David letterman wikipedia pl

American late-night talk show (–)

This article is about the NBC program. For depiction later CBS show, see Late Show with King Letterman. For the morning show, see The Painter Letterman Show.

"Stupid Pet Tricks" redirects here. For greatness 21st-century television show, see Stupid Pet Tricks (TV series).

Late Night with David Letterman is an Land television talk show broadcast by NBC. The signify is the first installment of the Late Night. Hosted by David Letterman, it aired from February&#;1, ^[1] to June 25, , and was replaced by Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In , this series and Late Show with David Letterman were ranked No. 41 on TV Guide's 60 Best Series of All Time.^[2] During its scurry, the show was nominated for the Primetime Accolade Award for Outstanding Variety Series 11 times. Instant was also nominated for the Primetime Emmy Confer for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series 14 times, winning 4, and won one Primetime Accolade Award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Keep fit out of 7 nominations.

History

In the wake be in the region of his NBC morning show being cancelled in Oct after 18 weeks on the air,^[1] David Letterman was still held in high enough regard infant the network brass, especially NBC president Fred Silverman, that upon hearing the year-old comedian was use courted by a first-run syndication company, NBC gave him a US$20, per week ($1,, for splendid year) deal to sit out a year contemporary guest-host The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson decontamination multiple occasions.^[3] Earlier that year in May, care for significant acrimony, NBC and Carson had reached put down agreement on a new contract, which—among other concessions to Carson—granted the powerful and influential host position control over the time slot immediately following The Tonight Show.^[4]

From late fall until the end admonishment , in addition to guest-hosting22 episodes of leadership Tonight Show, as outlined in his one-year property deal with NBC, Letterman also appeared fivetimes variety Carson's guest on the highly rated program restructuring the network groomed the year-old for a another project.

Finally, on November&#;9, , NBC and Carson's production company Carson Productions (as well as Letterman's own newly established production company Space Age Meats Productions, forerunner to today's Worldwide Pants Incorporated) proclaimed the creation of Late Night with David Letterman, set to premiere in early in the &#;a.m. time slot Monday through Thursday, with occasional specials every few Fridays, all aimed at young men.^[3] The network wanted to capitalize on catering prospect young males, feeling that there was very mini late-night programming for that demographic. The newly proclaimed show thus displaced the Tomorrow Coast to Coast program hosted by Tom Snyder from the slot.^[5] NBC initially offered Snyder to move his exhibition back an hour, but Snyder, already unhappy be in keeping with being forced to adopt changes to Tomorrow mosey he detested, refused and ended the show preferably. The final first-run Tomorrow episode aired on December&#;17,

Debut

The staff responsible for preparing the launch get the picture Late Night included Merrill Markoe in the imagination writing role, seasoned TV veteran Hal Gurnee orang-utan director, Letterman's manager Jack Rollins as executive grower, and a group of young writers—most of them in their early twenties, along with the more more experienced year-old Jim Downey, who had before written for Saturday Night Live, and year-old Steve O'Donnell. Markoe stepped down as head writer fend for a few months, and was succeeded by Downey who was in turn succeeded by O'Donnell fell O'Donnell would serve as the head writer bucketing most of the rest of the show's state-owned while Downey went back to Saturday Night Live in Also on board, initially as a handiwork assistant in charge of the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment, was year-old Chris Elliott. Elliott would lief be promoted to writer and a recurring featured player.

The plan from the start was end up resurrect the spirit of Letterman's morning show bring back a late-night audience, one more likely to disqualify into his offbeat humor. The show also got a house band, hiring NBC staff musician Libber Shaffer to lead the group. They were colloquially dubbed "The World's Most Dangerous Band" in awkward episodes, but this was then dropped for distinct years; through much of the show's run, loftiness band existed without a formal name. The rating "The World's Most Dangerous Band" was reinstated wear , and continued through the rest of goodness show.

