Late Night with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman
Also known as	Late Night (franchise brand)
Genre	Talk Variety Comedy Humor
Created by	David Letterman
Written by	Merrill Markoe (head writer: 1982) Jim Downey (head writer: 1982–83) Steve O'Donnell (head writer: 1983–92) Rob Burnett (head writer: 1992–93)
Presented by	David Letterman
Starring	Paul Shaffer and The World's Most Dangerous Band
Narrated by	Bill Wendell
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	11
No. of episodes	1,819
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jack Rollins (1982–92) Barry Sand (1982–88) David Letterman (1987–93) Robert Morton (1987–93) Peter Lassally (1992–93)
Production location(s)	Studio 6-A, NBC Studios New York, New York
Running time	42–43 minutes
Production company(s)	Carson Productions Worldwide Pants Incorporated (1990–93) Space Age Meats Productions (1982–90) NBC Productions
Release
Original network	NBC
Picture format	480i (4:3 SDTV)
Original release	February 1, 1982 – June 25, 1993
Chronology
Preceded by	Tomorrow Coast to Coast
Followed by	Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Related shows	The David Letterman Show Late Show with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman. It premiered on NBC on February 1, 1982,^[1] and concluded on June 25, 1993. Letterman began hosting Late Show with David Letterman on CBS in August 1993. The series has since been reformatted as Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

In 2013, this series and Late Show with David Letterman were ranked #41 on TV Guide's 60 Best Series of All Time.^[2]

History

After his morning show on NBC was canceled in October 1980 after only 18 weeks on the air,^[1] 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 was 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.

In 1981, NBC and Carson, after significant acrimony, reached an agreement on a new contract, which (among other concessions to Carson) granted the venerable host the rights to the time slot immediately following The Tonight Show.^[3] All throughout 1981, in addition to guest-hosting the Tonight Show as outlined among the terms of his NBC contract, Letterman also frequently appeared as guest on the highly-rated program as the network groomed the 34-year-old for a new project. Finally, on November 9, 1981, NBC and Carson's production company Carson Productions as well as Letterman's newly-established production company Space Age Meats 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 was 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 Snyder, already unhappy with being forced to adopt changes to Tomorrow that he detested, refused and ended the show instead. The final first-run Tomorrow episode aired on December 17, 1981.

US Television Ratings (Late-Night Talk Shows)

Format

Like most other late-night 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 Fatovic, stage hand Al Maher, camera operator Baily Stortz and the "production twins," Barbara Gaines and Jude Brennan. The cramped quarters of 30 Rockefeller Plaza also often played into the humor of the show.

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.

Because of the creativity of staff writers like Merrill Markoe, Letterman's NBC show, in its first few years especially, had innovative segments and theme shows that were new and different from other talk shows of the time. Some were visual gags that owed a debt to pioneers like Ernie Kovacs and Steve Allen. Amongst the highlights were:

• One early episode showed everything from Dave's eye view with Markoe and others coming at Dave to pitch ideas as he walked onto the stage, and the audience was shown from Dave's view during the monologue and the opening segments.
• In another show, the picture turned like a clock, eventually being seen upside down halfway through.
• There were segments where Letterman was dressed in a suit of Velcro and stuck (thrown) to a Velcro wall, a suit of chips and dunked into a vat of chip dip, a suit of Rice Krispies and doused with gallons of milk while lying in a huge bowl, a suit of Alka Seltzer tablets and dunked in water, a suit of suet, etc.
• Visual segments showing things being crushed by a hydraulic press, thrown through fluorescent lights or dropped off an office building to smash on the ground, were also common.
• Letterman's desk featured a control panel where he could operate a bubble machine, "radioactive" steam, a belch of New York soot or strange lighting.
• When he threw his pencils through the fake window scene behind him, a sound effect of breaking glass was always heard. Occasionally, if sound effects technician Howard Vinitisky was slow in triggering the appropriate breaking glass sound effect, Letterman would mockingly chide Vinitisky for the error. (He would also congratulate Vinitisky when the sound effect was especially well-timed.)
• A robotic arm for a while delivered the Top Ten List, and for another week or so, a complicated series of tubes would produce swirling coffee to eventually land in his cup on the desk.
• Cameras mounted on a chimpanzee's back (Late Night Monkey Cam) or on the roof (Roof Cam) would show odd viewpoints of the set and its participants.

