| Runtime: | 90 minutes (June 23 – August 1) 60 minutes (August 4 – October 24) |
| Developer: | Fred Silverman |
| Executive Producer: | David Letterman Jack Rollins |
| Presenter: | David Letterman |
| Producer: | Barry Sand |
| Language: | English |
| Location: | Studio 6-A, NBC Studios New York, New York |
| Narrated: | Bob Sarlatte Bill Wendell |
| Country: | United States |
| Company: | Space Age Meats in association with NBC |
| Network: | NBC |
| Related: | Late Night with David Letterman Late Show with David Letterman |
| Num Episodes: | 90 |
The David Letterman Show is an American morning talk show that was hosted by David Letterman on NBC. It originally aired from June 23 to October 24, 1980. Originally, the series lasted 90 minutes, then 60 minutes from August 4 onward.[1]
David Letterman's relationship with NBC began in 1978, when he made his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.[2] Over the next two years Letterman returned to the show several times, and occasionally served as guest host in Carson's absence.[3] NBC's president Fred Silverman was so impressed by Letterman's performance that he decided to offer him a morning talk show.[4]
In early 1980, NBC's daytime morning lineup consisted of six game shows. The David Letterman Show was made possible by the cancellation of three of them: High Rollers, Chain Reaction, and the long-running daytime version of Hollywood Squares.[5]
The series was a critical success (and won several Daytime Emmys including the 1981 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Writing)[6] but the edgy comedy did not go over well with morning television watchers, who were more accustomed at the time to talk shows, soap operas, game shows, and prime time reruns.
The original producer was Bob Stewart, a veteran quiz-show creator who had enlisted Letterman as a panelist on Pyramid from 1978 onward. However, due to creative differences, Stewart left the show four days before its premiere, and production of the first several shows fell to head writer Merrill Markoe, who acted as the show's de facto producer despite having absolutely no prior experience in the role. Much more comfortable as a writer than as producer, Markoe stayed aboard as the show's head writer for the entire run of the series, but was succeeded as producer by Barry Sand. Sand joined the show as of the July 15th episode, and remained at the helm for the rest of its run. (Sand later returned to Letterman as producer for the first five years of Late Night.) Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers wrote the opening theme of the show.
Behind the scenes were (after the first few weeks) Hal Gurnee directing, with Biff Henderson serving as stage manager, a role he served for the next 35 years of Letterman's career. The writing staff initially consisted of Merrill Markoe (head writer), Valri Bromfield, Rich Hall, Harold Kimmel, Edie McClurg, Gerard Mulligan, Paul Raley, Will Shriner, Bob Sarlatte and Ed Subitsky. (Bromfield, McClurg, Kimmel, and Sarlatte left before the show's end; added to the staff through the run were Ron Richards, Gary Jacobs and Letterman himself, not credited as a writer on early episodes.)
All the writers appeared on camera, some fairly frequently. Seen most often, usually in character being interviewed by Dave, were:
Early publicity photos for the show (issued prior to the first broadcast) showed the cast as a quartet of Letterman, Bromfield, McClurg and Sarlette, and in early episodes, only Bromfield, McClurg and Sarlette were identified as cast members. Ironically, Bromfield, McClurg and Sarlette all left the show between six weeks and three months of its debut, while the other (initially uncredited) regulars stuck through to the end.
Familiar bits that became staples of Letterman's comedy on his later shows were originally introduced on this show. They include: "Small Town News", "Stupid Pet Tricks", and an ever-changing non-sequitur opening introduction immediately before Letterman is seen on camera. (e.g., "And now, a man whose recipe for triple fudge brownies includes two quarts of vodka, sauerkraut, and a heaping tablespoon of love...David Letterman!") Because Letterman owned the rights to The David Letterman Show, he was able to claim ownership of all the sketches that originally aired on it; this would prove valuable in 1993, when Letterman left NBC to launch the Late Show on CBS. NBC wanted to claim that much of the work he did on Late Night was the property of NBC, but because those sketches were carryovers from The David Letterman Show, he was allowed to take them to CBS.
The production staff consisted of George Callahan, Kim Carney, Lee B. Chernick, Barbara Gaines, Edd Hall, Tim Holton, Brian J. McAloon, Meg Mortimer, Dency Nelson, and David Reale.
The news producer was Alan Mohan, and the news writer was Nick Allen. Bill Kelley was the technical director. The musical director was Frank Owens who led the "David Letterman Symphony Orchestra" (actually a four-person combo) and traded jokes with Letterman. Longtime NBC newsman Edwin Newman provided live news updates in the studio during each broadcast; studio audience members often interrupted his reporting with laughter or groans, as if Newman were an anchor on Saturday Night Lives "Weekend Update".
The program was produced by Space Age Meats, a precursor to Letterman's later production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated.
Valri Bromfield, Edie McClurg, Rich Hall, Gerard Mulligan, Ed Subitzky, Merrill Markoe and Paul Raley all appeared on the show and served as writers. Edd Hall (later the announcer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno) and Late Show producer Barbara Gaines were both production assistants, while stage manager Biff Henderson and director Hal Gurnee followed Dave to his next two shows. Announcer/comedian Bob Sarlatte was replaced partway through the run by Bill Wendell, who also announced on Dave's next two shows until his retirement in 1995.
Among guests who appeared were Steve Allen, Andy Kaufman, Wil Shriner, Dinah Shore, Tom Snyder, photojournalists Jon & Keiko Alpert, keyboardist Suzanne Ciani, Dr. Isaac Asimov and Jeff Greenfield, who reviewed the first show while it was on the air.
The show's musical guests included Loudon Wainwright III, The Drifters, Janis Ian, Irene Cara, Maria Muldaur, Nell Carter, Judy Collins, John Sebastian, Tom Rush, Lionel Hampton, Charles Aznavour, Tracy Nelson, Linda Hopkins, Esther Satterfield, Lacy J. Dalton, Michael Franks, Gerard Kenny, John Hartford, and Harve Mann.
In one of his earliest television appearances, a young Bill Maher was an audience member on the show's first episode, and Conan O'Brien claims he hitchhiked to New York just to see a broadcast in Studio 6A (which has also been home to some of Jack Paar's NBC programs, and then eventually Letterman and O'Brien's versions of the network's Late Night franchise).
The final weeks of the show received particular acclaim. Esquire noted, "He cut loose with his own jokes until they had a 2:00 a.m. comedy-club edge. He reached for his emergency weapons. Let go, he let go. By the beginning of October, audiences were packing themselves into the studio." College boys hitched cross-country with petitions to save him. Some Long Island housewives threatened to block Manhattan traffic until the network relented.[7]
For the next year, NBC paid him $1,000,000 ($20,000 a week) to do nothing except not work for someone else without their permission, which included guest-hosting The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on multiple occasions. Letterman's next program, Late Night premiered on February 1, 1982, replacing Tom Snyder's Tomorrow program.[8]
Approximately 83 episodes (of the 90 produced) are held in the archives of Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants; a brief clip from the finale was shown on Letterman's 15th anniversary show in 1997, and similarly brief clips from several episodes were featured as interstitials on the Late Show's final episode in 2015. Some episodes are available for on-site viewing at the Paley Center for Media in New York.[9] In 2022, Letterman started releasing interviews from this program (in addition to his later shows) on his official YouTube channel, after longtime Letterman-archivist Don Giller did this on his own fan channel.[10]