The Incomparable

00:00:00 ◼   ► the uncomfortable is brought to you by [TS]

00:00:01 ◼   ► bizarre new world a new Kickstarter for [TS]

00:00:03 ◼   ► a graphic novel going on right now it [TS]

00:00:06 ◼   ► ends may 28 imagine if you could fly [TS]

00:00:09 ◼   ► what if everybody else learn to fly on [TS]

00:00:11 ◼   ► one special day [TS]

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00:00:17 ◼   ► our new world is a comedy fantasy [TS]

00:00:19 ◼   ► grounded in the real world there are no [TS]

00:00:21 ◼   ► superheroes definitely no capes or [TS]

00:00:23 ◼   ► aliens or genies and lamps get a preview [TS]

00:00:25 ◼   ► at bizarre new world dot com to get a [TS]

00:00:28 ◼   ► taste of what this bizarre new world is [TS]

00:00:30 ◼   ► all about [TS]

00:00:31 ◼   ► it's a 278 page completely finished [TS]

00:00:33 ◼   ► graphic novel will have you hooked from [TS]

00:00:35 ◼   ► beginning to end [TS]

00:00:36 ◼   ► check out the Kickstarter search for [TS]

00:00:38 ◼   ► bizarre new world kickstarter.com and [TS]

00:00:41 ◼   ► help them make it that's bizarre new [TS]

00:00:43 ◼   ► world be Izar re new world.com for more [TS]

00:00:46 ◼   ► information [TS]

00:00:54 ◼   ► when you're a kid television is a [TS]

00:00:57 ◼   ► daytime thing for an evening thing but [TS]

00:01:00 ◼   ► at some point you go to bed and the [TS]

00:01:02 ◼   ► grown-up stay up late and watch things [TS]

00:01:03 ◼   ► you're just not allowed to see the [TS]

00:01:05 ◼   ► nineteen seventies that forbidden things [TS]

00:01:07 ◼   ► could be boiled down into a person [TS]

00:01:09 ◼   ► Johnny Carson he was the thing that our [TS]

00:01:13 ◼   ► parents watched late at night least [TS]

00:01:15 ◼   ► sometimes and in the days before most [TS]

00:01:18 ◼   ► families have VCRs if you were up at [TS]

00:01:20 ◼   ► eleven-thirty with an earache or some [TS]

00:01:22 ◼   ► other horrible affliction and your kid [TS]

00:01:24 ◼   ► you never saw Johnny Carson [TS]

00:01:28 ◼   ► well I loved Carson but it always felt [TS]

00:01:30 ◼   ► to me I was too young and you know it's [TS]

00:01:32 ◼   ► the lack of wisdom the foolishness of [TS]

00:01:34 ◼   ► you think I thought well of course he's [TS]

00:01:36 ◼   ► going to retirees kind of all right [TS]

00:01:38 ◼   ► not that I was sick of a show but I [TS]

00:01:39 ◼   ► thought of course you know where as you [TS]

00:01:41 ◼   ► know in Letterman surround partner and [TS]

00:01:42 ◼   ► right around the same age so I'm sure [TS]

00:01:44 ◼   ► somebody who's in their twenties now [TS]

00:01:45 ◼   ► it's gonna think the same thing well of [TS]

00:01:47 ◼   ► course Letterman's retirees you know [TS]

00:01:49 ◼   ► just kinda old when cars were retired in [TS]

00:01:51 ◼   ► 1992 was a huge television event but of [TS]

00:01:54 ◼   ► course Carson is retiring [TS]

00:01:56 ◼   ► he's kind of old funny how time works [TS]

00:01:58 ◼   ► now it's 2015 and the main comedy figure [TS]

00:02:00 ◼   ► of my generation David Letterman is the [TS]

00:02:03 ◼   ► old man and I find myself right where [TS]

00:02:06 ◼   ► those fans of Johnny Carson war two [TS]

00:02:07 ◼   ► decades ago saying goodbye to an [TS]

00:02:09 ◼   ► immeasurably influential performer to an [TS]

00:02:12 ◼   ► audience full of younger people who seem [TS]

00:02:14 ◼   ► just as this old guy who's been on TV [TS]

00:02:16 ◼   ► forever [TS]

00:02:17 ◼   ► there's no single performer who has had [TS]

00:02:20 ◼   ► more influence on my sense of humor on [TS]

00:02:21 ◼   ► my appreciation for certain kinds of [TS]

00:02:23 ◼   ► comedy [TS]

00:02:23 ◼   ► even my understanding about how [TS]

00:02:25 ◼   ► creativity works then David Letterman [TS]

00:02:28 ◼   ► yeah that guy that cranky 68 year old [TS]

00:02:31 ◼   ► guy who has been on television for more [TS]

00:02:34 ◼   ► than 30 years now that guy this is the [TS]

00:02:37 ◼   ► incomparable number 247 for may 2015 I'm [TS]

00:02:41 ◼   ► Jason snow it's david letterman's last [TS]

00:02:44 ◼   ► week on the air so let's send them off [TS]

00:02:46 ◼   ► right [TS]

00:03:04 ◼   ► in the nineteen seventies the nation [TS]

00:03:08 ◼   ► discovered a young comedian named david [TS]

00:03:10 ◼   ► letterman if I discovered you mean never [TS]

00:03:13 ◼   ► noticed an Indiana native radio and TV [TS]

00:03:16 ◼   ► broadcaster david letterman moved to LA [TS]

00:03:18 ◼   ► in search of fame but what he found was [TS]

00:03:20 ◼   ► a community of comedians who respected [TS]

00:03:22 ◼   ► him and a series of forgettable [TS]

00:03:24 ◼   ► television appearances on shows like the [TS]

00:03:26 ◼   ► Starland Vocal Band show Mary Tyler [TS]

00:03:28 ◼   ► Moore's post sitcom variety show Robin [TS]

00:03:32 ◼   ► Williams got him a guest-starring gig on [TS]

00:03:33 ◼   ► an episode of Mork and Mindy where David [TS]

00:03:36 ◼   ► Letterman ultimately succeeded though [TS]

00:03:37 ◼   ► was on The Tonight Show with Johnny [TS]

00:03:39 ◼   ► Carson took a liking to him kept asking [TS]

00:03:41 ◼   ► him back and ultimately made him a [TS]

00:03:43 ◼   ► regular guest host NBC also had its eyes [TS]

00:03:46 ◼   ► on data Letterman but with Carson at the [TS]

00:03:48 ◼   ► height of his powers the question was [TS]

00:03:50 ◼   ► what could they do with him so they did [TS]

00:03:52 ◼   ► the logical thing they put them on the [TS]

00:03:54 ◼   ► middle of the morning right after the [TS]

00:03:55 ◼   ► Today Show I was 15 years old in the [TS]

00:03:58 ◼   ► summer of nineteen eighty when David [TS]

00:04:01 ◼   ► Letterman got his morning show and [TS]

00:04:02 ◼   ► everybody knew David Letterman had no [TS]

00:04:06 ◼   ► business doing a morning show but that [TS]

00:04:10 ◼   ► was the slot that NBC had for him and in [TS]

00:04:13 ◼   ► that day of very constrained Spink turd [TS]

00:04:17 ◼   ► television programming schedules and [TS]

00:04:20 ◼   ► priorities you made the best with what [TS]

00:04:22 ◼   ► you had he did game shows as well he was [TS]

00:04:25 ◼   ► a whiz at password and pyramid and [TS]

00:04:29 ◼   ► whenever they could they should warn him [TS]

00:04:30 ◼   ► in you know on one of you know whenever [TS]

00:04:34 ◼   ► johnny was taking a vacation which was [TS]

00:04:36 ◼   ► usually tomorrow [TS]

00:04:38 ◼   ► thats Sarah Bernhardt former TV critic [TS]

00:04:40 ◼   ► at the Kansas City Star and someone i [TS]

00:04:41 ◼   ► met on the Internet specifically because [TS]

00:04:43 ◼   ► of our love of david letterman and what [TS]

00:04:46 ◼   ► a surprise when I discovered that the [TS]

00:04:47 ◼   ► other TV critic i know Tim Goodman of [TS]

00:04:49 ◼   ► the hollywood reporter was also watching [TS]

00:04:51 ◼   ► that unlikely david letterman show that [TS]

00:04:53 ◼   ► aired in the mornings in 1980s yeah is [TS]

00:04:57 ◼   ► that I discovered when he had a show in [TS]

00:04:58 ◼   ► the daytime [TS]

00:04:59 ◼   ► oh you were one of the morning show [TS]

00:05:00 ◼   ► people all right they show that was [TS]

00:05:02 ◼   ► inappropriate for morning [TS]

00:05:03 ◼   ► yeah this random and it was like Edwin [TS]

00:05:05 ◼   ► Newman was one of those that yeah i was [TS]

00:05:07 ◼   ► so weird back then and I was discovered [TS]

00:05:10 ◼   ► that in those days and then and then [TS]

00:05:12 ◼   ► just don't know i mean a little more [TS]

00:05:13 ◼   ► jaded now because I've been the TV great [TS]

00:05:15 ◼   ► for so long and there's been so many [TS]

00:05:16 ◼   ► hosts there but [TS]

00:05:17 ◼   ► at the time when I wasn't and I was a TV [TS]

00:05:20 ◼   ► fan I was like a kid this guy to me i [TS]

00:05:23 ◼   ► felt like i was watching the revolution [TS]

00:05:24 ◼   ► man this guy that this guy was great i [TS]

00:05:26 ◼   ► didn't know all the influences he had [TS]

00:05:29 ◼   ► but I did know and now of course I know [TS]

00:05:31 ◼   ► but how refreshing in and funny and [TS]

00:05:34 ◼   ► Goofy he was um and that you had to [TS]

00:05:37 ◼   ► watch that was great for him to have his [TS]

00:05:40 ◼   ► own platform other than an occasional [TS]

00:05:41 ◼   ► television special they had to give him [TS]

00:05:44 ◼   ► something and so he did morning [TS]

00:05:46 ◼   ► television as nobody has ever done [TS]

00:05:49 ◼   ► morning television and the response to [TS]

00:05:52 ◼   ► that I mean they cancelled him it as we [TS]

00:05:55 ◼   ► all know NBC would because the [TS]

00:05:56 ◼   ► housewives who made up the bulk of [TS]

00:05:59 ◼   ► daytime TV viewing in 1980 did not get [TS]

00:06:03 ◼   ► David Letterman but the rest of us who [TS]

00:06:04 ◼   ► are on summer vacation that summer we [TS]

00:06:07 ◼   ► flock to the show and when NBC announced [TS]

00:06:10 ◼   ► that they were canceling him [TS]

00:06:11 ◼   ► people flock to 30 rock to sit in the [TS]

00:06:15 ◼   ► aisles even impose a fire hazard is as [TS]

00:06:18 ◼   ► Letterman famously point out on one of [TS]

00:06:20 ◼   ► his shows and be part of what they [TS]

00:06:22 ◼   ► thought was television history by the [TS]

00:06:24 ◼   ► time Letterman's morning showing off the [TS]

00:06:26 ◼   ► air after about four months [TS]

00:06:28 ◼   ► NBC knew he had something and the king [TS]

00:06:31 ◼   ► of late night Johnny Carson just signed [TS]

00:06:32 ◼   ► a new contract to give him control over [TS]

00:06:34 ◼   ► what aired on NBC after his show went [TS]

00:06:37 ◼   ► off the air so NBC cancelled Tom [TS]

00:06:39 ◼   ► Snyder's tomorrow show and made space [TS]

00:06:41 ◼   ► for a Carson produced talk show hosted [TS]

00:06:43 ◼   ► by david letterman when he came back for [TS]

00:06:47 ◼   ► good on februari first 1982 it was [TS]

00:06:50 ◼   ► already established that he would be [TS]

00:06:53 ◼   ► doing the anti Johnny Carson show what [TS]

00:06:56 ◼   ► he had already done two morning [TS]

00:06:58 ◼   ► television he was going to do too late [TS]

00:07:01 ◼   ► night television and then some [TS]

00:07:03 ◼   ► I'm making the anti Johnny Carson show [TS]

00:07:05 ◼   ► wasn't just a good idea it was actually [TS]

00:07:07 ◼   ► required the King had spoken the [TS]

00:07:09 ◼   ► Letterman Show couldn't resemble the [TS]

00:07:11 ◼   ► tonight show too closely [TS]

00:07:13 ◼   ► Johnny Carson also have a very strong [TS]

00:07:15 ◼   ► survival instinct and even though he [TS]

00:07:18 ◼   ► would sometimes joke about you know he [TS]

00:07:20 ◼   ► had those those jokes when his monologue [TS]

00:07:22 ◼   ► was dying he had those those saver jokes [TS]

00:07:24 ◼   ► and one of his more famous one was just [TS]

00:07:27 ◼   ► walk off now and let Letterman take over [TS]

00:07:29 ◼   ► the show Johnny despite [TS]

00:07:31 ◼   ► kidding about it knew that he needed to [TS]

00:07:35 ◼   ► step up his game and he needed also to [TS]

00:07:39 ◼   ► protect his turf and in 1981 you're the [TS]

00:07:43 ◼   ► king of late night what you mostly do is [TS]

00:07:45 ◼   ► protect your turf so he dictated terms [TS]

00:07:47 ◼   ► to David Letterman who although Dave [TS]

00:07:50 ◼   ► adore johnny was put under some rather [TS]

00:07:53 ◼   ► humiliating i think creative constraints [TS]

