Dick Cavet? What is your take on his views

I saw the Chris Matthews show this morning (not hardball) and Dick Cavet was a guest on there.
When the discussion started, I tried to figure out why they let him on the show because he did not agree with the usual whores point of view. He was very vocal against the war and the administration.
I was wondering if anyone knows if he is a good guy and if so, he needs to be promoted and prodded to get back in the main stream.


The reason he was on was so Matthews could get a piece of the tribute to Johnny Carson.

His positions have always struck me as well-reasoned and insightful. We need to hear more from people like him.

Of course his views, being to the left of Donahue, were unacceptable in Nazi Jesusland

on Don Imus' show back in September. I haven't been able to find a transcript of the show, but freepers are up in arms over this statement. I'm not even going to provide a link to the NewsMax article in which this appears, but here's some of the text:

"Zell Miller looks like a Klansman," media has-been Dick Cavett groused to radio host Don Imus on Friday.

When Imus objected to the characterization, Cavett joked, "You didn't think I meant the Ku Klux Klan, did you?" He then added in the next breath, "You would cast him as that in a movie."
Cavett was apparently picking up a riff first road tested on Thursday by pro-Kerry Republican David Gergen, who complained that Miller was a "man of hate" just like his long-ago boss Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox.

<snip>

Referring to the Swiftvet's appearance on his show, Cavett explained, "O'Neill had been groomed, entertained and fondled, for all I know, by Nixon and Haldeman."

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From all outward appearances, Dick Cavett is one of us.

...he smells like one too.

It was a time when you could watch real debate, get real information and insights, from people who appeared on his show. It was entertaining, and Cavett had a sly sense of humor, but the talk was elevated and grown-up. Wow, what a flashback you just gave me.

He was, however, no match for Johnny Carson. There is no shame in this. After all, for 30 years, nobody was.

One of his favorite stories from his show was one where he didn't come across looking too good. He had James Earl Jones on when "The Great White Hope" came out. During the interview he asked Jones if he should refer to him as the great black, negro or colored actor (remember this was circa 1969-70. Until the late 60's "black" was considered an insult and "negro" or "colored" more acceptable). Jones, according to Cavett, looked at him and, in that Jones VOICE, said "Why don't you just say N****R?". His point was why any label at all?

I did see the Kerry/o'neill debate when it first happened and Kerry did absolutely MANHANDLE him.

the monday night following woodstock. jimmy was not on this time continuum.....

Going Upriver has a segment of the debate between Kerry & O'Neil. I was just a child, but I remember my Mom liked Cavett's show. He has always been a curious, intellectual interviewer. Not an entertainer.

the very good guys. He has battled severe recurrent depression, and seems to come and go from public appearances.

His problem always been that he's got a brain, and he's not afraid to use it. That, and he has an alarming tendency to use polysyllabic words and to actually THINK before he says something.

And, for the folks who keep track of the minutae of it all, he's also the host who had a guest die on his show. Not as in, "boy did that monologue fall flat; I'm dyin' here!" -- but as in, the guest actually, completely, no-poo-poo, dropped DEAD as he was being interviewed.

talk shows were a lot more sophisticated than they are now and Dick Cavett was the most intellectual of them all. Even on run of the mill talk shows, authors, scientists, classical and jazz musicians, and political activists regularly appeared. It's hard to believe today, when talk shows recycle the same old "celebrities" all plugging brain dead entertainment.

BTW, it was on Dick Cavett that the writer, Mary McCarthy famously delivered perhaps the harshest bon mot every delivered on TV, when she said of her bitter rival writer, Lillian Hellman, "everything she writes is a lie, including 'a' and 'the'". The appearance on Cavett led to a lawsuit that didn't end until one of them died!

when I was in my teens, he struck me as liberal. He has certainly never been conservative by any stretch of the imagination. Frankly, I'm surprised to hear that he's still around... that was so long ago.

I remember Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer on Cavett's show. I think it was Vidal who said something about "the Miller-Mailer-Manson man" (the Miller was Henry Miller). I thought it was hilarious. I also have a dim memory of Dick Cavett asking Norman Mailer, "Would you like an extra chair to help contain your giant ego?"

Also, though I don't remember seeing it, it was Dick Cavett who had the show where John Kerry verbally nuked a Nixon-recruited pretender named John O'Neill. As we know, O'Neill has since led the fraudulent "Swift Boat Veterans". Man, some people sure hold a grudge.

Yeah, I remember The Dick Cavett. My kind of guy.
A couple of quotes:

As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.

If your parents never had children, chances are you won't, either.

-Dick Cavett

I have seen him on TV twice in the last 6 months (Carson's death and the Kerry O'Neil debate on his show) and both times not only did he not spew the preapproved lines but he also didn't fit nicely into the segement's time block.

Very intelligent and observant.

He's from Nebraska just like Carson.

I watched him in the late 60's and early 70's. the people he had on were remarkable.

Zappa and the Flo & Eddie Mothers were on. Zappa seemed kind of cranky during the interview. Hopefully I'll find some Zappa cultists on the net that have this episode on computer, someday.

they performed a version of Plastic People I have not heard since. (I think thats what the song was)

Yeah, we should hope for more Cavett appeances soon on the political shows. It would encourage a braver national debate on this worst administration in US history.

-85%

I'd watch Cavett more in fact. It was a long time ago though, and I can't remember enough to tell you why. It disappointed me how Cavett kind of disappeared. I liked Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" as well. Hmmm...now that's something I'll think about..as to if there was some common thread there. More intellectual??

...something like 15 years ago.

Oh well,that sucks, my memory can't be trusted anymore...