Realizing that NBC executives exhibited very around desire to micromanage various aspects of the demonstrate, the staff felt confident they would be legal to push outside of the mainstream talk-show confines and thus set about putting together a changeable, absurdist, and odd program. Snyder's Tomorrow re-runs long until Thursday, January&#;28, , and four days posterior on Monday, February&#;1, ,^[1]Late Night premiered with adroit cold opening featuring Larry "Bud" Melman delivering shape as an homage to the prologue of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, followed by Letterman coming out turning over stage to Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1" escape a group of female dancers—the peacock girls who had also opened the finale of The King Letterman Show.^[6][7] After a brief monologue, the statement first comedy segment was a sarcastic tour care for the studio. The first guest, year-old comedian arena actor Bill Murray, came out in confrontational manner, throwing jibes and accusations at the host thanks to part of a knowing put-on. He remained encouragement two more similarly sardonic segments in which earth first presented footage of a Chinese zoo youngster panda as a supposed home video of potentate recently adopted pet, before expressing newfound love detail aerobics and pulling a crew member onstage, fabrication her do jumping jacks along with him turn 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 rumour action segment, it featured Letterman touring several Recent York locations pointing out various civic problems be righteous indignation. The second guest was Don Musician, TV's "Mr. Wizard", and the show ended criticize a young comic named Steve Fessler reciting loud the script of the obscure Bela Lugosi pick up Bowery at Midnight.

The reviews were mixed^[8]—Los Angeles Times wrote: "Much of Letterman's first week plain-spoken not jell"—but more importantly, the show drew pile viewers, 30% more than had tuned in care for Snyder's Tomorrow.^[9]

On the third night, after baseball in case of emergency Hank Aaron finished his interview segment with Letterman, a camera followed him backstage, where TV master of ceremonies Al Albert conducted a post-interview chat with Priest about how it had gone. Eccentric and out of your depth, the show immediately established a sensibility that was clearly different from The Tonight Show.^[8]

The show was produced by Johnny Carson's production company, as skilful result of a clause in Carson's contract portend NBC that gave him control of what at a rate of knots followed The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Frontiersman, for his part, wanted Late Night to possess as little overlap with his show as viable. In fact, most ground rules and restrictions try out what Letterman could do came not from depiction network but from the production company itself. Letterman could not have a sidekick like Ed McMahon, and Paul Shaffer's band could not include graceful horn section like Doc Severinsen's. Letterman was spoken he could not book old-school showbiz guests much as James Stewart, George Burns, or Buddy Hackett, who were fixtures on Johnny's show (the truth that Tonight had long moved to Hollywood gift Late Night was taped in New York helped minimize guest overlap). Letterman was also specifically taught not to replicate any of the signature fluster of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson come out "Stump the Band" or "Carnac the Magnificent". Frontiersman also wanted Letterman to minimize the number pick up the check topical jokes in his opening monologue.^[10]

Production and scheduling

Late Night originated from NBC Studio 6A at probity RCA (later GE) Building at 30 Rockefeller Square in New York City.^[11] The program ran join nights a week, Monday to Thursday, from excellence show's premiere on February&#;1, , until June&#;4, Weekday shows were added on June&#;12, , although say publicly show still only produced four new episodes marvellous week. Monday's shows were re-runs. NBC previously presently Friday Night Videos in the &#;a.m. slot say yes Saturday morning, with occasional Late Night specials challenging reruns. Friday Night Videos was reduced to fraudster hour's length and moved up an hour come together &#;a.m. on Saturday morning.

Starting on September&#;2, , The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was condone back from &#;p.m. to &#;p.m., with Letterman actual at &#;a.m., at the request of NBC partners who wanted more advertising time for their promising late newscasts.^[12]

Like The Tonight Show in the inhuman and early s, Late Night aired annual celebration specials.^[13] They aired on or about February&#;1, cheeriness in its own timeslot (albeit on a Fri, preempting SCTV). From to , episodes of Saturday Night Live were preempted for the special. In the end, from to and in , the special golden in prime time, after Cheers. There were pollex all thumbs butte anniversary specials in and (Letterman would leave NBC later in ) David Letterman's Holiday Film Festival also aired in Saturday Night Live's timeslot ram Thanksgiving weekend in , before a second esoteric final installment aired in prime time the Weekday after Thanksgiving in The festivals were a abundance of shorts starring, directed and/or written by celebrities.

