A David Letterman Talk Show Narrative, Part 1 of 4: Late Night
The Letterman Podcast's host Mike Chisholm asked if I might put something together to help commemorate his 100th episode.
Rather than select highlights and best-of conversations, I decided to try to craft a behind-the-scenes narrative of Dave’s talk show history as told by many of Mike’s podcast guests — the writers, producers, musicians, and network executives who worked for and with Dave throughout his 35-year tenure at NBC and CBS.
The narrative is distributed in four parts:
Part 1: Late Night on NBC, 1982-1993
Part 2: The transition from NBC to CBS, 1993
Part 3: Late Show on CBS, 1993-2015
Part 4: Epilogue and bonus clips
The roster of the guests selected include:
Amy Cherin Humes, Assistant to the Director
Bill Carter, Author
Carter Bays, Late Show Writer
Chris Harris, LS Writer
Chris Schukei, Assistant to the Music Director
Craig Thomas, LS Writer
Daniel Kellison, Late Night, LS Producer
Dave Rygalski, LN Writer
Felicia Collins, LS Musician
Fred Graver, LN Writer
Gabe Abelson, LS Monologue Head
George Schweitzer, CBS Chief Marketing Officer
Gerard Mulligan, LN Writer and Segment Producer, LS Writer
Jeff Martin, LN Writer
Jeremy Weiner, LS Writer
Joe Grossman, LS Writer
Jonathan Green, LS Writer
Lee Ellenberg, LS Writer
Matt Roberts, LS Head Writer, Executive Producer
Paul Shaffer, LN and LS Music Director
Robert Morton, LN Producer, LS Executive Producer
Rupert Jee, Proprietor, Hello Deli
Stephen Winer, LN Writer
Steve O'Donnell, LN Head Writer, LS Writer
Steve Young, LN and LS Writer
Tim Kennedy, LS Technical Director
Tom Malone, LS Musician
Tom Ruprecht, LS Writer
Vinnie Favale, CBS Vice President, Late Night Entertainment, East Coast
Will Lee, LN and LS Musician
Some details become blurred from long-dormant memories — a Viewer Mail letter is actually a separate, stand-alone comedy piece; a timeline might be off by a year or two. But the substance of those memories are precise and vivid, and they offer a heretofore untold look into the creation of material as well as fresh perspectives from the personalities that helped mold a culture-defining legacy.
Great thanks to Worldwide Pants for granting permission to share some of its owned and licensed content and to Mike for eliciting so much essential history from his guests.