Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 11, 1995                   TAG: 9501120021
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: VERNE GAY NEWSDAY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SNYDER SAYS HE WON'T TRY ANY FUNNY STUFF

OK. Then what will CBS' newest late-night man be doing on ``The Late, Late Show With Tom Snyder''? A clue: vocal cords will be heavily employed.

``Late, Late Show'' will be a talk show in the purest - and in some ways - most anachronistic sense. In one chair will sit Snyder, and directly across from him will sit the guest. And Snyder will ask questions.

That's it. Odd, no? After all, late night has virtually become the exclusive domain of standup comics. Plain ol' talk - with a couple of minor (``Charlie Rose'') and major (``Nightline'') exceptions - has died to a whisper in the wee hours.

And that's why Snyder says he wants to come back.

``I said [to CBS] that whoever does 12:30, please don't do another comedy show,'' he says. ``You need a program that is somehow linked to the beginnings of late-night television - which was Jack Paar, and some other electrifying personalities in ... New York.''

Suffice to say, a pure-talk strategy is a risk. Viewers, naturally, have become used to something entirely different. ``Late, Late Show'' must immediately do battle with ``Late Night With Conan O'Brien.'' While ``Conan'' continues to struggle and await word from top NBC executives that its future is assured, the show has gained viewers in recent months (particularly those of college age).

Robert Morton, who will be co-executive producer of the Snyder program along with Peter Lassally (both men also run ``Late Show With David Letterman''), worked with Snyder back in the early '80s, before taking a job with MTV. Morton says that in those days, ``everybody wanted to be MTV ... but I think that's all passe now. We know viewers can watch more than two minutes at a time. You don't need bells and whistles.''

Nope, a good old-fashioned foghorn should do just fine. Morton, in fact, compares his new talk guy to ``cuffed pants. Someone will come up with bell-bottoms, but you know cuffed pants will always come back.''

The show does, in fact, have some up-to-date features. It will be telecast live from Los Angeles from 9:37 to 10:37 p.m., Pacific time, weeknights, with a radio simulcast (the West Coast telecast will be taped). As such, it will be the only live late-night show on network TV (``Nightline'' is an amalgam of live and tape).

The set should be somewhat nifty, too: ``It will be very, very dramatic looking,'' says Lassally. ``It's a look of Los Angeles late at night, with the valley and mountains in the distance.''

``The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder'' airs weeknights at 12:35 a.m. on WDBJ-Channel 7.