A Quote by Richard Corliss
Nixon, with his mellifluous baritone, was a great politician for radio but creepy on TV.
Related Quotes
When you look at Kennedy and Nixon, TV played a crucial part in Kennedy's popularity. He was incredibly photogenic, while Nixon was this scowling figure. American viewers judged him on his appearance on TV.
The fact that a TV star can become president should be old news since [Ronald] Reagan, and old news since the Nixon-Kennedy debates - which the famous story, whether or not you agree, is that if you listened on the radio, Nixon won; if you listened on TV, Kennedy won.
Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.
When Nixon died, on my radio show I started doing sketches with three basic conceits: One, there's a place called Heaven. Two, Nixon got in. And three, he's still taping.
I've been doing Nixon pretty much my whole professional life. I was in this comedy group called the Credibility Gap in Los Angeles when he was president. I was doing Nixon on the radio, and when we did live shows I physicalized him - if that's a word - for the first time. And then I did a Nixon sketch on a very short-lived NBC show called Sunday Best.
I had no trouble going from radio to TV - I just thought of TV as radio with pictures.
In Democrats minds they've done it before. They got rid of Richard Nixon and they rendered George W. Bush irrelevant. They think they can do it. The thing that they don't understand is Donald Trump is not Nixon, and he is not George W. Bush. And he is not a traditional politician affected by these kinds of assaults the way most politicians are.
Harry Reid is not funny; he's creepy. Nancy Pelosi is creepy. Charles Schumer is sneaky and creepy.
I was always mimicking high-register singers as a kid but I also studied operating as a baritone because I'm a natural baritone.
I thought a lot about Nixon's personal history and the changes in America during his lifetime and tried to craft stories, which I thought reflected some of his personal history but also the backdrop of a changing America. Nixon grew up in a strict Quaker family. The idea of the American Dream, of hard work and not much fun, was ingrained in Nixon as a child, but curiously so was a love of music. Nixon himself was a pretty good piano player. So it's the contradictions that interest me, as I think we all have them.
Look: There's good creepy and there's bad creepy. Today's creepy is tomorrow's necessity.
Look - There's good creepy and there's bad creepy. Today's creepy is tomorrow's necessity.
A politician thinks of the next election; a statement of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift.
I'm not prepared to be governor of New York. I'm a radio guy; I do a radio show. A radio show is entertainment. You need to move it along. When does a politician move anything along?
I have characterized Nixon as a loner, a cold man with great self-confidence and a one-track mind centered on the advancement of Richard Nixon.
Obama's great asset has always been an ability to maintain his air of authority without being baritone about it. He can be boring, but he is never ridiculous or pompous.
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