Other show format innovations related to the way individual episodes or segments were presented:

• The Custom Made Shows allowed the audience to vote on each part of the hour, what they wanted to see, and the resulting shows had guests talking in high-pitched voices like they had inhaled helium (Jane Pauley refused to say a word during this, and answered his questions by writing answers on cards and showing them), sitting in dentist chairs or lawn furniture, the theme music replaced by the theme from Gilligan's Island, and an opening montage of the director's vacation photos.
• Reruns were often scoffed at by Letterman, telling the audience not to waste their time watching next Monday. Sometimes the entire rerun would be dubbed into a foreign language for rebroadcast, baffling viewers.
• Letterman once had a member of the audience host the show and interview guests while he left the studio (ostensibly to search for a missing tooth).
• Letterman hosted the show from his home while waiting for his cable TV to be installed; another episode was done from the production offices upstairs, as the cast claimed they were "too tired" to go downstairs to the studio.
• Crispin Glover and Oliver Reed frightened Dave with their nearly violent, confrontational behaviour in their appearances.

Recurring Late Night segments

• The Top Ten List, from various "home offices": The very first, “Things That Almost Rhyme with Peas,” was presented on “Late Night” on Sept. 18, 1985. In 33 years, Letterman had presented 4,605 Top Ten Lists on shows.
• Stupid Pet Tricks: The very first segment was presented on the morning show, “The David Letterman Show,” on June 26, 1980.
• Stupid Human Tricks: A sister segment to the above-mentioned Stupid Pet Ricks, the first segment premiered on "Late Night" on October 3, 1983.
• Nightcap Theater
• Mr. Curious
• Viewer Mail, a segment of humorous replies to letters sent in by viewers. After delivering his reply, Dave would then unceremoniously toss each letter out the "window" behind him with the familiar glass-shattering sound effect (see above). Usually seen weekly, initially on Thursdays, later on Fridays. Henry Mancini was at one point hired to compose a special "viewer mail" theme song ("first we read them, then we answer them"),^[9] though after its first few appearances it was quietly dropped.
• Flunky the Clown: A lazy, somewhat misanthropic "staff clown" played by writer Jeff Martin.
• Dave Fires Old Henry: A recurring bit during Viewer Mail where something goes wrong, and the blame is pinned on longtime NBC staffer "Old Henry" (played by Wolfgang Zilzer AKA Paul Andor). In spite of the fact that Henry is two months away from retiring, Dave unceremoniously fires the old man to much disdain from the studio audience. (Henry often proved so sympathetic to the audience, Letterman would have to reassure them it was just a joke.) When Zilzer/Andor's health began to fail, he was succeeded in the role by writer Gerard Mulligan.
• Supermarket Finds
• Dave's wearing of various suits: the "Suit of Velcro" (Feb. 28, 1984), "Suit of Rice Krispies.", "Suit of Alka-Seltzer", "Suit of Magnets", "Suit of Marshmallows", "Suit of Chips", "Suit of Suet", and "Suit of Sponges".
• Dumb Ads
• Lucky Numbers
• Small Town News – a compendium of odd newspaper items, similar to Jay Leno's later "Headlines" segment on The Tonight Show.
• Ask Mr. Melman (Larry "Bud" Melman)
• Dave's Record Collection, real records but presented out of context, like a record of advertising jingles.
• In May I Make a Phone Call for You? he would assist audience members who needed to place a call but were afraid to, because it was usually to communicate bad news. Letterman would make the call for the audience member.
• Short plays presented by the Peace Through Dramatization Players featuring Marie O'Donnell and Jeff Martin, with less frequent appearances by Steve O'Donnell, Chris Elliott, and other Late Night writers and staffers. The plays would involve a "typical" American family (always attired in bright red sweaters) discussing a current topic of some sort, before Letterman would drop by to enlighten them with new information. By 1986, a regular feature of these sketches would be writer Larry Jacobsen appearing as race car driver Bobby Rahal; Rahal would be announced with much fanfare, but would never have any lines in his appearances. Also featured was "Rex", a stuffed dog who played the family dog in many later sketches.
• A series of characters portrayed by Chris Elliott. Each of these characters made numerous appearances over the course of a few months before being retired, usually amidst much mock fanfare. Then Elliott would appear a few weeks later playing the next in his series of "Guy" characters.
  • The Conspiracy Guy (October 1983-January 1984): Elliott would pretend to be an audience member and ask 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 (played by Late Night writers Joe Toplyn and Sandy Frank).
  • The Panicky Guy (April 1984-June 1984): Elliott would again 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. Regular players in the Panicky Guy sketches were astronaut Gordon Cooper (always heard over the phone, chatting with Elliott about the sketches); and Paula Niedert (a Late Night staffer and Elliott's wife) as his love, and later his wife.
