"The Tomorrow Show" with Tom Snyder is NOT AVAILABLE FOR SALE.
October 15, 1973-January 28, 1982.
Tom Snyder's guest is Larry Flynt, publisher of the pornographic magazine HUSTLER which was first released to the public in July 1974, at which time Flynt made his first National television appearance on The Tomorrow Show.
Charged in February of 1977 with obscenity and organized crime ties, he was tried in Cincinnati and convicted of all charges, although the verdict was later overturned on appeal due to allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and judicial and jury bias.
In this little known rare interview given prior to an assassination attempt on his life (March 6, 1978) which left him paralyzed and wheel chair bound for the rest of his life, Snyder is very probing. Flynt, later joined by his attorney, discusses his current court case and explores the subject of the first amendment and what is the right to publish and what is not is the right to publish, including graphic pornography without government censorship, and the distribution of pornography, including the August 1975 Hustler publication of nude photos of Jacqueline Onassis which host Tom Snyder expresses his objection.
The question here is freedom of the press, the press being a smut magazine which manages to offend more people than all its competitors (Penthouse, Screw, Playboy) combined.
Perhaps these are the qualities which made the rare Flynt's appearance on the Tomorrow Show the prize of late night television. In an interview taped soon after Larry Flynt's Cincinnati conviction, Tom Snyder, demanded to know how Flynt could publish a magazine which so egregiously corrupted the minds of readers. Flynt reminded Snyder that experts (most notably the recent Commission on Obscenity and Pornography) had not been able to establish the link between reading obscenity and committing obscene acts. If in fact pornography is dangerous, mused Flynt, just contemplate the ravaged minds of all the psychologists and assistant D.A.'s who spend forty hours a week perusing the stuff. Snyder was not deterred: what of the people who are not "mature" enough to realize that Hustler is for the most part an indulgence in sexual fantasy, the few people who in fact might read Hustler and take some of its perversity not only to heart but out to the streets as well? Flynt shook his head with blustery impatience. "I don't publish a magazine for the mentally ill," he replied.
Also joining in on the discussion is Larry Flynt's attorney, Harold Ferringer who has defended other cases related to pornography including the motion picture, "Deep Throat."
Additional conversation centers around the sordid conditions presently existing in Times Square.
NOTE: This "lost" broadcast, which is not extant in any broadcast form in any of the major archives (Paley Center, NBC News, UCLA Film & TV Archive, Museum of Broadcasting, Library of Congress) other than this complete ATA TV Audio Air Check was not advertised as scheduled.. It replaced the original regularly scheduled broadcast advertised with guest Monte Hall. Tom Snyder discusses the circumstances behind this last minute change and states that the Monte Hall program, recorded on February 18th will be aired on March 11th (AM EST). Also scheduled guest California congressman Robert Dorman does not have the chance to appear as the entire program is centered on Larry Flynt.
NOTE: Snyder begins the show mentioning that this broadcast is to be the final one from studio 6A Rockefeller Center from where he did his first show October 15, 1973. A nostalgic sad farewell. Snyder also admits he feels Hustler Magazine is a "rag" publication during his revealing conversation with Larry Flynt.
Includes commercials.
An hour-long talk show hosted by Tom Snyder. Network television's first entry into late-late-night programming on weeknights Monday thru Thursday, usually broadcasting on tape 1 AM to 2 AM. "Tomorrow" was expanded to 90 minutes on September 16, 1980.