Long before Letterman and Late Night became the yin to The Tonight Show's yang, there was another late, late night talk show host and show that viewers always tuned into: Tom Snyder.

Back in the day, Snyder was the equivalent of today's Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Fallon … a quirky host with an interesting program that attracted intellectuals and night owls alike. But before he became a late night staple, Snyder was a newsreporting pioneer.

Born on May 12, 1936, in Milwaukee, Wis., to stout Midwestern parents who sent him on to Catholic school. He graduated from Marquette University High School and attended Marquette University. Originally, he intended to be a doctor, but he heard the call of a broadcast television career, and the rest is history.

The News Beat
Snyder reportedly always had a love for radio and television, and after some time as a pre-med student, he switched his major to journalism. Soon he was working as a news reporter for WRIT in Milwaukee while still attending classes. He admitted that broadcasting was more interesting to him than school, and his classes suffered for it.

After graduation, he stuck with his broadcasting career and hopped across a few radio stations before landing his first television post. Snyder worked as a news reporter and, eventually, news anchor at WKYC in Cleveland. He moved from Cleveland to Philadelphia and then New York City.

In the early 70s, Snyder became news anchor for KTLA - and then KNBC - in Los Angeles, where he met fellow anchor Kelly Lange.

Lange would later become Snyder's go to substitute host. The Tomorrow Show

In 1973, Snyder launched Tomorrow with Tom Snyder, a late night talk show that ran after Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Tomorrow was different from Carson's program in many, many ways. Instead of a sidekick, comedy sketches and a string of celebrity guests, Snyder welcomed one or two guests that he would interview one-on-one in an intimate setting.

Calling on his experience as a journalist, Snyder asked tough questions of his guests and often provided insightful essays on the topic at hand or hot topics in the news. Interviewees included Harlan Ellison, The Sex Pistols, John Lennon and KISS. Snyder's interview with KISS is legendary because of band member Ace Frehley's drunken behavior and Gene Simmon's obvious irritation at this.

The show was cancelled in 1982 and replaced by Late Night with David Letterman.

The Late Late Show
After Tomorrow left the air, Snyder returned to news, anchoring WABC in New York's 5 p.m. Eyewitness News program. After a few years, Snyder moved to Los Angeles to host a midday talk show locally. He planned to syndicate the show nationally, but was trumped by Oprah. After that, Snyder returned to radio, hosting The Tom Snyder Show. It remained popular until eclipsed by a newcomer, Rush Limbaugh, and his politically focused - and politically charged - program. While this was going on, Letterman, overlooked as a replacement for Johnny Carson on Tonight, left NBC for CBS. As chatter began about what - and who - would follow Letterman's show, Letterman started joking that Snyder would, just as he followed Carson earlier in his career.

The joke soon turned serious, as Letterman learned he had the chance to create a show that would follow his Late Show. That program became The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder. Snyder followed his old format, for the most part, interviewing celebrities and other news figures one-on-one for the better part of an hour.

In 1999, Snyder left the program and was replaced by Craig Kilborn. Kilborn later left as well, and the show has since been run by Craig Ferguson.

After leaving the Late Show, Snyder became fascinated with the possibilities of the Internet. He launched a website, since gone away, named Colortini.com, after a joke he would say on his TV show. He grew tired of the format after several years and abandoned the site altogether.

Snyder revealed that he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2005. He later died of the disease in 2007. He was 71 years old.