00:07:56 ◼   ► the the first of which was he was not [TS]

00:07:58 ◼   ► allowed to have a band of more than four [TS]

00:08:00 ◼   ► members and he was not allowed to tell [TS]

00:08:02 ◼   ► more than I think for jokes in his [TS]

00:08:04 ◼   ► opening monologue and several other [TS]

00:08:07 ◼   ► features that day would not be allowed [TS]

00:08:10 ◼   ► to have on his show less it remind [TS]

00:08:13 ◼   ► anybody of The Tonight Show Starring [TS]

00:08:15 ◼   ► Johnny cars i remember i don't know what [TS]

00:08:17 ◼   ► the specific contract said but i know [TS]

00:08:19 ◼   ► that there was is that I think was a [TS]

00:08:21 ◼   ► time length on the monologue this is [TS]

00:08:23 ◼   ► john gruber writer of daring fireball [TS]

00:08:24 ◼   ► with the monologue Dave just embraced it [TS]

00:08:27 ◼   ► like the the monologue on I thinks [TS]

00:08:29 ◼   ► people who are only familiar with the [TS]

00:08:30 ◼   ► modern Letterman showed the late show [TS]

00:08:33 ◼   ► with they went back and watched some of [TS]

00:08:36 ◼   ► the eighties ones with us like me and [TS]

00:08:38 ◼   ► you would be dying and just crying [TS]

00:08:40 ◼   ► laughing and they would be like wait a [TS]

00:08:42 ◼   ► minute that was the monologue like three [TS]

00:08:44 ◼   ► stupid jokes one of them which didn't [TS]

00:08:47 ◼   ► make any sense at all and David just [TS]

00:08:48 ◼   ► turn it and show his ass to America and [TS]

00:08:50 ◼   ► walk to his desk like three quick jokes [TS]

00:08:53 ◼   ► and be out and it was just sort of like [TS]

00:08:55 ◼   ► the way David's attitude was the time [TS]

00:08:57 ◼   ► made it seem as though we are legally [TS]

00:08:59 ◼   ► obligated to have a monologue but so [TS]

00:09:01 ◼   ► here's here's your stupid monologue a [TS]

00:09:03 ◼   ► comedy of those early shows was that a [TS]

00:09:04 ◼   ► bunch of people who were aware of the [TS]

00:09:06 ◼   ► rules of television simply couldn't or [TS]

00:09:08 ◼   ► wouldn't follow them and would [TS]

00:09:10 ◼   ► acknowledge that fact explicitly and i [TS]

00:09:13 ◼   ► believe that was how they opened the [TS]

00:09:15 ◼   ► morning show they had been Larry but [TS]

00:09:17 ◼   ► Melman come on and say oh this week we [TS]

00:09:19 ◼   ► don't know why we allowed this to happen [TS]

00:09:22 ◼   ► please look away this is phillip michael [TS]

00:09:23 ◼   ► who I've known since college where we [TS]

00:09:25 ◼   ► both said and wrote a lot of things that [TS]

00:09:27 ◼   ► tried to be funny and a little hot to [TS]

00:09:30 ◼   ► the style of David Letterman because of [TS]

00:09:32 ◼   ► Letterman I I you know started watching [TS]

00:09:34 ◼   ► Ernie Kovacs reruns and again it even [TS]

00:09:39 ◼   ► though that was a show that was on [TS]

00:09:40 ◼   ► decades earlier it looked like something [TS]

00:09:42 ◼   ► should not be allowed on television [TS]

00:09:44 ◼   ► because if they would just do the the [TS]

00:09:46 ◼   ► these ridiculous things and and then [TS]

00:09:50 ◼   ► send them abruptly move on to something [TS]

00:09:51 ◼   ► else and and I think I think there's a [TS]

00:09:54 ◼   ► certain genre of a show that appeals to [TS]

00:09:57 ◼   ► that that mindset Merrill marco who is [TS]

00:10:01 ◼   ► his girlfriend and writer on the show [TS]

00:10:03 ◼   ► said hallelujah i mean we're delighted [TS]

00:10:07 ◼   ► to have these rules and restrictions [TS]

00:10:08 ◼   ► because it means we don't have to do the [TS]

00:10:11 ◼   ► Johnny Carson show means we were free to [TS]

00:10:13 ◼   ► go off and turn everything on its head [TS]

00:10:15 ◼   ► that's exactly what happened they may [TS]

00:10:17 ◼   ► have already been heading in that [TS]

00:10:18 ◼   ► direction the Carson's edict that the [TS]

00:10:20 ◼   ► Letterman Show not resemble his show [TS]

00:10:21 ◼   ► push them even further in the direction [TS]

00:10:24 ◼   ► of making this absurd unshown a talk [TS]

00:10:27 ◼   ► show that was a parody of itself [TS]

00:10:29 ◼   ► anyone who grew up understanding the [TS]

00:10:31 ◼   ► rules of television that even with [TS]

00:10:32 ◼   ► comedy it was serious business to be [TS]

00:10:35 ◼   ► undertaken by professionals would see [TS]

00:10:37 ◼   ► Letterman Show and not quite understand [TS]

00:10:38 ◼   ► what they were watching the man at the [TS]

00:10:40 ◼   ► desk was an affable Midwestern a blazer [TS]

00:10:43 ◼   ► tie and slacks but also tennis shoes and [TS]

00:10:46 ◼   ► his show was demolishing what we all [TS]

00:10:48 ◼   ► thought were the rules of american [TS]

00:10:50 ◼   ► television it was a pretty slippery [TS]

00:10:53 ◼   ► slope from 4-9 topical jokes in the [TS]

00:10:55 ◼   ► monologue in a small band to Paul [TS]

00:10:57 ◼   ► Shaffers rant storming out the door in [TS]

00:11:00 ◼   ► and chris elliott coming out from behind [TS]

00:11:03 ◼   ► the seats and Dave puttin on a suit of [TS]

00:11:05 ◼   ► sponges and jumping in a giant bowl of [TS]

00:11:08 ◼   ► rice krispies and so on [TS]

00:11:09 ◼   ► he decided he would raid everybody [TS]

00:11:11 ◼   ► else's talk show treasure chest first [TS]

00:11:14 ◼   ► and foremost Steve Allen but but also [TS]

00:11:17 ◼   ► you could definitely see Jack Paar and [TS]

00:11:20 ◼   ► of course his hero regis philbin all [TS]

00:11:23 ◼   ► wound up sort of on his stage because he [TS]

00:11:27 ◼   ► was under strict orders to tend to not [TS]

00:11:29 ◼   ► be Johnny and opened it worked out great [TS]

00:11:30 ◼   ► for him it's a weird-sounding analogy [TS]

00:11:33 ◼   ► but to me it makes a lot of senses to me [TS]

00:11:34 ◼   ► Letterman is a lot like quentin [TS]

00:11:37 ◼   ► tarantino in a way that Letterman to me [TS]

00:11:40 ◼   ► clearly internalized all those rules of [TS]

00:11:43 ◼   ► TV and he understood them specifically [TS]

00:11:45 ◼   ► as TV like he is just young enough that [TS]

00:11:49 ◼   ► he grew up with TV being the pervasive [TS]

00:11:52 ◼   ► ubiquitous influence in American culture [TS]

00:11:54 ◼   ► that it you know that [TS]

00:11:55 ◼   ► has been for at least since the fifties [TS]

00:11:57 ◼   ► whereas those rules of TV and like the [TS]

00:12:01 ◼   ► rules that like The Tonight Show [TS]

00:12:02 ◼   ► personified predate TV like the rules [TS]

00:12:05 ◼   ► for a variety show or sort of the same [TS]

00:12:07 ◼   ► as the rules for any kind of state show [TS]

00:12:09 ◼   ► like you know the Bonneville or anything [TS]

00:12:12 ◼   ► like that it's it's like a theater [TS]

00:12:15 ◼   ► production right the tonight show is [TS]

00:12:17 ◼   ► like it wouldn't be that different if it [TS]

00:12:20 ◼   ► wasn't being televised and it was just a [TS]

00:12:22 ◼   ► celebrity show that was put on for the [TS]

00:12:24 ◼   ► 300 people in the studio audience [TS]

00:12:26 ◼   ► whereas what Letterman did was he [TS]

00:12:29 ◼   ► understood all those rules and could [TS]

00:12:31 ◼   ► just play with dance within the lines [TS]

00:12:33 ◼   ► and to me that's like what Tarantino [TS]

00:12:34 ◼   ► does with all of his genre movies where [TS]

00:12:36 ◼   ► he's internalized all these movies and [TS]

00:12:39 ◼   ► he makes his movies within the cracks of [TS]

00:12:41 ◼   ► those lines now I don't want to [TS]

00:12:43 ◼   ► overstate Letterman's influence here you [TS]

00:12:45 ◼   ► can point to plenty of rule-breaking [TS]

00:12:46 ◼   ► shows in the seventies and eighties [TS]

00:12:48 ◼   ► Monty Python's Flying Circus and [TS]

00:12:49 ◼   ► Saturday Night Live being two great [TS]

00:12:51 ◼   ► examples but i'd argue what made the [TS]

00:12:53 ◼   ► Letterman Show more shocking was that it [TS]

00:12:55 ◼   ► didn't look like an anarchic [TS]

00:12:57 ◼   ► sketch-comedy show it looks like a talk [TS]

00:12:59 ◼   ► show we understood what talk shows were [TS]

00:13:01 ◼   ► and this is what made it much more [TS]

00:13:03 ◼   ► subversive David Letterman didn't invent [TS]

00:13:06 ◼   ► irony and he he didn't even invented on [TS]

00:13:08 ◼   ► television that that was what is an [TS]

00:13:10 ◼   ► elder than the nineteen seventies what [TS]

00:13:11 ◼   ► was different about Letterman was that [TS]

00:13:13 ◼   ► he just made it so much more broadly [TS]

00:13:15 ◼   ► humorous and and accessible even though [TS]

00:13:19 ◼   ► he he famously you know didn't smile or [TS]

00:13:22 ◼   ► laugh at his own jokes except the mock [TS]

00:13:24 ◼   ► himself Letterman really was a lot [TS]

00:13:28 ◼   ► easier to take then you know mr. Mike or [TS]

00:13:32 ◼   ► or Eddie Murphy or any of the kind of [TS]

00:13:36 ◼   ► edgy or comics that grace the saturday [TS]

00:13:39 ◼   ► night live arena but but there's no [TS]

00:13:41 ◼   ► doubt that the reception of SNL whose [TS]

00:13:44 ◼   ► creator Lorne Michaels also never wanted [TS]

00:13:46 ◼   ► to be like Johnny Carson's show that [TS]

00:13:50 ◼   ► that really did set the stage for what [TS]

00:13:52 ◼   ► he did [TS]

00:13:53 ◼   ► india not co-writes about technology for [TS]

00:13:55 ◼   ► the Chicago sun-times among other places [TS]

00:13:56 ◼   ► and is one of the biggest david [TS]

00:13:59 ◼   ► letterman fans I know it's been said [TS]

00:14:01 ◼   ► very correctly that a lot of the things [TS]

00:14:04 ◼   ► that he brought to late-night had been [TS]

00:14:06 ◼   ► done by steve allen before the idea [TS]

00:14:08 ◼   ► we're going to [TS]

00:14:08 ◼   ► go on the street we're gonna do we're [TS]

00:14:10 ◼   ► gonna be sooo teabags and dumped into a [TS]

00:14:13 ◼   ► giant tank and make iced tea for [TS]

00:14:14 ◼   ► everybody yes Steve Allen did that but [TS]

00:14:16 ◼   ► the fact remains though that it's like [TS]

00:14:18 ◼   ► looking at the the first Macintosh just [TS]

00:14:20 ◼   ► like looking at the first iphone you can [TS]

00:14:21 ◼   ► see here is what everything looked like [TS]

00:14:23 ◼   ► to the before Letterman had a show and [TS]

00:14:26 ◼   ► then here's what everything looked like [TS]

00:14:27 ◼   ► after he had his first season uh late [TS]

00:14:30 ◼   ► night with david letterman and then you [TS]

00:14:32 ◼   ► can't say that they were that in 1983 [TS]

00:14:34 ◼   ► 1984 people were suddenly discovering [TS]

00:14:37 ◼   ► steve allen and raping him [TS]

00:14:39 ◼   ► it really was Letterman who brought this [TS]

00:14:41 ◼   ► into a modern sensibility and I'm sure [TS]

00:14:44 ◼   ► there's a lot of other things about [TS]

00:14:45 ◼   ► going on a society of that time that [TS]

00:14:47 ◼   ► sort of beg for a skeptical no jaundiced [TS]

00:14:50 ◼   ► eye on things that were big in the [TS]

00:14:52 ◼   ► seventies this is the reagan-era this [TS]

00:14:55 ◼   ► was a factor era and so you're sort of [TS]

00:14:57 ◼   ► promoting the idea of let's just go with [TS]

00:15:00 ◼   ► the assumption that if if the previous [TS]

00:15:01 ◼   ► generation thought that was the coolest [TS]

00:15:02 ◼   ► thing ever [TS]

00:15:04 ◼   ► maybe we can just sort of step back from [TS]

00:15:05 ◼   ► it and tear apart a little bit but again [TS]

00:15:08 ◼   ► everything changed after Letterman and [TS]

00:15:10 ◼   ► it wasn't because of stood a delayed [TS]

00:15:12 ◼   ► fuse on Steve Allen tonight show all [TS]

