ABC News Nightline Soapbox with Studs Terkel and Anna Deveare Smith

ABC News Nightline Soabox with Studs Terkel and Anna Deveare Smith.

00:00Copy video clip URL Opens with Studs Terkel at a desk commenting on the impeachment proceedings for ABC’s Nightline Soapbox.

00:11Copy video clip URL “These impeachment proceedings remind me of old-time burlesque shows I saw as a kid, for sociological reasons,” Studs says, sitting at a desk, dressed in jacket and red shirt. He then elaborates on the comparison between impeachment proceedings and burlesque shows, saying that each have the same four basic ingredients: The first banana, the second banana, the straight man, and the talking lady. “Bill Clinton is the first banana,” Studs explains, and calls the second banana a metaphor for the entire prosecution, since traditionally the second banana gives the first a hard time. The straight man represents “the ones who considered the serious drama, which are the journalist, TV newspaper radio, the pundits.” He fails to name a specific talking lady, but insists there are several in the proceedings, since “even the cheapest burlesque show had the girl who can spell cat.”

1:45Copy video clip URL Studs says that the public has wizened up to Washington politics. “Fortunately the American public is on to this game… the American public has said, ‘Basta! Enough! We’ve had it.’”

2:15Copy video clip URL He pauses then considers if he would choose the burlesque show of the old days or the proceedings now. “I would choose the old time burlesque because at least, there was Gypsy Rose Lee.”

2:25Copy video clip URL End of Studs Terkel segment.

2:30Copy video clip URL Tape pauses, is fast forwarded, then black.

5:11Copy video clip URL Commercials.

8:45Copy video clip URL ABC news on the impeachment process including clips from Oliver North and Jay Leno.

13:20Copy video clip URL Nightline Soapbox with Anna Deveare Smith. The shot opens with her back to the camera, watching President Clinton giving a press conference. In her statement she says that we are still in a culture war and the “lustier warriors say ‘hey, let’s rumble.’”

15:50Copy video clip URL Tape ends.