'' was a nightly hour-long comedy
Talk Show on
NBC hosted by
David Letterman . It
Premiered In 1982 and went off the air in
1993 .
In
1991 , the show's three production companies —
Carson Productions ,
Worldwide Pants , and NBC Productions — were awarded a
Peabody Award , which cited the following:
:In the
Past Ten Years , one show has moved to the position of the leader in late night television in creativity, humor, and innovation. That program is ''Late Night With David Letterman''. As one member of the Peabody Board remarked, "David Letterman is a born broadcaster." He is also a savvy co-executive producer. Along with co-executive producer
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 medium. Particularly noteworthy is the work of head writer
Steve O'Donnell and his talented staff. Together, the "Late Night" team manages to take one of TV's most conventional and least inventive forms — the talk show — and infuse it with freshness and imagination. For television programming which, at its best, is evocative of the greats, from ''
Your Show Of Shows '', to ''
The Steve Allen Show '', and ''
The Ernie Kovacs Show '', a Peabody to ''Late Night With David Letterman''.
David Letterman left both the show and NBC for what became ''
The Late Show With David Letterman ''. Reruns of the show aired nightly on cable channel
Trio until it ceased transmissions at the end of
2005 .
The first show was on
February 1 ,
1982 with the final show on
June 25 ,
1993 , although
NBC would air repeats until
September 10 , 1993. A total of 1,810 shows were broadcast during its eleven and a half year run.
The program ran four nights a week, Monday to Thursday, beginning in
1987 . Starting in
September 1991 , "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" was pushed back from 11:30ET to 11:35, with Letterman starting at 12:35, at the request of NBC affiliates who wanted more advertising time for their profitable late newscasts (though Letterman had a different reason for the delay: "With the extra five minutes, I will make certain that my make-up is absolutely perfect").
Letterman, who had hoped to take over ''
The Tonight Show '', left
NBC in
1993 for a better financial deal with
CBS where he started ''
The Late Show With David Letterman '', in direct competition with
Jay Leno .
Conan O'Brien replaced David Letterman as host of "Late Night", but in name only.
When Letterman left, NBC asserted their .
Like other talk shows, the show featured at least two or three guests each night, usually including a comedian or musical guest.
Letterman frequently used crew members in his comedy bits, so viewers got to know the writers and crew members of the show. Common contributors included
Bandleader Paul Shaffer ,
Chris Elliott , DeForest,
Announcer Bill Wendell ,
Writer Adam Resnick ,
Scenic Designer Kathleen Ankers ,
Stage Manager Biff Henderson ,
Producer Robert Morton , director Hal Gurnee, associate director Peter Fatovich,
Stage Hand Al Maher, camera operator Baily Stortz and the "production twins", Barbara Gaines and Jude Brennan.
Letterman's show established a reputation for being unpredictable. A number of celebrities had even stated that they were afraid of appearing on the show. This reputation was born out of moments like Letterman's verbal sparring matches with
Cher ,
Madonna (described by comedian
Robin Williams as a "battle of wits with an unarmed woman"), and
Shirley MacLaine .
- Letterman used a bullhorn to interrupt '' The Today Show '' with the announcement that he was not wearing any pants.
- Letterman interrupted WNBC-TV 's newscasts by walking into their studio which was across the hall from his. Letterman often complained that ''Live At Five'' got better guests than he did.
- Cher had two memorable moments on the show. In one segment, she called Letterman an " Asshole " on air. They patched up differences for a 1987 show that had Cher and former husband Sonny Bono reuniting to sing "I Got You, Babe."
- Letterman would often perform stunts such as donning a suit covered in Alka-Seltzer tablets and being lowered in water, and wearing a suit of velcro and jumping up onto a velcro wall.
- Another recurring gag was Letterman destroying items, from throwing watermelons off the roof of a five story building to running dozens of hot dogs through a compressor to demolishing the Energizer Bunny with a baseball bat.
- Sandra Bernhard 's appearance in a leotard. After sitting on Letterman's lap, both reacted as if Letterman had become Sexually Excited .
- The numerous and always outrageous appearances by comedian Andy Kaufman . Probably the most memorable appearance was one in which Kaufman and professional wrestler, Jerry Lawler appeared to get into a fight on the air. At one point, Lawler slapped Kaufman in the face knocking him to the ground. Kaufman responded by throwing a cup of water at Lawler. This entire moment was recreated in the film '' Man On The Moon '', where it was revealed for the first time that the appearance was planned ahead of time by Lawler and Kaufman.
- Arguments between Letterman and the cantankerous Comic Book creator Harvey Pekar .
- Eccentric actor Crispin Glover 's bizarre behavior, including kicking the air close to Letterman's head .
- Various technology experiments, including visits to the control room, mounting of mini-cams in unexpected places (such as the "monkey cam"), and the "thrill cam" which flew across the audience every night.
- Sam Kinison 's introductory appearance on November 14 , 1985 . Letterman warned the audience, "''Brace yourselves. I'm not kidding. Sam Kinison.''"
- Bruce Springsteen appeared as a surprise musical guest on the final show. He performed "Glory Days."
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- ''The Top Ten List'', from various "home Offices"
- ''Stupid Pet Tricks''
- ''Stupid Human Tricks''
- ''Will It Float?''
- ''Viewer Mail''
- ''Supermarket Finds''
- ''Velcro Suit''
- ''Suit of Rice Krispies ''
- ''Dumb Ads''
- ''Small Town News''
- ''Ask Mr. Melman''
- ''Dave's Record Collection''
- ''Crushing Things With A Steamroller''
- ''Throwing Things Off A Five-Story Building''
- ''Crushing Things With An 80-Ton Hydraulic Press''
- ''Dog Poetry''
- ''Visits with Meg Parsont in the Simon And Schuster Building''
- ''Elevator Races''
- ''NBC Bookmobile''
- Nation-Wide - Nine Network , Approx. 12:00am - 3:30am Monday - Wednesday and Friday to Sunday
