When the Watergate scandal first broke, it didn’t really break at all. Initial notices about the burglary appeared in news papers but TV mostly ignored it. Of course, Woodward and Bernstein famously bit and wouldn’t let go of the story in the Washington Post, but on television Dick Cavett’s entertainment talk show became the unlikely setting for bringing the sordid story into the public light of day. This “Dick Cavett’s Watergate” episode of PBS’s SECRETS OF THE DEAD celebrates the role Cavett played in bringing down President Nixon…

From 1972 to 1974, the Watergate scandal was frequently a part of “The Dick Cavett Show.” In fact, Cavett was at the forefront of national TV coverage, interviewing nearly every major Watergate figure as the crisis unfolded. With exclusive access to the archive of the show, DICK CAVETT’S WATERGATE documents the scandal in the words of the people who lived it: from the botched burglary at the Democratic National Headquarters; to the must-see TV of the daily Congressional Watergate hearings; to the ongoing behind-the-scenes battle between the White House and “The Dick Cavett Show,” culminating with the resignation of President Nixon on August 9, 1974. DICK CAVETT’S WATERGATE offers a unique opportunity to mark the 40th anniversary of a defining moment in American history.

The Watergate trial began on this day in 1973. Here’s “Dick Cavett’s Watergate…”

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Fear and Loathing On the Road to Hollywood is a documentary featuring writer Hunter S. Thompson and artist Ralph Steadman on a road trip to Tinsel Town. Also known as Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision, the Documentary Heaven site has the skinny…

A fascinating, 30 year old BBC documentary on the Good Doctor and Ralph Steadman, five years after Nixon’s resignation, and on a road trip to Hollywood (to work on what would become Where the Buffalo Roam).

Includes an interesting scene of John Dean chatting with Hunter about his Watergate testimony (at about 32 minutes), the birth of the “Re-Elect Nixon Campaign” (with a Bill Murray cameo), and a remarkably eerie scene with Hunter and Ralph planning Hunter’s final monument and his ashes being shot into the air, long before the actual fact.

Here is Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision. YouTube has removed the sound on most versions of this due to copyright infringement, but this playlist has audio up through the last 6 minutes — the best version available…

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Please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I archive all of the videos I curate at Insomnia. Click here to check out more Counter Culture posts.