The dust-up that Chris Matthews had with Senator Zell Miller made me think back to the early days of television.
I think it may have been In the early 60s that I first saw Joe Pyne. I'm sure his show wasn't a network show but some sort of early syndication. I only remember watching it late night. I'm sure that was due to the caustic nature of the show. Pyne was the earliest example I know of our current confrontational talk show hosts except he didn't have guests like United States Senators. His guests tended to be a little bit off-the-wall types, usually with some sort of wacko, non traditional advocacy. It might be a white guy who wanted the blacks to return to Africa or a woman who advocated sterilization of some group of people or a guy who claimed that he was from the planet Mars. Basically he took on topics that were taboo or too outrageous on the broadcast networks at the time. There were some well-known guests with serious topics although it was rare. His political views were clearly conservative .
I remember the set being somewhat dark except for the lighting on Pyne and his guest. It was also minimalist, maybe to help set the tone of what usually happened. The talk about the issues usually didn't get very far because his real forte was how he went after the guests and sometimes his audience (more on that later). He had a unique style of attack conversation that ultimately trapped the guests with their own words. If you paid attention to what was being said, you could actually see the trap being laid and ultimately sprung. And once he pulled the lever, it was as my Grandma used to say, "Katy, bar the door". That meant "get ready for trouble" to her.
The routine was usually the same once the trap was sprung. He attacked the guest verbally, scoring points high and low off the guest's own words and ridiculed the poor soul relentlessly, often interupting his responses with more questions and ridicule. Audience members yelled out disparaging comments during this time as well. During the entire process, he was chain-smoking cigarettes. I remember seeing the curls of smoke coming off his cigarettes almost like he was backlit. It seemed to add to the drama of the guest getting crucified. The end to the guest usually came with a verbal dismissal like "go gargle with razor blades" or "take a hike" or 'you're a creep". The whole process was something like watching an car accident. You really couldn't believe that it was happening but you couldn't stop looking at it.
The finale came when the audience members were allowed to address both Pyne and his guest. That was done in what Pyne called his "beef box". The issues raised by the audience in the "beef box" didn't have to be about any guest issues though they often were. The people who dared venture into that position either were advocates of Pyne's postion and got accolades from him for that or ended up like the guests if they dared to disagreee with Pyne. The latter usually got them booted off the mike by the host shouting something like "get the hell out of here". Perhaps surprisingly, Pyne often seemed very knowledgeable, intelligent and erudite when he wasn't yelling out insults.
Many years later, I remember seeing Morton Downey on his show and his seemed to be an imitation of Pyne's show, but with less intelligence, more attitude and even more yelling.
Now we have Chris Matthews doing the same thing only differently.
Ah, progress.
September 3, 2004 in
Television |
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Joe Pyne was mesmerizing to watch. Once you clicked on to the Late Night VHF channel he was on you couldn't stop watching.....he made Morton Downey Jr. look like Theodore Cleaver. Joe Pyne was a Marine Veteran, and I believe he lost one his legs in the Korean War (he didn't talk about it much). Three things are certain in life, Death..........Taxes.........And you better not bad mouth the USA to Joe Pyne!!!
Posted by: Brian Goldspink at Oct 15, 2004 2:42:19 PM
FYI Joe Pyne was a WWII veteran and lost his leg after the war due to cancer. As far as bad mouthing the USA, I quote Mark Twain, "Loyal to the country always, loyal to the government when it deserves it." I believe these would be his thoughts as well, but as he died over 30 years ago guess we'll never know.
Posted by: Claudia Pyne at Nov 4, 2004 4:47:58 PM
Are you related, Claudia?
Posted by: Deliverance at Nov 4, 2004 7:37:40 PM
Am I related? As in, to Joe Pyne??? Yes I am.
Posted by: claudia Pyne at Nov 9, 2005 5:45:18 PM
HI Claudia, I knew you when you were a tiny baby, you and your very beautiful mom. I was married to Ed Pyne back then, in the good old sixties. I haven't talked to Eddie for many years now, as many as 15-20, but would love to say hi to him. Bye for now. The former Patty Pyne
Posted by: Patty at Aug 27, 2008 4:33:35 PM
Joe Pyne was my Uncle Joe. He was my mother's older brother. My mom was Mary Ann Pyne Mockler.
I was one of 5 daughters and we have nice memories of our uncle.
Linda Mockler Graham
Nashville, TN
Posted by: Linda Graham at Jul 6, 2009 11:13:07 PM
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