"The Tomorrow Show" with Tom Snyder.
October 15, 1973-January 28, 1982.
Tom Snyder's solo guest is Milton Berle.
Prior to many topics discussed, Snyder expresses his admiration for Milton Berle and relates to when he was in High School in 1951 watching The Texaco Star Theater and in awe of Uncle Miltie.
In this very candid in depth and insightful interview Milton discusses his 1951 thirty year contract with NBC mentioning how it developed thru Pat Weaver and David Sarnoff...taking a 40% cut in pay, but regretting later that he could not work on any other network except NBC TV.
Reflections on the first year of The Texaco Star Theater (1948) when the budget for each one hour live show was $15,000 of which Milton would receive $2,500. No writers that first year...giving up work in night clubs making $10,000 a week...huge increased salary by NBC in 1949 to Berle ($25,000 per show)...the challenges doing a live show with no cue cards, or applause overlays. Additional anecdotes about embarrassing incidents on the show, and how Milton did not even know his monologue until he went on the air live at 8pm.
Milton Berle remembers how he was a stern taskmaster and why he was that way. He mentions to Tom Snyder that in 1952 he designed the NBC studio and created applause signs.
Milton states that he did 580 live Texaco Star Theater and Milton Berle Shows on NBC, and to his astonishment most all of his shows, (kinescopes) which were originally created, were discarded at one point, as confirmed to him by Dave Tebet, NBC Vice President in charge of talent recruitment, to make space at the New Jersey Camden storage facility.
Tom Snyder also relates to such scenario with his own Tomorrow Show stating that he was told by Tebet one day that all of his previous broadcasts recorded on 2" Quad Videotape, including those with icon guests were wiped and discarded from the New York and Burbank studio facilities.
NOTE: Almost all pre-1978 Tomorrow Shows are not extant as COMPLETE BROADCASTS. However, the 1978 thru 1981 Tomorrow Shows, for the most part, have been archived.
Milton talks about his stage mother and her domination over him always breaking up romances and greatly responsible for his first two divorces. Berle also discusses how his third marriage to Ruth faired much better. Also Milton talks of his son Billy age 15 and about to receive his pilot's license.
Tom Snyder tries to get Milton to reveal who the mystery affair woman in his life was called "Linda." They discuss how Berle was the first entertainer to appear on the cover of Newsweek and Time Magazine in 1949, and Milton being the first to host a 24 hours TV telethon for The Damon Runyard Cancer Memorial Organization. Other anecdotes include remembrances of Fulton J. Sheen, Arnold Stang, Ruth Gilbert, Sid Stone and Milton Frome.
The broadcast concludes with Milton Berle telling Tom Snyder what is his doing now in 1977.
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.
