About
Mel joined David Steinberg, George Segal, Stan Herman, Dan Greenburg, Larry Goldberg and, of course, David Susskind for this episode of Open End with titled: How to be a Jewish Son --or-- My Son the Success. The whole program is really interesting and entertaining, but Mel is especially funny talking about his mother.
To watch the full show (about 90min), click here.
Wikipedia's description of the program is as follows:
Open End, began in 1958 on WNTA-TV in New York City, and was appropriately titled: the program continued until Susskind or his guests were too tired to continue. In 1961, Open End was constrained to two hours and went into national syndication. The show was retitled The David Susskind Show in 1967 and continued until 1987.
During his almost 30-year run as a talk show host, Susskind covered many controversial topics of the day, such as race relations and the Vietnam War. Susskind's interview of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, which aired in October 1960, during the height of the cold war, generated national attention.
In 1961, Susskind conducted a series of interviews with former president Harry Truman in Truman's hometown of Independence, Missouri. After picking Truman up at his home to bring him to the Truman Presidential Library for the interviews for a number of days, Susskind asked Truman why he hadn't been invited into the house. Truman stated to Susskind, according to presidential historian Michael Beschloss, "This is Bess's house" and that there has never been nor will there ever be, a Jewish guest in there.
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