Considering James Carville (if you in any way enjoy doing that), you may be wondered why it took columnist Robert Novak so long before he engaged in what the New York Times described as “The Television Stomp-Off”… “with an expletive directed at his colleague and antagonizer.”
There was, however, no further identity of the said expletive – which was “bovine fecal effluvia” – or two other words to that effect.
The Times did, however, compare this to other historic TV stomp-offs, including:
- 1960, Jack Paar announced: “I am leaving ‘The Tonight Show.’ There must be a better way of making a living.”
Then he walked off – but when he returned, Paar did not report his discovery of any better way of making a living (with the size of said living any better than he had been making). Instead, Paar opened his return by declaring: “As I was saying …”
- Ten years later, Dick Cavett hosted the highly unlikely duo of black militant football star and actor Jim Brown and Georgia’s militant segregationist Gov. Lester Maddox.
Playfully, Brown asked off-air if the governor had “any trouble with the white bigots because of all the things you did for blacks” – which, on air, Cavett attempted to sanitize by changing “bigots” to “admirers.”
The governor replied that all his supporters were not bigots and demanded an apology.
Replied Cavett: “If I called any of your admirers bigots who are not bigots, I apologize.”
At which, Maddox walked out.
But he was invited to return – on which program Cavett walked off – but then retuned as Gov. Maddox began singing – and Cavett joined Maddox in song.
- Yet another stomp-off, by Dan Rather in 1987, left the then much larger CBS viewership with six minutes of dead air. It seems Rather had learned that a tennis match might delay his broadcast.
But the match ended earlier, and that left six minutes of absolute Dan-gone desperation – which led the Times of London to ask if Rather was, in their words, “losing his marbles.”
What students aren’t taught about MLK Jr. and his guns
Chuck Norris