Late Night with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night with Conan O'Brien then filled the time slot. As of March 2, 2009, the slot has been filled by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

History

After his morning show on NBC got cancelled in October 1980 after only 18 weeks on the air, David Letterman was still held in sufficient regard by the network brass (especially NBC president Fred Silverman) that upon hearing the 33-year-old comedian is being courted by a syndication company, NBC gave him a $20,000 per week deal to sit out a year and guest-host a few times on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

On 9 November 1981, NBC and Carson's production company Carson Productions announced the creation of Late Night with David Letterman, set to premiere in early 1982 in the 12:30 a.m. time slot Monday through Thursday, with occasional specials every few Fridays, all aimed at young men. The network wanted to capitalize on catering to young males, feeling that there's very little late-night programming for that demographic. The newly announced show thus displaced the Tomorrow Coast to Coast program hosted by Tom Snyder from the 12:30 slot. NBC initially offered Snyder to move his show back an hour, but after refusing, he got cancelled. The final first-run Tomorrow episode aired on December 17, 1981.

Debut

The staff responsible for preparing Late Night consisted of Letterman's girlfriend Merrill Markoe in the head writing role, in addition to seasoned TV veteran Hal Gurnee directing the show, Robert Morton and Barry Sand as executive producers, and a group of young writers - most of them in their early twenties. The plan from the start was to resurrect the spirit of Letterman's morning show for a late-night audience, one more likely to plug into his offbeat humor. The show also got a house band, hiring prominent musician Paul Shaffer to lead the group named The World's Most Dangerous Band.

Realizing NBC executives exhibited very little desire in micromanaging various aspects of the show, the staff felt confident they would be allowed to push outside of the mainstream talk-show boundaries and thus set about putting together a quirky, absurdest, and odd program. Snyder's Tomorrow re-runs continued until Thursday, January 28, 1982 and four days later on Monday, February 1, Late Night premiered with a cold opening featuring Larry "Bud" Melman delivering lines as an homage to the prologue of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein followed by Letterman coming out on stage behind a group of female dancers - the peacock girls. After a brief monologue, the very first comedy segment was a sarcastic tour of the studio. The first guest Bill Murray came out in confrontational fashion, throwing jibes and accusations at the host as part of a knowing put-on. He remained for two more similarly sardonic segments in which he first presented footage of a Chinese zoo baby panda from as the home video of his newly adopted pet, before expressing his new found love for aerobics and pulling a crew member onstage, making her do jumping jacks along with him to Olivia Newton-John's "Physical". The second comedy piece was a remote titled "The Shame of the City"; taking a general format of a local news action segment, it featured Letterman touring several New York locations pointing out various civic problems with righteous indignation. The second guest was Don Herbert, TV's "Mr. Wizard", and the show ended with a young comic named Steve Fessler reciting aloud the script of an obscure Bela Lugosi movie Bowery at Midnight.

The reviews were mixed - Los Angeles Times wrote: "Much of Letterman's first week did not jell" - but more importantly, the show drew 1.5 million viewers, 30% more than had tuned in for Snyder's Tomorrow.

On the third night, after baseball great Hank Aaron finished his interview segment with Letterman, a camera followed him backstage, where TV sporstcaster Al Albert conducted a post-interview chat with Aaron about how it had gone. Eccentric and awkward, the show immediately established a sensibility that's clearly different from The Tonight Show's. Carson, for his part wanted Late Night to have as little overlap with his show as possible. In fact most ground rules and restrictions on what Letterman could or couldn't do didn't come from the network, but from Carson's production company. Since Late Night followed The Tonight Show, Letterman couldn't have a sidekick like Ed McMahon, and Paul Shaffer's band couldn't include a horn section like Doc Severinsen's. What's more, Letterman was told he couldn't book any of the old-school showbiz guests such as Don Rickles, Bob Newhart and the like who were fixtures on Johnny's show. Letterman was also specifically asked by Carson's show not to replicate any of their signature pieces like "Stump the Band" or "Carnac the Magnificent". Carson's people also didn't want Letterman doing any topical jokes in his opening monologue. To make sure restrictions were obeyed, a Carson representative visited the set several times a week.

Upside Down Show

At one point later in the series, Peter Ustinov was a guest on the one-shot "upside down" episode, during which the televised image was gradually rotated 360 degrees during the course of the hour; Ustinov appeared midway through and was photographed upside down in close-up as he spoke while his host only appeared in long shots.

