WAY back in the 80s, I would stay up and watch his show on NBC. He was so different and told jokes that I actually found funny as a teenager. As time grew, and the whole Jay Leno deal happened, I followed him to CBS, but eventually life got in the way of watching regularly. He was doing self deprecating humor before every hipster douchebag thought it was clever and ruined it. So many memories, so much fun.
I'll be 47 in four days. I remember watching the very first show, and was tired as hell the next day at school, but it was worth every minute. I have been a Dave fan thru thick and thin. I remember actually looking forward to Leno being on my screen (back then). Yeah, time went on, and even when he moved up an hour, I just couldn't stay up that late. (Yeah, no DVR or Tivo.) I NEVER watched Leno on The Tonight Show, I was so pissed Dave didn't get it. Oh well, life goes on. Loved everything about last night, especially for his wife and son being in the crowd. MAN, did that montage go by way to fast. I'll be YouTubeing that a couple of times. Thank you, Mr. Letterman, for what you brought to comedy and the joy in this old man's heart. Enjoy, Harry. Daddy's comin' home.
When I got old enough to stay up late and watch whatever I want, Dave was the first I discovered back in 96. For a teenage kid that doesn't know much of anything; it was a delight to find out there was entertaining stuff this late on TV! From the top tens and his bits at McDonald's & Taco Bell, I was hooked. I even had one of my letters make it on-air to the CBS Mailbag! It was also in large part thanks to him that I discovered Foo Fighters, and Everlong is also a favorite song of mine. I couldn't have thought of a better way to end the show the way it did.
Thanks Dave!
(edited by JST on 21.5.15 1036) My side is the side of love, peace and submachine guns.
I went to New York about five years ago and unsuccessfully tried to get tickets to the Late Show. I thought: "eh, I'll try to make it, next time I'm in town". So I kinda' took Letterman for granted, but the guy was great. To this day, when I'm stumped for conversation in any situation, I'll think: "how would Dave get this person talking?" and it usually helps.
Probably around 1984 was the first time I discovered Dave. I (okay, actually my dad) hadn't watched "late night network TV" since SNL tanked in 1980 and we got cable in 1982. Can't remember what skit Dave was doing, but I remember laughing loudly and thought: "wait, is this what normal TV is like, nowadays?! I should watch more".
Around 1988 I remember it being the "cool" show to stay up and watch for us middle-schoolers. Fridays were always better because it meant you could stay up for Late Night at 11:35pm (in my time zone, at least). So much crazy stuff; from getting a back-up Giants kicker to kick field goals into the audience to the famous stuff like Monkey-Cam.
It was refreshing that such a mainstream show could be so...cool. One of my favorite skits from the late 80's:
(starts around 0:57 and was a spoof of a popular beer commercial, of the day)
Really got into the show around 1991-1993. The first few CBS shows exhausted me with their non-stop energy and I remember thinking: "wow! It's gonna' be like this, every night?! Awesome." I didn't watch every minute nor every show, but Dave always seemed to pop up when I was channel-flipping.
I always said: "I like Dave" when talking about late night talkshows. "Like" didn't mean "I was a fan", I genuinely felt like I knew and liked the guy. It's nice that he's just "Dave" to us. That's something to be proud of.
I remember watching the morning show when that was on, at least on those days I was lucky enough to be home from school. When he moved to NBC late night, I was a big fan. Throughout my years in college, my friends and I always watched Dave, usually watching Nightline at 10:30 (Central time), which left us in a scramble to find something to watch in-between (for a while, it was Headline Chasers, a rather mediocre game show with Wink Martindale). If I had a paper to write, it was while Dave was on.
I think those early years were the best, and I miss some of the little bits of insanity--the NBC Bookmobile (Gruff But Loveable Gus!), the search for a Late Night catchphrase ("They pelted us with rocks and garbage"! "And...it's moist!"!), that woman working in an office across the street they used to call. He was truly unique.
I haven't watched for years. Took him for granted I guess.
I remember visiting NY after he moved to CBS and meeting Mujibur and Sirajul at the t-shirt place. I thought it was cool how Dave took over the neighborhood and made celebrities out of all the different people in surrounding businesses.
While Leno was doing "Jaywalking" Dave was doing "Can a Guy in a Bear Suit get into The Russian Tea Room?"
