlan Ellison, actor and writer Sterling Hayden and author-philosopher Ayn Rand. A one-on-one program with David Brenner as the sole guest revealed that Snyder and Brenner worked together on several documentaries.

Peak moments with Snyder on Tomorrow included John Lennon's final televised interview, in April 1975 (replayed in December 1980 as a tribute to Lennon, and later released on home video), and Irish rock band U2's first American television appearance in June 1981. Also memorable was the 1980 cigarette smoke-filled appearance of Public Image Ltd.'s John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) and Keith Levene, whose thoroughly uncooperative twelve-minute appearance on the show acquired a long-term notoriety. "Weird Al" Yankovic's first television appearance was on the show in April 1981. Another memorable moment came on a 1978 show when he had on one of NBC's West Coast staff announcers, Donald Rickles, one day after interviewing the same-named comedian Don Rickles. During the course of their segment, Snyder and Rickles (the announcer) spent ten minutes playing the then-new electronic board game, Simon.

Another notorious segment was a 1981 prison interview with mass murderer Charles Manson. Manson was by turns quietly mesmerizing and disturbingly manic, suddenly getting a wild look in his eyes and spouting wild notions at Snyder before temporarily returning to a calm demeanor.[3]

Bizarre moments included a 1979 appearance by Chicago shock-jock Steve Dahl, and a March 1981 appearance by the punk band, The Plasmatics, during which lead singer Wendy O. Williams sledgehammered a TV in the studio. The explosion disrupted a live broadcast of NBC Nightly News being produced in a studio two floors above. Snyder himself referred to this occurrence on a May 1981 followup appearance in which the Plasmatics blew up a car.

Perhaps the most outrageous interview seen on Snyder's show occurred on Halloween 1979, when the rock band KISS appeared to promote their album, Dynasty. During that 25-minute "interview", the conversation degenerated into a somewhat chaotic exchange between Snyder and a very drunk Ace Frehley, who picked up Snyder's teddy bear, put the wristlets from his costume on the bear, and laughed, "the only Spacebear in captivity! I've got him — he's captured!" When Snyder asked Ace if his costume was that of some sort of spaceman, Frehley quipped, "No, actually I'm a plumber." Snyder shot back, "Well, I've got a piece of pipe backstage I'd like to have you work on." The inebriated Frehley replied "Tell me about it!" and clapped his hands and cackled hysterically at the exchange. Years later, Gene Simmons revealed on his website that he felt "betrayed" by the other band members during this interview. Shortly thereafter, drummer Peter Criss officially left the band and subsequently appeared on the show, making Snyder the first host to have a member of KISS appearing without makeup in public.

Tomorrow Coast to Coast

Following a disastrous experiment with turning Tomorrow into a more typical talk show — renaming it Tomorrow Coast to Coast and adding a live audience and co-host, Rona Barrett (all of which Snyder resented) — the show was cancelled in 1982, to make way for the up-and-coming young comedian, David Letterman. The last first-run show aired on December 17, 1981. Reruns aired until it went off the air on January 28, 1982.

David Letterman and Snyder had a long history together: a 1978 Tomorrow episode hosted by Snyder was almost exclusively devoted to a long interview with up-and-coming new comedy talents Letterman, Billy Crystal and Merrill Markoe. From 1995 to 1999, Snyder hosted another late night talk show, The Late Late Show, produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated.

Scheduling

The show was scheduled at 1 a.m., immediately following The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The program aired only four nights a week, Monday through Thursday, in order to accommodate the weekly shows The Midnight Special (1973-81) and SCTV Network 90 (1981-82) in that time slot on Fridays. It was originally broadcast from the NBC studios in Burbank, California, but relocated to New York in December 1974 when Snyder took on additional anchor duties for NBC News. In June 1977, the show returned to Burbank until 1979, when Snyder once again began originating from 30 Rockefeller Plaza. On September 16, 1980, when The Tonight Show was shortened to 60 minutes, Tomorrow was scheduled at 12:30 a.m. and lengthened to 90 minutes, a format that lasted until its cancellation 16 months later.[citation needed] Stations began dropping the show, most notably KYW in Philadelphia and WBZ in Boston (at the time both owned by Group W), who had replaced the program with reruns of Hawaii Five-O.

Awards and nominations

The show was nominated for three Emmy Awards: one in 1976 for Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork and two in 1981 for Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement.

DVD releases

Three DVD compilations of footage of Tomorrow have been released to date:

The Tomorrow Show - Tom Snyder's Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show

• The Grateful Dead
• Ken Kesey
• Timothy Leary
• Tom Wolfe

The Tomorrow Show - Punk & New Wave

• Elvis Costello
• The Jam
• Joan Jett
• John Lydon
• The Plasmatics
• Iggy Pop
• The Ramones
• Patti Smith
• Paul Weller

The Tomorrow Show - John, Paul, Tom & Ringo

• Part 1
  • John Lennon
  • Leon Wildes (Lennon's immigration attorney)
  • Lisa Robinson (journalist)
  • Jack Douglas
• Part 2
  • Paul McCartney
  • Linda McCartney
  • Denny Laine
  • Laurence Juber
• Part 3
  • Ringo Starr
  • Barbara Bach
  • Angie Dickinson

2010 Version

The show was retooled as a web series set to air on the same day as Jay Leno's return to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The Series aired a pilot on January 23, 2010 on Ustream and BlogTV.

See also

• List of late night network TV programs

References

1. ^ Tom Snyder on Later, 1994
2. ^ Tom Snyder on Later, 1994
3. ^ Transcript of Manson interview

External links

• Tomorrow (TV series) at the Internet Movie Database
• Tomorrow at TV.com