00:15:14 ◼   ► right now I wish I could say that I got [TS]

00:15:16 ◼   ► in on the ground floor of this one but I [TS]

00:15:17 ◼   ► didn't I was nine years old when the [TS]

00:15:19 ◼   ► morning shows on the air and 11-1 late [TS]

00:15:21 ◼   ► night with david letterman premier now I [TS]

00:15:23 ◼   ► have a distinct memory a first seeing [TS]

00:15:26 ◼   ► late night in a hotel room in [TS]

00:15:27 ◼   ► Pennsylvania we were there for my [TS]

00:15:28 ◼   ► mother's 25th highschool reunion and my [TS]

00:15:31 ◼   ► parents were downstairs the party late [TS]

00:15:32 ◼   ► into the night I fell asleep i think [TS]

00:15:34 ◼   ► with the hotel room TV on [TS]

00:15:36 ◼   ► I woke up maybe when they were coming [TS]

00:15:37 ◼   ► back from the party i don't know but [TS]

00:15:39 ◼   ► there was this strange gap-toothed man [TS]

00:15:41 ◼   ► who was definitely not Johnny Carson [TS]

00:15:44 ◼   ► doing strange things on television I did [TS]

00:15:46 ◼   ► not understand it it wasn't until about [TS]

00:15:48 ◼   ► three years later maybe 1985 when I [TS]

00:15:51 ◼   ► began to understand the appeal of David [TS]

00:15:53 ◼   ► Letterman the thing is I have no clear [TS]

00:15:55 ◼   ► memory of how i went from not [TS]

00:15:57 ◼   ► understanding him to taping his show [TS]

00:15:58 ◼   ► every single night but John Gruber story [TS]

00:16:01 ◼   ► is probably not too far off from mine [TS]

00:16:03 ◼   ► i'll tell you what i remember there is a [TS]

00:16:06 ◼   ► very vivid memories of this so i was [TS]

00:16:09 ◼   ► born in 1973 and at some point in the [TS]

00:16:13 ◼   ► eighties there was a show hosted on it [TS]

00:16:17 ◼   ► was on NBC and was hosted by admin man [TS]

00:16:19 ◼   ► and Dick Clark [TS]

00:16:20 ◼   ► it's like to clark and McMahon's [TS]

00:16:22 ◼   ► bloopers and practical jokes and for [TS]

00:16:26 ◼   ► whatever reason it you know it passed [TS]

00:16:28 ◼   ► the test in my household and sisters two [TS]

00:16:30 ◼   ► years younger than me and my mom were 33 [TS]

00:16:32 ◼   ► would watch TV together tonight because [TS]

00:16:34 ◼   ► my dad worked third shift so and we all [TS]

00:16:36 ◼   ► liked it and on this show they would [TS]

00:16:38 ◼   ► occasionally have bits from late night [TS]

00:16:41 ◼   ► with david letterman they would just [TS]

00:16:43 ◼   ► like some of the remote bits that he did [TS]

00:16:45 ◼   ► would they would just show them on to [TS]

00:16:47 ◼   ► fill space on the the dick target at [TS]

00:16:49 ◼   ► mcmahon show NBC had like an hour to [TS]

00:16:51 ◼   ► fill and Dick Clark in a big man we're [TS]

00:16:53 ◼   ► happy to do it and so they would fill it [TS]

00:16:55 ◼   ► with Letterman bit sometimes not every [TS]

00:16:57 ◼   ► week but every once in awhile they have [TS]

00:16:58 ◼   ► a bit from the Letterman Show that would [TS]

00:17:00 ◼   ► make sense at eight o'clock and they [TS]

00:17:02 ◼   ► were the best things in my opinion and [TS]

00:17:05 ◼   ► and part of what made it great was that [TS]

00:17:06 ◼   ► Letterman himself wasn't anywhere near [TS]

00:17:08 ◼   ► his famous he had his own 1230 talk show [TS]

00:17:10 ◼   ► but he he could go out in public and not [TS]

00:17:12 ◼   ► be mobbed and it was Letterman and a [TS]

00:17:14 ◼   ► camera crew going around Manhattan to [TS]

00:17:17 ◼   ► find diners and every one of these [TS]

00:17:20 ◼   ► places had a sign in the window that [TS]

00:17:22 ◼   ► said best coffee in New York it was just [TS]

00:17:24 ◼   ► Letterman going in with a camera guy and [TS]

00:17:27 ◼   ► telling them hey you know there's a [TS]

00:17:29 ◼   ► place two doors down down the street and [TS]

00:17:31 ◼   ► says best coffee in New York the [TS]

00:17:33 ◼   ► reactions were all across the board like [TS]

00:17:35 ◼   ► some people like to be like it just like [TS]

00:17:36 ◼   ► an old Greek guy ran the place and be [TS]

00:17:38 ◼   ► like no my coffee the best but he would [TS]

00:17:40 ◼   ► be insistent like it wasn't just that he [TS]

00:17:42 ◼   ► put the sign up just you know like [TS]

00:17:44 ◼   ► instead of just saying hot coffee they [TS]

00:17:45 ◼   ► all there was just a thing and Letterman [TS]

00:17:48 ◼   ► made it hilarious and that is it made me [TS]

00:17:50 ◼   ► want to desperately made me want to [TS]

00:17:52 ◼   ► watch his 1230 show which has like an 11 [TS]

00:17:57 ◼   ► to 12 year old was sort of a stretch it [TS]

00:17:59 ◼   ► would have had been after nineteen [TS]

00:18:01 ◼   ► eighty-four cuz that's when we got a VCR [TS]

00:18:03 ◼   ► in our house and um I had seen you know [TS]

00:18:07 ◼   ► the clips the wacky stunts and the the [TS]

00:18:09 ◼   ► thrill cam and monkey cam and and that [TS]

00:18:13 ◼   ► that sort of jives with my my [TS]

00:18:15 ◼   ► sensibility at the time and the first [TS]

00:18:18 ◼   ► episode I remember taping I believe the [TS]

00:18:22 ◼   ► stump that night was they were following [TS]

00:18:25 ◼   ► the Australian Stock Exchange throughout [TS]

00:18:28 ◼   ► the program and and and so there was [TS]

00:18:30 ◼   ► this ticker of [TS]

00:18:31 ◼   ► australian stocks uh like running [TS]

00:18:35 ◼   ► throughout the program and occasionally [TS]

00:18:37 ◼   ► Paul Shaffer they invested in the [TS]

00:18:39 ◼   ► company and Paul Shaffer would [TS]

00:18:40 ◼   ► occasionally scream oh god were ruined [TS]

00:18:43 ◼   ► whenever the the price drops so I i [TS]

00:18:46 ◼   ► remember that bit and you know that that [TS]

00:18:48 ◼   ► worked for me I thought that was great [TS]

00:18:51 ◼   ► those bits what was so effective about [TS]

00:18:54 ◼   ► them of course was that a generation [TS]

00:18:56 ◼   ► could claim them as their own right [TS]

00:18:57 ◼   ► stupid pet tricks and Dave in the velcro [TS]

00:19:01 ◼   ► suit and chris elliott and Biff [TS]

00:19:05 ◼   ► Henderson and everybody Melman right and [TS]

00:19:08 ◼   ► Larry bud melman handing out hot towels [TS]

00:19:11 ◼   ► to arriving visitors at the Port [TS]

00:19:13 ◼   ► Authority Bus Terminal and showing it [TS]

00:19:14 ◼   ► amazingly bad microphone technique all I [TS]

00:19:17 ◼   ► found so endearing it yeah how long have [TS]

00:19:21 ◼   ► you been [TS]

00:19:23 ◼   ► he was just priceless I must have seen [TS]

00:19:26 ◼   ► it before this one episode that sticks [TS]

00:19:30 ◼   ► out in my mind but the episode that [TS]

00:19:31 ◼   ► really sticks out was the was one in [TS]

00:19:33 ◼   ► which it's open the opening shot is of [TS]

00:19:36 ◼   ► the audience leaving this leaving the [TS]

00:19:38 ◼   ► studio and just a shot of letterman in [TS]

00:19:41 ◼   ► his office saying that look it's that at [TS]

00:19:44 ◼   ► the door of his office saying it's just [TS]

00:19:45 ◼   ► too hot to do a regular show so we we've [TS]

00:19:48 ◼   ► sent the audience home and they did the [TS]

00:19:50 ◼   ► entire thing legit inside his office [TS]

00:19:52 ◼   ► where Paul Shaffer had a little pistol [TS]

00:19:55 ◼   ► casio keyboard work on his lap that is [TS]

00:19:58 ◼   ► Terry car was the cast and yet he had [TS]

00:20:01 ◼   ► her like basically older brother little [TS]

00:20:03 ◼   ► sister berated her into like taking a [TS]

00:20:05 ◼   ► shower [TS]

00:20:06 ◼   ► you know even though like the shower [TS]

00:20:08 ◼   ► doors had it in his office then cover up [TS]

00:20:10 ◼   ► towels you can see anything she clearly [TS]

00:20:12 ◼   ► was like not interested in doing that [TS]

00:20:14 ◼   ► but was just so justjust attitude to [TS]

00:20:17 ◼   ► stop talking about it but this was the [TS]

00:20:19 ◼   ► one that really made me into a letterman [TS]

00:20:21 ◼   ► fan just realizing that my god this is [TS]

00:20:25 ◼   ► nothing like anything I had seen on any [TS]

00:20:28 ◼   ► other show all kinds of respect for for [TS]

00:20:31 ◼   ► the Carson show but it was a format that [TS]

00:20:35 ◼   ► had been really locked in for at that it [TS]

00:20:38 ◼   ► must be the early eighties mid 80 so [TS]

00:20:40 ◼   ► this has been like at least two decades [TS]

00:20:41 ◼   ► and they they don't tamper with that [TS]

00:20:43 ◼   ► format the idea that you have [TS]

00:20:45 ◼   ► talk show where they would do something [TS]

00:20:46 ◼   ► as wild as this just got this block me [TS]

00:20:50 ◼   ► into becoming a lifelong Letterman fan I [TS]

00:20:52 ◼   ► remember the first time I actually [TS]

00:20:53 ◼   ► watched late night with the actual show [TS]

00:20:55 ◼   ► and it was a similar type situation [TS]

00:20:58 ◼   ► right you know still wasn't allowed to [TS]

00:21:00 ◼   ► stay up that late at home i was on a [TS]

00:21:02 ◼   ► field trip to Washington DC and I was in [TS]

00:21:08 ◼   ► sixth grade so I must have been like [TS]

00:21:10 ◼   ► around 12 and you know like typical [TS]

00:21:13 ◼   ► sixth-graders we were up we're wired you [TS]

00:21:15 ◼   ► know wide awake and it got to be 1230 I [TS]

00:21:18 ◼   ► think we're watching HBO I think well I [TS]

00:21:20 ◼   ► actually i think i actually specifically [TS]

00:21:22 ◼   ► remember the HBO movie we watched it was [TS]

00:21:25 ◼   ► a chuck norris Vietnam movie i think it [TS]

00:21:28 ◼   ► was missing in action it was an HBO [TS]

00:21:29 ◼   ► movie it was rated R so it felt like we [TS]

00:21:32 ◼   ► were already getting away with something [TS]

00:21:33 ◼   ► in a bunch of sixth grade boys in a [TS]

00:21:35 ◼   ► hotel room and then the the the movie [TS]

00:21:38 ◼   ► was over and I realize holy shit it's [TS]

00:21:41 ◼   ► 1230 we can watch shut the Letterman [TS]

00:21:43 ◼   ► Show and I've always wanted to watch it [TS]

00:21:44 ◼   ► and the show had already started it must [TS]

00:21:46 ◼   ► have been about 10 minutes in and my [TS]

00:21:48 ◼   ► friends bed net didn't even had never [TS]

00:21:50 ◼   ► even heard of it [TS]

00:21:51 ◼   ► they didn't even know what it was they [TS]

00:21:52 ◼   ► they were you know more or less of the [TS]

00:21:54 ◼   ► opinion that we should look for another [TS]

00:21:56 ◼   ► Chuck Norris movie because we've got HBO [TS]

00:21:58 ◼   ► right where it is hotel room with HBO so [TS]

00:22:00 ◼   ► I flip to NBC and I remember exactly [TS]

00:22:03 ◼   ► what was on it was a monkey cam they had [TS]

00:22:07 ◼   ► a monkey strapped our camera strapped to [TS]

00:22:09 ◼   ► a monkey and he was running around the [TS]

00:22:12 ◼   ► studio and they were the footage was [TS]

00:22:14 ◼   ► first person perspective from this [TS]

00:22:15 ◼   ► monkey that they had set loose in the [TS]

00:22:17 ◼   ► studio and I thought it was amazing i [TS]

00:22:21 ◼   ► was like this is the type of stuff I [TS]

00:22:22 ◼   ► thought would be on the show and my [TS]

00:22:23 ◼   ► friends were like what the hell is this [TS]

00:22:25 ◼   ► grouper we got it were turning this off [TS]

00:22:27 ◼   ► and I no no and I thought it was and the [TS]

00:22:30 ◼   ► only good get let me have like three or [TS]

00:22:32 ◼   ► four minutes of it and then it would [TS]

00:22:33 ◼   ► Dave they were like this makes no sense [TS]

00:22:35 ◼   ► we're turning it off [TS]

00:22:36 ◼   ► we're switching whatever it was a monkey [TS]

00:22:39 ◼   ► camp first time they don't like I saw [TS]

