RIP Tom Snyder

I loved Tom Snyder and his late, late night Tomorrow show! How sad that he has passed away at a relatively young age of 71. (Just wait kids, that will seem young to you soon!) Snyder was an affable fellow who pioneered late, late night TV by booking fascinating, often cutting-edge personalities and engaging them in real conversations... often about things that no other TV show dared discuss at the time. His interviews with folks like Charles Manson, Johnny "Rotten" Lydon and the members of KISS are legendary... and all available now on YouTube! The interview above with PiL members Lydon and Keith Levine reveal Snyder to be a class act and Lydon -- as cute as he is -- a royal twat. Funny how when you're younger you think this sort of behavior is groundbreaking and decades later realize, no, they're just assholes.

Snyder's guffaw-riddled repartee with Ace Frehley of KISS is a real treat (see it here) as are his interviews with a very wasted Iggy Pop and First Amendment champion Wendy O. Williams of The Plasmatics (fresh from her infamous altercation with Milwaukee police).

Thank you Mr. Synder for giving us something intelligent and provocative to watch every night when we couldn't -- or, rather, wouldn't -- go to bed at a reasonable hour. Plus, you gotta love a broadcast journalist who, according to the trivia on Snyder's IMBD listing, "readily admits that one of the most embarrassing moments of his career was while interviewing Meat Loaf. For the first ten minutes he kept calling the rocker "Meatball."