Tom Snyder
Encyclopedia
Thomas James "Tom" Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American
television personality
, news anchor and radio personality
best known for his late night talk shows The Tomorrow Show
, on the NBC
television network in the 1970s
and 1980s
, and The Late Late Show
, on the CBS
Television Network in the 1990s
. Snyder was also the pioneer anchor of the primetime NBC News Update, in the 1970s
and early 1980s
, which was a one-minute capsule of news updates in primetime.
, Wisconsin
. His parents, Frank and Marie, gave him a Catholic upbringing; he attended St. Agnes Elementary School and then graduated from Jesuit
-run Marquette University High School
. He also attended Marquette University
, after which he had originally planned to study medicine and become a doctor.
. He once told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
reporter Tim Cuprisin that broadcasting
became more important to him than attending classes, and he skipped a lot of them. Snyder began his career as a radio reporter at WRIT-AM
(unrelated to the present-day FM station
) in Milwaukee and at WKZO in Kalamazoo (where he was fired by John Fetzer
) in the 1950s. For a time he worked at Savannah, Georgia
AM station WSAV (now WBMQ
). After moving to television in the 1960s, he was a news anchor for KYW-TV
in Cleveland and Philadelphia, and WNBC-TV and WABC-TV
in New York City
. He talked about driving cross country in an early Corvair
from Atlanta to Los Angeles
around 1963, where he landed a news job at KTLA-TV "Live On 5" then on to KNBC-TV also in Los Angeles
, where from 1970 to 1974 he was an anchor for the 6 p.m. newscast working with KNBC broadcaster Kelly Lange
, who was then a weather reporter before serving as a long-time KNBC news anchor. Lange later became Snyder's regular substitute guest host
on the Tomorrow
program, prior to the hiring of co-host Rona Barrett
in the program's last year. Even after attaining fame as host of Tomorrow, Snyder kept his hand in news anchoring with the Sunday broadcasts of NBC Nightly News
during 1975 and 1976.
(more commonly known as The Tomorrow Show), which aired late nights after The Tonight Show
on NBC
from 1973 to 1982. It was a talk show unlike the usual late-night fare, with Snyder, cigarette in hand, alternating between asking hard-hitting questions and offering personal observations that made the interview closer to a conversation.
Unique one-on-one exchanges were common to the program, notably with author Harlan Ellison
, John Lydon
of PiL and The Sex Pistols in 1980, John Lennon
in 1975, actor and writer Sterling Hayden
, and author and philosopher Ayn Rand
. A one-on-one program with David Brenner
as the sole guest revealed that Snyder and Brenner worked together on several documentaries.
An infamous edition of The Tomorrow Show broadcast on October 31, 1979, saw Snyder interview the rock group KISS
. During the episode, a visibly irritated Gene Simmons
(bass) and Paul Stanley
(guitar) tried to contain the bombastic (and drunk) Ace Frehley
(lead guitar), whose nonstop laughter and joking overshadowed the conversation taking place between Snyder and the rest of the band. Drummer Peter Criss
made repeated references to his large gun collection, to the chagrin of Simmons. Some of the footage from this show was later included on the Kissology - The Ultimate KISS Collection Vol. 2: 1978-1991 (2007) DVD.
When not grilling guests, Snyder would often joke around with offstage crewmen, often breaking out in the distinctively hearty laugh that was the basis of Dan Aykroyd
's impersonation of Snyder on Saturday Night Live
(12 occasions, 1976–1979 and 1995). Following a disastrous experiment with turning Tomorrow into a more typical talk show—renaming it Tomorrow Coast to Coast and adding a live audience and co-host, Rona Barrett
(all of which Snyder resented)—the show was canceled in 1982 to make way for the up-and-coming young comedian David Letterman
.
in New York. In September 1982, Snyder and Kaity Tong
began anchoring the 5PM Eyewitness News
programs for the station. Snyder stayed at WABC for two years, leaving the station in 1984. In 1985, he returned to the talk format at KABC-TV
in Los Angeles with a local afternoon show he had planned to gear up for national syndication the following year; those plans were scratched after Oprah Winfrey
's Chicago-based syndicated show
entered the market first and took over Snyder's time slot on KABC-TV.
