The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder: Punk & New Wave

Best known to younger viewers as the original host of the Late Late Show following Letterman on CBS, Tom Snyder's storied talk TV career began with NBC's The Tomorrow Show in 1973. Amiable and smug, Snyder's charm lays in his earnest curiosity and daring to smartly ask seemingly ignorant questions. The unabashedly hokey host humanised members of the burgeoning punk and new wave community on his show between 1977 and 1981. Rather than play up the square vs. savages dynamic, Snyder is comfortable letting punk's purveyors express themselves. He patiently moderates a panel with promoter Bill Graham, producer Kim Fowley, the Jam's Paul Weller, and Runaways-era Joan Jett discussing youth culture. An electric Iggy Pop pulverises "Dog Food," catches his breath for an illuminating chat with Snyder, then destroys with "Five Foot One." On the cusp of playing it straight, Elvis Costello performs songs from his new Attractions record, Trust, and discusses his infamous SNL appearance. Things get truly explosive when PiL's John Lydon pulls his contrived, bratty shtick on a bewildered Snyder, and Wendy O. Williams literally blows up a car with dynamite during the Plasmatics' "Master Plan." The Ramones seem genuinely offended that an irritating Kelly Lang subs for Snyder during their visit to promote Pleasant Dreams. Any given episode might include priests and cultural experts discussing morality, and guests like ancient director Frank Capra, or a ten-year-old Ricky Schroeder. Presumably included here to provide context for the emergence of punk subculture, this odd array of additional guests makes this collection as strange and compelling as Snyder himself. (Shout Factory/Sony BMG)