MovieChat Forums > Classic TV > Favorite classic talk-shows?

Favorite classic talk-shows?

posted 9 years ago by MyMovieTVRomance
9 replies | jump to latest

Talk shows don't get enough love – yet they are what we always turn to, when we want to learn more about our favorite stars or feel closer to them, or just get an unexpected laugh from the show that is spontaneous, fresh, and for the most part, unscripted.

So, what are some of your classic TV favorites in terms of talk shows? I think they can be shows anywhere from the 1950s all the way through the 90s, because I think the 90s were probably the last area of "trash TV" in the classic talkshow style that we all remember. Ever since roughly the 2000s, talk shows have become more roundtable discussion shows with a rather cold, tabloid feeling to them. They don't seem as spontaneous, as natural, as exciting, or as open to us – the viewers.

So with that in mind, list some of your favorite classic talkshow titles, and even YouTube clips of those classics, if you can find them.

Some of my favorites include:

All of Dinah Shore's talk shows

Some of the old David Letterman stuff

Some of the old Joan Rivers stuff

And even some stuff from Phil Donahue.

Here is one of my favorite episodes of DONAHUE – guest starring Zsa Zsa Gabor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsN7fUNIUyM

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

[–] Nanook (1937) a year ago

I was a Letterman fan shortly after he went on Late Night on NBC. Followed him to CBS where I get in to Craig Kilborn. I hadn't been a sports fan since the mid-1980s, so I had no ESPN connections with the guy. Just liked his douchey vibe, and that he followed Letterman.

For daytime, if I got the opportunity, I'd watch Donnahue. Didn't watch regularly, but I recall he introduced me to Libertarian economist Milton Friedman, who made a subject I had no interest in digestible and interesting.

And of course, not really "classic" nor did I watch him live, I now watch Norm MacDonald's three talk shows semi-regularly. Sports Show might be be my comedy favorite, but I also love his two self-titled shows where he could make anyone, even Larry King, funny and interesting.