[This thread is Glark Approved™]

With the success of Jon Stewart hosting Daily Show since 1999, it seems like everybody has forgotten about "old skool" TDS. Looking back now on old tapes, I enjoy these old episodes (and Jon's first 2 years) much more than the show that is on now (I stopped watching last year).

I thought that first batch of correspondents (A. Whitney Brown, Brian Unger, Beth Littleford, Lizz Winstead [Daily Show co-creator]) were absolutely perfect. And you know you're an old skool Daily Show fan when you remember back when they considered Stephen Colbert "the new guy".

Oh! And all the little segments they used to do. Frank DeCaro with his movie reviews (when they let go of Frank [or he left?] in 2003 the TDS fan in me died a little), Lewis Black (has he been there since the beginning?), and Michael Bliden (his music video reviews were to die for!). It was as though back then TDS was sorta like the way Best Week Ever or The Soup is today.

And the interviews! There wasn't one boring guest in that studio. And of course, the thing that put TDS on the map, the 5 Questions segment where Craig would ask a guest five silly questions. (I wish my tapes were easier to access, so I could type some up).

Anybody else have any old skool Daily Show memories?

Are any of those old episodes available online?

I loved it when Craig danced.

I've watched the Daily Show from the beginning, from the very first episodes when there was no studio audience. I remember when Stephen Colbert's official title was The New Guy, and I still can hear Bill Murray (I want to say he was the very first guest) singing the "words" to the theme song, "I've got to watch it, it's the Daily Show! Why won't you watch it, it's the Daily Show!" And I loved me some Craiggers and the Five Questions.

However, his overall prickishness totally marred that period of the show for me--i.e. the way he treated Lizz Winstead and the revelation that the preening, narcissistic fratboy behavior wasn't just a persona. And it was too bad (it was rumored) that Brian Unger and A. Whitney Brown felt the need to leave when Jon took over because (particularly for Brian Unger) they were passed over for the anchor position. They made for great correspondants, but the couple times they anchored they were not great.

I did love the interviews Beth Littleford used to do surrounded by floweres with an inch of vaseline on the lens. Ah, the fluffier Daily times. (But if I had to rank them, I'd have to say the current version edges out the classic one.)

Yeah, I used to LOVE the Daily Show w/ Craig Kilborn!!!! I remember when he left was replaced with Jon Stewart. I couldn't bare to watch for a few months afterwards...of course, I did eventually and fell in love with the new Daily Show even more so. But I will never, ever forget the original Daily Show. Good times, indeed. I had forgotten about those old music video reviews. When did Colbert join the show, btw?

In 1997, as per the IMDb.

Don't forget God Stuff, esp. when they showed clips of Screamy Poofy Hair Preacher Guy.

Oh man.... comedy gold! Those clips didn't even require commentary - they spoke for themselves. Late-night cable access sure knows how to bring the crazy. I did a quick web search to see what ol' Joe Bob Briggs was up to and found his official website.

Joe Bob! He was great. TDS used to have some great correspondants. I guess Michael Showalter (of Stella) used to be on, but I don't remember him.

Does anyone remember a clip show (I think it aired near the end of the Kilborn era--it may have been early Jon) called "Stephen Colbert Across America"? I still get the theme song stuck in my head. "Streets. I've been walking through streets. Trees... uh uh uh, uh uh trees. I've been on a horse, and occasionally on a boat. Stephen Colbert across America... tonight!"

I have a real poor quality copy of the Stephen Colbert Across America clip show they did. I got it 2 years ago from an online friend, and unfortunately I've only had the chance to see it once....and I still have the theme stuck in my head. Colbert was pretty good back then. Personally, I think he got too big for his britches in 2001-ish.



Oh, shit! How could I forget that!! I remember people would watch TDS just for that segment! I think they tried doing that with Jon up until early 2000 and they dropped the segment.



Those used to crack me up so bad. I'm happy she's still on TV (even if its Vh1 things). I also enjoy seeing Brian Unger on the I Love the ___ things on Vh1. Someone needs to put A. Whitney Brown on the milk carton. I haven't seen him on tv since 1999-ish.


