David Letterman and Late Night

by Paul Mikesell

When David Letterman began hosting NBC’s Late Night with David Letterman in 1982 following Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show, it is unlikely that many viewers thought he would still be a late night fixture for millions of Americans twenty-five years later. Letterman’s sense of humor was dry and sarcastic, to the delight of fans but often at the displeasure of his guests who often found him rude. Late Night played around with the conventions found in most talk shows. Bland bits performed by other hosts were transformed into absurdist comedy bits by Letterman such as the “Top Ten” list, “Stupid Pet Tricks” (as well as “Stupid Human Tricks”), fictitious “Viewer Mail,” and the destruction of items, often by throwing them off a building.

During the 1980s, there wasn’t much else on television that shared the same tone as Late Night with David Letterman. When the show premiered in 1982, its closest contemporary was the 1975-1980 run of Saturday Night Live, also on NBC. While SNL leaned more towards the topical than Late Night’s absurdity, the atmosphere between the shows was similar. Not only did Late Night feature young comedians and breaking bands, but the leader of “The World’s Most Dangerous Band” was Paul Shaffer, a former SNL musician and featured player and the first guest on the initial broadcast was Bill Murray. While the style may have seemed new at the time, Letterman and Late Night helped shape much of the face of comedy coming after it. Conan O’Brien is one of the most obvious comedians to draw influence from Letterman. Not only did he take over Late Night in 1993 when Letterman left NBC for CBS, the comedy bits found in his version of Late Night have retained much of the absurdist slant Letterman was famous for. Along the same lines, Letterman’s show attracted a young viewing audience, much like O’Brien’s does today. As with most things on television, once it was discovered that there was a large audience of young people watching Late Night, many of the other networks attempted to duplicate the show’s success. By the early 1990s, there had been failed attempts at late night talk shows by Pat Sajak, Joan Rivers, and Chevy Chase. Arsenio Hall, however, proved to be the most successful in courting the youth audience with his syndicated The Arsenio Hall Show. It is interesting to note that many feel the reason that Hall’s show ended in 1994 was ultimately due to the hype and new competition from Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show on NBC and Letterman’s The Late Show on CBS.

While it took a few years for an audience to find Late Night, the show was always a critical darling. Even during its first year on television, critics such as Tom Shales recognized the groundbreaking comedy appearing on NBC at 12:30 a.m. every night. Shales mentioned how Letterman’s approach to the show was “such a comfortable place to put your feet up and have a few good har-hars, is the successor to Studs (Terkel’s) Place, Garroway’s at Large, Jack Paar’s rubber room, Steve Allen’s crazy attic of the soul and the public workshop once manned by the magnificent Ernie Kovacs” (Shales 1982). Letterman’s appeal, despite his often bizarre humor, came from “a quick wit and a remarkable ability to find the human element in any situation” (Deal 1984). Throughout his career, Letterman has positioned himself as a showbiz outsider. “That look of ingratiating boyish guilt that comes from earning more than $1 million a year to be wacky on TV is part of what endears Letterman to a baby-boomer constituency that has endured wave after wave of show-biz phoniness and a lifetime of tacky television tripe” (Shales 1985). Like any media personality with this attitude, the question asked by Glenn Collins in 1986 in The New York Times, “Can David Letterman Survive Success?” Collins brings up the point that part of Late Night’s success came from the marketing of the show around Letterman, the constant every night, as opposed to the guests and interviews (Collins 1986). A similar thought was brought up in Shales’ 1982 article by Letterman himself: “”The truth of the matter is, the reason for ‘The Tonight Show’ is to see Johnny Carson. I mean, do you circle in your TV Guide when you see Angie Dickinson is going to be on? You tune in to see Carson, and I think that, at this point, is the function of that show” (Shales 1982).

A common thread between all four of these articles is division of the format other show. While Late Night was technically considered a talk show, the emphasis was always placed on comedy. Producer Barry Sand stated that it “isn’t a talk show, it’s a comedy show. It’s comedy with guests, and we book guests who are funny, or when Dave can be funny off them” (Collins 1986). Letterman’s often confrontational interview style may have seemed combative to his guests, but it was merely a service to his viewers. He worked to find a way to ask the questions the typical college student would want to ask one of his guests (such as asking boxing promoted Don King, “What’s the deal with your hair?”). With Letterman, Late Night was a place to entertain. Sometimes the guests would take the back seat to a larger theme of the night. Two notable examples of these themes that took over the show include broadcasting the show from Letterman’s living room (Deal 1984) and having show regular Larry “Bud” Melman serving as guest host while Letterman stayed home and watched the show while eating a TV dinner and reading the newspaper (Shales 1982).

Playing with the television conventions expected of a talk show was a regular part of Late Night. A large part of this is due to the fact that Letterman was a product of the first generation to grow up watching television. One way this was implemented was through the irrelevant comedy bits previously mentioned. Letterman claimed, “Television is kind of a toy.” Late Night “demystified its technology in the service of laughs by mounting minicams upon the ceiling lighting grid (the “Sky-Cam”), upon guests like actor Tom Hanks (the “Guest-Cam”), and upon a theatrical chimpanzee named Zippy (the “Monkey-Cam”) (Collins 1986). This concept of intertextuality towards the history of the talk show format combined with a sense of self-consciousness towards Late Night actually being a television show provided a tone and aesthetic that was unique to only a few other 1980s series, such as It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, but became more prominent into the 1990s with series like Dream On, The Kids In The Hall, and Mr. Show with Bob and David.

By 1985, Late Night with David Letterman had finally gained a significant audience. At this point, it became clear that Letterman’s success was not limited to the cult level he had already achieved as a comedian and host of a short-lived morning program on NBC. As previously stated, part of Letterman’s appeal was that he seemed like a “regular guy” who just so happened to have a television show. This, of course, was a contrast to the President at the time, Ronald Reagan who often came off as a “movie star” who just so happened to be the President of the United States. Letterman represented the average member of his target demographic. The humor on Late Night frequently crossed the line between genius and inane, often times within the same bit. In the portrayal of the 1980s by the media of the time, popular media either had to be smart or dumb. At the movie theatre, you could see Out of Africa or Rambo: First Blood Part II. Your music could be Wham or R.E.M. (who incidentally made their television debut on Late Night in 1983. And on television, it was Hill Street Blues or Knots Landing. Late Night, and more specifically Letterman’s specific comedic tone, found a way to be both smart and dumb at the same time. Late Night did not talk down to its viewers, but still understood that sometimes college students like to see things being thrown off a five-story building.

(ed. note: That last sentence may be the most honest thing I have ever written)