Late Night Last Century: Dick Cavett Hosts Sparring Match Between Literary Lions

Late Night Last Century is a weekly column highlighting some of the funniest and most unforgettable comedy from late night, talk shows, and variety shows of the 20th century that’s currently streaming on YouTube. Today, we go back to 1971, when Dick Cavett, then a late night host on ABC, hosted writers Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, and Janet Flanner for a sparring match.

A YouTube commenter described The Dick Cavett Show better than I ever could: “The Jerry Springer Show for intelligent people.” This is not to say that The Jerry Springer Show is for the unintelligent, or that host Dick Cavett always facilitated a Springer-like atmosphere. But on the show, you never quite knew what was going to happen, or how so-called “intellectuals” might behave.

Cavett himself embodies that rare breed of the folksy intellectual. Born in Nebraska, where as a young man he encountered another native of the state, Johnny Carson, Cavett was educated at Yale and later worked at Time magazine running errands. Then one day, he took a chance. He wrote some jokes and walked into the building that housed NBC’s The Tonight Show, hosted by Jack Paar. He “bumped” into Paar in the hallway and handed him an envelope with jokes. A few lines made it into that night’s monologue, and Cavett was hired.

In 1968, after working as a stand-up and writer, he got a program of his own, The Dick Cavett Show. The show ran in one form or another for decades, moving across networks and time slots. In 1968, the program debuted on ABC, beginning in daytime, then primetime, and then, from 1969-1975, on late night. Witty and well-read, Cavett had range. He was just as comfortable interviewing comics and visual artists as he was intellectuals and politicians. One need look no further than the guests who appeared on his second episode: “Tony Randall, Tony Bennett, Muhammad Ali, Gore Vidal, Angela Lansbury, and The Lemon Pipers.”

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The writer Vidal became a regular guest on the program. On December 1, 1971, he appeared opposite his contemporary, Norman Mailer, leading to a clash that, as the YouTube commenter described, was Springer-esque. Earlier that year, Mailer published his critique of the women’s liberation movement, The Prisoner of Sex. He came on to defend himself from accusations of “male chauvinism” leveled by Vidal and others. Mailer was especially furious that Vidal wrote a piece in which he was compared to Charles Manson.

Clips from Vidal and Mailer’s back-and-forth are often included in documentaries about the men and the period. But the full exchange (below) is worth watching in its entirety. Also on stage with the men is Janet Flanner, a longtime journalist for The New Yorker who gets in some great lines of her own. Mailer, in trying poorly to assert himself, says to Flanner, “Angel, it’s my time now. The law of the dinner table is that we now talk about what I want to talk about.” Flanner replies, “It’s going to be coffee time any minute.”

It is a joy to watch Cavett, too. He shows off his impeccable sense of timing, knowing when to chime in and when to just let his guests brawl. At one point, Mailer’s bellicosity is too much and Cavett has no choice but to take up verbal arms against him. “Why don’t you look at your question sheet and ask a question,” Mailer asks. Cavett pauses, looks down and licks his lips. One can tell he has the response right away but is thinking, perhaps of how to say it, or whether he should at all. He decides to go for it: “Why don’t you fold it five ways and shove it where the moon don’t shine.”

Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic and researcher, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He is an assistant editor at Cineaste, a GALECA member, and since 2019 has hosted The Video Essay Podcast. You can follow and/or unfollow him on Twitter and learn more about him via his website.