Leaving NBC

After the battle for The Tonight Show, when NBC gave it to comedian Jay Leno, Letterman decided to take an offer from CBS for a late night talk show to compete with The Tonight Show. So in 1993, Letterman and his crew moved to CBS and Late Show with David Letterman was born, beginning on August 30, 1993, although NBC would air repeats of Late Night until September 10, 1993. Up until this, the three competing television broadcast networks tried to create talk shows to compete with the success of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but all failed. A total of 1,819 shows were broadcast during its eleven and a half year run (an episode on January 16, 1991 went unaired due to pre-emption for coverage the beginning of the Gulf War; the program had already been shot before word came out of Baghdad that United States airstrikes were beginning).

Production and scheduling

Late Night originated from NBC Studio 6A at the RCA (later GE) Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. The program ran four nights a week, Monday to Thursday, from the show's premiere on February 1, 1982 until May 1987. Friday shows were added in June 1987 (NBC previously aired Friday Night Videos in the 12:30 a.m. slot with occasional Late Night specials and reruns). Starting in September 1991, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was pushed back from 11:30 p.m. to 11:35 p.m., with Letterman starting at 12:35 a.m., at the request of NBC affiliates who wanted more advertising time for their profitable late newscasts.

Syndication

In September 1991, the A&E Network began airing reruns. The reruns lasted only until the summer of 1992. This first syndication deal was done against Letterman's wishes and he frequently made his displeasure known on-air (he felt having reruns air five nights a week, earlier in the evening and on another network, diluted the value of the first-run shows). Because of this the syndication run was ended early and not attempted again until he had left NBC.

In mid-1993, E! Entertainment Television purchased broadcast rights to Late Night. The network aired complete shows from various years five days per week from 1993 until 1996. Then Trio (owned by NBC) picked up reruns and showed them from 2002 until the channel went off the air in 2005.

A number of programs were sold by GoodTimes Entertainment in 1992–93. These episodes were stripped of the series theme, open and close. No DVD release is currently scheduled (GoodTimes went bankrupt in 2005; the company's assets are now owned by Gaiam, which does not typically distribute general-interest programming).

Letterman moves to CBS

Letterman, who had hoped to get the hosting job of The Tonight Show following Johnny Carson's retirement, moved to CBS in 1993, when the job was given to Jay Leno. This was done against the wishes of Carson, who had always seen Letterman as his rightful successor, according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally, a onetime producer for both men.^[1] On April 25, 1993, Lorne Michaels chose Conan O'Brien, who was a writer for The Simpsons at the time and a former writer for Michaels at Saturday Night Live, to fill Letterman's old seat directly after The Tonight Show. O'Brien began hosting a new show in Letterman's old timeslot, taking over the Late Night name.

When Letterman left, NBC asserted their intellectual property rights to many of the most popular Late Night segments. Letterman easily adapted to these restrictions for his CBS show: the Viewer Mail segment was continued under the name CBS Mailbag, and the actor playing Larry "Bud" Melman continued his antics under his real name, Calvert DeForest. Similarly, the in-house band was unable to use the name "The World's Most Dangerous Band" so they instead called themselves the CBS Orchestra starring Paul Shaffer. Both "The Late Show" and the "CBS Orchestra" are also resurrections of older franchises: "The Late Show" was originally a FOX attempt at a late night talk show, and CBS Orchestra was also the name of the band that played on CBS Radio Network on occasion.

Format

Like other talk shows, the show featured at least two or three guests each night, usually including a comedian or musical guest.

Letterman frequently used crew members in his comedy bits, so viewers got to know the writers and crew members of the show. Common contributors included bandleader Paul Shaffer, Chris Elliott, Calvert DeForest as "Larry 'Bud' Melman," announcer Bill Wendell, writer Adam Resnick, scenic designer Kathleen Ankers, stage manager Biff Henderson, producer Robert Morton, director Hal Gurnee, associate director Peter Fatovich, stage hand Al Maher, camera operator Baily Stortz and the "production twins," Barbara Gaines and Jude Brennan.

Letterman's show established a reputation for being unpredictable. A number of celebrities had even stated that they were afraid of appearing on the show. This reputation was born out of moments like Letterman's verbal sparring matches with Cher, Shirley MacLaine and Harvey Pekar.

