Talk:Late Night with David Letterman

Tonight Show "promise"
NBC never promised Letterman the Tonight Show.
 * According to the book The Late Shift, Letterman had it in his contract that he would host The Tonght Show after Johnny. NBC was able to escape this by putting a clause stating that if they didn't give Letterman the job, they had to pay him....one MILLION dollars! MrBlondNYC 20:05, 23 May 2007 (UTC)


 * They did promise it to him after the fact. They promised that he would replace Leno after Leno's first contract ran out.24.94.59.120 (talk) 08:38, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

A&E and E! and VHS
Someone who knows or has a bit more info in this subject should add this in. At the time David Letterman left Late Night, two of the other reasons he was said to have left (besides not getting the Tonight Show gig) was that NBC, which owned the rights to Late Night, sold the repeats to A&E which them broadcast them from about 1991-1993, then resold the rights to the E! channel which aired them starting around 1994 and into the mid-1990's. In addition, they started to sell the episodes packaged without the musical guest on VHS. Letterman reportadly received little or nothing from these deals and was quite upset.

Bookmobile
Does anyone remember the bookmobile recurring segment? I think it was called the "NBC Bookmobile" but I'm not sure. Kathleen Ankers was the librarian, I believe, and someone played "Gus", the driver, always introduced as "gruff but loveable" (or something like that). Ray Spalding 23:11, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * I finally added it to the list Ray Spalding 07:23, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I'm surprised there's no mention of any times that the show left New York to be recorded elsewhere. There was a very memorable week in the late 1980s where Late Night was recorded in Chicago. Guests included Michael Jordan, Mayor Daley (who presented Letterman with a manhole cover), Jay Leno.... --JohnDBuell | Talk 02:55, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Moving

 * Why does it say he moved to CBS for a better money deal? He moved there cause Jay leno was selected to host and he wanted to go to CBS more than the other stations that wanted him Mike 20:22, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

HD
I would like to add to this page that the program is broadcast in High Definition widescreen format in America and other countries, such as Australia, but I'm not sure where to work it in. It is granted that the all shows will eventually become HD, but Letterman was one of the first and one of the few shows that is broadcast in HD in countries other than America. I believe that the change of broadcast resolution and change to widescreen is important to add as it is a big change to a television show, but also I am not sure when the show actually changed to HD widescreen. If anyone knows this kind of stuff, it would make a brilliant addition to this page. JayKeaton 16:26, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

I believe it would be more appropriate to add that to the article on "Late Show with David Letterman". I don't believe "Late Night with David Letterman" was ever broadcast in HD as it ran from 1982 to 1993.

Lol, yeah, like I said, I'm not very learned on the subject ^_^ Thanks for the heads up JayKeaton 18:50, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Theme shows
There should also be a mention of some of the Late Night theme shows that helped set the series apart from the others (including Late Show). A few I remember fondly are the reversed show, the 360-degree rotation show, the audience-participation show (in which the regular chairs were replaced with barber chairs in one segment and Jane Pauley was in another segment in which everybody sounded as if they had inhaled helium), the "VCR show" (in which Letterman pretended it was a morning show), and the episode at the Port Authority bus terminal. B.Wind 06:01, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Lnwdl logo.gif
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Memorable Moments
If someone can cite specific sources, or owns the movie American Splendor, it should be mentioned in the memorable moments section that guest Harvey Pekar had a memorable moment in which the show would not air because of his controversial t-shirt denouncing NBC. Coffee and TV 16:05, 25 October 2007 (UTC) Madonna also did a memorable show, in 1991. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.242.128.64 (talk) 13:28, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Peaboy
'Peaboy' is mentioned at least twice, each with a link to an article about Peaboy. However, 'Peaboy' redirects back to this article, creating a loop. Cheers 200.41.2.144 (talk) 20:19, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Late Night
Shouldn't an overview article, say Late Night (NBC) be created to overview the three incarnations, like exists for The Tonight Show ? 70.29.208.129 (talk) 04:01, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Arthur Allen Jones
I saw a youtube clip where the inventor of the Nautilus cam was interviewed and I'm just wondering when it took place. Dave addresses him as the owner of the company, which was sold in 86 so somewhere from 82-6 I'm guessing. I'm wondering if this is significant, or if maybe we should just create a list of episodes and the guests he interviewed who are notable enough to have their own articles currently? Dictabeard (talk) 17:14, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090624034249/http://www.peabody.uga.edu/winners/details.php?id=49 to http://www.peabody.uga.edu/winners/details.php?id=49

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Late Show Compared with Late Night
This is the place to discuss improvements to the article. It would be better, IMHO, if the two shows were directly compared. This, which I wrote, was immediately deleted from the Late Show article.