00:22:41 ◼   ► the monkey cam doesn't i was like oh my [TS]

00:22:43 ◼   ► god that's not this gel yeah like this [TS]

00:22:46 ◼   ► is great or or just like the idea that a [TS]

00:22:49 ◼   ► grown man says you know what what if we [TS]

00:22:51 ◼   ► dropped a bunch of stuff off a building [TS]

00:22:52 ◼   ► let's just do it let's just shoot that [TS]

00:22:54 ◼   ► you learned that there was stuff in the [TS]

00:22:56 ◼   ► past but he was he really did become the [TS]

00:22:58 ◼   ► map [TS]

00:22:58 ◼   ► sir of the tapes segment and I think [TS]

00:23:01 ◼   ► more so than anybody think he's you know [TS]

00:23:04 ◼   ► if he wasn't the original idea for it [TS]

00:23:07 ◼   ► he certainly was the person who who [TS]

00:23:09 ◼   ► honed it and who mastered it and of [TS]

00:23:11 ◼   ► course now that's all we think about [TS]

00:23:13 ◼   ► with late night is that it's like the [TS]

00:23:14 ◼   ► video bits that they're taped and then [TS]

00:23:16 ◼   ► or not I guess sitting behind a desk or [TS]

00:23:20 ◼   ► even like a Carson moment at the desk [TS]

00:23:21 ◼   ► with karan tacker something like that [TS]

00:23:24 ◼   ► it's all Letterman's tape this everybody [TS]

00:23:26 ◼   ► does those now so that and to be there [TS]

00:23:28 ◼   ► when that happens was great [TS]

00:23:30 ◼   ► attaching a monkey to a camera and [TS]

00:23:32 ◼   ► having it run through the studio keeps [TS]

00:23:34 ◼   ► coming up I remember distinctly the [TS]

00:23:37 ◼   ► first time to show try this it didn't [TS]

00:23:39 ◼   ► work because they got a small monkey and [TS]

00:23:41 ◼   ► the camera was too heavy to get a bigger [TS]

00:23:43 ◼   ► monkey eventually ended up with a chimp [TS]

00:23:45 ◼   ► named zippy anyway the comedy bits are [TS]

00:23:48 ◼   ► definitely what linger in the memory an [TS]

00:23:50 ◼   ► entire show done on an airplane [TS]

00:23:52 ◼   ► cresselia its various characters the guy [TS]

00:23:54 ◼   ► into the seats the suit of suet elevator [TS]

00:23:58 ◼   ► races in 30 rock interrupting the live [TS]

00:24:01 ◼   ► at five News set across the hall but the [TS]

00:24:03 ◼   ► core of the show of any talk show the [TS]

00:24:06 ◼   ► interviews [TS]

00:24:07 ◼   ► those were subversive to in their own [TS]

00:24:09 ◼   ► way you didn't suffer fools and that was [TS]

00:24:11 ◼   ► really knew on late-night that's that [TS]

00:24:13 ◼   ► that's the thing [TS]

00:24:15 ◼   ► so to treat him to give you a look like [TS]

00:24:16 ◼   ► you just being the idiot now right [TS]

00:24:19 ◼   ► he would make people embarrassed if they [TS]

00:24:21 ◼   ► did something embarrassed in their life [TS]

00:24:23 ◼   ► he was like okay you're not going to [TS]

00:24:25 ◼   ► actually walk onto my show and not [TS]

00:24:27 ◼   ► pretend you didn't make this book where [TS]

00:24:30 ◼   ► you know you're you're naked in it or [TS]

00:24:32 ◼   ► whatever you know you you can't come [TS]

00:24:35 ◼   ► here and pretend that this embarrassing [TS]

00:24:37 ◼   ► thing that it's been in the news didn't [TS]

00:24:39 ◼   ► happen i'm gonna ask you about it and I [TS]

00:24:40 ◼   ► love that you know and so you know been [TS]

00:24:42 ◼   ► Billy Idol kaymar came out and he was [TS]

00:24:44 ◼   ► like doing this whole thing about how [TS]

00:24:47 ◼   ► rock and roll in blood what he was and [TS]

00:24:49 ◼   ► then let us look at them like you just [TS]

00:24:51 ◼   ► absurd ass basically and then he says [TS]

00:24:54 ◼   ► that he sees oh yeah drugs running and [TS]

00:24:56 ◼   ► he's like your parents must be very [TS]

00:24:57 ◼   ► proud [TS]

00:24:58 ◼   ► it's just really pleasant person is like [TS]

00:25:00 ◼   ► but you know i like that that you're the [TS]

00:25:02 ◼   ► host of a late night show at that time [TS]

00:25:04 ◼   ► you think when you hear they are to [TS]

00:25:05 ◼   ► promote their movie or a book or [TS]

00:25:07 ◼   ► whatever and he just wasn't having it [TS]

00:25:08 ◼   ► so I'll [TS]

00:25:09 ◼   ► that and it and it was just it felt like [TS]

00:25:11 ◼   ► fresh anything can happen why are they [TS]

00:25:12 ◼   ► allowing this to happen and then that [TS]

00:25:14 ◼   ► that um uh really uh touches a button in [TS]

00:25:19 ◼   ► the the teenage anarchist mind that yeah [TS]

00:25:22 ◼   ► we're getting away with something here [TS]

00:25:24 ◼   ► that that a guy can put on an [TS]

00:25:25 ◼   ► alka-seltzer suit and and or or a Velcro [TS]

00:25:30 ◼   ► suit and put that on TV and sometimes [TS]

00:25:33 ◼   ► that even when the jokes fall flat is as [TS]

00:25:35 ◼   ► they often get in the monologue it it [TS]

00:25:37 ◼   ► had a whole of sense that someone had [TS]

00:25:40 ◼   ► snuck into a studio and was doing a show [TS]

00:25:42 ◼   ► and the network people didn't quite [TS]

00:25:46 ◼   ► understand it again another great bit [TS]

00:25:50 ◼   ► that I think really cemented that show [TS]

00:25:54 ◼   ► with me was when GE bought NBC and and [TS]

00:25:57 ◼   ► they brought the fruit basket and it [TS]

00:25:59 ◼   ► just went disastrously with the with the [TS]

00:26:02 ◼   ► GE handshake [TS]

00:26:03 ◼   ► uh-huh so ya I i would agree with your [TS]

00:26:07 ◼   ► theory that at a certain age you want to [TS]

00:26:10 ◼   ► see TV that doesn't feel like it should [TS]

00:26:12 ◼   ► be TV i think for people who are younger [TS]

00:26:15 ◼   ► than me and therefore awful conan [TS]

00:26:18 ◼   ► o'brien did that with the that the [TS]

00:26:21 ◼   ► various bits that that we're kind of [TS]

00:26:23 ◼   ► confusing to me because I was an old man [TS]

00:26:25 ◼   ► by the time conan o'brien it is stride [TS]

00:26:27 ◼   ► oh yes conan o'brien now that name [TS]

00:26:30 ◼   ► brings up a couple of different areas in [TS]

00:26:32 ◼   ► which NBC managed to cause intense drama [TS]

00:26:35 ◼   ► in the programming of late-night [TS]

00:26:36 ◼   ► television more about that moment after [TS]

00:26:39 ◼   ► we hear from our next sponsor this week [TS]

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00:27:24 ◼   ► the people handling your mail you can [TS]

00:27:26 ◼   ► start a risk-free trial with no credit [TS]

00:27:27 ◼   ► card just signup change your MX records [TS]

00:27:29 ◼   ► so they're pointing at mail route [TS]

00:27:30 ◼   ► servers and your mailbox and hardware [TS]

00:27:33 ◼   ► are completely protected it's so simple [TS]

00:27:35 ◼   ► and effective there's no good reason not [TS]

00:27:36 ◼   ► to try it because there's a risk-free [TS]

00:27:38 ◼   ► trial always miss the uncomfortable [TS]

00:27:40 ◼   ► received ten percent off of the lifetime [TS]

00:27:42 ◼   ► of your account go to mail route dotnet [TS]

00:27:43 ◼   ► / incomparable now and thank you to mail [TS]

00:27:46 ◼   ► route for sponsoring uncomfortable your [TS]

00:27:53 ◼   ► friend your friend of yours is taking [TS]

00:27:55 ◼   ► over here next May so you want to [TS]

00:27:58 ◼   ► address this [TS]

00:27:59 ◼   ► hello yang to address it's a it's a no [TS]

00:28:02 ◼   ► I'm not angry I'm not angry at NBC about [TS]

00:28:06 ◼   ► this night not angry at jay leno about [TS]

00:28:09 ◼   ► this not not angry at you or the tonight [TS]

00:28:11 ◼   ► show about this i mean realistically if [TS]

00:28:14 ◼   ► it were not for you I wouldn't wouldn't [TS]

00:28:16 ◼   ► have a show then you know I wouldn't [TS]

00:28:18 ◼   ► have socks actually 43 and now even if [TS]

00:28:23 ◼   ► the network and come to me and they say [TS]

00:28:24 ◼   ► Dave would like you to have this show [TS]

00:28:26 ◼   ► and then then a week later they said [TS]

00:28:29 ◼   ► Dave we don't want you to have the show [TS]

00:28:31 ◼   ► then you could be angry about right but [TS]

00:28:34 ◼   ► I have a show if you do and an NBC can [TS]

00:28:38 ◼   ► can do whatever they want with the show [TS]

00:28:39 ◼   ► so i was i was never never angry now [TS]

00:28:42 ◼   ► would I would I like to have the show [TS]

00:28:44 ◼   ► whole sure [TS]

00:28:47 ◼   ► Johnny Carson retired in 1992 and NBC [TS]

00:28:51 ◼   ► have a choice to make [TS]

00:28:52 ◼   ► jay leno had been Carson's permanent [TS]

00:28:54 ◼   ► guest host for years but Letterman had [TS]

00:28:56 ◼   ► been his host and waiting for a decade [TS]

00:28:59 ◼   ► so who did NBC one on the air at [TS]

00:29:00 ◼   ► eleven-thirty david letterman worshipped [TS]

00:29:03 ◼   ► Johnny Carson The Tonight Show was his [TS]

00:29:05 ◼   ► dream job and NBC chose the other guy [TS]

00:29:08 ◼   ► the guy who would really come to [TS]

00:29:10 ◼   ► prominence in large part to his [TS]

00:29:12 ◼   ► appearances on Late Night with David [TS]

00:29:14 ◼   ► Letterman he was this treasure this [TS]

00:29:18 ◼   ► national treasure two millions of his [TS]

00:29:20 ◼   ► fans who felt the insult of Dave's being [TS]

00:29:24 ◼   ► turned down for The Tonight Show gig and [TS]

00:29:28 ◼   ► it being given to the schmoll jay leno [TS]

00:29:30 ◼   ► whose reputation had been just in the [TS]

00:29:34 ◼   ► sewer until his good friend dave pull [TS]

00:29:37 ◼   ► them up and said Jay I know you bombed [TS]

00:29:40 ◼   ► hosting the Tonight Show for Johnny but [TS]

00:29:43 ◼   ► here come on over and I'll have you do [TS]

00:29:46 ◼   ► your wheel what's your beef on my show [TS]

00:29:48 ◼   ► and and folks love you and Jay was so so [TS]

00:29:53 ◼   ► grateful for this favor that Dave didn't [TS]

00:29:56 ◼   ► he began stabbing him in the back [TS]

00:29:59 ◼   ► I remember um liking window at one point [TS]

00:30:02 ◼   ► when he was a regular guest on later use [TS]

00:30:05 ◼   ► a good levy was a really good Letterman [TS]

00:30:07 ◼   ► guests in fact I still um when my I [TS]

00:30:10 ◼   ► still quote a thing from one of the the [TS]

00:30:13 ◼   ► leno appearances whenever my wife lisa [TS]

00:30:18 ◼   ► is is complaining about something all [TS]

00:30:20 ◼   ► it's the so have we reached the what's [TS]

00:30:22 ◼   ► your beef part of the program which is [TS]

00:30:24 ◼   ► what he said to Solano and even when he [TS]

00:30:27 ◼   ► was on the guest host on the the tonight [TS]

00:30:29 ◼   ► show it was it was still pretty [TS]

00:30:31 ◼   ► hey this is neat because it's it's [TS]

00:30:33 ◼   ► someone who's young and has a has a has [TS]

00:30:36 ◼   ► a worldview not unlike our own and and [TS]

00:30:39 ◼   ► then he became the the the host through [TS]

00:30:42 ◼   ► you know [TS]

00:30:43 ◼   ► Makka nations we weren't privy to at the [TS]

00:30:46 ◼   ► time but it just seemed some middle of [TS]

00:30:48 ◼   ► the road and and and watered down and [TS]

00:30:52 ◼   ► the end over the years you you just felt [TS]

00:30:55 ◼   ► every last edge of [TS]

00:30:57 ◼   ► take 10 being buffered off until he was [TS]

00:31:00 ◼   ► a bowling ball basically i think the the [TS]

00:31:03 ◼   ► transition from Carson Letterman would [TS]

00:31:05 ◼   ► have been fine from Carson's point of [TS]

00:31:07 ◼   ► view because I one gets the the [TS]

00:31:10 ◼   ► impression from reading biographies to [TS]

00:31:13 ◼   ► to the extent that Carson he had a yet [TS]

00:31:16 ◼   ► more of a a bond with with Letterman i [TS]

00:31:18 ◼   ► think but it would it's very hard to [TS]

