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Seven Great Talk-Show Trainwrecks
Everyone remembers the day Tom Cruise jumped onto Oprah’s couch, but there are plenty of other memorable talk-show moments where stars lost their cool—or lucidity. And as Joaquin Phoenix recently learned (or was he faking?), there’s something about David Letterman in particular that brings out a special brand of crazy. View some of the all-time best on-air meltdowns.
Farrah Fawcett on David Letterman
In her memorable 1997 Late Show appearance, a rather disoriented Farrah Fawcett tells David Letterman about her slightly Oedipal relationship with her son, then gets confused by a fake window. Hey, at least she looks stunning.
Shirley MacLaine
Letterman again. This time, reincarnation enthusiast Shirley MacLaine gets in his head—literally. She offers to help him meditate, which to MacLaine apparently means trying to pull all of his hair right off his skull. Never has Letterman looked so relieved to go to commercial.
Rosie vs. Hasselbeck
Meltdowns don’t only apply to guests—sometimes hosts get in on the act. In this 2007 episode of The View, co-hosts Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck get so enraged that the producers go to a split screen, to ensure every second of insanity is captured for the home viewing audience.
Norman Mailer vs. Gore Vidal
Probably the only thing keeping literary firebrands Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal from exchanging more than just words is the presence of host Dick Cavett seated between them in this hilarious 1971 clip.
Andy Dick
On a 2007 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, a weird-even-by-Andy-Dick-standards Andy Dick can’t stop touching Ivanka Trump. When he finally goes too far, security forcibly removes him from set.
Vince McMahon on Bob Costas
When Bob Costas asks WWE’s Vince McMahon about allegations that mimicking wrestling moves seen on TV had led to the death of a Florida child, McMahon castigates the host for not doing his research and checking his facts. The confrontation, from a 2001 episode of On the Record, is made especially uncomfortable by the fact that the hulking McMahon has several inches and quite a bit of heft over Costas.
Andy Kaufman on Letterman
After a wrestling grudge match between Jerry “The King” Lawler and comedian Andy Kaufman left Kaufman in a neck brace, David Letterman invited the two rivals onto Late Night in 1982. Kaufman spends most of the appearance baiting Lawler, leading to Lawler slapping the comedian in the face right before commercial break.
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weetee71
Great list. The Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer one is brilliant. However, how could you forget to include the Crispin Glover interview on David Letterman where he comes within an inch of kicking Letterman in the head?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALapHYNSmoA
surlybastard
You forgot Crispin Glover's appearance on Letterman.
flyoverland
What about Arnold Palmer's wife on Johnny Carson when Johnny asked her if she had any supersitions before he played...she said, "well, I kiss his balls".
melissamsouza
Joaquin Phoenix's appearance was not a meltdown. It was a brilliant, hilarious and very calculated performance. It as a dark spoof of what the standard, smiley, let me sell my merchandise lah-dee-dah appearances by most celebrities. Phoenix turned all that around by pulling an Anti-Letterman, "Unibomber" (as Letterman himself put it) personna. If one watches the video carefully, there is a moment when Phoenix almost betrays himself by holding back laughter. This was a very creative and masterful publicity stunt---just look at all the attention it's getting!
RYNRGSDL
@surlybastard
I was thinking the same thing. That's one of the ultimate talk show meltdowns, if you ask me.
RadioJohnson
"there's something about David Letterman in particular that brings out a special brand of crazy"
He's the most entertaining interviewer on television, news or entertainment. Don't forget about Madonna on Letterman, Richard Simmons on Letterman, Bill O'Reilly on Letterman...
The list goes on.
smdunne
Richard Simmons in the Thanksgiving Turkey Suit being chased by Letterman with a fire extinguisher has to be the ne plus ultra of talk show meltdowns.
pataffe
Who was the woman who told Mailer she was "bored"? That was priceless.
jgarth
all i saw on letterman's show was a talk show host whose first instinct was to veer into bitter, spiteful attacks & sarcasm when faced with someone who appeared to have no interest in playing the celebrity-on-a-talk-show 'game'. Phoenix seemed harmless & shy - not deranged. So he wasn't vapidly effusive in response to the setting - so what? Who couldn't see the inherent pointlessness in such a vapid show-business arrangement? "Hey, insert actor name here, - What's it like to work with what's-her-name?" "Hey, Host: Who the f&^% cares?!" Now that's an interview I'd like to see! In the end, people are conditioned by the media to expect certain behavior from celebrities. They get uncomfortable when someone doesn't play along & are all too willing to turn on them. As far as I'm concerned Phoenix was perfectly justified in reacting with shock & dismay in the face of such childish goading & teasing. Maybe he was the only truly sane one in the studio that night!
Jdobben
It's not exactly a talk show but I think some of the antics on MSNBC during the past election deserve inclusion
ceemonster
lillian hellman, i believe....
lolalola
It's not Hellman, it's Janet Flanner of the New Yorker.
scriptdog
Doesn't anyone know that Phoenix's appearance is part of a documentary that Casey Afleck is shooting? My god people. This is another example of the media believing everything they see. It's all a show within a show. Fake.
slobone
Incidentally, Mailer includes a transcript of that show in one of his own books, and explains that he had gotten drunk backstage before going on. So he at least wasn't ashamed to admit when he made an @sshole out of himself.
Spasticula
How could you leave out Nastassja Kinski on Lettemen with her celery-style hair-do and her drugged, dopey interaction with him. And I second the Crispin Glover appearnace. Nothing tops that.
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