Groucho & Cavett

I've always loved Groucho and his brothers. These were some of the first movies I watched with my kids and it was interesting to see how their zany antics still seemed fresh and appealing to children. I also liked Cavett, as he featured the more interesting kinds of people for his interviews and was less of a vacuous establishment figure than other late-night hosts.

However, Groucho's appearances on the show were, for the most part, not that interesting and were mostly a novelty act. Dick had to allow Groucho to ramble on about fairly mundane topics (like the cap he wore), and that deference to his hero detracted from the experience. Groucho was beyond challenge, beyond interruption, but his sense of humor and choice of topics was a little old-hat at this stage and there was no way for Dick to direct him.