Dick Cavett

Richard Alva Cavett (born on November 19, 1936 in Gibbon, Nebraska) is a television talk show host known for his conversational style of in-depth and often serious issues discussion.

Stand-up comic

Cavett then began a brief career as a stand-up comic in 1964 at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village, inauspiciously. His manager was Jack Rollins, who later would become famous as the producer of Allen's films. Nightclubs in general were in a downturn at the time.

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Stand-up comic - 1964 - Greenwich Village

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• "Somehow I don't think the caviar was the finest -- I don't know much about caviar, but I do know you're not supposed to get pictures of ballplayers with it."
• Drunken female heckler: "I pay your salary, buddy, with my hard-earned money." Cavett: "And I'm tempted to guess at your profession."
• Perhaps his most famous line is, "I went to a Chinese-German restaurant. The food is great, but an hour later you're hungry for power."

He also played Mr. Kelly's in Chicago and the hungry i in San Francisco, during which latter time he met Lenny Bruce. "I liked him and wish I had known him better...but most of what has been written about him is a waste of good ink, and his most zealous adherents and hardest-core devotees are to be avoided, even if it means working your way around the world in the hold of a goat transport."

Related Topics:
Chicago - Hungry i - San Francisco - Lenny Bruce

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In 1965 he did some commercial voiceovers, including a series of mock interviews with Mel Brooks for Ballantine beer. In the next couple of years he appeared on game shows, including What's My Line: "I have a feeling the mystery guest is trying to figure out who I am." He wrote for Merv Griffin and appeared on Griffin's talk show several times, and then on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Related Topics:
1965 - Mel Brooks - What's My Line - Merv Griffin - The Ed Sullivan Show

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In 1968, after the premiere of the international film Candy Cavett went to a party at the Americana Hotel, where those who had just seen the film were being interviewed for TV. "When the interviewer, (the now-deceased) Pat Paulsen, got to me, he asked what I thought the critics would say about Candy. I said I didn't think it would be reviewed by the regular critics, that they would have to reconvene the Nuremburg Trials to do it justice. He laughed and asked what I had liked, and I said I liked the lady who showed me the nearest exit so that I would not be forced to vomit indoors."

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1968 - Pat Paulsen - Nuremburg Trials

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The exchange was cut from the broadcast.

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After doing a rejected pilot with Van Johnson, The Star and the Story, Cavett hosted a special, Where It's At for Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear, which got good reviews and led to the morning version of The Dick Cavett Show.

Related Topics:
Van Johnson - Bud Yorkin - Norman Lear - The Dick Cavett Show

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