Some interviewers of authors have not read the books prior to broadcast and depend on the authors to drive the interview. In this clip from the comedy show Newhart, Bob Newhart plays Dick Loudon who runs a B&B with his wife in rural Vermont but also hosts a local TV show about books. We see an interview that goes wildly wrong because he and his staff have not read the book. But his guest would not be considered that unusual today.
Mano Singham
Just another Freethought Blogs site
Lovely.
I was never fond of Bob Newhart in that silly soap opera/comedy/whatever TV show but on his own or in a monologue he can be brilliant. Just thinking of his monologue about training bus drivers has me laughing and I last heard it 10+ years ago.
The Master of Deadpan.
🙂
Oh yes, this is very funny, all the more because I’m a bit sad realizing that internet has made loons like the Colonel way too popular. A Dutch historian (Piet Emmer) very recently has argued that slavery in Suriname was not that bad because slaves received food, cloths, healthcare and a vegetable garden. Also they made enough money to buy themselves free. Dutch Wikipedia calls him an expert on slavery and immigration.
That slaves in Suriname from the very beginning ran away into the jungle, organized themselves and won four out of five wars against the Dutch colonial government apparently is irrelevant.
Piet Emmer is a proferssor emeritus and quite popular in Dutch (former) quality papers like Volkskrant, Trouw and NRC.