OH! We can't forget Craig's mirror! I remember Craig's last night (or last week) as host, Beth gave him a new shiny mirror.

I never watched old school TDS (since it just wasn't available in Canada on my cable package- I came to the show in 02/03) but I know Stephen has said he didn't do as much work on TDS between 1997 and 2000 because he was simultaneously doing Strangers with Candy.

It is interesting to read that some people are nostalgic for that period. I'd love to see clips from that era but I know I doubt I would have become a fan of TDS if I had watched it back then because I cannot suffer Craig Kilborn. I find way too smug for his own good.

That was sort of the point though. Craig was a great choice to parody all the super-pompous real anchors out there who have five pounds of gel in their hair and smary smiles. I remember being quite sad when I found out he was leaving...until Jon showed up to be his final interview and was hilarious. I found myself nodding and thinking "this might be ok after all". Little did I know!

That all said, there are times I truly miss the 5 questions segment. It really could liven up an interview regardless of what else they talked about, and sometimes a gimmick ain't a bad tool to have for a talk show.

I understand that, except that it came out that it wasn't so much a gimmick as what this guy really was. Quite a few people working with him have said he was quite the tool. Anyway, I found him patronizing and smarmy, but I didn't think he wasn't charming enough to pull off that persona. I couldn't really get much enjoyment out of it. I saw 5 Questions on The Late Late Show a few times, and I did think that was probably the best part of the show.

And ironically enough, Five Questions was never as funny on the Late Late Show as it was on the Daily Show. But maybe it was because I'd found out about the way he treated his illegitimate black son and his mother (i.e. pretty shitty). Or maybe it was because it just wasn't as funny. I can't rememember at this point which came first. That said, back in the day, I thought that Craiggers was hilarious, back when I thought it was a put-on.

It would be interesting to see a retrospective on the Daily Show, the whole thing. I can't believe it's almost been 10 years since it started.

Dammit. Thinking about this show made me remember one of the horrible videos Craig showed. It was a guy singing about astrological signs. "Talkin' 'bout the Taurus," in particular. For some reason it's stuck in my head all this time, though I feel it was fading until this thread brought it back. Dammit.

One thing that I liked about the Kilborn era was the fact that they had really fun promos. The one that got me watching (it's been a while so I hope I'm recalling it correctly) showed a clip from an old movie with men (Roman or Greek slaves probably) rowing a boat – and Craig’s voice over said, “Kathy Lee says ‘faster!’ Cody wants a pony.” For some reason I thought this was hilarious and I just had to watch the show.

I would definitely watch "A Best of" clip show- heck, I'd buy the DVD. There were some great moments- I was a Joe Bob fan.

I will never ever forget the one where she asks Fabio if he's a natural blonde, and to answer her question, he gets up and walks towards her while unzipping his trousers. That wasn't comedy gold. It was comedy platinum.

My favorite joke/segment from the Kilborn era was when a gay cruise ship wasn't permitted to dock in the Cayman Islands and had to go to somewhere else in the Caribbean instead. Craig said the locals of the replacement island quickly made up t-shirts that became coveted souvenirs for the boat passengers, and next to him was a photo of a shirt that had Cayman, My Ass! printed on it.

I also loved Bill Murray making words to the theme song.

I saw the show twice live with Craig hosting, and he stared at his hair in a large hand mirror for most of the commercial breaks both times.That boy was obsessed with his hair.

I really loved 5 Questions. And if I recall correctly, only Yasmine Bleeth ever got them all wrong. Even when the question was 'What's your first name?' She was just a deer in headlights. Good times.

Brian Unger has had a couple of pops at filling in for Keith Olbermann at Countdown, which might just rot Craig's socks.

He was obsessed with someone else's hair. He wears a toupee.

One of my favorite TDS headlines ever was from the Craig era -- they were doing a story about the first guy who attacked the World Trade Center, Ramsi Youssef. In the corner was the guy's picture, underneath which the caption was "RESPECT YOUSSEF." So wrong, but I'm cracking up just typing it.