  • The Guy Under the Seats (October 1984-April 1985, plus a "lost" episode aired in December 1985): A short character-comedy bit by Elliott who emerges from a hatchway underneath the seats in the studio audience, and asks Dave for help in finding something. When Dave is unable to help, Elliott goes back under the stairs. Immediately following this brief interruption, Letterman then cajoles Elliott back up to take a bow, and discuss the sketch and the character, often in great and tedious detail. These conversations are usually much longer than the ostensible 'sketch' that had just been performed, and at some point Letterman will make an innocuous comment or innocent joke that causes Elliott to overreact. The sketches generally culminate with Elliott threatening Letterman with some metaphorically articulated future comeuppance, and withdrawing back under the seats with the admonition "But until that day, I'm gonna be right here, making your life ... a living hell."
  • The Laid Back Guy (May 1985): A one-shot character, whose major characteristic is his long flowing blonde hair and an extremely Californian "laid back" attitude. Performed when the show spent a week in California.
  • The Fugitive Guy (July–November 1985): Every so often, Letterman would introduce "Roger Campbell" (Elliott, wearing an extremely bad toupée), either as a segment guest or as a new member of the Late Night crew. In each appearance, "Campbell" would have a different job (e.g., gymnast, cue card holder, tambourine player for the band), and would grow increasingly nervous as Letterman amiably asked Campbell innocuous questions about his job and his life. Fairly quickly, Campbell would break down under the "grilling," and would then hear the approach of "the one-legged man" (Late Night writer Matt Wickline) and flee. This sketch was a parody of The Fugitive, and included a title sequence that parodied the original Quinn Martin TV series theme (with billing for Elliott, Wickline and Sandy Frank, usually seen as an unnamed assailant "Campbell" would have to fight while escaping.) The Fugitive Guy sketches concluded with a final episode where Campbell confronted the one-legged man in an abandoned amusement park.
  • Gerry & Baby (October 1985–August 1986): Dave would introduce writer Gerard Mulligan, who had brought his (initially unseen) newborn baby Kevin to the studio for a visit. When revealed, "Kevin" would turn out to be Chris Elliott, dressed as and behaving as a baby. Seen occasionally even as "The Fugitive Guy" and "The Regulator Guy" were making their appearances.
  • The Regulator Guy (February–April 1986): A series of cheesily 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!", with Letterman even interviewing Elliott about the upcoming show, the "Regulator Guy" appeared only once in a sketch on Late Night. This appearance was a (deliberately) cheap and poorly-done affair, with the result that the Regulator Guy was cancelled part-way through his debut episode.
  • The New Regulator Guy (May 1986): 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, and ended with Letterman interviewing the New Regulator Guy's newly created sidekick character, Ajax, while completely ignoring Elliott (much to his faux-chagrin).
  • Skylark (May 1987): A flashy Las Vegas entertainer billed as a professional Chris Elliott impersonator.
  • "Marlon Brando" (July 1987 to January 1988): Letterman would announce special guest Marlon Brando, and a padded Elliott (usually carrying his belongings in grocery bags, and often wearing battered clothing or a Hawaiian muumuu and lei) would appear, doing an exaggerated mumbling Brando impression while being interviewed by Letterman. Later appearances would culminate in Brando's shambling, ritual "Banana Dance" (performed to Bent Fabric's "Alley Cat").
  • Chris Elliott, Jr. (January–September 1988): A take-off of Morton Downey, Jr., with Elliott as an aggressive, audience-baiting talk show host.
  • Elliot also appeared in other sketches over the years. In a recurring bit at irregular intervals, Letterman would announce an appearance by a Late Night regular such as Jack Hannah, Marv Albert, Jay Leno or Paul Shaffer -- but Elliott would come out in costume as the guest. Elliott would then perform an interview segment in character with Letterman, ineptly parodying the guest's catch phrases and behavior.
• 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 Letterman's mother, Dorothy Mengering, via remote or telephone from Carmel, Indiana. After he moved to CBS, he later sent her as a reporter to the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway as part of CBS's coverage.
• Young Inventors
• Marv Albert with The Wild and the Wacky from the World of Sports
• Visits with Jack Hanna, who brought animals from the Columbus Zoo, of which he was the director.
• 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
• Los Problemas de la Vida Cotidiana: Dave ("como Dr. Suarez") shows off his Spanish language skills in this spoof of Latin telenovelas^[10]