An older, slightly more mellow Snyder returned to virtually the same format on ABC Radio. The show's three-hour format was a natural for Snyder. The first hour was spent chatting with a celebrity guest, during the second hour Snyder engaged someone in the news, and the final hour was consumed chatting with his legion of fans. Occasionally the caller would be a well-known fan like David Letterman or Ted Koppel
. One of Snyder's's favorite callers was Sherman Hemsley
, the actor who played George Jefferson
on the hit television sitcom The Jeffersons
. The Tom Snyder Show for ABC Radio Networks went off the air in late 1992, in part due to the rapid rise in popularity of The Rush Limbaugh Show
, which aired in the same time slot and which ABC had already been airing on many of its own stations. Snyder returned to television on CNBC
in the early 1990s, adding the opportunity for viewers to call in with their own questions for his guests. Snyder nicknamed his show "the Colorcast", reviving an old promotional term NBC-TV used in the early 1960s to hype its color broadcasts. He also continued his trademark of talking to offscreen crew and made frequent reference to the studio, reminding viewers of its location in Fort Lee, New Jersey
.
on The Tonight Show; the unlikely suggestion caught on. As part of the joke, Snyder appeared as himself in 1993 in The Larry Sanders Show
episode Life Behind Larry, in which talk-show host Sanders (Gary Shandling) steals Snyder from Letterman to host a talk-show in the slot immediately after his.
The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder aired live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and was simulcast to other time zones on radio to allow everyone a chance to call in. Snyder's CNBC show was taken over, largely unchanged in format, by Charles Grodin
. One of the many memorable Late Late Show interviews was with Gloria Vanderbilt
about her son's suicide
, told dramatically over an entire hour. Another was a lengthy interview with Robert Blake
very soon before Blake was charged with murder. In 1999 Snyder left The Late Late Show, which was then reformatted for Craig Kilborn
. It has since been turned over to Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson
.
In February 2000, Snyder hosted two shows of The Late Show Backstage done during the time Letterman was recovering from heart surgery.
Snyder also hosted a video production called A Century of Legendary Lionel Trains, commemorating 100 years of Lionel
Trains. Additionally, he hosted another program from the same production company called Celebrity Train Layouts 2: Tom Snyder, featuring his own collection of trains.
On July 28, 2005, Snyder announced he was deleting his website after six years, stating: "The novelty of communicating this way has worn off." On August 1, 2005, his page was abruptly taken offline. The front page was replaced with a white screen with the simple phrase: "Colortini is gone. Thanks for the Memories". However, some 140 pages have been preserved at web.archive.org. The domain name
has since been reused for other purposes.
, but that his doctors had told him it was "treatable". A year later, in June 2006, Snyder sold his home in the Benedict Canyon
area of Los Angeles, California
, where he had lived for almost 30 years, and headed to Belvedere
, in the San Francisco Bay Area
, where he owned a second home.
Snyder died on July 29, 2007, in San Francisco
at the age of 71 from complications of leukemia
. He had one child, Anne Mari Snyder, who lives in Maui, Hawaii, and two grandchildren.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television personality
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, news anchor and radio personality
Radio personality
A radio personality is a person with an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality can be someone who introduces and discusses various genres of music, hosts a talk radio show that may take calls from listeners, or someone whose primary responsibility is to give news, weather,...
best known for his late night talk shows The Tomorrow Show
Tomorrow (TV series)
Tomorrow was an American late-night television talk show hosted by Tom Snyder...
, on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television network in the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
and 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, and The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show (CBS TV series)
The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show on CBS hosted by Craig Ferguson since 2005. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated...
, on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Television Network in the 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
. Snyder was also the pioneer anchor of the primetime NBC News Update, in the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
and early 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, which was a one-minute capsule of news updates in primetime.
Early life
Snyder was born in MilwaukeeMilwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
. His parents, Frank and Marie, gave him a Catholic upbringing; he attended St. Agnes Elementary School and then graduated from Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
-run Marquette University High School
Marquette University High School
Marquette University High School is a private, all-male, Jesuit, Roman Catholic school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and is a member of both the National Catholic Educational Association and the Jesuit...
