The Dick Cavett Show on DVD
This brought back some very cool memories. I had seen a promo a few weeks earlier about a 4 DVD set of the best of Dick Cavett's interviews from his show which ran on ABC from 1969 to 1974. This was still fresh in my memory as I was poking around at my local public library when I suddenly saw the set up on the shelf. I grabbed it quickly as if someone would beat me to it. Looking around I could see that I was alone. Besides, who but ME would take delight in something like this from those bygone days of the late 1960's and early 1970's?
Dick Cavett on Wikipedia
I gasped when I saw it and quickly made my way to the checkout counter to take it home. It was brand new and I was the first one to check it out of the Columbus library system. The set contains interviews of some of the most iconic and talented celebrities of the mid-20th century. Woody Allen (when he was more social), Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, George Burns, Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Groucho Marx and The Smothers Brothers are all there. We tend to forget what a real interview is like these days because of the slam-bang nature of modern commercial televison with it's five minute attention span and sound bite mentality. These interviews were SUBSTANTIAL and the guests could talk at length about many varied topics. If a guest were to try that on Jay Leno's show he'd be able to get about a paragraph out before he'd be cut off and we'd be whisked to the next segment. So the pace was slower and more improvisational which made the conversations rather freewheeling and interesting.
After watching all 14 hours of these shows it occured to me that I didn't really get much chance to watch Dick Cavett all that much. I guess I was a Johnny Carson devotee' and rarely changed channels because we didn't have remotes back then. Once the TV was on station it stayed right there! In reality Cavett's show was always beaten by Carson so I kinda felt sorry for the little guy. But his interviews were still the best around and these DVD's really back up that claim. Always intelligent, irreverant and urbane, Dick Cavett stands out as a distinct voice in the entertainment business and one I won't ever forget.
Quite coincidentally and on a sad note, his wife died last week as well.
Dick Cavett on Wikipedia
I gasped when I saw it and quickly made my way to the checkout counter to take it home. It was brand new and I was the first one to check it out of the Columbus library system. The set contains interviews of some of the most iconic and talented celebrities of the mid-20th century. Woody Allen (when he was more social), Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, George Burns, Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Groucho Marx and The Smothers Brothers are all there. We tend to forget what a real interview is like these days because of the slam-bang nature of modern commercial televison with it's five minute attention span and sound bite mentality. These interviews were SUBSTANTIAL and the guests could talk at length about many varied topics. If a guest were to try that on Jay Leno's show he'd be able to get about a paragraph out before he'd be cut off and we'd be whisked to the next segment. So the pace was slower and more improvisational which made the conversations rather freewheeling and interesting.
After watching all 14 hours of these shows it occured to me that I didn't really get much chance to watch Dick Cavett all that much. I guess I was a Johnny Carson devotee' and rarely changed channels because we didn't have remotes back then. Once the TV was on station it stayed right there! In reality Cavett's show was always beaten by Carson so I kinda felt sorry for the little guy. But his interviews were still the best around and these DVD's really back up that claim. Always intelligent, irreverant and urbane, Dick Cavett stands out as a distinct voice in the entertainment business and one I won't ever forget.
Quite coincidentally and on a sad note, his wife died last week as well.
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