25 best celebrity interviews: celeb ShortLists revealed! 9 Unforgettable TV Interviews - TV Insider David Letterman introduced the prospect of discomfort. Kilborn was a college basketball player, six-five, chiseled, and confident Jon Stewart once described him as "Aryan" who became . Despite Rivers breaking the glass ceiling nearly 30 years ago, late-night TV remains as much of a boysclub today as it was during Carsons martinis-and-strip-steak prime, and Rivers remains the only woman ever to host a network late-night talk show. Midnight TV is meant to pacify you, offering a sedative chuckle to help you sleep soundly. Then he ceded the throne to Conan OBrien in 2009, only to return a few months later, when Conans ratings were iffy. Charles Kuralt: Kuralt reported On the Road features for the CBS Evening News beginning in 1967 and later anchored CBS News Sunday Morning. Now they say the same about Johnny. A Scottish-born comedian picked by Peter Lassally, the TV legend who produced Carson and Letterman, Ferguson fostered anarchy, flirted joyfully with actresses, impersonated Sean Connery, played harmonica, and had memorable serious moments: a lengthy interview with Bishop Desmond Tutu, poignant eulogies for his parents, a discussion of his alcoholism, and a pledge not to make hack jokes about celebrities in legal trouble ([cough] Jay Leno [cough]), because comedy should attack the powerful and not the vulnerable. But when the on-air light goes on, five mornings a week these days on SiriusXM, hes the best that ever was. Stranded in Fernwood, Ohio, Barth hosted a low-budget local show, Fernwood 2 Night. Dan Brown: This interview with Dan Brown focuses on The Da Vinci Code. Griffin began his career as a pop crooner, but his great gift was business: He created. OBrien was a top comedy writer with little performing experience when NBC hired him to replace David Letterman on Late Night in 1993, after Garry Shandling, Dana Carvey, and half of Hollywood turned down the job. Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: As part of your account, youll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime. This often startles his subjects and breaks through the spin. The one-season series, which made its syndicated debut in 1977, billed itself as the first totally fictional talk show on television and won a cult following. In Risky Business shades borrowed from an aide, Clinton played saxophone with the band (Elviss Heartbreak Hotel) to a rousing chorus of woof-woof-woofs from the audience, then joked with Hall about his famous I didnt inhale cop-out, explaining that smoking pot was another one of those things I tried to do in life and failed. Clintons gambit worked; the appearance made headlines, and the first MTV president was handily elected in November. I am still.. Ted Koppel. He is prepared, probing and direct, yet sensitive and aware that he always needs to leave his guests with their dignity. So Fallons interviews are primarily excuses to get A-list stars to do fun, dumb shit, Before celebrities occupied the entirety of American cultural coverage, talk shows often booked guests who were authors or philosophers. Its an unmistakable sign of social progress that, in 2015, Middle America rates Ellens home life somewhere between idyllic and whatever. My favorite moment was when he interviewed the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 shortly after Iranian radicals took officials inside the U.S. embassy in Tehran hostage. Frail. She could somehow get away with asking questions of world leaders that would have had most immediately ejected from the room. Most influential women in TV news, then and now, ranked: Katie Couric "But my most treasured interview possession is a book of Oriana Fallaci transcripts. In Part 1 of a Sunday ministers, A-list authors share stories about Stan Musial, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jimmy Carter, Nancy Reagan, Vince Lombardi, Harriet Tubman, George Washington, Warren Buffett, Louis Armstrong and Steve Jobs. They revealed their favourite differences between the UK and US and a little bit about their latest movie, Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen. No one gets more out of his guests than Maron, whose now-familiar emotional touchstones family background as class determinant, art as the pursuit of truth, self-acceptance and forgiveness give every interview a sweetness and depth without equal. This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. Celebrities often give interviews to promote projects and provide a look into their lives. No one believed his pathetic ploy. Friends described him as quixotic, neurotic, and unstable, a raw nerve soaked in nitroglycerin. He had patience and set up his questions with facts. Text. George H.W. But for the best in interviewing