Entertainment For Lively Minds
Classic TV chat show moments?
Posted by rocker43 on 30 August 2011 - 4:46pm.
Sorry to start another thread that involves pulling stuff off Youtube but they are such fun. Occasionally chat show sequences are inserted into threads on other subjects to illustrate a point and/or reflect on a particular celebrity's work and views. So let's have a self standing thread devoted to them.
I trawl Youtube now and again if an old TV chat moment springs to mind. In my youth I watched a lot of Parky, Aspel, Wogan, Des O'Connor, clice Anderson and J Ross etc and always looked forward to the likes of Kenneth Williams, Spike Milligan or Oliver Reed on the telly after a hard day dodging the school gangsters.
Here are a few interviews that made me laugh at the time. What's your favourite moments?
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I don't find the Oliver Reed ones funny
but just incredibly sad, and I hate it when they appear on the "funniest moments on TV" clip shows. Ditto David Icke (who was clearly very ill) on Wogan
Tracy Emin pissed is always good value though
Peter Cook - the master
Here's a clip from Clive James show in 1985, starting off with Victoria Wood (neither of them chat show slouches), but Peter was just the King at this sort of stuff - his opening line (at the 4:40 mark) sets the scene wonderfully, IMHO of course.
Never saw that whole Bee Gees interview.
Clive Anderson wasn't too bad, was he?
And it was Barry Gibb who used the 'tosser' line to begin with anyway.
Strange.
The worst interviews for me were with Linda McCartney on Wogan, when she really would have been within her rights to say, 'Sorry, do you know who I am?', and the various Ringo and George Best interviews through the 1970s and 1980s.
Fair play to Chris Evans as, circa 1996, he did two brilliant interviews with the two of them (Ringo at one point even commenting on how much Evans knew about his career).
The worst radio interview I ever heard was Michael Parkinson with John Densmore, The Doors' drummer.
Ol' Parky didn't have a clue.
They really should have got the LBC hat-stand to do it.
The Ascent of Man
I can't find a clip but back in the 70s Jacob Bronowski, author of 'The Ascent of Man', was on Parkinson. The striking thing was that he took what seemed about 10 seconds to consider each of Parky's questions before responding with a brilliantly thought through and structured reply. Difficult to imagine someone like him being invited on a chat show nowadays, let alone be given that much time to respond without being talked over. Or subjected to a knob joke.
Bad news, I'm afraid: it's been wiped.
I agree wholeheartedly with your observations. The first run of Parkinson from the early 1970's through to 1982 was high on magic, even when it was short on sensation.
According to the Kaleidoscope database there are still 348 editions of Parkinson #1 left in the BBC archive, with just a few omissions (including, sadly, the Bronowski episode which I also remember so clearly).
I'd love to a TOTP-style rerun of whole episodes on BBC 4 or the archives site, but I'm sure, as ever, that rights would be the stumbling block.
Pretty much the whole of the first series is gone, which means that we've lost appearances by Arthur Ashe, Terry-Thomas, Pentangle, Art Buchwald, Peter Ustinov, Jonathan Miller, George Best, Kenneth Tynan, Rod Steiger, Orson Welles, Ringo Starr, Fred Truman, Harold Pinter, Trevor Howard, Micheál Mac Liammóir and others forever.
When you start looking at what the BBC wiped it's just depressing, but we've been here before.
The Odd Couple
I remember Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau on Parkinson as being pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen on television.
Two 'eroes for the price of one...Wallop!
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The best single moment in any TV interview
I've seen was when Neil Finn was being interviewed on Aussie Tv by HG Nelson.
HG must have known in advance what the answer was going to be before he asked one question as his follow-up observation was so quick.
He asked Neil, "What's your favourite Beatles song?"
Neil answered "Across the Universe"
So HG said, "That's interesting both that and Don't Dream It's Over have water into paper cup imagery"
Neil just stared at him for a second and then said "Oh my god you're right" and then shook his head in dis-belief.
Frank Skinner
his dry banter always made me laugh. with Kelly Brook, his ad lib gags start at 4.58 and 5.07 and continue from there.
Brigitte Neilsson on Frank Skinner
If I remember correctly, she was very "refreshed" and offers to snog Frank Skinner. Frank refuses and replies "I couldn't cope with the hangover".
Robert Morley on Dee Time
Not particularly music orientated, but Morley would have made a great Word podcast guest.
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Was this an early Steve Coogan creation?
why was this man given so much airtime?
