Tom Snyder

The image that comes to mind is that of a stork stuffed into the overhead compartment of an airliner. Tom Snyder, television veteran of more than three decades, is seated at KYW-TV (Channel 3) studios on Independence Mall. The long legs of his 6-foot, 4-inch frame are bent as if he were perched on a chair in a grade-school classroom. After several days of interviews on an East Coast promotional jaunt, Snyder and his assistant Mike Naidus are finishing the last bit of recording promotional spots for network affiliates.

Tom Snyder, a former Channel 3 news anchor who went on to host a yakfest following Johnny Carson on NBC for nine years, will play a similar role on CBS beginning in December, when The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder debuts in the slot following The Late Show With David Letterman. "This is truly incredible," Snyder gushed at an L.A. news conference Tuesday with Letterman by his side. "A year ago this was no more in my mind than to jump off the Empire State Building. " Snyder, 58, who also hosted a Channel 3 talk show in the 1960s, currently runs a gab-o-rama on the CNBC cable channel.

Tom Snyder, 71, the beetle-browed Philadelphia news anchor whose passionate and pointed interviewing style carried him to late-night network fame, died Sunday in San Francisco of complications from leukemia. "He was the greatest interviewer I ever met," said comedian David Brenner, who worked with Mr. Snyder making documentaries at KYW in the 1960s. Guests who sat for interviews with Mr. Snyder ranged from John Lennon, in one of his last television interviews, in 1975, to mass murderer Charles Manson.

All Robert Gingrich wanted was a cheesesteak. However, Newt's dad had to put off the late-night noshing as insomniacs across America watched him and wife Kathleen on the Monday night debut of "The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder. " The show airs on Channel 10 at 12:35 a.m. "I've been thinking about your show all day," Robert said to Snyder via satellite from his home in Dauphin, Pa. "And for some reason I wanted to run out and get a cheesesteak. " Snyder's much-hyped return to a network talk-show foxhole was nearly eclipsed by the fuss over the Gingriches' scheduled appearance, what they called their "farewell" interview.

Jon Stewart is going to be sitting in Tom Snyder's chair this month, but that doesn't mean Snyder is going to be dumped as host of CBS's "Late Late Show. " Stewart, who's had his own syndicated and MTV shows, will fill in for Snyder Oct. 21-25 as the show's first guest host. David Letterman, whose Worldwide Pants company produces the Snyder show, says Snyder isn't in jeopardy. Stewart is developing his own late show for CBS through Worldwide Pants.

Robert C. Buchanan, 67, a former stage manager for KYW-TV who worked with network television personalities, died yesterday at his home in the Torresdale section. During his 37-year career, Mr. Buchanan coordinated camera locations and props for entertainers whose shows originated from the Channel 3 studios. He worked with Ernie Kovacs, Mike Douglas, Tom Snyder, Maury Povich and Jessica Savitch, among others. His job with KYW, in fact, was the only position he held after graduating from Temple University in 1951.

Wondering why CBS would give a 58-year-old man a show on later than most of his contemporaries are awake? Here's what network President Howard Stringer had to say about Tom Snyder a few weeks ago, before the deal was finally done: "We think Tom Snyder's appeal is broad-based. " "I think he'll be cross-generational. " "He can talk to almost everybody. " Here's what Stringer didn't say: What Dave wants, Dave gets. When David Letterman made his $14 million-a-year deal with CBS last year, he was given the right to produce the show that follows "Late Show.

A Warminster businessman says he'll run as an independent candidate for Abington Township commissioner in Ward 1 if challenger Barbara R. Ferrara beats incumbent Bruce E. Toll in the May 19 Republican primary. Tom Snyder, 40, a Republican, said he would run to give voters an alternative to Ferrara, a Republican committeewoman. Ferrara, according to Snyder, does not attend enough township meetings and should "take more of an interest in township government. " Ferrara could not be reached for comment.

Wrestling fans saddened by the death of Owen (The Blue Blazer) Hart last Sunday are very unhappy with CBS late-night yapper Craig Kilborn, who joked on his "Late, Late Show" Monday night about the pro wrestler's fatal fall. Kilborn, who replaced veteran CBS late-nighter Tom Snyder in January, said on the air: "World Wrestling Federation wrestler Owen Hart, known as the Blue Blazer, died Sunday night . . .Blue Blazer's partner, White Turtleneck, was unharmed. " WWF and Hart fans weren't amused, and have fired off dozens of e-mails to CBS complaining about the remark.

So, Paula Poundstone, let's see if I've got this right. Some guys in Boston draw a cartoon. They show it to some buddies who say whatever comes into their heads, kind of like animated improv. Then they mail you a copy, you listen to their ad libs, and you sit on the phone at your house in California and record whatever you want. Then the whole thing gets pasted together into a TV show. "Don't ask me. I've made several of them, and I probably still don't have an answer.. . . But I don't call from home.