Leaving the studio

More than any other major talk show, Late Night ventured outside the studio frequently. Letterman ran elevator races, taxi races (the taxis went around Rockefeller Center), had a flock of sheep herded out of the studio, down the hall, and onto the elevators by two border collies, and ran various kinds of races or other "sporting events" in the corridor outside the studio. He would charter a steam roller and have it run over cans of tomatoes (not in Manhattan). He would interview strangers on the street, searching for Miss November. Sometimes he just walked, commenting on signs in store windows. He might visit a guest's or staffer's house, in New Jersey. There were repeated segments outside the studio, such as:

• "May We See Your Photos Please?" Letterman and crew would visit a nearby photo finisher, where people were picking up their newly developed and printed photos. Letterman would ask patrons at random to see their photos.
• "My Dog Bob." Letterman attached a miniature camera ("dog-cam") to the head of what he said was his dog, at home, and offered viewers very jerky footage of a dog's view of the world. He also had, once, a monkey and monkey-cam, which did not go as planned because the monkey (actually a chimpanzee) headed for the metal rafters of the studio, which held lights and other equipment. A Thrill-Cam, mounted in the ceiling, ran down a track toward the set.
• Visits to Live at Five, a WNBC local news/talk show which was broadcast live at the time Letterman's show was being taped, from a studio across the hall. The allegedly superior-quality guests of Live at Five were the subject of repeated jokes on Late Night. With portable camera he would interview their staffers manning the doors, or guests coming or going, or go in (quietly and off-their-camera). Once he actually crashed the live broadcast (Al Roker giving the local weather).

Memorable shows

• February 1, 1982: Letterman's first episode, 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, and was re-enacted with Letterman, Shaffer, Lawler, and Jim Carrey as Kaufman in the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon.
• October 6, 1983: The American rock group R.E.M. made its debut American network television appearance on Late Night. The band performed both their debut single "Radio Free Europe" and 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 (known for his shyness) sat down on the drum riser, forcing Letterman to interview the other band members.
• May 13–16, 1985: The show traveled to Los Angeles, California for a week, taping and airing four episodes. The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson was among the guests. This marked the first time Late Night was taped on the road.
• 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-standing feud between Letterman and Today Show host Bryant Gumbel.
• April 8, 1986: Shortly after General Electric had purchased NBC parent RCA, Letterman brought a camera crew and a fruit basket to the General Electric Building. Framed as an unannounced goodwill visit to NBC's new owners, the trip resulted in "The GE Handshake," in which a GE security officer in the building's lobby offered to shake Letterman's hand before pulling it away as Letterman went to shake it. Soon afterwards, the officer ordered 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 censored.
• December 16, 1986: Darlene Love performed "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", the start of a tradition as Love performed the song on Late Night (and later Late Show) nearly every December until 2014.
• May 18–21, 1987: The show traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada for a week. This marked the second time Late Night was taped on the road.
• July 28, 1987: Actor Crispin Glover appeared as guest, giving 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.
• August 5, 1987: After being introduced as "the only guest we've ever had that can drink Lee Marvin under the table", actor Oliver Reed pulled Letterman toward him while shaking his hand, causing Letterman to lose his balance. When Letterman asked Reed about Marvin during the interview, the actor replied, "Your researcher was told already that I don't want to talk about drink, understand, so let's cool that one, get on to a new subject." Reed acted strangely throughout the two segments of the interview, however, leading Letterman to joke about his "condition" near the end of the second segment, at which point Reed demanded to know what Letterman was referring to.^[11]
• November 13, 1987: Sonny & Cher reunited, singing "I Got You Babe" for what would turn out to be the last time together.^[12][13]
• July 1, 1988: The show marked its 1,000th episode.
• August 31, 1988: American Splendor author Harvey Pekar accused Letterman of being a shill for NBC parent company General Electric; the segment ended prematurely. Pekar did not appear on the show again until April 20, 1993, near the end of Letterman's tenure with NBC.
• May 1–5, 1989: The show traveled to Chicago, Illinois for a week, taping and airing five episodes. Among the guests that week were Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan. This marked the last time Late Night was taped on the road.
• May 23, 1991: Johnny Carson made a surprise walk-on appearance on the show, only hours after taking the stage at the NBC affiliates meeting in New York City where he announced his decision of leaving The Tonight Show in a year.
• June 28, 1991: The show marked its 1,500th episode.
• February 6, 1992: The show's 10th-anniversary special aired in prime time.
• June 25, 1993: Letterman's last Late Night at NBC before moving to CBS, which began with a cold open from the show Cheers (1982-1993), and it featured a guest appearance by Tom Hanks, and surprise musical guest Bruce Springsteen performing "Glory Days".

Awards

See also

• List of late-night American network TV programs

References

External links

• Late Night with David Letterman on IMDb
• Late Night with David Letterman at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television