“It was like
satirizing news
in the beginning,
but then it
became the news.”
“MY FAVORITE SEGMENT ”
BY VA N C E D e G E N E R E S
LAST WEEK TONIGHT
Grenrock-Woods: When the show got more political, it sucked for me
because I was doing human interest stories, although I managed to keep
them going for a while.
Winstead: I wish the old episodes were up [on the Comedy Central
website] so we could see the evolution of the show. There’s a great clip
called “Model Olympics,” in which Donald Trump has models on the
beach doing bean-bag races and other ridiculous tests.
DeGeneres: I know for a number of years the Daily Show website had most
of the segments. It would be great to get those old pieces out there.
Littleford: I’m not sure what happened to the first two and a half years
of tape. I can’t find my David Cassidy interview, it’s gone. I heard that Jon
donated that tape. It’d be very sad if they were lost or tossed.
Unger: I have heard three rumors: 1) that there was a fire and all the tapes
were destroyed; 2) that they were erased because someone felt they were
not important; and 3) they were intentionally destroyed. I would love to
see some of those things thrown up on digital. The show has become an
institution; they belong in a vault somewhere.
My favorite pieces by far were called “A Tale of Survival”—twopart stories separated by a commercial break. One of them was
Grenrock-Woods: We demand to know where the tapes are!
about an arborist who fell into a tree and the fire department
had to cut him out. It was brilliant.
FLOOD
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