Tom ­Snyder | Tom Wolfe | Ken Kesey | Timothy Leary

The ­Tomorrow Show: Tom ­Snyder's Electric ­Kool-Aid Talk Show
(Shout! Factory)

This is the second DVD collection of Tom Snyder's oddly engaging, always eclectic late-night talk fest, The Tomorrow Show. The first, released earlier this year, focused on punk rock, gathering together Snyder's sometimes explosive encounters with musicians like Johnny Rotten, Iggy Pop, and Wendy O. Williams. Having earned raves for that set, Shout! Factory follows with another themed package, compiling Snyder's tête-à-têtes with a handful of '60s counterculture icons. The disc includes four programs taped between 1979 and 1981 that feature hippie guru Timothy Leary, a pairing of author and LSD exponent Ken Kesey with the Grateful Dead, and two episodes with New Journalism pioneer Tom Wolfe. Unlike the punk package, though, this disc is a bit short on material. The two Wolfe episodes, while interesting on their own, hardly fit, as Wolfe doesn't discuss his pivotal study The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test but instead focuses on then-current projects like the space odyssey The Right Stuff. Still, for aging flower children and Deadheads, the balance of the DVD is a genuine treat. Snyder, who always seems woefully unhip here - he occasionally chides and chastises his guests for their reckless drug use - somehow draws the best out of both the spacey Leary and the clever Kesey, while his rapport with the Dead feels oddly affectionate. It's another worthwhile stop on Snyder's long, strange broadcasting trip. - B.B.