• History

How Dick Cavett Explained Jon Stewart’s Greatness

2 minute read

When Jon Stewart’s run behind The Daily Show desk ends on Thursday, he’ll have spent more than a decade at its helm—a feat that’s even more notable for the speed with which he proved, when he took over the show in 1999, that comedy and news could be combined to make a something new.

But that doesn’t mean that he was the first person to ever combine the two elements. In 2001, when TIME pulled together a whole issue devoted to performers and entertainers who were at the top of their games, Stewart was profiled as America’s best talk-show host—and the man chosen to write about him was Dick Cavett, who knew more than a little bit about how difficult the job was. Jon Stewart and The Daily Show were, Cavett wrote, “a blessed wedding of performer and format.” The craziness of the 2000 election season had given him the opportunity to shine, but the small moments were what mattered, Cavett said:

Repeat viewing of Stewart’s shows reveals good things you missed the first time—smallish matters of voice shading, inflections and gestures begun but not completed. If you’re a latecomer to his charms, you’ll wish your alleged friends had demanded that you start watching a lot sooner. I’d like to see everything he has ever done.

That “everything” includes a whole lot more than it used to, but the sentiment still works.

Read the full Dick Cavett essay, here in the TIME Vault: America’s Best

Read more about the early days of the Daily Show: What Jon Stewart Had to Say About His First Episode

See Jon Stewart's Career Over the Years

THE DAILY SHOW, 1996-present, Jon Stewart 1999-present
Jon Stewart takes the reins as anchor of The Daily Show in 1999.Comedy Central/Everett
Stewart gets a cameo as Kevin Gerrity in the 1999 Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy.Columbia
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno - Season 9
Jay Leno interviews Jon Stewart on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno in 2000.NBC/Getty Images
MCDDETO EC011
Stewart plays Marion Frank Stokes in the 2002 black comedy Death to SmoochyWarner Bros.
55th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards - Press Room
Jon Stewart and his team win the first of many Emmys for The Daily Show in 2003.Chris Weeks—FilmMagic/Getty Images
The 78th Annual Academy Awards - Jon Stewart Portraits
Jon Stewart hosts the 78th Academy Awards in 2006.Academy of Motion Picture Arts—WireImage/Getty Images
Stewart has a cameo as himself on The Simpsons in 2008 in the episode "E Pluribus Wiggum."Fox
Jon Stewart And Stephen Colbert Hold Rally On National Mall
Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart host the Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear on the National Mall on Oct. 30, 2010 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Getty Images
US President Barack Obama (L) tapes an i
Jon Stewart interviews President Barack Obama on The Daily Show at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, DC, Oct. 26, 2010.Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images
51st USO Armed Forces Gala & Gold Medal Dinner - Inside
Jon Stewart speaks at the 51st USO Armed Forces Gala & Gold Medal Dinner on Dec. 13, 2012 in New York City.Michael Loccisano—Getty Images
ROSEWATER, front, from left: Gael Garcia Bernal, Jon Stewart, on set, 2014. ©Open Road
Stewart makes his directorial debut in the 2014 drama Rosewater.Open Road Films
Jon Stewart announces his retirement for the end of 2015.Comedy Central

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com