Loved Frank DeCaro. Once he ran a clip of some other actor from Saving Private Ryan who was saying "Of course, this was a completely momentous, historic thing" and then Frank immediately replies "He's talking about working with that dreamboat Matt Damon!" And his review of Mulan, with the hot male lead swinging a stick around and singing "I'll Make a Man Out of You." Nuff said.

My favorite Beth Littleford interview might have been with Boy George (although the Fabio one comes close). Mainly because I loved the following exchange:

Beth: Have you ever seen a bearded clam?
Boy George: I'm sorry, I don't follow.
Beth: You know, a Venus mound...
Boy George: Ohhhhh, you mean a VAGINA!

Anybody up for a tenth anniversary special? I'm thinking that Jon's shadow covers the Kilborn years, but a retrospective would be nice. "Niedamayer?" "DEEEEEAD!" "Dean Wormer?" "DEEEEEEAD!"

I actually went to two tapings, one at each studio. I do remember that I saw the first-ever "This Week In Hate" segment. There was also a story about a woman trying to kill her footless husband in a "Now That's Love" bit. I forget the details, but a narrating Craig went off on it with "hopping mad" and "amputeed off." Hey, iMissEthan...who did Craig interview when you went? Maybe we were in the same crowd.



Spice Girls as assassins? Check. Live's "Freaks" centered around a milk cult? Check. Good times.

The guy who did that program; Tom Shillue was pretty good. I remember them trying to incorporate him into the "Jon Years" as a correspondent 2 times during the summer of 2000, and it didn't work. I've seen him on Cheap Seats on ESPN Classic a few times.



That bit was so cruel, but I loved it. I loved the little "Now That's Love" graphic they used too. I have a screen cap of it somewhere on my TDS site. (we're not allowed to mention fan sites here though, I don't think)

I think my two favorite moments from the Kilborn era of the Daily Show are correspondent related, but for very different reasons. The first is a Beth Littleford interview with David Cassidy, where he was just a complete jerk to her throughout the whole thing. Then at the end, she's giving her final speech/opinion about her interview subject and she just sums him up with "David Cassidy...bitter."

The second one is an A. Whitney Brown piece about this guy who was running for a public office of some kind. The guy was an overweight man who worked at a fast food joint, with a very effiminate voice, who I think also spent some time in jail and may have lived with his mom. Needless to say, he lost the election. Then afterwards, Brown is talking to the guy, and in a horrible yet "can't look away" situation, he basically psychologically breaks the guy down. Brown says something like "How does it feel to be a loser," to which the man responds "I'm not a loser." The exchange goes back and forth like this until Brown finally says "But you didn't win the election, so what does that make you?" The man, finally broken, says "A loser." To which Brown responds, "And that's something they can never take away from you." So this was one of those horrible situations that you probably shouldn't find funny, but still do in a really twisted way. Don't know what that says about me as a person...but there you go.

As a whole, I enjoyed the Craiggers era of TDS. It was in retrospect because of the correspondents and non-Craig segments -- *especially* Beth Littleford and Lewis Black! -- and not Kilborn himself.

Just thinking about the Littleford interviews makes me giggle uncontrollably. I still remember how she closed her interview with Anthony Michael Hall (or was that in the early Jon Stewart era?): "Anthony Michael Hall: He's back, and... (awkward silence for a few moments) ... he's BACK!"

I loved Craig (vain as he may have been), and was initially pissed when he left (and nearly cried with the end of Five Questions). Beth Littleford? So awesome. Although Samantha Bee is filling a similar-ish role now. However, Lewis Black - I'm glad he's not on anymore. Guy yells too much.

Yeah, after Craig left, I thought TDS was going to be shit, but it turned out being the shit!

