I watched David Letterman religiously when he was on late at night on NBC. After he moved to CBS, I rarely watched him. The reason I didn’t watch him was a combination of him adopting a less quirky style to suite the 11 o’clock time slot and me just growing up and not being as interested in watching talk shows on television. So, for over twenty years, Dave did his thing on CBS and I barely noticed. I tuned in every once in a while, like when high school friends Blues Traveler made an appearance, but his show was not a significant part of my life. Still, I feel like I know exactly who Dave Letterman is because I got to know him so well when I was a teenager and he was just starting out as a host.
I wasn’t interested in watching his show, but I did find it interesting on the few occasions that I actually watched it. I like his style of humor. I can’t say the same thing about Jay Leno. I liked it when Jay Leno would ask random people on the street questions about current events and they would fail miserably. But his monologues were cheap and his interviews were fawning. I almost resented it on the few occasions when Leno actually made me laugh. I felt cheap about it.
I think there two kinds of people. The people who want the entertainer to do all their work for them preferred Leno. The people who wanted to listen to someone who was in on the joke preferred Letterman.
Sometime next year, Letterman will retire, and the best late night host in history will be gone.
It won’t change my life, but it will still create a void.
I suppose we should compliment Jay Leno’s roast from Bill Hicks with Letterman cancelling Hicks’ routine because he didn’t want to offend Christians:
The timing is interesting. With Leno’s recent departure, he is the last man standing, so to speak. Intentional?
Letterman probably had no idea when Jay was going to pack it in. Now that Jay has and 2015 is the last year of Letterman’s contract, he surely doesn’t mind being the last man standing, so to speak. Boo is right about Letterman though. He was more interesting when he was at NBC.
I had two brushes with Letterman. He did a bit where he kept pulling up into a Burger King drive-thru and goofing on the employees. I was stuck behind him and late for work. So I get out of the car, walk up to ask what the hell is going on. Letterman bought me my chicken sandwich.
We have a house on Nantucket on a narrow one way street. People who park across from our driveway effectively blockade us in our home. On the day I was getting married, there was some jackass smoking a cigar in his SUV at the end of our driveway. I storm out to tell him to move… Yeah, it was Letterman, who was gracious and apologetic as could be.
So in my admittedly tiny sample size, the crusty, gruff curmudgeon of late night TV was about as courteous and kind as could be.
That’s a great story. Letterman blocked my driveway on my wedding day!
“… and the best late night host in history will be gone.”
BooMan,
Johnny Carson’s ghost will SOOOOOOOOOOOO be haunting you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Letterman spoke to my generation a whole lot better than Johnny Carson.
I’m 56, and don’t get me wrong, I loved Letterman – and I couldn’t stand Leno.
But, as quick and funny as Letterman was, I’ll still take Carson.
But I concede your point about your generation.
I’m older than you.
But back when I was in HS and College, Carson was practically MUST-SEE TV!
Especially, when a young comic was on – like David Letterman, or the recently departed David Brenner.
And, you never wanted to miss Mel Brooks (especially if Rob Reiner was on with him) – Brooks would take over the whole show – or Rodney Dangerfield – ditto, on taking over the whole show – or a whole host of other comedy greats, from back in the day!
Booman, I’m only a few years older than you, and I agree with the generational point. Letterman took comedy into the realm of the obscure and weird. (His short-lived daytime show was even more out there…)
That said, Carson was and remains the gold standard for acting in the moment. He knew when to let the guest take over, and his joke timing (whether rehearsed or not) was always on the money.
He made it look easy, and in the process defined the role of a late night host. No one was as consistently funny as Carson. I think even big Letterman fans would agree he’s been coasting for a while…
Buncha whippersnappers — you should have seen Steve Allen in his heyday.
