Intelligent Talk Shows

Desert Island Discs

OP, they all used to be intelligent.

Real Time

They no longer exist on American television. The Newshour has some good interviews. For politics, I liked to watch Friday night's lineup: the Newshour's Capehart and Brooks, Washington Week, and Margaret Hoover. She's a good interviewer. She lets the person she's interviewing talk. Charlie Rose never did that.

The BBC has some good chats with intelligent people.

Michael Parkinson. He let people talk.

The ones where celebs aren't allowed to talk.

I wouldn't include Charlie Rose on that list. As noted above his show was mainly just a platform to display his smugness.

David Susskind pretty much originated the genre with a broad cross section of people who would actually discuss issues. His show was called Open End because they would allow them to continue past it's regular time slot if the discussion warranted.

Bill Buckley on Firing Line as well.

Graham Norton is entertaining, although he does pucker up a lot. Still a fun show if you want celebrity buzz.

Are there any real interviewers left?

It seems like today’s interviews are just couched efforts to further an agenda. They are all like Fox News interviewing Trump.

Anyway so in 1981 I was camping around but got a motel in Sacramento specifically to see Tom Snyder interview Charlie Manson. It was a huge deal.

Dick Cavett and David Letterman are probably at the top of the interviewer list.

Fresh Air on public radio.

As It Happens on CBC radio.

When I need a real intellectual workout, I watch Andy Cohen on WWHL.

I found him on youtube, he's pretty enjoyable.

What you want is on podcasts, OP. Not TV.

I watched a couple of episodes of the David Rubinstein Show last night. John Kerry and Chris Nassetta were being interviewed.

DONAHUE!

R16 Donahue any link to a good episode?

Phil interviewing Bette Davis in 1987. I remember I taped this and watched it over and over and over.

William F Buckley reminded me of ‘that wily Count from Budapest’ in that his demeanor was so unctuous that I’m sure ‘he oiled himself across the floor’. I found him unwatchable…

Margaret Hoover is really good. She acts like an adult, no showboating. Treats her guests respectfully.

The View?

All the women on the View hate each other.

I've found some decent stuff with Christiane Amanpour recently - but I find her on youtube and I'm not sure where her show airs. (lately about Ukraine - I think she is/was actually there for a while - or maybe in Poland)

R23 She has a daily show on CNN International and weekly show on PBS.

Even Anderson Cooper has done some on-site good reporting from Ukraine - last week, he went to an underground basement or something, I think in Kviv or maybe Lviv? Anyway, a woman was there with her 6 month old baby and two other young children, and he did a fairly lengthy interview with her about how she's coping and her worries that her husband would be killed fighting the Russians. Also the effect on her children - they went outside during the day but hunkered down every night in their new basement quarters.

He's been really touched by the people he's interviewing. Good stuff really. I always thought he was a great on-site type reporter - and ok on a panel or whatever but they made him have Santorum or some other shithead there with him, ruining everything. (back when I watched tv before the election - I'm on hiatus till the 2024 nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue starts up...

Drew Barrymore

I have a VPN and especially like Dateline London lately. Also the BBC World News, just to get the latest blurbs.

The early Donahue years were usually very good.

I agree R28. I remember reading that Phil was supposed to be in the original primetime lineup for MSNBC but Chris Matthews threw a fit and somehow managed to block him being on the network.

James Lipton, Inside the Actor's Studio

Even the Merv Griffin show back in the 1960s when he broadcast from Times Square.

And of course the David Susskind Show.

R25 - that started well but for me he's overdone it with her.

He's a joke here now but Larry King, for a long time. He just let people talk. Larry King, for a period, was where you went to make or break news or to deal with a problem.

The theme seems to be hosts that aren't about themselves and know that when it comes to talking, less from the host is more.

R28 yes, he also had AIDS focused episodes early on when virtually no one else was talking about that. He did that with a lot of issues, actually. And he addressed issues intelligently and with nuance.

The 25th anniversary special was on YouTube for a while - not sure if still is, but it gives you a an idea of how very good the show could be.

I still say CNN could fill that nine o-clock hour like it used to be filled.

Michael Smerconish is a good and informed interviewer. Probably comes too close to talking too much but I listen to him in the car Saturday mornings whenever I'm driving and I am always absorbed by him and his guests.

60 Minutes - they still do the tough stories.

R36 CNN has such a losing line up in primetime. Michael Smerconish should have a primetime Larry King style show. He has a nice tough old school energy about him.

And dump Don Lemon and replace with Victor Blackwell.

For three years Donahue co-hosted a program with a Russian KGB agent pushing their propaganda. MSNBC would have fit Phil like a glove.

R29 He did have a show on MSNBC in 2002, but it was cancelled in 2003 because being Anti-War at that time was surprisingly not wanted on MSNBC. Which is crazy because by 2004 MSNBC was anti-war wall to wall.

Red Table Talk

Unfortunately, by today's standards, the current talk shows ARE intelligent.

