Tom Snyder, Late-Night Television Talk Show Pioneer, Dies at 71

Tom Snyder, Late-Night Television Talk Show Pioneer, Dies at 71

By Mark Schoifet

July 30 (Bloomberg) -- Tom Snyder, the television talk-show host whose ``Tomorrow'' program on NBC paved the way for David Letterman and a new generation of late-night interviewers, has died. He was 71.

Snyder died yesterday in San Francisco of complications from leukemia, the Associated Press reported. Snyder announced on his Web site in 2005 that he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The ``Tomorrow'' program followed Johnny Carson's ``Tonight Show'' from 1973 to 1982, filling a slot that in most markets had been used for movie reruns or no programming at all. The show was a hit among college students in the days before the Internet because of his provocative guests and subject matter -- his first show was about group marriage -- and Snyder's casual style.

Snyder's interviews with guests from Ayn Rand and Charles Manson to Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols provided some of the strangest and most-compelling moments in television history.

Known for his deep laugh and banter with his off-camera crew, the chain-smoking, 6-foot, 4-inch Snyder became such a popular-culture icon that he was parodied by comedian Dan Aykroyd of ``Saturday Night Live.''

Snyder was a major influence on Letterman, whose show replaced Snyder's in 1982.

``I'd come home, turn on the TV, and suddenly NBC has this wonderful new show,'' Letterman told Snyder when the former ``Tomorrow'' host was a guest on his program in 1994. ``It was you, sitting low in your chair, darkly lit, smoke rolling out of your nose. The image and feeling of intimacy was overwhelming.''

Strange Moments

Some of the stranger interviews on the ``Tomorrow' show included a 1980 appearance by John Lydon, formerly known as Johnny Rotten, and Keith Levene of Public Image Ltd., in which the pair's refusal to cooperate with Snyder made for 12 minutes of excruciating television. The same year the punk band the Plasmatics blew up a television on the show.

Tom Snyder was born in Milwaukee on May 12, 1936. He left his pre-medical courses at Marquette University to work as a reporter, anchor and talk-show host at TV stations across the country.

While working for Channel 3 in Philadelphia in 1965, Snyder made television history by co-anchoring the nation's first noon newscast, according to that station.

In 1970 he became primary news anchor at KNBC, the network- owned affiliate in Los Angeles. KNBC's news ratings soared, and Snyder did his first ``Tomorrow'' show on Oct. 15, 1973. The following year ``Tomorrow'' moved to New York and Snyder also became early evening anchor of WNBC's ``News Center 4.''

Back to LA

Snyder and ``Tomorrow'' returned to Los Angeles in 1977. During the 1970s there was talk of his taking over ``The Tonight Show'' when Johnny Carson retired. He was also in the running to anchor the NBC evening news. Neither happened.

By the beginning of 1982, ``Tomorrow'' was canceled, and within a year or two what Americans generally remembered most about Snyder was the Aykroyd impression.

``I was flattered,'' Snyder said of that impersonation in a 1994 interview with the New York Times. ``It wasn't a spiteful parody at all. And it was hilarious.''

In 1982 Snyder was hired to anchor ``Eyewitness News'' on WABC-TV in New York.

He then moved back to Los Angeles, was a guest host on Larry King's radio show on the Mutual Network and for five years had a call-in show on the ABC radio network. In 1993, NBC hired him for its fledgling financial news network CNBC.

In 1995, he returned to late night television as the host of ``The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder'' on CBS. The program followed Letterman's ``Late Show'' until 1998, when Snyder was replaced by Craig Kilborn.

``The Tomorrow Show: Punk & New Wave'' came out in DVD in January 2006, featuring Snyder's interviews with Iggy Pop, the Ramones and Patti Smith.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Schoifet in New York at mschoifet@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: July 30, 2007 10:26 EDT