in broadcast circles, for me, its Howard Stern. Not social commentary or politics or jokes, even, the conventional wisdom goes. He rapidly became a national phenomenon, beloved by angry, working-class whites and loathed by everyone else a one-man tea party. He mixed his conservative politics with sexual titillation and the outrageous showmanship of pro wrestling. Arsenio Hall would take over her role after a string of zany guest-hosts, and from 89 to 93, Rivers would try her hand at daytime hosting. No frills, just insightful, revealing conversation. Read The Interview >> 2. Craig Ferguson Interviews His Old Mucker Peter Capaldi. Hes still neurotic, thankfully (and reliably funny), but the bitterness has subsided, mostly due to the enormous success of his podcast, and the narcissism has given way to a profound curiosity about and empathy for the inner lives of artists: fellow comedians, as well as actors, directors, and musicians (recent guests run from Brillo-headed nonagenarian comic Marty Allen to alt-comedy nerd Barack Obama). That is, they know no question is out of bounds and they are willing to discuss anything. With his clogged-nose Brooklyn accent, neck-chafing red suspenders, and eight marriages, he was easy to mock. For 20 years, his low-pulse afternoon show comforted housewives and shut-ins, with occasional surprises. Talk-show hosts arent supposed to be blond. All rights reserved. Shes earnest, persistent and tough but respectful, which is why she succeeds in uncovering truth, as a journalist should., Oprahs got game, but if there are two interviewers I can watch more than any others, Im going straight to the late, great Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney on his SNL talk show, and Zach Galifianakis interviewing Jennifer Aniston and Tila Tequila on Between Two Ferns., VIDEO: Chris Farley 'interviews' Paul McCartney, Fantastic performances by both interviewer and interviewees. Jealous yet, VH1? Everybody else whos doing a show, myself included, were all kind of secretly doing Johnnys Tonight Show, Letterman admitted in his on-air eulogy of Carson in 2005. These interviews may also be of interest to budding journalists. Albert Einstein, Germany. Ted Koppel: a television reporter and anchor who started a late-night news show in 1979 that eventually became Nightline. Gross tossed grenades, and Simmons swallowed them whole. (Mort was the Rowdy Roddy Piper of talk shows.) Before she spit-roasted celebrity fashion donts or shamelessly harangued pompous actors on awards-show red carpets, the late Joan Rivers was a fearless, pioneering stand-up comedian whose showbiz breakthrough came, as it did for many comics, via Johnny Carson. EVV-ree-BAH-dee gets a car!)Number of times Tom Cruise bounced up and down on Oprahs sofa to celebrate his love for Katie Holmes in a 2005 episode: 2Number of books selected as part of Oprahs Book Club: 65Number of TV hosts whose careers were launched by appearances on Oprah: 7 (Dr. Phil, Gayle King, Dr. Oz, Suze Orman, Iyanla Vanzant, Rachael Ray, Nate Berkus)Oprahs estimated net worth: $2.9 billion. Grosss greatest moment, though, came in a steel-cage match with Kisss face-painted vulgarian Gene Simmons, in 2002. Douglas is now remembered chiefly for a week of shows in 1972, when John Lennon and Yoko Ono, determined to make radical politics less scary to Middle America, co-hosted with him and brought as guests Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers and antiwar activist Jerry Rubin, whom Douglas denounced (My feelings are quite negative about this young man) on air. But with low ratings and a strained relationship between Rivers and Fox executives over the shows eccentric direction, she was fired after just one year. These celeb interviews have defined the century. 5. Advertisers fled. For a whole generation, he kind of established the model of how cool guys behaved, said Letterman, a disciple. Thats the key on television to get a genuine response. 1. Bill OReilly stormed out of an interview, and Hillary Clinton got huffy when pressed on gay marriage. He lasted only a few months barely long enough to shoot a wax model of Tom Cruise out of a cannon and was pushed out when Jay Leno agreed to sit his fat ass back in the big chair. He found his feet soon after Late Night With David Letterman debuted in 1982, during an interview with actress Nastassja Kinski, whom he made uncomfortable by repeatedly asking about her weird hairstyle. He said hed do it only if CBS paid him double what Carson was earning. Mike Wallace was a disciplined, tough interrogator who knew when he was getting bull feathers and would not tolerate it. Nat Hentoff: who with his Village Voice column, which began in 1957, crusaded, even against some liberal orthodoxies, for civil liberties. Bob Woodward: a reporter