Recurring Late Night segments

• The Top Ten List, from various "home offices"
• Stupid Pet Tricks
• Stupid Human Tricks
• Viewer Mail
• Supermarket Finds
• Dave's wearing of various suits, including the "Suit of Velcro" and "Suit of Rice Krispies."
• Dumb Ads
• "Lucky Numbers"
• Small Town News
• Ask Mr. Melman (Larry "Bud" Melman)
• Dave's Record Collection
• Short plays presented by the Peace Through Dramatization Players (featuring Chris Ellott, Gerard Mulligan and other Late Night writers)
• A series of "Guy" characters portrayed by Chris Elliott. Each of these characters made numerous appearances over the course of a year or two before being retired, amidst much mock fanfare. Then Elliott would appear a few episodes later playing the next in his series of "Guy" characters.
  • The Panicky Guy : Elliot would pretend to be an audience member who panics and runs from the studio at the slightest threat of danger (similar to doomed characters in disaster movies). Once in the hallway he would be run over and crushed by an advancing floor waxer, with his hands raised in terror. In one variation, he played a German Panicky Guy in Lederhosen, who was run over by a hand dolly full of cheese wheels.
  • The Conspiracy Guy: Elliott would again pretend to be an audience member, this time asking Dave a question. Things would quickly devolve into his character shouting and making crazy accusations about Dave before being forcibly removed from the set by two goons.
  • The Guy Under the Seats: a short character-comedy bit by Elliott who emerges from a hatchway underneath the seats in the studio audience. Immediately followed thereafter by Elliott as himself (portraying himself as living under the seats, that is) chatting amiably with Letterman. At some point Letterman would make an innocuous comment or innocent joke causing Elliott to overreact, threaten Letterman with some metaphorically articulated future comeuppance and withdraw back under the seats with the admonition "But until that day, I'm gonna be right here, making your life ..a living hell."
  • The Fugitive Guy: Every so often, Letterman would introduce "Roger Thompson" (Elliott, wearing an extremely bad toupée), a new member of the Late Night crew. In each appearance, "Thompson" would have a different low-level job (e.g., cue card holder, tambourine player for the band), and would grow increasingly nervous as Letterman amiably asked Thompson innocuous questions about his job and his life. Fairly quickly, Thompson would break down under the "grilling," and would then hear the approach of "the one-legged man" and flee. This sketch was a parody of The Fugitive, and eventually included a title sequence that parodied the original Quinn Martin TV series theme. The Fugitive Guy sketches concluded with a final episode where Thompson confronted the one-legged man on a water tower.
  • The Regulator Guy: A series of expensive-looking promos for a Terminator-like action character aired on "Late Night" over a period of several months, with Elliott playing the super-cool half-human, half-mechanical "Regulator Guy," even speaking with a bad Schwarzenegger-esque accent. Repeatedly promoted during "Late Night" as "Coming soon to NBC!" the "Regulator Guy" appeared only once in a sketch on the show, but this appearance was a (deliberately) cheap and poorly-done affair, which ended with Letterman interviewing the new sidekick character, Ajax, while completely ignoring Elliott (much to his faux-chagrin).
  • The New Regulator Guy: Shortly after "The Regulator Guy" was retired, Elliott came back with a re-tooled version called "The New Regulator Guy." This character similarly did not last long.
• The destruction (with comic effect) of certain items, including "Crushing Things with a Steamroller," "Throwing Things Off a Five-Story Building," and "Crushing Things with an 80-Ton Hydraulic Press."
• Poetry with My Dog Stan
• Charlie the Bubble-Eating Dog (who never actually ate bubbles)
• Visits with Meg Parsont in the Simon & Schuster Building, in which Dave would have Hal Gurnee "turn on the external camera" pointed across the street to the office window of Simon & Schuster employee Meg Parsont. Letterman would converse with Parsont on the phone, as well as surprise her with gifts, guests, etc. delivered to her office. Parsont would make a return appearance on Letterman's Late Show in 1993.
• Elevator Races
• NBC Bookmobile
• Peaboy (played by intern Dave Ellner wearing green tights and green Adidas, blowing athletic whistle, throwing frozen peas at audience)
• Visits with Dave's Mom (Dorothy Mengering) via remote from Carmel, Indiana)
• Young Inventors
• Marv Albert with The Wild and the Wacky from the World of Sports
• Visits with Jack Hanna
• Hal Gurnee's Network Time Killers: Introduced during the summer of 1988 (after Late Night had returned from a lengthy hiatus due to a Writers Guild strike), the feature included Hal Gurnee introducing bizarre time-killing features from his director's perch in the control room.
• What's Hal Wearing?
• Various 'cam' shots, including Late Night Thrill Cam and Late Night Monkey Cam