Did Dave bring back Chris Elliot at all for the last shows? One more "Guy Under The Steps"?
I did hear Dave thank Calvert DeForrest, but was there any mention of Larry "Bud" Melman? I was surprised at all the footage NBC let them use the past couple of days. Good for those weasels at GE!
I actually went thru the final highlights and about wore the left click button out on my mouse stopping the video every 1/2 second, trying to keep up. Memorable highlights for me:
-the Velcro and alka seltzer suits (he almost died in rehearsal!) -Mujibar and Sirajul! -the gal from the department store whose house he visited first and her brother let them into her bedroom -the infamous GE near-handshake -anything being dropped off the roof -the episode on the airplane. I caught that one halfway thru and couldn't believe it. of course, I COULD, but....Dave. Same thing happened to me with the 360 degree show. I caught it about 25 minutes into it and thought my tv was going out. I actually got up, went to the living room and turned THAT tv on, and found out everything was fine.
MAN, he was overjoyed by Manning's appearance. I know he's a Colts fan thru and thru, but, WOW, he couldn't get enough of Peyton. Same with Bill Murray. Some things he didn't know about, and it was cool seeing his reactions.
The hour before the show started, the wife and I were youtubing his clips from the past week, (and the Kimmel and Fallon tributes, which made her cry), and we saw one of the final top 10's, the one with his staff. After it was done, we went around and thanked them all, hugged all the gals, but all the guys got handshakes. Even Biff! Now, last night, same thing, except for Steve Martin, Manning and Bill Murray. I think he'd still be hugging Manning if he could. ;-)
Originally posted by dwaters Does Julia Louis-Dreyfus just not age??
NO, but her hubby.....
Talk about a guy who married up, when he was actually young and not old looking. Plus, marrying into all that cash didn't hurt.
ANYWAY, back to Dave, I think the thing about him that I fell in love with, was the way he acted like nothing they did COULD work, or WOULD be funny. He shit all over so many bits as they began, and just kept going with them. Throwing things off the building. Something every kid would LOVE to do. Stupid Pet Tricks.
It was because the "home office" was in Tahlequah Oklahoma that I actually knew more cities in OK than just OKC.
But when it all boils down to it, Dave was a family member. Here's his 9/11 speech.
I got to see Letterman during a trip to NYC (before we moved here) in 2009. It never really occurred to me that there'd be a time when he wasn't on my television.
Originally posted by StaggerLeeTalk about a guy who married up, when he was actually young and not old looking. Plus, marrying into all that cash didn't hurt.
Brad Hall wasn't exactly in the poor house before he married JLD.
Dave fan from way back. I remember watching him on Johnny a bunch of times and just after I got out of the Army and was married in 1980, He got the daytime show. I was working midnights. I saw every minute of every one of them I think. That scene they showed with the couple having their anniversary and the fire broke out on set was ... well, I still recall Dave's reaction and the old guy stomping it out.
Then Late night - watched a lot - burned a lot of video tape for sure. Liked it best since late show - mostly cause it is on earlier.
The wife said after wednesday's show - "He's been on almost our whole marriage. I really turned her on to his comedy - we used to catch him with Johnny in the army barracks back in the 70s.
Too much to miss to say. I wish Hall Gurnee and Merrill Markoe and Chris Elliot would have been on. Rich Hall too.
The guy is... just unique. He's my TV Pal.
you should see the James Cordon stuff too.
We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy - Swift
Someone took the time to cut up all the images from the montage and put them in a Facebook album that identifies (most) of the people and in some cases the date of the episode or at least what the skit or event was about. I had watched it and paused it a bunch on YouTube and I still missed a few of these.
I thought it was a PERFECT sendoff and miss Dave already. Here's hoping Kramer dumpster dived the set that was thrown in the dumpster already so he can put on the show in his apartment like he did the Merv Griffin set that one time . . .
"You are going to get a certain amount of snarkiness on the Internet no matter what, and my rule is that you don't post anything that you wouldn't say to someone's face." Marc Andreyko (Writer of DC Comic's "Manhunter")
FOX Press Release (via Futon Critic). A shame, because despite having crap ratings the show managed to become great again this year. Scuttlebutt says that the show MAY get picked up by The CW next season.