Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 12, 1994 TAG: 9408130016
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
This should clinch things for CBS in one way at least ... Dave plus Tom adds up to late-night's weirdest hair. It's not even close.
But about that title, Tom: ``The Late Late Show.'' We already got ``Late Show.'' We got ``Late Night'' (with Conan O'Brien). We got ``Later'' (with Greg Kinnear). In a matter of weeks, we even get the syndicated ``Last Call.'' And now your show.
It's a lot to keep track of just before bed. Call us crazy, but what about ``The Tom Snyder Show'' or, if you don't think Tom Arnold already jinxed it, simply ``Tom''? C'mon, it isn't too - er, late to change plans.
Snyder's live, Los Angeles-based show will launch in mid-December. Plucking him from the backwater of CNBC, it returns him to the big time where he first found fame two decades ago hosting NBC's wee-hours ``Tomorrow.''
Tom's resurgence should comfort not only his admirers, but also anyone in sight of AARP membership. In a TV world where youth typically prevails, the selection of the 58-year-old talk-show veteran represents a blow to ageism and a nod toward the current CBS News slogan, ``Where Experience Counts.''
After four decades in radio and TV, Snyder is nothing if not experienced, and offers a smashing contrast to his soon-to-be NBC rival. Not only did Conan O'Brien come to ``Late Night'' a year ago barely shaving his fresh face, he had logged precious little camera time.
The man who tapped Tom for CBS is none other than David Letterman, a longtime Snyder fan who will produce ``The Late Late Show.'' Tuesday night, he hosted the official announcement from the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater, where his own show originates.
``I don't look at Tom as being a guy who's however old Tom is,'' Letterman told reporters. ``I just look at him, and have always looked at him, as someone who's very good at what he does. And that's the extent of it for me.''
``I don't think anyone questions the age of Mike Wallace on `60 Minutes,' '' Snyder offered.
``He's like a hundred, isn't he?'' Letterman cracked.
Anyway, everything old is new again ... including Snyder.
He has recently been likened to Tony Bennett, a timeless crooner in his late 60s who has won a new flock of fans among the MTV generation (why not call Snyder's new show ``Tom Unplugged''?).
The new kid in town? Not Snyder. Gabby and provocative, wielding sharp edges and sass, he pioneered late-night talk TV in 1973 when ``Tomorrow'' staked out the 1 a.m. frontier, right after Johnny Carson's ``Tonight Show.''
Whether talking with a guest in the studio or to you at home, the closeup-craving Tom was a man who wasn't afraid to invade your personal space, a man who moved in so close you could swear you smelled his aftershave. But he never abused the privilege he claimed. He just wouldn't let you go.
On his CNBC show weeknights at 10 p.m., Snyder looks every bit his added years, and reflects the wisdom he's gathered along the way. But nothing much else has changed with him.
At the news conference Tuesday, Letterman called Snyder ``a gifted broadcaster and communicator, which is endlessly appealing to me.''
The term ``broadcaster'' has an appealingly retro tinge, redolent of vacuum tubes with filaments glowing, of steel towers piercing the sky.
Today's cool, solid-state media world is something else. With fiber optics, satellite transmission and digital display, even the term ``TV'' is living on borrowed time.
But not for Snyder. He travels no information superhighway. He just sits and talks to his audience at home, with a camera in between.
``Folks, it's only television,'' he told reporters, ``it's only 27 inches diagonal.''
But Tom knows how to stretch it for miles.
by CNB