00:31:22 ◼   ► replace Carson and it's very hard to as [TS]

00:31:25 ◼   ► Conan O'Brien found it's very hard to [TS]

00:31:27 ◼   ► step into this 1130 time slot where [TS]

00:31:31 ◼   ► you're entertaining my dad who has [TS]

00:31:35 ◼   ► stayed awake through the evening news [TS]

00:31:36 ◼   ► and just want something not terribly [TS]

00:31:39 ◼   ► threatening or challenging to to come on [TS]

00:31:42 ◼   ► the air now my feeling about which I'll [TS]

00:31:44 ◼   ► say more in a minute is that we all [TS]

00:31:47 ◼   ► dodged a bullet when NBC shows jay leno [TS]

00:31:48 ◼   ► over David Letterman for the tonight [TS]

00:31:50 ◼   ► show with Erin Barnhart pointed out to [TS]

00:31:52 ◼   ► me that if we knew then what we know now [TS]

00:31:54 ◼   ► about the composition of TV audiences [TS]

00:31:56 ◼   ► things might have actually turned out [TS]

00:31:58 ◼   ► much differently not just for Leno and [TS]

00:32:00 ◼   ► Letterman but maybe even for Johnny [TS]

00:32:01 ◼   ► Carson we don't know because [TS]

00:32:03 ◼   ► demographics were not widely circulated [TS]

00:32:06 ◼   ► in the nineteen eighties they're not [TS]

00:32:09 ◼   ► even widely measured really until the [TS]

00:32:11 ◼   ► nineteen nineties but the market [TS]

00:32:13 ◼   ► research that NBC did internally showed [TS]

00:32:16 ◼   ► that within a very short period of time [TS]

00:32:18 ◼   ► younger people were preferring Letterman [TS]

00:32:21 ◼   ► Carson and this was driving all kinds of [TS]

00:32:25 ◼   ► advertising sales and really whether it [TS]

00:32:30 ◼   ► was true in public or not there was a [TS]

00:32:33 ◼   ► genuine business competition going on [TS]

00:32:36 ◼   ► now between the 1130 and 1230 shows on [TS]

00:32:39 ◼   ► NBC late-night and and this is the thing [TS]

00:32:41 ◼   ► that people don't always think about but [TS]

00:32:44 ◼   ► had that kind of demographic research [TS]

00:32:46 ◼   ► been done in 1990 1991 1992 the time [TS]

00:32:52 ◼   ► when Jay Leno and his manager Helen [TS]

00:32:56 ◼   ► Kushnick we're making the big press for [TS]

00:32:58 ◼   ► him to succeed Johnny Carson as the host [TS]

00:33:02 ◼   ► of the tonight show what if Dave's camp [TS]

00:33:05 ◼   ► had been able to point to those sheets [TS]

00:33:08 ◼   ► of demographics and the news media had [TS]

00:33:11 ◼   ► access to that kind of research showing [TS]

00:33:13 ◼   ► that among 18 to 34 year old male [TS]

00:33:16 ◼   ► viewers dave was beating the pants off a [TS]

00:33:19 ◼   ► book Johnny and Jay how would late-night [TS]

00:33:22 ◼   ► history have been different if if that [TS]

00:33:24 ◼   ► kind of data that we now take for [TS]

00:33:27 ◼   ► granted had been widely circulated that [TS]

00:33:31 ◼   ► now but that's not how it went [TS]

00:33:33 ◼   ► Letterman went to CBS which at the time [TS]

00:33:35 ◼   ► was still looking its wounds from its [TS]

00:33:36 ◼   ► attempt to launch the Pat Sajak show ya [TS]

00:33:38 ◼   ► the guy from wheel of fortune against [TS]

00:33:40 ◼   ► Johnny Carson I remember the front page [TS]

00:33:42 ◼   ► of the newspaper the day that David [TS]

00:33:44 ◼   ► Letterman announced he was making the [TS]

00:33:45 ◼   ► move [TS]

00:33:46 ◼   ► here's a picture of david letterman and [TS]

00:33:48 ◼   ► behind him is the CBS logo the picture [TS]

00:33:50 ◼   ► said it all the classy blackrock CBS I [TS]

00:33:54 ◼   ► all in all an ivory yeah its iconic [TS]

00:33:57 ◼   ► picture and it was a great triumph it [TS]

00:33:59 ◼   ► was a great triumph for CBS it really [TS]

00:34:02 ◼   ► change the fortunes of the network in [TS]

00:34:04 ◼   ► hindsight I think it makes him it makes [TS]

00:34:07 ◼   ► his career seemed more accomplished [TS]

00:34:08 ◼   ► because he was the first person to [TS]

00:34:11 ◼   ► successfully create a arrival to the [TS]

00:34:14 ◼   ► tonight show when he moved to CBS he was [TS]

00:34:16 ◼   ► going to an organization that [TS]

00:34:17 ◼   ► desperately wanted him and was really [TS]

00:34:19 ◼   ► eager to make make it very clear how [TS]

00:34:21 ◼   ► much they wanted them wanted him more [TS]

00:34:23 ◼   ► than that they were giving him ownership [TS]

00:34:25 ◼   ► of the show so at no point could the [TS]

00:34:28 ◼   ► network say we're doing it this way we [TS]

00:34:30 ◼   ► say we want you to do it that way they [TS]

00:34:32 ◼   ► can't fire him and replace them they can [TS]

00:34:33 ◼   ► cancel the show but that's certainly [TS]

00:34:34 ◼   ► something that the they certainly [TS]

00:34:36 ◼   ► understood at the time to BS had nothing [TS]

00:34:38 ◼   ► going on in late night and here came [TS]

00:34:40 ◼   ► David Letterman with the chance to be a [TS]

00:34:41 ◼   ► hero he could create an entirely new and [TS]

00:34:44 ◼   ► hugely profitable business for CBS and [TS]

00:34:46 ◼   ► do it while staying in New York [TS]

00:34:48 ◼   ► continuing to play the underdog and [TS]

00:34:50 ◼   ► righteously rage against NBC and all the [TS]

00:34:53 ◼   ► while doing a version of his old show in [TS]

00:34:56 ◼   ► a new place instead of trying to be [TS]

00:34:57 ◼   ► Johnny Carson under the eyes of some NBC [TS]

00:35:00 ◼   ► executives with questionable judgment [TS]

00:35:02 ◼   ► and itchy trigger fingers [TS]

00:35:04 ◼   ► well I a 1000% agree with that because [TS]

00:35:06 ◼   ► look even when counting out the job it's [TS]

00:35:09 ◼   ► like be careful what you wish for [TS]

00:35:10 ◼   ► and he always wanted to be in that chair [TS]

00:35:12 ◼   ► do you want to be in that chair yet [TS]

00:35:13 ◼   ► because you have to [TS]

00:35:14 ◼   ► there was only one Carson and then after [TS]

00:35:15 ◼   ► that you had to be Leno and and you [TS]

00:35:18 ◼   ► couldn't have any sharp edges there was [TS]

00:35:20 ◼   ► no right angles and Letterman is alright [TS]

00:35:22 ◼   ► giggles so it's like you're totally [TS]

00:35:24 ◼   ► right he got to stay in New York where [TS]

00:35:25 ◼   ► he belongs and he got to be bitter and [TS]

00:35:28 ◼   ► he did his stuff his stuff where he was [TS]

00:35:31 ◼   ► made fun of the NBC when he was on NBC [TS]

00:35:33 ◼   ► was great and even when he went to CBS [TS]

00:35:34 ◼   ► making fun of me bc was even better so I [TS]

00:35:37 ◼   ► it definitely worked out for the best of [TS]

00:35:39 ◼   ► 44 late night I think and who knows how [TS]

00:35:42 ◼   ► it would have worked on a long run but [TS]

00:35:43 ◼   ► he's on the record i know as having said [TS]

00:35:46 ◼   ► that if he had gotten the tonight show [TS]

00:35:48 ◼   ► which he definitely wanted his plan was [TS]

00:35:50 ◼   ► definitely did you know keep it was go [TS]

00:35:53 ◼   ► out to burbank and more or less do the [TS]

00:35:58 ◼   ► Tonight Show as it was no like he would [TS]

00:36:00 ◼   ► just be taking over and doing it and you [TS]

00:36:03 ◼   ► know and he had guest-hosted before and [TS]

00:36:06 ◼   ► you know Jay Leno and guest I mean you [TS]

00:36:08 ◼   ► know more or less jay leno just turned [TS]

00:36:10 ◼   ► his weekly guest hosting gig into what [TS]

00:36:13 ◼   ► he did and let me know Letterman plan to [TS]

00:36:15 ◼   ► do the same as an institution that he [TS]

00:36:16 ◼   ► just thought you couldn't you you [TS]

00:36:18 ◼   ► couldn't mess with that letter was the [TS]

00:36:20 ◼   ► perfect choice for the tonight show [TS]

00:36:21 ◼   ► Jimmy Fallon also the perfect choice [TS]

00:36:23 ◼   ► with tonight show because this is the [TS]

00:36:25 ◼   ► comfort food part of the time show after [TS]

00:36:29 ◼   ► after Carson it was never going to be [TS]

00:36:32 ◼   ► the tonight show after that Jerry [TS]

00:36:34 ◼   ► Seinfeld had a very very smart thing to [TS]

00:36:36 ◼   ► say and I think Bill Carter second book [TS]

00:36:38 ◼   ► about the second NBC late-night crisis [TS]

00:36:41 ◼   ► saying that what none of us understood [TS]

00:36:44 ◼   ► was that when Carson left the tonight [TS]

00:36:46 ◼   ► show he took the tonight show with him [TS]

00:36:48 ◼   ► and so this beat stop becoming an iconic [TS]

00:36:50 ◼   ► show and started becoming the deliverer [TS]

00:36:53 ◼   ► of ratings and the the golden arches [TS]

00:36:56 ◼   ► that people would think of as a familiar [TS]

00:36:58 ◼   ► and okay this is a safe place to stop [TS]

00:37:00 ◼   ► from 1130-1230 to do really innovative [TS]

00:37:03 ◼   ► stuff you're gonna have to go to comedy [TS]

00:37:04 ◼   ► central going to go to CBS you even have [TS]

00:37:06 ◼   ► to go to TBS because it's not going to [TS]

00:37:08 ◼   ► happen that between eleven-thirty and [TS]

00:37:10 ◼   ► 1230 at NBC now looking back I can see [TS]

00:37:14 ◼   ► why NBC gave the tonight show to jay [TS]

00:37:16 ◼   ► leno I really can [TS]

00:37:18 ◼   ► Dave have an approach to television it [TS]

00:37:21 ◼   ► was a gorilla approach there was a [TS]

00:37:24 ◼   ► take-no-prisoners of quality to it and [TS]

00:37:28 ◼   ► despite the fact that he always wanted [TS]

00:37:30 ◼   ► to be the next Johnny Carson he was just [TS]

00:37:33 ◼   ► never able to effectively suppress that [TS]

00:37:35 ◼   ► it was [TS]

00:37:36 ◼   ► really part of his humor it was part of [TS]

00:37:38 ◼   ► his appeal and for better for worse it's [TS]

00:37:40 ◼   ► it's what made him effective but it [TS]

00:37:45 ◼   ► always meant that he wasn't going to get [TS]

00:37:47 ◼   ► the NBC job and it probably didn't mean [TS]

00:37:49 ◼   ► he was a better personality to launch a [TS]

00:37:53 ◼   ► late-night talk-show franchise and [TS]

00:37:56 ◼   ► another network which is a tremendous [TS]

00:37:59 ◼   ► legacy for him at CBS as much as a [TS]

00:38:03 ◼   ► letterman sort of true in wasn't doing [TS]

00:38:07 ◼   ► quite the late-night stuff once you got [TS]

00:38:08 ◼   ► the late show on CBS [TS]

00:38:10 ◼   ► he was still doing odd and unusual [TS]

00:38:12 ◼   ► things like will it float not on to [TS]

00:38:17 ◼   ► where I i don't think that would have [TS]

00:38:19 ◼   ► gone over like a led zep 144 the tonight [TS]

00:38:22 ◼   ► show's audience of my parents who are [TS]

00:38:25 ◼   ► easily confused [TS]

00:38:26 ◼   ► yeah it's it's ridiculous we have no [TS]

00:38:28 ◼   ► right to feel any sense of ownership [TS]

00:38:29 ◼   ► about that but it did feel great to know [TS]

00:38:32 ◼   ► that Letterman did not have to inherit [TS]

00:38:35 ◼   ► his dad's show he was able to create his [TS]

00:38:39 ◼   ► own business and his own business being [TS]

00:38:41 ◼   ► incredibly successful in and of itself i [TS]

00:38:43 ◼   ► think that I thought that was a great [TS]

00:38:44 ◼   ► validation that Leno or jimmy fallon [TS]

00:38:48 ◼   ► they really do need to have that name [TS]

00:38:51 ◼   ► brand on their show they need to have [TS]

00:38:53 ◼   ► that legacy in order to have a [TS]

00:38:55 ◼   ► successful show they need to have that [TS]

00:38:56 ◼   ► the power of that brand behind them [TS]

00:38:58 ◼   ► whereas Letterman is his own brand [TS]

00:39:00 ◼   ► he brings his own staff he brings its [TS]

00:39:02 ◼   ► own sensibility as a nominal [TS]

00:39:05 ◼   ► editor-in-chief of his entire show [TS]

00:39:07 ◼   ► he takes his own sensibility with him [TS]