I watched TDS from at or near the beginning. At first, I thought Kilborn was good, since he really made it more of a direct parody of news and magazine programs. Plus I liked the 5 Questions in the interviews, which made them more unique than all the regular comedy/talk shows. But, near the end, I was definately getting tired of all his preening schtick (didn't know until this thread that he's really like that! That just underscores my view). It was alittle creepy.

I did worry that Jon Stewart would make the fake news too stand-up-like, which was also my original concern with Dennis Miller taking over Weekend Update, since I prefered the Chevy Chase style. But, just like SNL, it was just fine (and Dennis and Norm MacDonald became favorites of mine, alongside Chase). I did have a falling-out with this show with the Iraq thing, only seeing a very occasional DS since.

Actually, my favorite bit from old school TDS is Craig-related. It was extremely funny when they showed Linda Tripp early in the Lewinsky scandal, and Craig did his best Austin Powers: "She's a man, baby!" Perfect.

I think A. Whitney Brown might have been the most stone-cold ruthless correspondent ever, although I'll be damned if I can remember which pieces led me to this conclusion. I do remember a rant about Christians "symbolically cannibalizing their savior" that was absolutely scalpel-sharp.

Oh? So he's gone now. Yeah, I honestly thought he was just going through the motions for the past few years. He was funny during Craig/early Jon era though.



TDS came out when Dateline NBC was on eight times a week. So I loved the "news magazine" feel of TDS. Now it seems like TDS is just a parody of the 24 hr news networks.

I wish I could create a thread about Jon's first couple of years on TDS, but I'm sure that's not allowed. That was some classic TDS as well.

A few years ago, I made a transcript of this one time when Lizz, Brian and A. Whitney went to a dog show. And at the end of the story, they were at the desk with Craig and either Lizz or Brian claimed that A. Whitney said a dog at the show was "sexy".

Ah, here it is (I hope this is allowed)
http://anitasdailyshowpage.tripod.com/tran...1997dogshow.htm

I have no memory of who the guests were. I do recall when I went to a taping post 9/11 (not the first back but about a week later), the guest was Emerill. He was so lousy they didn't run the interview for weeks. I was convinced his sitcom was going to be canceled before they got around to showing it.

The Bill Murray lyrics still go through my head every time I watch. One of the funniest things I remember from the Kilborn days, though, was when Craig was interviewing Andy Williams (he of ye olde-tymey Christmas specials) right before Craig left (I think). Craig was asking him who would be on his special that year and Mr. Williams was all, "...Snoop Dogg's got my back; it's going to be stoopid fresh..." with a giant smile and Mr. Green Shirt & I about died. It was so obvious that Andy didn't know what he was saying, but he said it as sincerely as he could.

Beth Littleford also was great, for all the reasons previously mentioned. As for A. Whitney Brown, as much as I loved him at first, towards the end of his run I remember thinking he was getting too mean spirited, picking on the obviously, uh, challenged. It seemed too easy & I understand when I've read Stephen Colbert's & Jon's views on how the show needed to switch it's focus. Hence the difference between mocking the "Dateline" format to mocking overpompous journalists. To me, it makes more sense.

I loved Frank DeCaro. His Oscars special killed me.

I loved the Old DS too. Craig was funny and it was very different from the show it is now. They both have their quirks.

I actually saw a taping of Late Late Show shortly after Kilborn took over. Yeah, most of the shtick was similar to TDS at that point, but it was missing something. It was funny, sure, but it wasn't quite the same.

My first inkling that TDS would be something different - the Beth Littleford interview where she visits the boar farm and helps them collect semen. Manually.

A major change between Craig and Jon. With Craig, the anchor was the joke. At least now, most of the time Jon is the saner person surrounded by joke correspondents. [/generalization]

I do remember a rant about Christians "symbolically cannibalizing their savior" that was absolutely scalpel-sharp.

So THAT'S where Maher got the "drink the blood of a 2000 year old space god" line!

The best "5 Questions" I can remember were John Cleese being asked why British food sucks, and of course, the one that hastened Keith Olbermann's departure from ESPN...Q: "What's the most godforsaken place on earth?" A: "Bristol, Connecticut."