and editor at the Washington Post whose investigative articles with Carl Bernsteins helped break the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s; Woodward went on to write a series of book detailing the inner workings of Washington. He said hed do it only if CBS paid him double what Carson was earning. Marlene Sanders: the first female television correspondent in Vietnam, the first female anchor on a US network television evening newscast and the first female vice president of ABC News. Carl Rowan: the first nationally syndicated African-American columnist; he wrote his column, based at the Chicago Sun-Times, from 1966 to 1998. David Letterman visited the show and gave it his imprimatur, and ratings slowly rose. Starring Shandling as Sanders (the putative Carson), Rip Torn as Artie (Carsons producer Fred de Cordova), and Jeffrey Tambor as mewling Hank Hey Now Kingsley (the Ed McMahonlike sidekick), the show was nominated for 56 Emmys during its six-year run. He was the first talk-show host to solicit questions from his studio audience for his guests, who included everyone from Ayn Rand to economist Milton Friedman to Louis Farrakhan. In with Trevor Noah, James Corden, Larry Wilmore, and Stephen Colbert. The late Ed Bradley is my North Star. I never did sleaze, Morton Downey Jr. boasted, which is believable only if you think violence, hooliganism, misogyny, race-baiting, and demagoguery arent sleazy. Billy Joel reminisced about doing heroin. Shandling knew talk shows; after a stint as a sitcom writer, he turned to stand-up, with successful appearances on The Tonight Show leading to a gig as one of Johnnys recurring guest-hosts in the 80s. For ten years on The Colbert Report, he turned his bloviating right-wing newsman character, fake-mourning the loss of the white mans paradise, into a fully dimensional, even lovable guy more Homer Simpson than Peter Griffin. And you get a car! Not just smart, but wise. Famous American TV Presenters - Famous People in the World Find clues for Famous American TV interviewer (David ) or most any crossword answer or clues for crossword answers. He is a charismatic public speaker who has hosted a variety of different talks shows . In 1997, the network suspended him for a week after he made trite, sexist jokes in an Esquire profile, about the bitches he worked with. When Jack Paar left The Tonight Show, NBC offered the gig to Carson, a comedian in his late 30s who was hosting a game show. The final piece falls into place tonight, when Colbert makes his CBS debut in Lettermans old chair. Leading experts explain who's behind the attacks, what they fear most, what you can do to improve your chances of not being victimized and much more. Take a look at three stories he did for 60 Minutes his profiles on Lena Horne and Aretha Franklin and his investigation into the murder of Emmett Till. Meyer Berger: a fine columnist and feature writer for the New York Times, where he worked, except for a short stretch at the New Yorker, from 1928 to 1959; Berger won the Pulitzer Prize for his report on the murderer Howard Unruh. Big 10: What you need to know about cybersecurity: 'Expect a future where a computer doesn't just connect you, but can also be a weapon', Should the Games go on? These days, long-form interviews are almost extinct. But his abrasive personality exacerbated by occasional hangovers suited the late hour. Almost all of the most watched TV interviews are from the United States, except one from BBC One . Shes receiving an Academy Honorary Award at this years Governors Awards. Or at least we can hope. Study Looks At What Motivates Trump Supporters : NPR 1. Interviews for this film were conducted by Jim Gilmore and Gabrielle Schonder of the Kirk Documentary Group and edited . With Tuesday marking the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we asked historians, authors and others whove researched the deadly day: What were you most fascinated to learn about Dec. 7, 1941, that you werent taught in social studies class? Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Eddie Adams: an Associated Press photographer who took one of the iconic photos of the Vietnam War: of a Saigon execution. Mike Royko: a Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago columnist since the early 1960s and author of an unauthorized biography of Mayor Richard J. Daley, Boss. This week's panel: REO bandmates Bruce Hall and Dave Amato, Heart's Nancy Wilson, Alison Krauss' mom, George Thorogood, Derek Trucks, UI President Tim Killeen and local guitar heroes Carrie Chandler, Holly Rushakoff, Gloria Roubal, Brandon Washington, Kenna Mae Reiss, Mike Ingram and Ricky Bright. Gloria Steinem: a social activist and writer, Steinem co-founded the womens magazine Ms. in 1972. Howard Stern called him an ass-kisser; George Lopez