Late-Night TV Icon Tom Snyder Gets Documentary Treatment From ‘Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” Co-Director And Snyder’s Daughter

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Bob Hercules, who co-directed the Peabody-winning American Masters bio-documentary Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, is set to co-produce and co-direct Tom Who, a documentary about the career of late-night talk-show icon Tom Snyder.

Preproduction kicked off this week on the project, which is being co-produced and co-directed by Snyder’s daughter Ann Marie Snyder.The film will feature lost archival material from NBC’s Snyder-hosted The Tomorrow Show, which ran from 1973-81 after The Tonight Show and showcased Snyder informal, conversational style and drew guests from John Lennon and Barbara Walters to Steven Spielberg and Charles Manson.

The show gave way to David Letterman’s Late Night which took over the time slot in 1982 (see Snyder’s final signoff below).After Tomorrow, Snyder, who started his career in radio and was an anchor for NBC News and Los Angeles’ KNBC, became the first host of CBS’ Late, Late Show franchise, handpicked by Letterman.

His run went from 1995-99 and gave the affable host yet another outlet to use his catchphrase welcoming audiences to his show: “Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air.”Snyder died of complications from leukemia in 2007 and has faded somewhat in the discussion of his importance in late-night history, which the filmmakers hope to correct.“I am delighted to team up with Ann Marie Snyder to produce the first-ever film about her late father,” Hercules said. “Tom Snyder uncannily captured the zeitgeist of our culture (and counterculture) during the 1970s through the ‘90s.