Anybody recall the morning “talk” show Letterman ran on NBC before they put him on late night? It was run as a satire of a late-morning talk show, but some of the bits ran well past satire, into territory which felt like some sort of anarchy. He most definitely dared to confuse and offend his audience; not sure that I’ve seen anything like it on network TV since. It was more radical than his first late night appearance. I’d love to see some of the old bits he ran on that show. I recall Edie McClurg was among those who joined him in the weirdness.
I remember it. On around 10 A.M. I was disappointed when it was cancelled.
Nothing beats Steve Allen and Jack Paar:
○ John Kennedy – 1960
○ Barbara Streisand – 1961
Before my time — Dick Cavett was the only show that I ever made any effort to stay up for.
I never saw Carson treat a guest like crap. The one guest I tuned in to see on Letterman was. So I never after watched his show.
I went through a period of fairly strong Leno dislike. I thought he was a ginormous sellout. During his early 80’s Letterman appearances he would do outrageous stand up routines that involved the “food chain of porn magazines for men.” The bottom feeder mags were described as “Lesbian Nazi Storm Troopers of Hitler’s 3rd Reich, and the band of hapless young American G.I.’s who stumbled across their Birches Garten slumber party.” It was wacky weird stuff. But, all of that was jettisoned for the cuddly Jay make over for the NBC post Johnny Carson slot.
I did manage to get over my Jay dislike when I watched a Discovery Channel program on his amazing car collection. Leno is passionate and knowledgable about cars. His car collection is outstanding too. I thought, “Here’s a classic example of a guy who forfeits what he loves doing, gabbing about cars which would make a delightful program, and instead, opts for the mega salary at NBC to work a tired worn out format.” Classic case of not doing what you love for a living.
I’m like you BooMan. After leaving college I needed to get beyond the talk show format, and that was good for a while until I discovered Charlie Rose on PBS late at night, and that was a very intimate setting with good insightful interviews. That felt like a mature transitioning that’s ultimately good for one’s self esteem!
The best late night show host in history. He set the patttern that the others followed.
Steve Allen-The Tonight Show (undated)
In the middle of the Eisenhower administration, Steve Allen set the shtick that still goes on. Although not shown, Allen did guest interviews too.
Love Steve Allen. When I checked out your clip I saw there was also one of a 22 year old Frank Zappa “playing bicycle” as Allen interviews him.
I will of course miss the Brown County Sheriff’s Log bit Dave used to do from actual 911 calls from my home county.
I have a very similar reaction Booman.
Did you ever see the donutapults? It started early in the week with a little catapult on his desk that launched a donut a few feet. It grew to a floor model and kept growing every episode until (I think it was the last day of the week) they had a monster donutapult out on the street. Traffic was blocked off. This was in the 90s so naturally it was named the Donutapult 2000.
I loved his earlier quirky stuff. I loved the early Conan show for his humor too. Carson for me was too conventional. I really enjoyed some old Steve Allen reruns though.
I never liked him. Instead of playing with the guests, he made fun of them. He was very juvenile. Leno was a very kind comedian. He was not a person who would destroy a guest for a cheap laugh. Most of his stunts were funny in a non-put-down way. And as for the “Jay-walking”, my feeling was that half the people were pretending to be dummies to get on TV.
I recall Robert Downey Jr. talk about the distinct experience of being on Letterman. All the talk show hosts want you to be entertaining very quickly after arriving on the couch, he explained, but Downey described Letterman’s judgement as particularly ruthless, and interpreted his treatment of guests as “Well, if you’re not going to be entertaining, I’ll have to do it,” which, particularly early in Dave’s career, led him to make fun of his guests.
That could come off nasty when he was punching down, but Dave’s treatments of, among others, Cher and Madonna at the peaks of their fame showed he had lots of guts, a substantial amount of broadcast skill, and a unique knack for self-promotion.
David Letterman was a huge fan of Cincinnati live TV and radio in the 60’s. One of his influences was a TV personality named Paul Dixon, who had a morning show which involved crazy characters, corny humor, and the marriage of 2 rubber chickens. It sounds like his network morning show may have been based in part on Paul Dixon’s.