00:39:10 ◼   ► it's hard even to imagine the the kind [TS]

00:39:13 ◼   ► of excitement but but even then you know [TS]

00:39:15 ◼   ► we were in a 40-channel world with cable [TS]

00:39:18 ◼   ► TV but but most of what you saw on cable [TS]

00:39:20 ◼   ► TV was reruns in fact the e-channel at [TS]

00:39:22 ◼   ► that moment was on a nightly basis [TS]

00:39:25 ◼   ► showing an old Letterman repeat from his [TS]

00:39:28 ◼   ► from his NBC late-night days so there [TS]

00:39:31 ◼   ► was still precious little original [TS]

00:39:34 ◼   ► programming on TV especially in late [TS]

00:39:37 ◼   ► night and so the idea that CBS was now [TS]

00:39:40 ◼   ► going to also do a late night program [TS]

00:39:42 ◼   ► and the David Letterman was going to be [TS]

00:39:44 ◼   ► hosting I mean my god the world almost [TS]

00:39:47 ◼   ► stopped on its axis for about an hour [TS]

00:39:49 ◼   ► they're Letterman not getting the job [TS]

00:39:51 ◼   ► and and going out and just being himself [TS]

00:39:53 ◼   ► and being in New York that's when you [TS]

00:39:55 ◼   ► you create your followers and that's [TS]

00:39:58 ◼   ► when you he really showed that to true [TS]

00:40:01 ◼   ► genius he was and it clearly rubbed off [TS]

00:40:03 ◼   ► on so many so many other people for [TS]

00:40:05 ◼   ► late-night to me of course there'll [TS]

00:40:07 ◼   ► never be anything quite as exciting as [TS]

00:40:10 ◼   ► as seen David Letterman take the stage [TS]

00:40:12 ◼   ► for the first time it at CBS and [TS]

00:40:14 ◼   ► transform that you know rundown old [TS]

00:40:17 ◼   ► theater into it into a television shrine [TS]

00:40:20 ◼   ► again and entertain America but but also [TS]

00:40:26 ◼   ► entertain me to feel like almost like a [TS]

00:40:29 ◼   ► victory or graduation or something that [TS]

00:40:30 ◼   ► moment of like what we knew it all along [TS]

00:40:32 ◼   ► and now here it is [TS]

00:40:33 ◼   ► we knew it all along yes when David [TS]

00:40:36 ◼   ► Letterman took over at CBS it really did [TS]

00:40:37 ◼   ► feel like that David Letterman got the [TS]

00:40:39 ◼   ► 1130 timeslot you got to keep doing his [TS]

00:40:41 ◼   ► show instead of moving to California to [TS]

00:40:43 ◼   ► stand in for Johnny Carson and the [TS]

00:40:45 ◼   ► initial ratings were huge [TS]

00:40:47 ◼   ► it felt like validation after all those [TS]

00:40:50 ◼   ► years of cult status but the late show [TS]

00:40:52 ◼   ► with david letterman wasn't late night [TS]

00:40:54 ◼   ► it was something different something on [TS]

00:40:56 ◼   ► a bigger stage literally and [TS]

00:40:58 ◼   ► figuratively more about that after our [TS]

00:41:01 ◼   ► word from our next sponsor [TS]

00:41:07 ◼   ► this episode final sponsor is casper [TS]

00:41:11 ◼   ► mattresses obsessively engineered [TS]

00:41:13 ◼   ► american-made mattresses at a shockingly [TS]

00:41:16 ◼   ► fair price [TS]

00:41:17 ◼   ► listen you spend about a third of your [TS]

00:41:18 ◼   ► life sleeping let's make sure you're [TS]

00:41:20 ◼   ► doing it on a good mattress Casper [TS]

00:41:23 ◼   ► brings together too comfy technologies [TS]

00:41:24 ◼   ► for better nights and brighter days [TS]

00:41:27 ◼   ► latex foam and memory foam so we've got [TS]

00:41:30 ◼   ► just the right sink just the right [TS]

00:41:31 ◼   ► balance no matter how you sleep i have [TS]

00:41:33 ◼   ► sleep on accounts for mattress I've been [TS]

00:41:35 ◼   ► doing it for several months now it's [TS]

00:41:37 ◼   ► really comfortable i love a combination [TS]

00:41:39 ◼   ► of latex foam and memory foam if you've [TS]

00:41:41 ◼   ► had a bad memory foam experienced before [TS]

00:41:43 ◼   ► that's why the latex foam is there a [TS]

00:41:45 ◼   ► latex foam makes it feel really good but [TS]

00:41:48 ◼   ► you still get the support of the memory [TS]

00:41:49 ◼   ► foam and here's the thing you don't need [TS]

00:41:51 ◼   ► to listen to me you can try yourself [TS]

00:41:53 ◼   ► they've got a risk-free trial and return [TS]

00:41:54 ◼   ► policy Casper will deliver your mattress [TS]

00:41:57 ◼   ► straight to you it comes in a box you [TS]

00:41:59 ◼   ► try it out for a hundred days and if [TS]

00:42:00 ◼   ► you're not happy they will pick it back [TS]

00:42:02 ◼   ► up so no risk gives you every reason to [TS]

00:42:04 ◼   ► give it a try pretty pretty cool i got [TS]

00:42:07 ◼   ► my box open it up and expanded to fill [TS]

00:42:09 ◼   ► the space comes in a shockingly small [TS]

00:42:11 ◼   ► box and we swapped out our old king size [TS]

00:42:14 ◼   ► for a new queen size casper and it's [TS]

00:42:17 ◼   ► been great we got a new bed frame to go [TS]

00:42:20 ◼   ► around the castro mattress it's [TS]

00:42:21 ◼   ► completely you know changed the design [TS]

00:42:23 ◼   ► of our bedroom having this really nice [TS]

00:42:25 ◼   ► mattress has been great the cat no [TS]

00:42:27 ◼   ► longer flies off the the mattress when I [TS]

00:42:29 ◼   ► said on one side it's not a trampoline [TS]

00:42:30 ◼   ► anymore it's a comfortable mattress [TS]

00:42:32 ◼   ► finally thank you Casper $500 for twin [TS]

00:42:36 ◼   ► 954 a king-size mattress [TS]

00:42:38 ◼   ► compare that to industry averages it's [TS]

00:42:39 ◼   ► an outstanding price point and you get [TS]

00:42:41 ◼   ► fifty dollars toward any mattress [TS]

00:42:43 ◼   ► purchase today by going to Casper calm / [TS]

00:42:46 ◼   ► smell and using code smell at checkout [TS]

00:42:49 ◼   ► thank you to Casper for sponsoring the [TS]

00:42:51 ◼   ► incompetent [TS]

00:42:52 ◼   ► as some of you may know for the last [TS]

00:43:00 ◼   ► year and a half I've kind of been [TS]

00:43:03 ◼   ► interested in doing a show little [TS]

00:43:05 ◼   ► earlier than the one I'm doing now and [TS]

00:43:07 ◼   ► that reality has come to pass for today [TS]

00:43:10 ◼   ► settlement dinner in New York City [TS]

00:43:16 ◼   ► so we win David Letterman is the new [TS]

00:43:19 ◼   ► king of late night jay leno is [TS]

00:43:20 ◼   ► vanquished all those people who love the [TS]

00:43:22 ◼   ► guy under the seats in the suit of [TS]

00:43:23 ◼   ► alka-seltzer in the GE handshake and [TS]

00:43:25 ◼   ► declare victory graduate from college [TS]

00:43:28 ◼   ► and get a real job [TS]

00:43:30 ◼   ► the end [TS]

00:43:32 ◼   ► I'll but life goes on there's no such [TS]

00:43:34 ◼   ► thing as the end of history Letterman's [TS]

00:43:36 ◼   ► victory was just the start of two [TS]

00:43:38 ◼   ► decades at CBS and the show was not the [TS]

00:43:41 ◼   ► same similar but not the sentient being [TS]

00:43:44 ◼   ► a big Broadway theater made Dave play [TS]

00:43:48 ◼   ► big to play to the audience and in a way [TS]

00:43:52 ◼   ► that the tiny little studio that late [TS]

00:43:54 ◼   ► night was in in Rockefeller Center when [TS]

00:43:57 ◼   ► he was on NBC let him play small and [TS]

00:44:00 ◼   ► there is there's a definite difference [TS]

00:44:02 ◼   ► in Dave's on-air persona both shows I [TS]

00:44:05 ◼   ► mean he talks about it as being one show [TS]

00:44:07 ◼   ► like and then when it and and in a sense [TS]

00:44:10 ◼   ► it is it's like two halves to the show [TS]

00:44:12 ◼   ► there's the half that was when it was a [TS]

00:44:14 ◼   ► 1230 at NBC in a tiny little studio and [TS]

00:44:17 ◼   ► then there's the modern half starting in [TS]

00:44:18 ◼   ► 93 where it's the flagship 1130 CBS show [TS]

00:44:22 ◼   ► in a big theater and he definitely has [TS]

00:44:25 ◼   ► his personality is the same but his [TS]

00:44:26 ◼   ► persona is different because he has to [TS]

00:44:28 ◼   ► have to play to the room I tend to think [TS]

00:44:31 ◼   ► of a letterman show a bit like John does [TS]

00:44:33 ◼   ► two halves of a career late night on one [TS]

00:44:35 ◼   ► side the late show on the other but [TS]

00:44:37 ◼   ► David Letterman's actually been doing [TS]

00:44:39 ◼   ► the late show on CBS for 22 years late [TS]

00:44:41 ◼   ► night with david levin was only on the [TS]

00:44:42 ◼   ► air for 11 [TS]

00:44:43 ◼   ► that's a third of the total the CBS [TS]

00:44:46 ◼   ► years account for two-thirds of the [TS]

00:44:47 ◼   ► output which is why sometimes i think [TS]

00:44:49 ◼   ► it's more accurate to think of [TS]

00:44:50 ◼   ► Letterman's career in thirds the first [TS]

00:44:52 ◼   ► third with the crazy innovative years at [TS]

00:44:54 ◼   ► NBC then the first decade or so at CBS [TS]

00:44:57 ◼   ► and finally the long slow fade now let's [TS]

00:45:01 ◼   ► take that middle section [TS]

00:45:02 ◼   ► it started with David number one in the [TS]

00:45:04 ◼   ► ratings but a few years in the lady fell [TS]

00:45:06 ◼   ► behind Jay Leno and really never caught [TS]

00:45:08 ◼   ► back up i have a talk with Donald Meyer [TS]

00:45:12 ◼   ► the NBC executive probably best known to [TS]

00:45:15 ◼   ► people of this podcast is the guy who [TS]

00:45:16 ◼   ► Yanks normal Donald off Weekend Update I [TS]

00:45:20 ◼   ► asked him I said this was after Leno had [TS]

00:45:22 ◼   ► taken back the lead in late night [TS]

00:45:24 ◼   ► ratings from Letterman and I said how [TS]

00:45:27 ◼   ► did you know it was Jay I mean how dave [TS]

00:45:32 ◼   ► was dominating time period and here's [TS]

00:45:35 ◼   ► what Meyer said we had done some polling [TS]

00:45:37 ◼   ► and we found that the type of person who [TS]

00:45:39 ◼   ► watches Johnny Carson typically watch [TS]

00:45:42 ◼   ► four nights a week which means you know [TS]

00:45:44 ◼   ► at that point [TS]

00:45:45 ◼   ► they were watching Johnny and at least [TS]

00:45:47 ◼   ► one guest host Jon never did more than [TS]

00:45:49 ◼   ► three nights in a week [TS]

00:45:51 ◼   ► the typical late-night viewer watch two [TS]

00:45:54 ◼   ► nights a week and what all my er [TS]

00:45:57 ◼   ► inferred from this was that Dave's [TS]

00:45:59 ◼   ► personality was not sufficiently warm [TS]

00:46:03 ◼   ► and relatable enough to engender nightly [TS]

00:46:08 ◼   ► viewing that that his viewers other than [TS]

00:46:12 ◼   ► superfans most viewers a little [TS]

00:46:15 ◼   ► Letterman went a long way that was one [TS]

00:46:17 ◼   ► of the data points he used in deciding [TS]

00:46:19 ◼   ► that jay leno who by that point had [TS]

00:46:22 ◼   ► really gotten himself back in the good [TS]

00:46:24 ◼   ► graces of tonight show and had learned [TS]

00:46:26 ◼   ► the routine would be the better host for [TS]

00:46:30 ◼   ► the long haul because people would tune [TS]

00:46:32 ◼   ► into a night after night after night and [TS]

00:46:35 ◼   ► in fact what happened to daves ratings [TS]

00:46:38 ◼   ► in the 24 months after he signed on to [TS]

00:46:42 ◼   ► CBS kinda bored that out he rocketed to [TS]

00:46:47 ◼   ► number one that first sweeps he did in [TS]

00:46:50 ◼   ► November it was just off the charts and [TS]

00:46:53 ◼   ► then he went to LA and Johnny Carson I [TS]

00:46:55 ◼   ► think the news had already broken the [TS]

00:46:57 ◼   ► Johnny Carson was going to make an [TS]

00:46:58 ◼   ► appearance on that night show and he had [TS]

00:47:01 ◼   ► 10 million people watching 10 million [TS]

00:47:03 ◼   ► people take you can't get 10 million [TS]

00:47:05 ◼   ► people to watch a prime-time show these [TS]

00:47:07 ◼   ► days it was off the charts and then it [TS]