. He also attended Marquette University
Marquette University
Marquette University is a private, coeducational, Jesuit, Roman Catholic university located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1881, the school is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities...
, after which he had originally planned to study medicine and become a doctor.
Newscasting career
Snyder had loved radio since he was a child and at some point changed his field of study from pre-med to journalismJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
. He once told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It is the primary newspaper in Milwaukee, the largest newspaper in Wisconsin and is distributed widely throughout the state...
reporter Tim Cuprisin that broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
became more important to him than attending classes, and he skipped a lot of them. Snyder began his career as a radio reporter at WRIT-AM
WJYI
WJYI is a radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It runs a Christian format with Contemporary Christian Music from Salem Radio Network's Today's Christian Music network. It also features brokered teaching and preaching programs from both local Churches and national ministries. It also airs...
(unrelated to the present-day FM station
WRIT-FM
WRIT-FM is a radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, owned by Clear Channel Communications. Branded as "Oldies 95.7", it airs a 60s-70s Oldies format....
) in Milwaukee and at WKZO in Kalamazoo (where he was fired by John Fetzer
John Fetzer
John Earl Fetzer was a radio and television executive who was best known as the owner of the Detroit Tigers from 1961 through the early 1980s.- Biography :...
) in the 1950s. For a time he worked at Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
AM station WSAV (now WBMQ
WBMQ
WBMQ is a news/talk formatted radio station located in Savannah, Georgia.-History:Originally known as WSAV-AM, the station operated 250 Watts fulltime on 1340 kHz, then jumped to 5,000 Watts day and night on 630 kHz , when the NARBA shift took effect...
). After moving to television in the 1960s, he was a news anchor for KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
in Cleveland and Philadelphia, and WNBC-TV and WABC-TV
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He talked about driving cross country in an early Corvair
Chevrolet Corvair
-First generation :The 1960 Corvair 500 and 700 series four-door sedans were conceived as economy cars offering few amenities in order to keep the price competitive, with the 500 selling for under $2,000...
from Atlanta to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
around 1963, where he landed a news job at KTLA-TV "Live On 5" then on to KNBC-TV also in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where from 1970 to 1974 he was an anchor for the 6 p.m. newscast working with KNBC broadcaster Kelly Lange
Kelly Lange
Kelly Lange is an American journalist, most notable for being the first woman to be a nightly news anchor in Los Angeles...
, who was then a weather reporter before serving as a long-time KNBC news anchor. Lange later became Snyder's regular substitute guest host
Guest host
A guest host is a host, usually of a talk show, that substitutes for the regular host if they are, for example, ill or have other commitments...
on the Tomorrow
Tomorrow (TV series)
Tomorrow was an American late-night television talk show hosted by Tom Snyder...
program, prior to the hiring of co-host Rona Barrett
Rona Barrett
Rona Barrett is an American gossip columnist and businesswoman. She currently runs the Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ynez, California, dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizens in need.-Career and personal life:As a teenager, Barrett overcame a degenerative...
in the program's last year. Even after attaining fame as host of Tomorrow, Snyder kept his hand in news anchoring with the Sunday broadcasts of NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
during 1975 and 1976.
Tomorrow with Tom Snyder
Snyder gained national fame as the host of Tomorrow with Tom SnyderTomorrow (TV series)
Tomorrow was an American late-night television talk show hosted by Tom Snyder...
(more commonly known as The Tomorrow Show), which aired late nights after The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from 1973 to 1982. It was a talk show unlike the usual late-night fare, with Snyder, cigarette in hand, alternating between asking hard-hitting questions and offering personal observations that made the interview closer to a conversation.
Unique one-on-one exchanges were common to the program, notably with author Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
, John Lydon
John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
of PiL and The Sex Pistols in 1980, John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
in 1975, actor and writer Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...
, and author and philosopher Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
. A one-on-one program with David Brenner
David Brenner
David Brenner is an American standup comedian, actor, author, and filmmaker.-Career:Born and raised in poor areas of Philadelphia, Brenner found comedy a major source of relief from the daily trials and tribulations he faced in his youth. His neighborhood has been one of the top-ranked crime...
as the sole guest revealed that Snyder and Brenner worked together on several documentaries.
