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The changing of the guard

J

JeffM

David Letterman's last "Late Show" just ended, and with it an era. Letterman was the last of the late-night hosts (Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, even the late Joan Rivers and long-ago Joey Bishop and Dick Cavett) who had some connection with Johnny Carson, the past master of the format. In many ways, Letterman was sort of the anti-Carson, turning the talk show formula on its head; and he has been as much an influence on talk shows and hosts in more recent years as Carson was earlier.

Now it will fall to Stephen Colbert on CBS and the Jimmys; Fallon on NBC and Kimmel on ABC to redefine the late-night talk/variety show in the future. Good luck to them and to all of us.
 
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David Letterman was a broadcaster who had an appreciation for the business. He wasn't interested in being on cable, and he wasn't even interested in being on Fox or syndicated. He wanted to be on a Big Three network at 11:35 and thanks to Michael Ovitz, Howard Stringer, and Larry Tisch (about the only good thing Tisch ever did at CBS), he got to do it. Not only did Letterman have a long and established career, he pretty much single-handedly got CBS established in the late-night business after years of reruns, heavily edited movies, "The Pat Sajak Show," and spotty clearances from CBS affiliates.

It will be interesting to see what kind of show Stephen Colbert will do in the fall and how it will fare. I feel sorry for James Corden, who has to spend the next several months following reruns of "The Mentalist" and maybe some other drama shows that CBS will air in the interim.
 
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Would Letterman had been interested in appearing on Fox after they got the NFC and big market VHF stations in the mid 90s? Would he have been interested in the appearing on cable in 2003? He wasn't interested in being packed with Studs, in his early years on CBS, many places stilled delayed him for things like Love Connection, Hard Copy, and reruns of Married with Children, KMOV delayed by a half hour until 1996
 
Now the "new guys" talk about their connection to Letterman. Dave is to them, what Johnny was to Dave.

Both Johnny and Jack Parr talked about their connection to Jack Benny, their mentor and example.

The inventor of the desk and couch talk/variety show is now largely forgotten. He also invented overnight radio and morning drive radio. But nobody wanted to speak of their connection with him, with the possible exception of Andy Rooney (one of his writers).

Jack Benny's (and Bob Hope's) mentor and example is also forgotten. He invented the monologue, what we now call stand up comedy. He created the role of Elwood P. Dowd in "Harvey." If he is remembered at all it is because his downfall and the end of his marriage to Barbara Stanwyck was the basis for both versions of "A Star Is Born."

TPIR might do well in late night. But why a re-run? Why not a late night version aimed at a more adult and more (but not exclusively) male audience.

I have my doubts about "The Mentalist" stripped in late night. The show succeeded on the charm of Simon Baker and an interesting basic concept. But five nights a week the sloppy plotting and writing will become even more apparent. If Stephen doesn't start his show before they get to the last two seasons of "The Mentalist," a lot of people will be driven to "the Jimmies."
 
He's referring to (a) Arthur Godfrey and (b) Frank Fay. All of us are just such inferior minds around here...
 
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I thought it was interesting...on Tuesday night they panned around the audience, and there in the second row was Lorne Michaels.

I'm told that tickets for those final shows were prized possessions. I'm sure there were more celebs in the crowd...just hard to pick them out.
 
I only got to see the last half hour or so (including the extra time at the end) because of getting in from work, but what I saw was great. I was surprised he was actually able to get clips of Late Night and his daytime show from NBC. Did Corden still run a full hour afterward?

It looks like this would be something that CBS should repeat in prime time, like they did with Bob Barker’s final show on The Price is Right. Will the final episode at least be available online?
 
anotherguy said:
I only got to see the last half hour or so (including the extra time at the end) because of getting in from work, but what I saw was great. I was surprised he was actually able to get clips of Late Night and his daytime show from NBC. Did Corden still run a full hour afterward?

It looks like this would be something that CBS should repeat in prime time, like they did with Bob Barker’s final show on The Price is Right. Will the final episode at least be available online?
Click to expand...

the full show is now up on CBS.com, but for how long?
 
nomadcowatbk said:
Would Letterman had been interested in appearing on Fox after they got the NFC and big market VHF stations in the mid 90s?
Click to expand...

Fox would have insisted on scheduling Letterman at 11PM/10C, and I think Letterman would have been very skeptical of (and might have even had an aversion to) going up against the late news on the Big Three affiliates.
 
anotherguy said:
I only got to see the last half hour or so (including the extra time at the end) because of getting in from work, but what I saw was great. I was surprised he was actually able to get clips of Late Night and his daytime show from NBC. Did Corden still run a full hour afterward?

It looks like this would be something that CBS should repeat in prime time, like they did with Bob Barker’s final show on The Price is Right. Will the final episode at least be available online?
Click to expand...

Typical CBS. They allowed the show to run approximately 10 minutes long but didn't bother to update any schedule listings. As a result, everybody's Tivo or DVR cut off the last 10 minutes.

They should repeat it, plus CBS3, Philadelphia should repeat the episode from last week they preempted to show an hour and a half of helicopter shots of train lying on its side (with Ken and Barbie holding mics and saying they don't know much yet). Run the final episode Saturday night. It would probably do better than most of the other Saturday night reruns on CBS. Maybe even as well as reruns of SNL back when it was funny. (Notice how many of Letterman's last guests had a "connection" to SNL).
 
Interesting to read that Stephen Colbert will use the Ed Sullivan Theater. Perhaps rename it the David Letterman Theater? Or at least some part of it.
 
It was originally the Hammerstein Theater (named for Oscar Hammerstein I, uncle of the Oscar Hammerstein of Rogers and Hammerstein.

It was also home of "The Jackie Gleason Show" before it moved to Miami (excluding the "classic 39" episodes of "The Honeymooners").

And of "What's My Line," Major Bowes' "Amateur Hour," "The Merv Griffin Show," "Password," "To Tell The Truth" and "Kate and Allie."

Maybe they could name it The Hammerstein-Sullivan-Gleason-Goodson-Todman-Griffin-Jane You Ignorant Slut Theater.
 
I was unable to watch Dave's show live. But I streamed it off of CBS.com. Almost brought a tear to my eye. Dave deserved that standing ovation with 33 years of laughter, enjoyment, excitement and fun to NBC and CBS late night. Great top 10 list, great Foo Fighters song.
Like Dave said, a big thanks goes to Paul Shaffer & The CBS Orchestra, the staff on set and behind the scenes, his favorite stage manager Biff, his mother, his wife/child Harry and all the viewers.
The end of an era. Millions grew up with Dave AND Leno, who retired last year. Like with Carson, late night TV will never be the same.

-crainbebo
 
in 92, they had Carson's final show on a Friday of a holiday weekend, and Leno ready to go on the Monday of a holiday weekend, Letterman's final show was on the the last night of May sweeps, all the current late night shows will be reruns all next week, Letterman had his first CBS show in August but in his final years had wasn't doing Friday shows (actually taped Thursday) between the end of May sweeps and the official start of the fall season in September
 
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if Dave had done his final show on Friday it would have been on the 23rd anniversary of Carson's final show, which actually might have been a good idea.
 
Jimmy Kimmel had a prime time special, I noticed last week when looking at the TV listings. It was a rerun of one of the live shows, but I taped it anyway because I figured it was important.

He had some good things to say about Letterman. Jimmy was on his show, and that's what resulted in his being given his own show on ABC. But he had been watching Letterman and learning from him for years. He told his viewers to watch the final episode, and said there would be a Kimmel rerun. He was almost crying.
 
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