The Dick Cavett Show

There are so many talk shows that are popular. Ever since the days of Johnny Carson, to Jimmy Fallon, and even Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien. But nobody has ever heard of another talk show that was pretty popular back in the seventies and 80's...


   The Dick Cavett show. Dick Cavett created his show during the 60's, 70's and 80's. Having famous people to talk to, Dick Cavett was like the Johnny Carson of the different television era. It seemed he would be known for much of the show he made.

  Having actors, to singers and even Rights activist leaders, it seemed Dick Cavett can just have anyone on the show.

  Even having his show interrupted with Robert F. Kennedy assassination.

   Also having a Woodstock version in 1969 when he had Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell and even having them perform songs that were around the time of Woodstock.
Some of the people he presented were not very nice to Dick Cavett. Destroying the set to even cursing. Jimi Hendrix was known for playing the star spangled banner at Woodstock. He even did it on the show.


  But the most I remember of the Dick Cavett show is a death that happened during his program that never aired.

On June 7th, 1971: Pete Hamill was a guest on the Dick Cavett show, but before he was interviewed, another guest, a publisher for heath foods J.I. Rodale was talking to Dick Cavett saying that he would live to be over 100 years or in his words; "Unless he was hit by a health food truck" Ironically, while Dick Cavett was interviewing Pete Hamill, J.I. slumped over on his chair. Dick Cavett asked if they were boring him. It seemed J.I. had a heart attack and they decided to call an ambulance. J.I. died a few minutes later in the hospital. The show never aired.

 Dick would always be remembered for that incident. He even gets nightmares on it. Thank god the show never aired, but I'd always wondered if that was fate, or just ironic that someone that was addicted to heath food would die on air.


Another famous incident was the Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer fight that broke out around my birthday in 1971. It seemed it was going smoothly until Mailer started mocking Vidal and they started to fight as if they were on WWE fighting match. Dick also taunted Vidal about using a quote from Tolstoy. They soon headbutted and eventually it became a huge fight over who started what and how it would end.


    Even Lily Tomlin and Chad Everett had an argument on Dick Cavett's show. Chad was talking about something that really upset her; had an argument with Chad and left never to return to the show.

  There were many memorable episodes of the Dick Cavett show. Then how come it's not as popular as say the Merv Griffin Show, or Late night with Johnny Carson?

Maybe because, Dick Cavett is someone that is not known very well. After his show ended, he decided to stay out of the spotlight for a while, but did come back to host some awards, game shows.

  It seems Dick Cavett is still with us, and he doesn't have many regrets. He will always remember his talk show that had memorable guests, fights, and even things that he could never forget. Knowing that during 1969 was when his show began and that Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and many other guests would be on his show.

Even having Groucho Marx on his show was a highlight for him.


  I don't think his talk show was forgettable, but with all the shows we have now, not only did Johnny perfected the late night talk show host statues, as Dick Cavett was one of them.