Word: cavett
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Mental illness can wear many masks. Most are subtler than the deranged face of schizophrenia, but they can be just as paralyzing. Take the case of Dick Cavett. To many TV viewers, the talk-show host and actor seemed to have it all -- wit, charm, fame and fortune. But behind the glib facade, Cavett was falling apart. About 12 years ago, a chronic depression that had haunted him for years rose up and began undermining what he believed was his most valuable asset: his intellect. He became convinced that his brain was "broken" and that life without it was hardly...
Desperate, Cavett checked into a hospital, where for five weeks he was protected from himself while a seemingly mild but potent drug called an MAO inhibitor took effect. Such antidepressants cause subtle changes in the concentrations of certain neurotransmitters, the chemicals that carry electrical messages to and from nerve cells in the brain. The medication, which he still takes on a maintenance dose in conjunction with psychotherapy, worked. His wit, humor and facility for words returned, good as new. And Cavvett came away from the experience with a conviction that his disorder was, as he puts it, "absolutely chemical...
...host of a new late-night show that hopes to pick up some of the viewers that Carson leaves behind. "I've been doing this for 30 shows, and he did it for 30 years. It's a tough gig, and he still looks like he enjoys it." Dick Cavett, who once wrote for Carson and later squared off against him as a rival host, praises Carson's skills both onstage and off. "He has the ability to pick good material, to budget his energy, to fire the right people," says Cavett. "But finally it comes down to personality...
...that had become, in some ways, a relic of an earlier TV era. (One element that was lost: book authors, who had often been slotted in the final 15 minutes but who disappeared from the show almost entirely.) One by one, competing talk-show hosts -- Merv Griffin, Joey Bishop, Cavett, Alan Thicke, Joan Rivers, Pat Sajak -- fell away. Even Arsenio Hall, whose show has captured a new and younger audience, has failed to dislodge Carson from atop the late-night ratings mountain...
...rated X, and so were other lauded films, such as Medium Cool, Performance and The Devils. Explicit lyrics have been in the pop mainstream since the late '60s; the Jefferson Airplane sang "Up against the wall, m f s," and they sang it on The Dick Cavett Show...