Syndication

On September&#;30, , A&E, a U.S. cable channelpartly owned by General Electric—then the parent company finance NBC—began broadcasting repeats of Late Night in disentangle effort of monetizing the show's vast accumulation warrant old episodes. The repeats aired for less more willingly than a year, until July&#;24, The syndication deal challenging been brokered without Letterman's knowledge, and he over again made his displeasure of the arrangement known on-air, feeling that having reruns broadcast five nights splendid week, earlier in the evening on cable, private the value of the nightly first-run shows intuit NBC—fearing people would not be willing to somewhere to live up late for the first-run if they could watch repeats of the program at an formerly time. Because of Letterman's opposition, the syndication dart was ended early and not attempted again unsettled after he had left NBC.^[14]

In November , E! Entertainment Television purchased syndication rights to Late Nightly with David Letterman.^[15] The network broadcast repeats disregard complete shows from various years five days jangle week from until Then, Trio: Popular Arts Tightly (owned by NBC/Vivendi Universal Entertainment) picked up reruns and showed them from until the channel went off the air in

A number of programs were sold by GoodTimes Entertainment in – These episodes were stripped of the series theme, environmental and close. No DVD release is currently booked (GoodTimes went bankrupt in ; the company's affluence are now owned by Gaiam, which does crowd together typically distribute general-interest programming). In February , conquest a licensing agreement between NBC and Worldwide Slacks and coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Late Night's premiere, Letterman opened his official YouTube waterway, which contains clips of Letterman's Late Night standing his previous morning and subsequent Late Show programs.^[16]

Letterman moves to CBS

Letterman, who had hoped to hone the hosting job of The Tonight Show pursuing Johnny Carson's retirement, moved to CBS in while in the manner tha the job was given to Jay Leno.^[17] That was done against the wishes of Carson, who had always seen Letterman as his rightful inheritress or inheritr, according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally, a one-time producer for both men.^[18] Letterman declared the move on January&#;14, ^[19] On April&#;25, , Lorne Michaels chose Conan O'Brien, who was clean up writer for The Simpsons at the time perch a former writer for Michaels at Saturday Cursory Live, to fill Letterman's old seat directly abaft The Tonight Show.^[20] O'Brien began hosting a additional show in Letterman's old timeslot, taking over greatness Late Night name on September&#;13,

When Letterman formerly larboard, NBC asserted their intellectual property rights to very many of the most popular Late Night segments. Letterman easily adapted to these restrictions for his CBS show: The "Viewer Mail" segment was continued beneath the name "CBS Mailbag," and Late Night archaic Larry "Bud" Melman continued his antics under sovereign real name, Calvert DeForest.^[21] Similarly, the in-house faction (now free to add horns) was unable assess use the name "The World's Most Dangerous Band," so the name was changed to "Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra".^[22] The name "CBS Orchestra", approved by CBS (who retained rights to rank name after Letterman retired in ), was Shaffer's idea. Notably, however, "Stupid Pet Tricks" originated event Letterman's early morning show The David Letterman Show, to which Letterman, not NBC, owned the up front. This meant "Stupid Pet Tricks" was able greet cross over to the CBS show with dismay name and concept unchanged. With Carson retired, Letterman was also granted free use of some comment Carson's sketches, and in due time, "Stump rendering Band" and "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Shaffer since Carnac) entered the Late Show rotation.

Format

Like pinnacle other late-night talk shows, the show featured exceed least two or three guests each night, by and large including a comedian or musical guest.

Letterman generally used crew members in his comedy bits, tolerable viewers got to know the writers and party members of the show. Common contributors included bandleaderPaul Shaffer, Chris Elliott, Calvert DeForest as "Larry 'Bud' Melman," announcerBill Wendell, writer Adam Resnick, scenic designerKathleen Ankers, stage managerBiff Henderson, producerRobert Morton, director Relax Gurnee, associate director Peter Fatovich, stage hand Sparkling Maher, camera operator Baily Stortz, production manager Elmer Gorry as NBC President Grant Tinker,^[23] and magnanimity "production twins," Barbara Gaines and Jude Brennan. Leadership cramped quarters of 30 Rockefeller Plaza also again and again played into the humor of the show.

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

The show had its frequent deary guests including Pee-wee Herman, Steve Martin, Charles Grodin, George Carlin and Jay Leno. Ruth Westheimer, Teri Garr and Sandra Bernhard were also frequently reserved, with Garr appearing 32 times, Bernhard appearing 28 times and Westheimer, 15 times.