An infamous edition of The Tomorrow Show broadcast on October 31, 1979, saw Snyder interview the rock group KISS
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
. During the episode, a visibly irritated Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, actor, and rock bassist. Known as "The Demon", he is the bassist/vocalist of Kiss, a hard rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s.-Early life:...
(bass) and Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley
Stanley Harvey Eisen , better known by his stage name Paul Stanley, is an American hard rock guitarist, singer, musician, painter and songwriter best known for being the rhythm guitarist and primary lead vocalist of the rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's...
(guitar) tried to contain the bombastic (and drunk) Ace Frehley
Ace Frehley
Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Kiss. He took on the persona of the "Spaceman" or "Space Ace" when the band adopted costumes and theatrics...
(lead guitar), whose nonstop laughter and joking overshadowed the conversation taking place between Snyder and the rest of the band. Drummer Peter Criss
Peter Criss
George Peter John Criscuola , better known as Peter Criss, is an American drummer and singer, best known as the original drummer for the rock band Kiss...
made repeated references to his large gun collection, to the chagrin of Simmons. Some of the footage from this show was later included on the Kissology - The Ultimate KISS Collection Vol. 2: 1978-1991 (2007) DVD.
When not grilling guests, Snyder would often joke around with offstage crewmen, often breaking out in the distinctively hearty laugh that was the basis of Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
's impersonation of Snyder on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
(12 occasions, 1976–1979 and 1995). Following a disastrous experiment with turning Tomorrow into a more typical talk show—renaming it Tomorrow Coast to Coast and adding a live audience and co-host, Rona Barrett
Rona Barrett
Rona Barrett is an American gossip columnist and businesswoman. She currently runs the Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ynez, California, dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizens in need.-Career and personal life:As a teenager, Barrett overcame a degenerative...
(all of which Snyder resented)—the show was canceled in 1982 to make way for the up-and-coming young comedian David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
.
After Tomorrow
After Tomorrow was cancelled Snyder returned to news reporting, joining WABCWABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
in New York. In September 1982, Snyder and Kaity Tong
Kaity Tong
Kaity Tong is a Chinese-born American broadcast journalist who has been a television news anchor in New York City since 1981.Born in Qingdao in the Peoples Republic of China to George and Anita Tong, Tong came to the United States with her family at age four. Growing up in Washington D.C., Tong was...
began anchoring the 5PM Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
programs for the station. Snyder stayed at WABC for two years, leaving the station in 1984. In 1985, he returned to the talk format at KABC-TV
KABC-TV
KABC-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in Glendale, California...
in Los Angeles with a local afternoon show he had planned to gear up for national syndication the following year; those plans were scratched after Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
's Chicago-based syndicated show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
entered the market first and took over Snyder's time slot on KABC-TV.
An older, slightly more mellow Snyder returned to virtually the same format on ABC Radio. The show's three-hour format was a natural for Snyder. The first hour was spent chatting with a celebrity guest, during the second hour Snyder engaged someone in the news, and the final hour was consumed chatting with his legion of fans. Occasionally the caller would be a well-known fan like David Letterman or Ted Koppel
Ted Koppel
Edward James "Ted" Koppel is an English-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline from the program's inception in 1980 until his retirement in late 2005. After leaving Nightline, Koppel worked as managing editor for the Discovery Channel before resigning in 2008...
. One of Snyder's's favorite callers was Sherman Hemsley
Sherman Hemsley
Sherman Alexander Hemsley is an American actor, most famous for his role as George Jefferson on the CBS television series All in the Family and The Jeffersons, and as Deacon Ernest Frye on the NBC series Amen. He also played Earl Sinclair's horrifying boss, a Triceratops named B.P...
, the actor who played George Jefferson
George Jefferson
George Jefferson is a fictional character played by Sherman Hemsley in American television sitcoms All in the Family and its spin-off The Jeffersons...
on the hit television sitcom The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons is an American sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, through June 25, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The show was produced by the T.A.T. Communications Company from 1975–1982 and by Embassy Television from 1982-1985...
. The Tom Snyder Show for ABC Radio Networks went off the air in late 1992, in part due to the rapid rise in popularity of The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show is an American talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh on Premiere Radio Networks...