Memorable shows

• February 1, 1982 – Dave's first show with guests Bill Murray and Don Herbert aka "Mr. Wizard."
• July 28, 1982 – Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler are guests. The two appear to get in a fight on the show with Lawler knocking Kaufman out of his chair. It is later revealed to have been staged.
• October 6, 1983 - The American rock group R.E.M. made its debut American network television appearance on Late Night. The band performed a new unnamed song that eventually was titled "So. Central Rain", and became the first single from the band's second album, Reckoning. After their performance, singer Michael Stipe sat down on the drum riser, forcing Letterman to interview the other band members.
• August 19, 1985 - Letterman used a bullhorn to interrupt NBC's The Today Show outdoor primetime taping in the Rockefeller Center's lower plaza. Yelling from the RCA Building, he introduced himself as "the president of NBC News" and announced, among other things, that he was not wearing any pants. This incident became the cause of a long-time feud between Letterman and Today Show host Bryant Gumbel.
• May 13–16, 1985 – The show travels to Los Angeles for a week of shows.
• April 8, 1986 – Shortly after General Electric purchased NBC parent RCA, Letterman brings a camera crew and a fruit basket to the GE Building. The trip results in "The GE Handshake," in which a GE security officer offers to shake Letterman's hand but pulls his hand away before Letterman can shake it, after which the officer orders Dave and his crew to exit the building.
• May 22, 1986 – Singer Cher made an appearance where she got into a verbal sparring match with Letterman. At one point she called Letterman an "asshole", which had to be bleeped.
• December 16, 1986 – Darlene Love performs "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home);" it's the start of a tradition, as Love has performed the song on Late Night (and later Late Show) nearly every December since.
• May 18–21, 1987 - The show travels to Las Vegas for a week of shows.
• July 28, 1987 – Actor Crispin Glover appears as a guest and gave one of the most bizarre interviews in the history of the show. At one point, the actor kicked at Letterman's head while wearing giant platform shoes, after which Letterman ended the segment, walking off the stage and saying "I'm going to go check on the Top Ten." Crispin later mentioned being in character during the interview.
• November 13, 1987 – Sonny & Cher reunite and sing, for the last time together, "I Got You Babe."^[2][3]
• July 1, 1988 - Late Night's 1,000th show.
• May 1–5, 1989 – The show travels to Chicago for a week of shows. Among the guest that week were Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan.
• May 23, 1991 - Johnny Carson makes a surprise walk-on appearance on the show, only hours after announcing his decision to leave the Tonight Show in a year.
• June 28, 1991 – Late Night's 1,500th show.
• February 6, 1992 – Primetime 10th Anniversary Special
• June 25, 1993 – Dave's last Late Night before moving to CBS features guest Tom Hanks and surprise musical guest Bruce Springsteen performing "Glory Days."

Awards

Primetime Emmy Awards

• 1982–83 Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
• 1983–84 Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
• 1984–85 Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
• 1985–86 Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
• 1989–90 Outstanding Directing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program

The show was nominated as Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for 10 consecutive seasons, from its 2nd full season in 1983–84 through its final season in 1992–93. Including the nominations for the CBS Late Show variant, the Letterman team has been nominated 26 consecutive times in this category.

Peabody

In 1991, the show's three production companies — Carson Productions, Worldwide Pants, and NBC Productions — were awarded a Peabody Award, which cited the following:^[4]

Once a television wasteland, late night has become a daypart of increased interest to programmers, performers, and viewers. In the past ten years, one show has moved to the position of the leader in late night television in creativity, humor, and innovation. That program is Late Night With David Letterman. As one member of the Peabody Board remarked, "David Letterman is a born broadcaster." He is also a savvy co-executive producer. Along with co-executive producer Jack Rollins, producer Robert Morton, director Hal Gurnee, and musical director Paul Shaffer, Mr. Letterman has surrounded himself with exceptional talent and given them the go-ahead to experiment with the television medium. Particularly noteworthy is the work of head writer Steve O'Donnell and his talented staff. Together, the "Late Night" team manages to take one of TV's most conventional and least inventive forms—the talk show—and infuse it with freshness and imagination. For television programming which, at its best, is evocative of the greats, from Your Show of Shows, to The Steve Allen Show, and The Ernie Kovacs Show, a Peabody to Late Night With David Letterman.

See also

• List of late-night American network TV programs

References

External links

• Late Show UK – fansite
• Late Night with David Letterman at the Internet Movie Database
• Late Night with David Letterman from the Museum of Broadcast Communications