One of the more insensitive moments I've ever seen on a TV interview show occurred on the old Tom Snyder Tomorrow program when he was chatting with Dick Cavett. I thought they were the two best interviewers of their day but all broadcasters occasionally phrase things wrong and that night, Snyder did. Cavett's late-night show had gone off the air and Tom, trying to ask how Dick felt about that, actually asked him, "How does it feel to be a flop?" Cavett's various programs were on ABC for almost five years, won numerous awards, and often finished a strong second in its time slot to Mr. Carson.
Cavett answered the question about as you'd expect, but I wish he'd asked Snyder, "Do you really think five years on the air to great critical acclaim constitutes a flop?" I'm sorry anyone remembers that show in a negative light because it was a wonderful program, crammed full of interesting guests. I can't think of anyone prominent at the time who didn't sit with Cavett, sometimes for the full 90 minutes, and he was good at jarring them off the same old anecdotes they told on every show and getting them to be candid and fresh.
His show was cancelled in increments. Top execs at ABC were unhappy to not be winning the time slot so someone there came up with a lame idea called ABC's Wide World of Entertainment, which was a series of rotating elements, nicknamed within the industry, "ABC's Wide World of Indecision." One week out of four, Cavett did his show but the smell of death was in the air and it was no longer the same. Another week out of the four, a disappointing talk show was hosted by Jack Paar, who came out of retirement but not out of the sixties, and the other two weeks were a jumble of pilots and low-budget specials that also failed to lure viewers away from Johnny Carson. After less than a year, it all went off…and the buzz around ABC reportedly was that they'd have been much better off to leave Cavett in place since they had nothing there until years later when the hostage crisis begat Ted Koppel and Nightline. I wish they had kept Cavett on longer…and I wish someone would re-air those old programs.