I used to see these interviews and wondered why David Icke got so much exposure. He was clearly a charlatan, nuts, ill or all three. He never had anything illuminating to say about anything, he did not represent a sector of public opinion and the new age claptrap he talked about was neither funny, intellectually stimulating nor remotely interesting on any level.
Then again some might say he was the perfect chat show guest.
The best Icke interview was by Nicky Campbell
On his old late-night Radio 1 show. He'd get on someone with, um, an interesting viewpoint* and interview them absolutely straight down the line. No pisstaking, no laughing, taking them completely seriously and asking relevant questions. The subject would then open up and come out with some breathtaking cobblers. The Give 'Em Enough Rope approach. I did occasionally wonder if we were doing the Victorian "laugh at the lunatics" thing but the subjects always seemed to be delighted to be given a platform. The man who knew that Jesus was alive and well and living in the West Midlands was a particular highlight.
*borderline psychotic semi-delusional crackpot
And in the recent cable show
where Wogan revisted old shows and guests Icke had a right go at him accusing him of destroying his life and being sheeple etc.
There was this where Bob Monkhouse was monstered by Pamela Stephenson and as he said 'when she shoots you notice I cover my balls, you bet I had no idea!"
The Clive Anderson \ Peter Cook episode was a glorious last hurrah for the old fella just doing what he was so brilliant at.
and the Candyman identifies two comedy discussions that descend into chaos one with geniuses like Marty Feldman and Johnny Speight and the other with ubercunt and wafer thin talent wrangler Keith Allen (from 4:50 ish)
That Late Show ep with Keith Allen
It never actually made transmission or so I'm to believe, Can anyone verify this?
Televised pissed up argument
you wouldn't get that nowadays would you, apart from on Big Brother.
so famous
they've made a drama about it
Steve Martin
When he was funny and with a nervous Jonathan Ross. I remembered this as very entertaining and, lo, it's on youtube.
There's also a 70s Parkinson interview with Helen Mirren that is very uncomfortable for the wrong reasons: he did not take her seriously and she thought he was sexist. To my knowledge, she has never worked with him again.
excellent stuff
that Steve Martin performance was the perfect pisstake of the whole chat show format. Very subtle.
Here's the Parky one with the delightful Helen. it was indeed a cringe making line of questioning. She was brilliant then and still is.
What the hell was up with Parkie?
How rude. Awful interview. He looked so aggressive. What had she done or said to upset him. Idiot!! tsk!
He took one look at her
and cracked one.
That's what was up with Parky
I remember when this went out...time stood still
very uncomfortable meeting of a mightily pissed off Matthew Kelly (fresh from being cleared of child abuse allegations) who decides to take Frank Skinner for taking the piss out of him.
Appalling sound unfortunately. Still squirmworthy and neither come out smelling of roses.
Thanks for that clip.
I forgot all about that interview. You see to me, they both come out of it pretty well. Those YouTube comments though. God, I despair.
Alan Latchley
(Peter Cook, at the top of the page) was one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
"Football, she's a cruel mistress. She's, she's more than a mistress. She's a wife, she's a mother, she's a daughter, she's an errant child. She can make you laugh, she can make you cry."
some Richard Burton
Burton with Kenneth tynan
Burton Parky pt1
Burton Parky pt2
They had to record that Burton interview
in the afternoon because he would have been too pissed to do it by the evening. The audience were made up of BBC canteen staff in their kitchen whites. Burton remarked that they looked like doctors waiting to take him away.
The most famous man in the world
Is also a value for money guest. Bonus!
(Parky, Ali)
Mrs Merton v Bernard Manning 1998
I think she just about clinches the contest.
Ah, Mrs Merton
I know these are well-known, but they're so good:
(to Debbie Magee) "So what first attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?"
(to Victoria Beckham) "So are you hoping that your child grows up to be a great sportsman, like David - or a great singer, like Diana Ross?"
Although the funniest memory I have of Mrs Merton is when Lorraine Kelly was on. Lorraine takes a question from one of the pensioners in the audience. It is a little fat man who resembled a Benny Hill character. It's not a question, though. The man says:
"When you're on my TV screen, I'm in a kind of dream world. I just want to climb into my telly and give you one."
mrs merton one liners
and to George Best
"George, do you think if you hadn't run around playing so much football in the 60s you would be so thirsty?"
As usual...
Tom Waits on Letterman
"Apparently, I invented a war..."
On the subject of Mr Waits...
Mr Ian Hislop has something to say. Fast-forward to about 5:30...
C'est Gainsbourg
Has to be this.
Can anyone find
the David Niven "crab gag" from Parkinson from the late 70's?
Niven, crabs and prawns - here you go