OP here, I have found some good podcasts and shows:

The Oath with Chuck Rosenberg

WSJ Freedom of Expression with Gerard Baker

BFI has some good interviews

Any interview with a Supreme Court justice.

I do not understand the Charlie Rose hate? I like him and usually learn something from the interview.

Charlie Rose, OP?

He was an insufferable boor, who dominated his interviews, rather than letting his guests speak.

Good Riddance to the old leach.

My vote goes to Margaret Hoover on Firing Line or Jeffrey Brown of PBS' NewsHour

Jeez Louise!! I commented twice on this thread, not realizing it was an older one!!

R7 As a South Carolinian one thing that I am unquestionably proud of is the fact that Firing Line was presented to the rest of the country by South Carolina Educational Television, through PBS. We also gave PBS The Magic School Bus.

But, I will say. There are few intelligent talkshows, left. So find some podcasts.

Here is a Charlie Rose interview with soprano Catherine Malfitnao.

OP here.

I have been enjoying Firing Line! Thank you for the recommendation.

I also like American Masters. Attached is an interview with Fran Drescher. She comes off as intelligent and down to Earth.

I also like Margaret Brennan

I used to enjoy a Colortini with Tom Snyder

I feel like Larry King was a good mix of intelligence and middle brow or mass culture.

I always liked that Larry King interviewed older celebrities. I worked days during the OJ trial so I didn't watch it but most nights I would watch Larry King discussing it.

Fareed Zakaria is a great show with international guests.

During the 70s when Geraldo Rivera was completely different then he is now, Goodnight America was a very good show.

Sally Jessy Raphael

I lived for Dick Cavett. Best talk show ever.

David Letterman was pretty intelligent.

Montel

R58 I like Montel’s style very much. Back when I wanted to have my own I looked up to him. But his stuff was very low brow.

Keep them coming

Kamala the Vice Pres. liked Montel's style too

Sally Jessy Raphael!

Charlie Rose was not a talk show. It was an interview program.

The short lived Carnie Wilson show

Why in the hell won’t you give Sally Jessy some fanfare???

Alan Partridge - first series.

OP, David Rubenstein is always good.

I loved Tom Snyder.

I never liked Charlie Rose, I thought he interrupted his guests too often.

I liked Tavis Smiley. He had uncommon guests. His Johnny Mathis interview was the best.

Tomorrow with Tom Snyder was fun and he occasionally got some good interviews from guests because it was so laid back.

Bob Costas is a good interviewer. He is a bit overprepared sometimes, but still he can get guests talking fairly openly.

Charlie Rose was tedious, but did book good guests when he was still on the air.

Craig Ferguson did some good interviews.

Granted, like most network level late night hosts, he spent a lot of time on comic bits.

But he was one of the few hosts to really invite book authors/writers and people otherwise unexpected for network TV.

Colbert did the same in his former CC show.

I have a hunch that Kelly Clarkson isn't up to your intellectual standards, because she can barely speak English.

R70 In his first season, Craig Ferguson regularly had authors on his show and had interesting conversations with them. My guess is that didn't pull in the ratings the network was looking for so he had to stop booking them. He really seemed to enjoy talking with interesting guests.

R72 He had them at other times too.....it was never super frequently but every once in a while he had on writers and intellectuals, and they were great conversations, in the vein of what Tom Snyder did.

For all his manic comic energy, Ferguson makes a damn good listener, as well.

r65 my red glasses gave her fanfare

OP here. My favorite shows:

Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

Any interview conducted by Judy Woodruff

60 Minutes

Freedom of Expression with Gerard Baker (a WSJ podcast)

Charlie Rose

Dick Cavett

PBS Frontline

David Rubenstein

Bloomberg interviews

You guys might like Graham Bensinger. His interviews are on YouTube. My favorite interview was Bob Costas. I liked Bob Costas ever since I saw him interview / cross-examine Jerry Sandusky.

Until I saw Bensinger's IV w/Costas, I didn't realize how openly critical BC was of Donald Trump. Bob Costas can't stand D. Trump and doesn't hide it.

This is pretty high brow and intelligent, no?

Bill Boggs.

Regardless of your opinion of his interview style, Charlie Rose should have been banned from TV hosting long ago just because he says "liberry" and "amblance."

R80 He's from North Carolina lol

Back in the olden days, I enjoyed the Tom Snyder and David Susskind talk shows.

Phil Donahue sometimes had some very good , intelligent shows.

Red Table Tale starring Jada Pinkett-Smith, the wisest and most important person on the planet.

Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore both had a great gift for low-key but very thoughtful discussions with their guests. They always let their guests take front and center and shine. I miss the dignity and modesty they brought to the talk show format.

Michael Parkinson

Inside the Actors Studio

Sally Jessy Raphael

I’d hate to be the poor bastard assigned to wipe her ass

⬆️ Agree re: Bob Costas.