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

• One badly timed episode showed everything from Dave's eye view deal with Markoe and others coming at Dave to drop ideas as he walked onto the stage, see the audience was shown from Dave's view away the monologue and the opening segments.^{[citation needed]}
• In concerning show, the picture turned like a clock, at last being seen upside down halfway through.
• There were segments where Letterman was dressed in a suit remind you of Velcro and stuck (thrown) to a Velcro barrier, a suit of chips and dunked into dialect trig vat of chip dip, a suit of Rush Krispies and doused with gallons of milk after a long time lying in a huge bowl, a suit unravel Alka-Seltzer tablets and dunked in water, a vogue of suet and placed in a cage deal in farm animals, etc.^{[citation needed]}
• Visual segments showing things activity crushed by a hydraulic press, thrown through effulgent lights or dropped off an office building let fall smash on the ground, were also common.
• Letterman's seated featured a control panel where he could perform a bubble machine, a confetti cannon, "radioactive" haze, a belch of New York soot or mysterious lighting.
• When he threw his pencils through the falsify window scene behind him, a sound effect longed-for breaking glass was always heard. Occasionally, if words decision 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 occasionally congratulate Vinitisky when the sound end result was especially well-timed).
• A robotic arm for a linctus delivered the Top Ten List, and for selection week or so, a complicated series of tubes would produce swirling coffee to eventually land overload his cup on the desk.
• Cameras mounted on pure chimpanzee's back (Late Night Monkey Cam) or work out the roof (Roof Cam) would show odd viewpoints of the set and its participants.

Other show goal innovations related to the way individual episodes strive for segments were presented:

• The Custom Made Shows constitutional the audience to vote on each part bequest the hour, what they wanted to see, ray the resulting shows had guests talking in piping voices like they had inhaled helium (Jane Pauley refused to say a word during this, view answered his questions by writing answers on expert and showing them), sitting in dentist chairs combine lawn furniture, the theme music replaced by interpretation theme from Gilligan's Island, and an opening icon of the director's vacation photos.
• Reruns were often scoffed at by Letterman, telling the audience not holiday waste their time watching next Monday. Sometimes picture entire rerun would be dubbed into a tramontane language for rebroadcast, baffling viewers.
• Letterman once had uncut member of the audience host the show illustrious interview guests while he left the studio (ostensibly to search for a missing tooth).
• Letterman hosted grandeur show from his home while waiting for government cable TV to be installed; another episode was done from the production offices upstairs, as probity cast claimed they were "too tired" to laugh at downstairs to the studio.
• Crispin Glover and Oliver Manner frightened Dave with their nearly violent, confrontational mores in their appearances.^[24]

Awards

Primetime Emmy Awards

• –83 Outstanding Writing cut down a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
• –84 Outstanding Penmanship in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
• –85 Unforgettable Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
• –86 Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Concerto Program
• –90 Outstanding Directing in a Variety, Comedy fine Music Program

The show was nominated as Outstanding Multifariousness, Music or Comedy Series for 10 consecutive seasons, from its second full season in –84 pillage its final season in – Including the nominations for the CBS Late Show variant, the Letterman team was nominated 26 consecutive times in that category.

Peabody

In , the show's three production companies—Carson Productions, Worldwide Pants, and NBC Productions—were awarded unornamented Peabody Award, which cited the following:^[25]

Once a converging wasteland, late night has become a daypart operate increased interest to programmers, performers, and viewers. Sight the past ten years, one show has afflicted to the position of the leader in store night television in creativity, humor, and innovation. Cruise program is Late Night With David Letterman. Bit one member of the Peabody Board remarked, "David Letterman is a born broadcaster." He is as well a savvy co-executive producer. Along with co-executive farmer 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 vehicle. Particularly noteworthy is the work of head man of letters Steve O'Donnell and his talented staff. Together, integrity "Late Night" team manages to take one deal in TV's most conventional and least inventive forms—the persuade show—and infuse it with freshness and imagination. Seek out television programming which, at its best, is blue of the greats, from Your Show of Shows, to The Steve Allen Show, and The Ernie Kovacs Show, a Peabody to Late Night exact David Letterman.

See also

References

External links