Between Marc and Richard’s recent posts on old skool local New York TV, I’ve been combing the mulch pile of my memories from back in the day and what popped to mind was Howard Stern interviewing Iggy Pop on his old Channel 9 (“superstation” WWOR) show.

It is… amusing, of course, but what’s particularly interesting is how Iggy just cringes at the mention of Angela Bowie, who in turn shows up with (interestingly enough) David Bowie’s longtime producer Tony Visconti and his wife May Pang, one-time mistress of John Lennon. Iggy plays “I Wanna Be Your Dog” but at the prospect of being “face to face” with Angie, he makes like a banana and splits!

Here ya’ go:
 

 
Also from that very same episode, the regular feature, “Homeless Howiewood Squares,” featuring Underdog Lady, “KKK Guy” (who had a name, but no one really cared) and longtime Match Game host Gene Rayburn, who must’ve been really hard up for work by then… Note how fascinated even the contestants are at hearing KKK Guy’s nearly incomprehensible theories about racial superiority.

If you’re not familiar with Howard’s work, it’s easy to just write him off as a “shock jock.” Hell, you’d be right to do so (obviously this is trying to be offensive and succeeding in a big way. Regular segments like “Guess the Jew” and “Lesbian Dating Game” weren’t subtle either.). BUT, there has always been an almost surreal element to Howard Stern’s shtick and, more importantly, a very “New York” context that caused such bizarre television to follow a sort of odd calculus of humor.