00:47:12 ◼   ► started to turn and there's still no one [TS]

00:47:17 ◼   ► thing I can point to until about the [TS]

00:47:19 ◼   ► spring of nineteen ninety-six he's [TS]

00:47:21 ◼   ► already lost the lead in the ratings 22 [TS]

00:47:24 ◼   ► Leno and there's there's some comments [TS]

00:47:28 ◼   ► about who's to blame for this [TS]

00:47:30 ◼   ► this is a part of the lettermen story [TS]

00:47:31 ◼   ► that we don't talk about much he lost [TS]

00:47:33 ◼   ► the ratings lead the show lost something [TS]

00:47:35 ◼   ► creatively Letterman himself talked [TS]

00:47:37 ◼   ► about this in a recent interview with [TS]

00:47:38 ◼   ► the new york times when he said and I'll [TS]

00:47:40 ◼   ► quote before I felt pretty confident in [TS]

00:47:42 ◼   ► what we were up to because there was no [TS]

00:47:44 ◼   ► competition to speak up whatsoever in [TS]

00:47:46 ◼   ► the beginning at CBS we came out of the [TS]

00:47:48 ◼   ► shoot going a million miles an hour and [TS]

00:47:50 ◼   ► then when that was all done we just sort [TS]

00:47:52 ◼   ► of said really can we go a million miles [TS]

00:47:54 ◼   ► an hour again and we tried and we [TS]

00:47:56 ◼   ► couldn't I think we've gone way down the [TS]

00:47:58 ◼   ► road [TS]

00:47:58 ◼   ► maybe way down the wrong road I don't [TS]

00:48:01 ◼   ► know that we ever did get back the right [TS]

00:48:02 ◼   ► way [TS]

00:48:03 ◼   ► it didn't start to settle down until it [TS]

00:48:04 ◼   ► couldn't be more clear that Jay was the [TS]

00:48:06 ◼   ► more popular show and when we all [TS]

00:48:08 ◼   ► realize that there's not much we can do [TS]

00:48:09 ◼   ► here you can't put toothpaste back in [TS]

00:48:11 ◼   ► the tube then we started going our own [TS]

00:48:13 ◼   ► way again I think it was just an [TS]

00:48:14 ◼   ► inevitability the guy in the race who [TS]

00:48:16 ◼   ► spends more time looking over his [TS]

00:48:18 ◼   ► shoulder [TS]

00:48:18 ◼   ► well that's the mistake for two years I [TS]

00:48:20 ◼   ► made that mistake we ran out of steam [TS]

00:48:22 ◼   ► day that they had a plan and they said [TS]

00:48:25 ◼   ► in effect and and it didn't work [TS]

00:48:28 ◼   ► one of their own Bernhardt's first major [TS]

00:48:30 ◼   ► pieces was for the New York Observer [TS]

00:48:31 ◼   ► about the Letterman Show and what was [TS]

00:48:33 ◼   ► going wrong and what i did was i [TS]

00:48:35 ◼   ► dissected an episode and you may recall [TS]

00:48:37 ◼   ► I actually sat down and watched an [TS]

00:48:39 ◼   ► episode with Rob Burnett in their studio [TS]

00:48:41 ◼   ► the only time I've ever met Letterman he [TS]

00:48:43 ◼   ► came in and shook my hand and we stared [TS]

00:48:47 ◼   ► awkwardly to each other in any money [TS]

00:48:49 ◼   ► left huh [TS]

00:48:50 ◼   ► I had dreams like that it might [TS]

00:48:52 ◼   ► literally literally I've had that dream [TS]

00:48:54 ◼   ► it's literally go David Letterman well [TS]

00:48:56 ◼   ► it all right it is it's it's not easy [TS]

00:49:00 ◼   ► being David it's not easy being a fan of [TS]

00:49:02 ◼   ► date but damn i sat down watched an [TS]

00:49:05 ◼   ► episode and even there there are moments [TS]

00:49:07 ◼   ► that you like David and new director of [TS]

00:49:10 ◼   ► his longtime director hell gurney who [TS]

00:49:12 ◼   ► would produce Jack Paar and finally [TS]

00:49:15 ◼   ► retired and and so this guy Jerry fully [TS]

00:49:18 ◼   ► had taken over Jerry had never really [TS]

00:49:20 ◼   ► done a talk show and they were there are [TS]

00:49:22 ◼   ► these epic tapings that audience members [TS]

00:49:26 ◼   ► would talk about where David barkat [TS]

00:49:28 ◼   ► Jerry and segments would be taped over [TS]

00:49:31 ◼   ► and over and and even on the episode [TS]

00:49:34 ◼   ► that i had asked Rob Burnett the hand [TS]

00:49:36 ◼   ► pick that we sat down watched together [TS]

00:49:38 ◼   ► there was evidence of tension between [TS]

00:49:39 ◼   ► David the boot so anyway there was as it [TS]

00:49:41 ◼   ► all came to a head this episode where [TS]

00:49:43 ◼   ► it's some sketch involved a david [TS]

00:49:46 ◼   ► letterman dummy to be made a life-size [TS]

00:49:48 ◼   ► dummy and i forget what the sketch was [TS]

00:49:51 ◼   ► but after the joke was over and he was [TS]

00:49:55 ◼   ► supposed to move on to other jokes he [TS]

00:49:57 ◼   ► turned around for no reason it took a [TS]

00:50:00 ◼   ► baseball bat and hit the David Letterman [TS]

00:50:02 ◼   ► dummy in the head and he kinda liked it [TS]

00:50:05 ◼   ► so he kept hitting at first the audience [TS]

00:50:08 ◼   ► laughs and then not so funny [TS]

00:50:12 ◼   ► and this goes on for like half a minute [TS]

00:50:13 ◼   ► and it's very awkward television but [TS]

00:50:17 ◼   ► Dave clearly that self-loathing side [TS]

00:50:21 ◼   ► could not be contained it came out it is [TS]

00:50:24 ◼   ► never really gone back in that David [TS]

00:50:28 ◼   ► Letterman that made a name for himself [TS]

00:50:30 ◼   ► in the nineteen eighties turned out did [TS]

00:50:33 ◼   ► not wear so well in the nineteen [TS]

00:50:35 ◼   ► nineties and even though i think a lot [TS]

00:50:38 ◼   ► of people came back to him and view them [TS]

00:50:41 ◼   ► in a different way after his his heart [TS]

00:50:43 ◼   ► surgery after some of the heartfelt [TS]

00:50:47 ◼   ► monologues he made including this post [TS]

00:50:49 ◼   ► 9-11 you know we all age so Dave's [TS]

00:50:53 ◼   ► audience aged with him [TS]

00:50:55 ◼   ► there's two moments from 9-11 that i [TS]

00:50:57 ◼   ► remember vividly on TV I remember the [TS]

00:51:00 ◼   ► morning of when it was happening live [TS]

00:51:02 ◼   ► I've just remembered the telecast [TS]

00:51:04 ◼   ► vividly it was just astounding and then [TS]

00:51:06 ◼   ► the other thing i remember very [TS]

00:51:08 ◼   ► specifically was the first Letterman [TS]

00:51:09 ◼   ► episode afterwards I don't know if it [TS]

00:51:12 ◼   ► was a week I don't know if it was two [TS]

00:51:13 ◼   ► weeks I forget exactly when but within a [TS]

00:51:16 ◼   ► week or two it came back on that you [TS]

00:51:17 ◼   ► remember this remember how dope yeah oh [TS]

00:51:19 ◼   ► yeah no music it was just silence and [TS]

00:51:22 ◼   ► then Dave at his desk and any it he [TS]

00:51:26 ◼   ► killed it right it was just amazing and [TS]

00:51:29 ◼   ► it really it just gave me the sense like [TS]

00:51:32 ◼   ► you know what we're gonna be alright [TS]

00:51:33 ◼   ► which brings us to the last third of the [TS]

00:51:35 ◼   ► story Letterman's not making headlines [TS]

00:51:37 ◼   ► every day now he's not leading leno in [TS]

00:51:39 ◼   ► the ratings NBC tries not to repeat its [TS]

00:51:41 ◼   ► disastrous handling of the Letterman [TS]

00:51:43 ◼   ► Leno thing and promises The Tonight Show [TS]

00:51:45 ◼   ► did Conan O'Brien in the end this [TS]

00:51:47 ◼   ► decision creates an even worse disaster [TS]

00:51:49 ◼   ► as Conan replaces Leno and fairly soon [TS]

00:51:52 ◼   ► thereafter leno replaces Conan all the [TS]

00:51:54 ◼   ► while Letterman just keeps on cranking [TS]

00:51:56 ◼   ► out shows the show's format this points [TS]

00:51:58 ◼   ► locked in [TS]

00:51:59 ◼   ► dave has open heart surgery but comes [TS]

00:52:01 ◼   ► back someone plot to kidnap his young [TS]

00:52:03 ◼   ► son it's revealed that over the decades [TS]

00:52:05 ◼   ► has been having sex with young women on [TS]

00:52:06 ◼   ► his staff the show just keep plowing on [TS]

00:52:09 ◼   ► new starlets new politicians new rock [TS]

00:52:11 ◼   ► bands just keep rolling on time flows on [TS]

00:52:15 ◼   ► and on and we watch it all or at least [TS]

00:52:18 ◼   ► some of us do not me as a die-hard fan [TS]

00:52:21 ◼   ► during the first third of david [TS]

00:52:23 ◼   ► letterman's career and a frequent viewer [TS]

00:52:24 ◼   ► during the sec [TS]

00:52:25 ◼   ► in a final act of Letterman's career has [TS]

00:52:27 ◼   ► passed almost like background noise for [TS]

00:52:29 ◼   ► me I might watch a few times a year [TS]

00:52:31 ◼   ► that's all [TS]

00:52:33 ◼   ► every night I have for as long as i can [TS]

00:52:36 ◼   ► remember taped late show with david [TS]

00:52:39 ◼   ► letterman and this morning was the first [TS]

00:52:42 ◼   ► time in probably a year that I've [TS]

00:52:45 ◼   ► actually sat down and watched an episode [TS]

00:52:47 ◼   ► of late show with david letterman and [TS]

00:52:50 ◼   ► the case of Carson as is the case with [TS]

00:52:53 ◼   ► Letterman right now it would be silly if [TS]

00:52:56 ◼   ► this person in late Middle it in middle [TS]

00:52:59 ◼   ► age or late middle age where to try to [TS]

00:53:01 ◼   ► reinvent himself when he that they've [TS]

00:53:03 ◼   ► got a machine that works perfectly at [TS]

00:53:05 ◼   ► this point had to bolt the rear spoiler [TS]

00:53:07 ◼   ► and an afterburner onto it like and turn [TS]

00:53:09 ◼   ► into something that looks like the [TS]

00:53:10 ◼   ► Batmobile but doesn't run like the [TS]

00:53:12 ◼   ► Batmobile that would be very very [TS]

00:53:13 ◼   ► embarrassing occasionally all be up at [TS]

00:53:16 ◼   ► that hour not watching sports if i'm up [TS]

00:53:19 ◼   ► at that hour it's generally because i'm [TS]

00:53:20 ◼   ► watching an old movie or i'm watching [TS]

00:53:22 ◼   ► sports but i'll flip by CBS and CNN that [TS]

00:53:24 ◼   ► it's dave letterman and you know it's [TS]

00:53:26 ◼   ► it's I think were you and I are also not [TS]

00:53:30 ◼   ► to be cranky old men but it's not what [TS]

00:53:32 ◼   ► it was in the old days it's not it's not [TS]

00:53:35 ◼   ► young risk-taking david letterman [TS]

00:53:38 ◼   ► instead it's it's david letterman taking [TS]

00:53:40 ◼   ► his victory lap so you cannot pretend [TS]

00:53:43 ◼   ► that he's a forty-year-old or 35 year [TS]

00:53:46 ◼   ► old guy know who is up-and-coming and [TS]

00:53:49 ◼   ► wants to stick it to the man he is a [TS]

00:53:51 ◼   ► multi multi-millionaire he is the man he [TS]

00:53:54 ◼   ► is the man to end Johnny Carson was the [TS]

00:53:57 ◼   ► man and Johnny Carson could get away [TS]

00:53:58 ◼   ► with it a little bit more because he [TS]

00:53:59 ◼   ► would do jokes about out his wife took [TS]

00:54:01 ◼   ► them to the cleaners the divorce hearing [TS]

00:54:03 ◼   ► or how he's playing tennis ER for all [TS]

00:54:06 ◼   ► that and that was never really part of [TS]

00:54:08 ◼   ► Letterman check i like the fact that [TS]

00:54:10 ◼   ► they have just he and his staff have [TS]

00:54:13 ◼   ► gently sort of shifted his role when he [TS]

00:54:16 ◼   ► started off in that chair he was the [TS]

00:54:18 ◼   ► person who i'm going to have the remote [TS]

00:54:19 ◼   ► microphone i'm gonna try to deliver a [TS]

00:54:21 ◼   ► basket of fruit to NBC executives and [TS]

00:54:22 ◼   ► I'm gonna batter to the batter case i [TS]

00:54:24 ◼   ► know they're gonna throw me a plan to [TS]

00:54:26 ◼   ► get great shots of them being jerks and [TS]

00:54:28 ◼   ► me being calm and me trying to just do [TS]

00:54:30 ◼   ► something nice like deliver this basket [TS]

00:54:31 ◼   ► of fruit now he's in exactly the [TS]

00:54:33 ◼   ► opposite roll a lot of the humans they [TS]