, which aired in the same time slot and which ABC had already been airing on many of its own stations. Snyder returned to television on CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
in the early 1990s, adding the opportunity for viewers to call in with their own questions for his guests. Snyder nicknamed his show "the Colorcast", reviving an old promotional term NBC-TV used in the early 1960s to hype its color broadcasts. He also continued his trademark of talking to offscreen crew and made frequent reference to the studio, reminding viewers of its location in Fort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 35,345. Located atop the Hudson Palisades, the borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge...
.
The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder
Meanwhile, Letterman had moved on to CBS and was given control of creating a new program to follow his at 12:35 am. Letterman, who had idolized Snyder for years, hired Snyder in 1995 as host of The Late Late Show. The idea had actually begun as a running joke on Letterman's show, that Snyder would soon follow him on the air as he had once followed Johnny CarsonJohnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
on The Tonight Show; the unlikely suggestion caught on. As part of the joke, Snyder appeared as himself in 1993 in The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...
episode Life Behind Larry, in which talk-show host Sanders (Gary Shandling) steals Snyder from Letterman to host a talk-show in the slot immediately after his.
The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder aired live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and was simulcast to other time zones on radio to allow everyone a chance to call in. Snyder's CNBC show was taken over, largely unchanged in format, by Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968...
. One of the many memorable Late Late Show interviews was with Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
about her son's suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, told dramatically over an entire hour. Another was a lengthy interview with Robert Blake
Robert Blake (actor)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
very soon before Blake was charged with murder. In 1999 Snyder left The Late Late Show, which was then reformatted for Craig Kilborn
Craig Kilborn
Craig Kilborn is an American actor and talk show host. He was the original host of The Daily Show, a former anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter, and Tom Snyder's successor on CBS' The Late Late Show. On June 28, 2010, he launched The Kilborn File after a six-year absence from television...
. It has since been turned over to Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson is a Scottish American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, and producer. He is the host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning late-night talk show that airs on CBS...
.
In February 2000, Snyder hosted two shows of The Late Show Backstage done during the time Letterman was recovering from heart surgery.
Snyder also hosted a video production called A Century of Legendary Lionel Trains, commemorating 100 years of Lionel
Lionel, LLC
Lionel, LLC is a designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads, based in Chesterfield Township, Michigan. Its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the Lionel product line by cereal conglomerate General Mills....
Trains. Additionally, he hosted another program from the same production company called Celebrity Train Layouts 2: Tom Snyder, featuring his own collection of trains.
Colortini.com
Snyder posted regular messages on his own now-defunct website colortini.com during the early 2000s. A "colortini", according to Snyder in the CNBC era, was the drink you should enjoy while watching the show ("Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."). For the CBS show, he redubbed the mythical drink a "simultini" as his show was also heard on selected radio stations.On July 28, 2005, Snyder announced he was deleting his website after six years, stating: "The novelty of communicating this way has worn off." On August 1, 2005, his page was abruptly taken offline. The front page was replaced with a white screen with the simple phrase: "Colortini is gone. Thanks for the Memories". However, some 140 pages have been preserved at web.archive.org. The domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
has since been reused for other purposes.
Final years and death
In April 2005, Snyder revealed that he was battling chronic lymphocytic leukemiaLeukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
, but that his doctors had told him it was "treatable". A year later, in June 2006, Snyder sold his home in the Benedict Canyon
Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California
Benedict Canyon is an area in the City of Los Angeles, California near Sherman Oaks northwest of Beverly Hills.-Geography and history:The Canyon is a ravine in the Santa Monica Mountains that drops in a north to south direction from its high point at the crestline of the Santa Monica Mountains on...
area of Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, where he had lived for almost 30 years, and headed to Belvedere
Belvedere, California
Belvedere is an affluent city in Marin County, California, United States. Belvedere is located northeast of Sausalito, at an elevation of 36 feet...
, in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
, where he owned a second home.
Snyder died on July 29, 2007, in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
at the age of 71 from complications of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
. He had one child, Anne Mari Snyder, who lives in Maui, Hawaii, and two grandchildren.