Marciarose back on Channel 3? In honor of Eyewitness News' 45th anniversary, the station - then KYW, now billed as CBS3 - will have its first anchor back in the studio to do live news cut-ins during Wednesday's edition of Talk Philly , the noon show. It was at noon on Monday, Aug. 30, 1965, when Marciarose - properly Marciarose Shestack, as she's been married for 59 years to legal lion Jerry Shestack - launched the nation's first Eyewitness News with coanchor Tom Snyder at her left elbow.

Nonprofit's numbers I write to express my concern as well about the usefulness and apparent insider dealing in awarding a huge Department of Human Services contract to the nonprofit Philadelphia Safe and Sound ("Are the children safer," editorial, Monday). Based on my experience of working in the local nonprofit world, this organization is bloated, ineffective and nonresponsive. It pays attention to and provides services only in certain neighborhoods and to select organizations that play ball with its bureaucracy.

A story worth telling Franklin Square's remarkable transformation from a desolate homeless encampment into a festive playground with a carousel and mini-golf marked its first year yesterday. The once-forlorn square - one of five great squares set out by William Penn - has been visited by more than 650,000 people since its $6.5 million renovation last summer. What makes the park special is the Historic Philadelphia Inc. storytelling under the Once Upon A Nation program.

Tom Snyder, 71, the beetle-browed Philadelphia news anchor whose passionate and pointed interviewing style carried him to late-night network fame, died Sunday in San Francisco of complications from leukemia. "He was the greatest interviewer I ever met," said comedian David Brenner, who worked with Mr. Snyder making documentaries at KYW in the 1960s. Guests who sat for interviews with Mr. Snyder ranged from John Lennon, in one of his last television interviews, in 1975, to mass murderer Charles Manson.

Nothing like freedom to help you achieve your potential. Nowhere does that seem truer than in the fateful, almost world-historical life of Martha Stewart. Six weeks after being sprung from prison, the diva of all things domiciliary has not only landed two TV shows (an Apprentice spin-off and a daily cooking/talk show), she has also signed to develop a channel for Sirius Satellite Radio. Set to debut later this year, Martha Stewart Living Radio will feature cooking, gardening, decorating and entertainment programming, all for women.

Before there was Barbara Walters, before there was Diane Sawyer, before there was Katie Couric, there was Marciarose. Marciarose - that's the name she's gone by throughout her TV career. But it was hardly a household name in 1958, when the young KYW-TV producer and moderator suggested anchoring a news show. The station manager said there'd be a female anchor: "Over my dead body. " Well, seven years and one station-management group later, Marciarose stepped over that objection - and a giant hurdle - when KYW-TV teamed her with Tom Snyder at noon on the first Eyewitness News.

Wrestling fans saddened by the death of Owen (The Blue Blazer) Hart last Sunday are very unhappy with CBS late-night yapper Craig Kilborn, who joked on his "Late, Late Show" Monday night about the pro wrestler's fatal fall. Kilborn, who replaced veteran CBS late-nighter Tom Snyder in January, said on the air: "World Wrestling Federation wrestler Owen Hart, known as the Blue Blazer, died Sunday night . . .Blue Blazer's partner, White Turtleneck, was unharmed. " WWF and Hart fans weren't amused, and have fired off dozens of e-mails to CBS complaining about the remark.

We interrupt this review for a test of the Craig Kilborn warning system. You and I are so cool. We just know so much about television and most everything else. Of course, I'm way cooler than you. I am writing, after all, and you're just reading. Actually, I'm a little surprised you're reading this at all, cool and all-knowing as you are. I mean I have to write this. It's my job, and it also helps me prove to myself that I'm just so much cooler than those TV critics in Detroit and Denver and other smaller places.

So, Paula Poundstone, let's see if I've got this right. Some guys in Boston draw a cartoon. They show it to some buddies who say whatever comes into their heads, kind of like animated improv. Then they mail you a copy, you listen to their ad libs, and you sit on the phone at your house in California and record whatever you want. Then the whole thing gets pasted together into a TV show. "Don't ask me. I've made several of them, and I probably still don't have an answer.. . . But I don't call from home.

Six young women, all glowing skin and clear eyes, all butterfly barrettes and anxiety, are visiting The View. Six young women, perching anxiously on the couch, sipping tentatively from their cups, trying to be lively but not intrusive, and funny but not bitchy, wondering all the while: Do they like me, or are they just faking it? It's the concentration of every audition, the distillation of every blind date. It's . . . sorority rush! No, actually, it's the televised search for a new cohost for The View, the Barbara Walters-helmed, all-female gabfest, which airs locally on Channel 6, weekdays at 11 a.m. Same diff, acknowledges executive producer Bill Geddie.