00:54:35 ◼   ► do is he's he's uncle grandpa [TS]

00:54:38 ◼   ► in the middle of the stage and younger [TS]

00:54:40 ◼   ► staffers come up and he has no clue [TS]

00:54:41 ◼   ► what's going on you know and they can [TS]

00:54:43 ◼   ► actually even like the parading him [TS]

00:54:45 ◼   ► because he is the establishment figure [TS]

00:54:47 ◼   ► and that's absolutely appropriate for [TS]

00:54:50 ◼   ► him to be doing this kind of comedy at [TS]

00:54:52 ◼   ► this at this stage in his life [TS]

00:54:55 ◼   ► it's absolutely ridiculous for him to [TS]

00:54:56 ◼   ► try to be hip because he is the [TS]

00:54:58 ◼   ► establishment at this point you can [TS]

00:54:59 ◼   ► pretend that he doesn't have tens of [TS]

00:55:01 ◼   ► millions of dollars you can pretend that [TS]

00:55:03 ◼   ► he is not both culturally and [TS]

00:55:05 ◼   ► economically one of the most successful [TS]

00:55:07 ◼   ► people who has ever done that job [TS]

00:55:09 ◼   ► it's kind of ridiculous to want to have [TS]

00:55:12 ◼   ► the exact same role in popular culture [TS]

00:55:14 ◼   ► in your sixties that you had when you're [TS]

00:55:17 ◼   ► in your thirties it is so much more [TS]

00:55:19 ◼   ► satisfying to realize that I am I'm [TS]

00:55:22 ◼   ► delivering something that people count [TS]

00:55:23 ◼   ► on every single day [TS]

00:55:24 ◼   ► it's not that I'm bring something fresh [TS]

00:55:26 ◼   ► and new every single night it's that I'm [TS]

00:55:28 ◼   ► delivering something that's absolutely [TS]

00:55:30 ◼   ► reliable and that is the bedrock of [TS]

00:55:32 ◼   ► simple craftsmanship and reliability [TS]

00:55:35 ◼   ► Letterman is that level of refinement he [TS]

00:55:38 ◼   ► can do more by simply stepping out and [TS]

00:55:40 ◼   ► saying forwards then a lot of other [TS]

00:55:42 ◼   ► late-night comedians can do with [TS]

00:55:43 ◼   ► material they spent an entire week [TS]

00:55:45 ◼   ► developing and rehearsing i will give [TS]

00:55:47 ◼   ► him this Johnny Carson was square even [TS]

00:55:52 ◼   ► when big portions of America thought he [TS]

00:55:54 ◼   ► was hip or he was square America's idea [TS]

00:55:57 ◼   ► of hip and david letterman his flavor [TS]

00:56:01 ◼   ► lasted I think a lot longer than anyone [TS]

00:56:03 ◼   ► including himself expected it to [TS]

00:56:05 ◼   ► and then when he finally became [TS]

00:56:07 ◼   ► hopelessly identified with dad [TS]

00:56:11 ◼   ► by that time he felt like well he was [TS]

00:56:13 ◼   ► just a good friend and and there were [TS]

00:56:16 ◼   ► all these other choices that I could [TS]

00:56:18 ◼   ► turn to and and so he just stuck around [TS]

00:56:20 ◼   ► and it worked out okay for everybody not [TS]

00:56:24 ◼   ► least of all david letterman so here's a [TS]

00:56:26 ◼   ► true story from my life bear with me a [TS]

00:56:29 ◼   ► few weeks ago my childhood home burned [TS]

00:56:31 ◼   ► down nobody was hurt thank goodness but [TS]

00:56:33 ◼   ► when people ask me how I felt about the [TS]

00:56:35 ◼   ► loss i realized that i had more net [TS]

00:56:37 ◼   ► place long before nearly 18 years ago my [TS]

00:56:40 ◼   ► parents sold the place I grew up in this [TS]

00:56:42 ◼   ► eighteen sixties era farmhouse and sort [TS]

00:56:44 ◼   ► of barnes on 45 acres in the Northern [TS]

00:56:46 ◼   ► California foothills they use the money [TS]

00:56:49 ◼   ► to retire the people who bought it [TS]

00:56:50 ◼   ► transformed it into one of the [TS]

00:56:52 ◼   ► top wedding destinations in the region [TS]

00:56:54 ◼   ► if not the country back to the old place [TS]

00:56:56 ◼   ► twice maybe 10 years ago and again a [TS]

00:56:58 ◼   ► couple years back had been completely [TS]

00:57:00 ◼   ► transformed part of the outer portion of [TS]

00:57:02 ◼   ► the house was unchanged the entire [TS]

00:57:04 ◼   ► inside had been ripped out and replaced [TS]

00:57:05 ◼   ► with guest rooms a new building had been [TS]

00:57:07 ◼   ► grafted onto the side of the old one [TS]

00:57:09 ◼   ► trees and shrubs over grew this lawn [TS]

00:57:11 ◼   ► that I used to know every week [TS]

00:57:12 ◼   ► my point is when place burned down no I [TS]

00:57:16 ◼   ► felt sad for the people who owned the [TS]

00:57:17 ◼   ► place and that the structure itself is [TS]

00:57:20 ◼   ► now gone already mourned the house I [TS]

00:57:22 ◼   ► grew up in it was gone the minute they [TS]

00:57:24 ◼   ► ripped out the bedroom walls tore up the [TS]

00:57:26 ◼   ► ugly linoleum in the kitchen stuck a [TS]

00:57:28 ◼   ► pond in the backyard [TS]

00:57:30 ◼   ► you can't go home again but you can get [TS]

00:57:32 ◼   ► married there [TS]

00:57:33 ◼   ► this is how i feel about this last week [TS]

00:57:35 ◼   ► with david letterman he is meaningful to [TS]

00:57:37 ◼   ► me his comedy and tone and sense of [TS]

00:57:39 ◼   ► irony were immensely influential in my [TS]

00:57:41 ◼   ► development as a writer and viewer and [TS]

00:57:43 ◼   ► amateur joke teller and it's sad to [TS]

00:57:46 ◼   ► think that he will be on the air anymore [TS]

00:57:47 ◼   ► though he certainly has served his time [TS]

00:57:49 ◼   ► and deserves a happy retirement but i [TS]

00:57:52 ◼   ► don't watch the show anymore [TS]

00:57:54 ◼   ► I've been watching the past few weeks [TS]

00:57:56 ◼   ► for old times sake it's been a lot of [TS]

00:57:57 ◼   ► fun but it's just a legend now a [TS]

00:58:00 ◼   ► sentimental visit to a place that was [TS]

00:58:02 ◼   ► once my home but is already gone [TS]

00:58:04 ◼   ► I never stopped stopped watching [TS]

00:58:07 ◼   ► watching Letterman and I'm actually [TS]

00:58:10 ◼   ► starting not worried about what happens [TS]

00:58:12 ◼   ► when he goes away but realizing that [TS]

00:58:14 ◼   ► this has been a kid he's his show has [TS]

00:58:16 ◼   ► been a constant in my entire life and [TS]

00:58:19 ◼   ► it's always a little bit sad when a [TS]

00:58:20 ◼   ► constant goes away even if it's you know [TS]

00:58:23 ◼   ► that day that you know you sell your mom [TS]

00:58:25 ◼   ► and dad's house because they're both [TS]

00:58:26 ◼   ► gone and now you can you can no longer [TS]

00:58:28 ◼   ► be going back to this address that has [TS]

00:58:30 ◼   ► been a big part of your life all of your [TS]

00:58:32 ◼   ► life or even if it's just that they [TS]

00:58:35 ◼   ► stopped making a Brandis owed that you [TS]

00:58:37 ◼   ► really like it's that you attach so much [TS]

00:58:39 ◼   ► to these touchstones of your life that [TS]

00:58:41 ◼   ► when something goes away you don't feel [TS]

00:58:43 ◼   ► like you're lost but you realize it on [TS]

00:58:45 ◼   ► me that's gonna be I'm gonna miss that i [TS]

00:58:46 ◼   ► really miss that a lot [TS]

00:58:47 ◼   ► he's always he's my guy so it's great to [TS]

00:58:50 ◼   ► hear like Kimmel who I love come out [TS]

00:58:53 ◼   ► flat out say look I'm in this business [TS]

00:58:54 ◼   ► because of Letterman and Letterman was [TS]

00:58:56 ◼   ► the best and the correct of course [TS]

00:58:58 ◼   ► Kimmel famous for not letting leno have [TS]

00:59:02 ◼   ► like do any of his hair just be friends [TS]

00:59:05 ◼   ► thing let [TS]

00:59:05 ◼   ► giggles have none of that in and in some [TS]

00:59:08 ◼   ► ways he was more mad Atlanta than [TS]

00:59:09 ◼   ► Letterman was was kind of funny [TS]

00:59:11 ◼   ► Letterman grew up with three TV channels [TS]

00:59:13 ◼   ► or five TV channels Johnny Carson grew [TS]

00:59:16 ◼   ► up with just a couple TV channels he [TS]

00:59:18 ◼   ► grew up mostly with radio and this [TS]

00:59:20 ◼   ► generation of performers all grew up [TS]

00:59:23 ◼   ► with television and they grew up with [TS]

00:59:25 ◼   ► lots of television choices the closest [TS]

00:59:27 ◼   ► analogue would probably be Jimmy Kimmel [TS]

00:59:29 ◼   ► who did morning radio before he made his [TS]

00:59:32 ◼   ► way over to television just as as David [TS]

00:59:34 ◼   ► Letterman was a weatherman Indianapolis [TS]

00:59:36 ◼   ► but i think david letterman will not [TS]

00:59:39 ◼   ► happen again in the sense that his [TS]

00:59:41 ◼   ► sensibilities are really formed around [TS]

00:59:45 ◼   ► post-war America and the idea that [TS]

00:59:49 ◼   ► television was this giant glowing [TS]

00:59:52 ◼   ► presence in the center of the house that [TS]

00:59:54 ◼   ► everybody gravitated to and what he did [TS]

00:59:59 ◼   ► in the night [TS]

00:59:59 ◼   ► in the night [TS]

01:00:00 ◼   ► teen eighties was positively daring he [TS]

01:00:05 ◼   ► split that Adam he said well actually [TS]

01:00:09 ◼   ► there's going to be a late night talk [TS]

01:00:10 ◼   ► show for mom and dad and then there's [TS]

01:00:12 ◼   ► going to be one for the kids kids don't [TS]

01:00:14 ◼   ► have to watch Johnny's monologue anymore [TS]

01:00:16 ◼   ► i used to tape Johnny Carson's monologue [TS]

01:00:19 ◼   ► on a cassette tape recorder and play it [TS]

01:00:22 ◼   ► back later because that was considered [TS]

01:00:26 ◼   ► the kind of hip asst funniest most [TS]

01:00:30 ◼   ► topical comedy anywhere and now really [TS]

01:00:33 ◼   ► going back to the dawn of the Internet [TS]

01:00:36 ◼   ► era which was a time of great expansion [TS]

01:00:40 ◼   ► and cable TV offerings this whole [TS]

01:00:42 ◼   ► generation is just accustomed to you [TS]

01:00:45 ◼   ► know laughs on demand and and so it Dave [TS]

01:00:49 ◼   ► really is is like Johnny Carson in that [TS]

01:00:53 ◼   ► he goes back to a time when all this [TS]

01:00:56 ◼   ► entertainment was good was considered [TS]

01:00:58 ◼   ► very very rare and and special and so it [TS]

01:01:05 ◼   ► it commanded top dollar and the entire [TS]

01:01:08 ◼   ► nation sometimes seem to be paying [TS]

01:01:11 ◼   ► attention to what you said and nowadays [TS]

01:01:13 ◼   ► people sit around and pray that their [TS]

01:01:15 ◼   ► you know a joke that they tell goes [TS]

01:01:17 ◼   ► viral or a bit on their show gets gets [TS]

01:01:21 ◼   ► posted on social media so I i think with [TS]

01:01:25 ◼   ► Dave going away [TS]

01:01:27 ◼   ► you know it really is kind of the end of [TS]

01:01:29 ◼   ► an era that started with steve allen and [TS]

01:01:33 ◼   ► went through Jack Paar Johnny Carson and [TS]

01:01:36 ◼   ► and david letterman say what you want [TS]

01:01:39 ◼   ► about Carson and and like the rules you [TS]

01:01:41 ◼   ► put Letterman under he wanted to always [TS]

01:01:43 ◼   ► be the top he did he needed was you know [TS]

01:01:46 ◼   ► its defensive enough and insecure enough [TS]

01:01:48 ◼   ► that he would do little things to make [TS]

01:01:49 ◼   ► sure nobody supplanted him but he let [TS]

01:01:52 ◼   ► Gary Shandling and jay leno and joan [TS]

01:01:55 ◼   ► rivers and david letterman host his show [TS]

01:01:58 ◼   ► but he gave them this platform you know [TS]

01:02:01 ◼   ► he gave this younger generation of [TS]

01:02:03 ◼   ► would-be successors this platform and [TS]

01:02:05 ◼   ► Letterman never did that for anybody [TS]

01:02:07 ◼   ► like he never picked a 1230 post who was [TS]

01:02:10 ◼   ► in any way a plausible replacement from [TS]

01:02:13 ◼   ► self and he never did guest host and I [TS]

01:02:15 ◼   ► always wondered that Letterman works too [TS]

01:02:17 ◼   ► hard that five shows a week is too many [TS]