The Late Show compared with Late Night
The Late Show is sometimes treated like it was the second part of Letterman's "nightly talk show", that Late Show is Late Night moved to another network. In fact there are significant differences between them. Late Night is an outsider's show as well as a young man's show. Stuck in a time slot of little value — "nobody's listening", as he discussed with a guest — he had a lot of freedom to be wacky, and he wanted to. There were no major advertisers to inform content. Only a hard core of Letterman enthusiasts were watching a show at that hour. With The Late Show, Letterman reached the peak of his career, even though it was an offshoot of his devastating career failure, not getting The Tonight Show upon Carson's retirement. Just as the cancellation of The David Letterman Show led to a $1,000,000 contract to do nothing, and then Late Night, the end to Late Night led to his salary being doubled, and other externals showing success. Shaffer's band was larger, with a horn section (prohibited, on Carson's order, at NBC). Letterman had for his sole use an updated, historical theater, renovated on a 24-hour schedule (to have it ready for the first broadcast) at considerable expense. (The workmen appeared on the first broadcast.) The set was larger and more luxurious. The average age of the viewers was higher because of the earlier hour; older people in the United States on average go to bed earlier. Advertising was up, as one would expect in an 11:30 PM instead of 12:30 AM time slot. Budgets to pay guests were larger. The show, however, lost most of its edginess and became a much more traditional talk show. "The World's Most Dangerous Band" became the sedate "CBS Orchestra". Announcer Bill Wendell retired, and long-time director Hal Gurnee and producer Jack Rollins also soon departed. At this point the show ceased to be serious competition in ratings for the Tonight Show. The greater distance between Letterman and Schafer cut down on their banter, since now they could no longer appear in a single camera shot. Gone were colorful characters like Brother Theodore, Father Guido Sarducci, and Chris Elliott's series of characters. There was less audience participation and fewer stunts. Trips outside the studio were limited to visiting the attendees or would-be attendees waiting in front of the theater and to visits to Rupert Jee's Hello Deli, around the corner but in the same building. There were no more "suits of suet" or dental chairs, no bullhorns used out the window to passers-by floors below on Sixth Avenue, or to occupants of the same floor (the 6th) of the building across the street. Calvin DeForest had a much smaller role than did his NBC predecessor Larry "Bud" Melman, and certainly no sending him off on a road trip to Mexico with an early picturephone. (He got as far as Guatemala City.) Guests were much more distinguished — in a memorable January 8, 2015, segment, there was a 15-minute interview with Donald Trump, described by Letterman as "America's favorite cut-throat real estate mogul and slumlord". But gone were the humble but colorful characters like the nut lady Elizabeth Tashjian, who ran a one-person Nut Museum with both the world's largest nut and the world's largest nutcracker, for which admission was one nut.

Dates when dealing with a post-midnight show
Is the date in this article the preferred way of dealing with dates for shows that air after midnight? Throughout the 80s and 90s, when I still watched Letterman, it was always said that his first show was February 2nd, 1982. This, obviously because technically speaking, Late Night was a Tuesday-Friday show in the beginning, airing early morning on the next day. Every time he'd have Anniversary specials, they would say February 2. This obviously, because by airing at 12:30 AM, it actually debuted in the early morning hours of Tuesday, February 2. But now I see that every site calls it February 1. Is this some sort of established new way to deal with this (going by the date it was taped), or are all the sites just going by Wikipedia? I feel that there should probably be some mention of this to avoid any confusion.24.94.59.120 (talk) 08:44, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Please review these deletions
All of which we owe to  deisenbe (talk) 23:53, 25 July 2019 (UTC)
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Late_Night_with_David_Letterman&diff=886262502&oldid=885070289
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Late_Night_with_David_Letterman&diff=886262768&oldid=886262737
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Late_Night_with_David_Letterman&diff=886262809&oldid=886262768
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Late_Night_with_David_Letterman&diff=886263905&oldid=886263386


 * Most of these items were completely unsourced. Dimadick (talk) 06:41, 26 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Nearly all of this content was WP:UNSOURCED WP:LISTCRUFT.
 * Memorable shows—memorable by who? Of the 20 items listed, only two contained references, one of which was to a WP:COPYVIO video on YouTube.
 * Notable musical guests—who determines notability?
 * Most Late Night appearances—unsourced counts.
 * Taping outside the studio—"More than any other show" unreferenced, and content does not fall under WP:TVPLOT.
 * AldezD (talk) 16:49, 26 July 2019 (UTC)