labeled him two-faced and the worst interviewer on TV; and Arsenio Hall, Dennis Miller, and Craig Ferguson all mocked him. For these two cutthroat moves, Jay Leno is despised by many comics. The two names I would give you: Jim Lehrer and Roger Mudd. When you're a celebrity doing interview-after-interview, it can be exhausting, especially if everyone is asking you the same questions over and over. Maher has a gift for getting to the root of current events, as when he referred to the Bill ClintonMonica Lewinsky affair as ten instances of prison sex. But we still wish hed cut his fucking mullet. I took that as a great honor.". Joseph Mitchell: a staff writer for the New Yorker from 1938 until his death in 1996, who won acclaim for his off-beat profiles, collected in the book Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories. William Shirer: a wartime correspondent and radio broadcaster who wrote Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 19391941. Hannah Arendt: a political thinker, author of The Origins of Totalitarianism, who reported the Eichmann trial for the New Yorker; those articles were turned into the book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil in 1963. H. L. Mencken: a tough, judgmental, impeccably literate and hugely influential journalist, cultural critic, essayist, satirist and editor, he reported on the 1925 Scopes Monkey trial. When Paris Hilton grew tired of his questions about her jail sentence related to drinking and driving and said, I dont really want to talk about it, Dave mercilessly replied, This is all I want to talk about.. This password will be used to sign into all, Photo: Illustration: Maya Robinson and Photos by Comedy Central, CBS and NBC, First he elbowed aside David Letterman in order to inherit, for a week after he made trite, sexist jokes in an. Expect widespread areas of smoke and haze, reducing visibility at times. 37 American Icons Who You Might Not Know Were Immigrants When I had the chance to do a couple of stories for Nightline when Koppel was still hosting, I was in awe. Griffin began his career as a pop crooner, but his great gift was business: He created Jeopardy! Apple Podcasts. Randy Shilts: one of the first openly gay mainstream journalists; devoted himself to covering the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s for the San Francisco Chronicle; his book examining that epidemic, And the Band Played On, was published in 1987; Shilts died of AIDS at the age of 42 in 1994. Walter Cronkite: a reporter who became the best known and perhaps most respected American television journalist of his time as the anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. film: America After 9/11. At a press conference, when Snyder asked for advice, Letterman snapped, Do something about the hair.. And you get a car! In my view, the best current interviewer who subscribes to the personal approach that I like to use is Tom Rinaldi (recently hired away from ESPN by Fox Sports). Here are women who were pioneers in the field of network broadcast journalism, ranked in. We strive to provide excellent digital access to all. The best interview podcasts: great in-depth entertaining chats Another great UK talk show host is Russell Howard. But Howard can interview for two hours without interruption. Starting with Indecision 2000, the former stand-up comic exposed what Tom Brokaw calls the absurdities, hypocrisies, [and] juvenilia of the political charade. Youd have to put the book down and confront life. So Fallons interviews are primarily excuses to get A-list stars to do fun, dumb shit Jennifer Aniston plays Lip Flip, Gwyneth Paltrow sings Broadway versions of hip-hop hits, Lena Dunham and J.K. Simmons team for Pictionary and Fallons frequently awesome musical impersonations and bits, with help from his swaggering and versatile house band the Roots, rack up tens of millions of YouTube views. Bill OReilly stormed out of an interview, and Hillary Clinton got huffy when pressed on gay marriage. Carl Bernstein: while a young reporter at the Washington Post in the early 1970s broke the Watergate scandal along with Bob Woodward. By reimagining the audience and the way they consume media: on their phones, bored at work, skimming Facebook. Russell Howard. That, and the 634 other WTF episodes, are as good as a talk show gets. I have always believed that a good journalist knows when to speak but a great journalist knows when to shut up.. These are TIME's 100 most influential pioneers, leaders, titans, artists and icons of 2020 adding fading all-star Rosie ODonnell and (now-departed) rookie Republican Nicolle Wallace to a squad anchored by crafty vet Whoopi Goldberg. OBrien was jumpy and overeager, and when ratings dropped, the network fired him, only to realize they didnt have anyone to take his place. Like Oprah, he was a master of the interview, knowing when to press and when to stay silent, and let the interview subject fill the space. The Federal Writers' Project: "The Greatest Literary Project in History" Most TV people dont prepare, challenge or have an information strategy. Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute Fittingly, the booby prize went on to win the Thurber Prize for American Humor. To help with planning, we asked treat seekers from Tolono to Tuscola what tips they'd offer adults on how to make Oct. 31 special. Muhammad Ali, Abraham Lincoln . Jon Stewart cried. Because he was dapper and exclaimed Ooooh frequently, Griffin (who was outed after he died) was too easily mocked; in an SCTV spoof, Rick Moranis as Merv tells Yasser Arafat, Thats a marvelous hat youve got on. Griffin sometimes got his guests drunk before the show, and he wasnt averse to alcohol himself. Megan Fox appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." Randy Holmes / Getty Images. In desperation, Downey a chain-smoking philanderer and habitual liar drew a swastika on his own forehead and claimed to have been assaulted by skinheads. Most TV is totally unsurprising, he once said, adding that he wanted viewers to look at each other and say, What the hell was that? Stupid Pet Tricks were clever, Larry Bud Melman was annoying, and the great attraction was the chance that Dave would go off on a guest. Lincoln Steffens: while Shame of the Cities was published, in book form, in 1904 more than 100 years ago Steffens career as an influential journalist certainly continued, and included an interview with Lenin after the revolution and reporting from Mussolinis Italy. To Mervs shock, CBS agreed. With Regis and Kathie Lee, became a morning-TV bedrock. Guests such as Guy Kawasaki (Apple, Canva), Julie Bornstein (The Yes, Stitch Fix), Mindy Grossman (WW), and Amy Errett (Madison Reed) share wisdom and anecdotes that will inspire you - and challenge you to think differently about achieving your goals. This week's panel: Brad Underwood, Lashaunda Cunningham, Todd Thorstenson, Liz McDonald, Beth Wendling, Lori Archer, Keith Pogue, Tim Killeen, Deborah Fell and Geoff Poor. I think Howard Stern earned his status as the best interviewer in media because he put himself in a position to have to talk openly about his own personal demons. He was the booby prize. Grosss greatest moment, though, came in a steel-cage match with Kisss face-painted vulgarian Gene Simmons, in 2002. Megyn Kelly discussed her husbands dick size. Another night, he held up a sign that said, I HAVE A SHOW ON A CHANNEL THAT THINKS CREED IS COOL. Late World often settled for being a bizarre deconstruction of talk shows rather than actually funny, but six years later, Galifianakis found a perfect way to express his disdain for TV convention with Between Two Ferns, a tightly edited Funny or Die series in which he (convincingly) plays the inept, distracted, hostile host of a cable-access show who somehow lands famous guests like President Obama and Brad Pitt. Self-destructive stand-up turned failed left-wing radio host Marc Maron was just another bitter, neurotic, narcissistic, middle-aged comic before he began broadcasting a twice-weekly long-form interview podcast called WTF, recorded in his Highland Park, California, garage. In 1986, when the burgeoning Fox network gave her The Late Show With Joan Rivers,competing directly against Carson (after NBC failed to consider her a suitable successor to him), Rivers became the first female late-night talk-show host. Read on to find out what sets them apart and learn tips you can use in your own interviews. Hunter S. Thompson: created the uninhibited, self-parodying gonzo style of journalism in the 1960s and 1970s, covered the 1972 presidential campaign for Rolling Stone, and wrote the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. November 17, 2014. You got me elected, Clinton replied. Robert Capa: a photographer who documented major historic events including the D-Day landings and the Spanish Civil War; Capa became an American citizen in 1946. Gross tossed grenades, and Simmons swallowed them whole. James Agee: a journalist, critic, poet, screenwriter and novelist who wrote the text for Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a celebration of depression-era sharecropper families. With the 2014 retirement of Walters at the close of The Views 17th season, the organization has been forced to rebuild remember that seemingly promising but ultimately disappointing draft pick of Rosie Perez? Interview with world's most successful female entrepreneur, Kay At times, he seemed to be broadcasting from the activities room at Shady Pines Retirement Home he once confused Ringo Starr, who was sitting near him, with George Harrison, who was dead.