David Letterman Retiring
I remember well the big controversy between Jay Leno and David Letterman for the top spot in late-night TV, with Letterman's move to CBS. That was actually about the time that I pretty much gave up on the late-night shows, but I somehow still feel a personal connection to this news story. Carson and Letterman were a part of my routine well into my twenties, and it can feel a little like yesterday to me.
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In a single bound, David Letterman seemed to leap the full length of the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater, racing from backstage as if he’d been thrust forward by the fanfare played by his longtime bandleader, Paul Shaffer, and his CBS Orchestra, and by the rumble of his announcer, Alan Kalter, bellowing his name - “Daaaaay-vid Leh-terrrr-maaaaaaaan!”
It was a routine Mr. Letterman, 68, has performed countless times but will repeat no more after May 20, when he will preside over his last episode of “Late Show,” the CBS franchise he established and has hosted since 1993. [...]
“Everything O.K. at home?” he asked the crowd. “Everything O.K. at work?” Met with mostly cheers, he laughed and added: “You don’t find yourself filled with some kind of emotional longing? Are we emotionally stable?”
But how could these fans not be riddled with angst, knowing that in a few weeks, Mr. Letterman would bid a heartfelt good night to all of this, after a run of more than 33 years in late-night television - even longer than the three-decade tenure of his mentor, Johnny Carson. After that last show, he will head home to his wife, Regina, and 11-year-old son, Harry, and try to figure out what comes next.
Late-night television will feel the loss of Mr. Letterman, one of its most innovative and unpredictable broadcasters, who in 1982 took a sleepy NBC time slot following Carson’s “Tonight” show and transformed it into a ceaseless engine for Top 10 Lists, Stupid Pet Tricks and a decade’s worth of pioneering comedy bits.
With almost no blueprint to follow, Mr. Letterman showed that late-night TV could offer more than a what’s-in-the-news monologue and witty banter with celebrity guests (though he was capable of doing all that, as well). He made his show a home for misfits and oddballs, for Andy Kaufman’s slap fights and Larry (Bud) Melman’s shrill soliloquies, where champion bird callers or his own mother were deemed as important as Hollywood ingénues or rising rock bands.
Mr. Letterman proved he could reinvent himself, too: When he was passed over as Mr. Carson’s heir in favor of Jay Leno, he packed up for the uncharted territory of CBS and became a more inclusive - if still idiosyncratic - master of ceremonies.
But Mr. Letterman is leaving a late-night biosphere very different from the one he helped thrive. Hosts like Jimmy Fallon (who ultimately replaced Mr. Leno at “Tonight”) and Jimmy Kimmel (at ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live”) are dominating with their own ingenious energy, their Internet savvy and their visible youth, and Mr. Letterman is about to be replaced by Stephen Colbert, the politically astute smart aleck of “The Colbert Report.”
-- Dave Itzkoff at The New York Times
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"Why did you stop tuning in to the shows? Was Leno a big turn-off?"
No, I actually thought Leno was perhaps the most talented of all of them, or at least the most witty. I guess I just no longer cared to waste time listening to celebrity banter and tame network jokes. I was beginning to realize that life does not last forever, and this wasn't the way I wanted to spend my time, even though I did not have much better things to do. These days, of course, I just go to bed early, and famous rich people depress me.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
In a single bound, David Letterman seemed to leap the full length of the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater, racing from backstage as if he’d been thrust forward by the fanfare played by his longtime bandleader, Paul Shaffer, and his CBS Orchestra, and by the rumble of his announcer, Alan Kalter, bellowing his name - “Daaaaay-vid Leh-terrrr-maaaaaaaan!”
It was a routine Mr. Letterman, 68, has performed countless times but will repeat no more after May 20, when he will preside over his last episode of “Late Show,” the CBS franchise he established and has hosted since 1993. [...]
“Everything O.K. at home?” he asked the crowd. “Everything O.K. at work?” Met with mostly cheers, he laughed and added: “You don’t find yourself filled with some kind of emotional longing? Are we emotionally stable?”
But how could these fans not be riddled with angst, knowing that in a few weeks, Mr. Letterman would bid a heartfelt good night to all of this, after a run of more than 33 years in late-night television - even longer than the three-decade tenure of his mentor, Johnny Carson. After that last show, he will head home to his wife, Regina, and 11-year-old son, Harry, and try to figure out what comes next.
Late-night television will feel the loss of Mr. Letterman, one of its most innovative and unpredictable broadcasters, who in 1982 took a sleepy NBC time slot following Carson’s “Tonight” show and transformed it into a ceaseless engine for Top 10 Lists, Stupid Pet Tricks and a decade’s worth of pioneering comedy bits.
With almost no blueprint to follow, Mr. Letterman showed that late-night TV could offer more than a what’s-in-the-news monologue and witty banter with celebrity guests (though he was capable of doing all that, as well). He made his show a home for misfits and oddballs, for Andy Kaufman’s slap fights and Larry (Bud) Melman’s shrill soliloquies, where champion bird callers or his own mother were deemed as important as Hollywood ingénues or rising rock bands.
Mr. Letterman proved he could reinvent himself, too: When he was passed over as Mr. Carson’s heir in favor of Jay Leno, he packed up for the uncharted territory of CBS and became a more inclusive - if still idiosyncratic - master of ceremonies.
But Mr. Letterman is leaving a late-night biosphere very different from the one he helped thrive. Hosts like Jimmy Fallon (who ultimately replaced Mr. Leno at “Tonight”) and Jimmy Kimmel (at ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live”) are dominating with their own ingenious energy, their Internet savvy and their visible youth, and Mr. Letterman is about to be replaced by Stephen Colbert, the politically astute smart aleck of “The Colbert Report.”
-- Dave Itzkoff at The New York Times
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Why did you stop tuning in to the shows? Was Leno a big turn-off?"
No, I actually thought Leno was perhaps the most talented of all of them, or at least the most witty. I guess I just no longer cared to waste time listening to celebrity banter and tame network jokes. I was beginning to realize that life does not last forever, and this wasn't the way I wanted to spend my time, even though I did not have much better things to do. These days, of course, I just go to bed early, and famous rich people depress me.