More than two years ago on this site, we wished aloud that someone would rerun old episodes of The Dick Cavett Show. More than four months ago, we told you it was about to happen, at least for a few episodes cut down (alas) from 90 minutes to an hour…and those few start airing this Thursday on Turner Classic Movies.
Actually, the first one (which airs this Thursday and again on Sunday) is not a rerun. It's a new episode with Mel Brooks and of course, TCM will surround its airings with a couple of Mel Brooks movies. But then on September 14, we get an old show with Cavett chatting with Woody Allen. On September 21, it's a show from 1971 with Robert Mitchum and then on September 28, TCM will air Cavett's 1972 interview with Alfred Hitchcock. In October, they're running Cavett shows with Bette Davis, Groucho Marx and a two-parter with Katharine Hepburn.
I was also a big fan of Cavett's late night show and always felt ABC made a huge mistake by cancelling him when they did. No, he wasn't sending Johnny Carson to the unemployment line…but neither did anyone else for 30+ years. Cavett's show finished (usually) a respectable second and turned a profit, which is more than can be said for the shows that occupied that time slot for the next few years after he was booted out of it. Perhaps of greater value was that at a time when his network didn't have the most uplifting schedule, The Dick Cavett Show won awards aplenty and garnered critical acclaim.
In later years, I think a lot of network execs would have been thrilled to have a show that did that well against Johnny…but Cavett was working in an environment where being Numero Uno was all that mattered. That was his loss, ABC's loss and our loss. It's nice to see those shows hauled out of the vaults.
While I've got your attention: Very early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, TCM is running Zenobia, the 1939 movie that stars Oliver Hardy with Harry Langdon but without Stan Laurel. It's not a great film but Hardy's performance makes it worth watching. This is followed by the three "Topper" movies — Topper, Topper Takes a Trip and Topper Returns, all starring Roland Young as the oft-tormented Cosmo Topper. You could do worse than TiVo the lot of them.