The Late Show with David Letterman
From Free net encyclopedia
| runtime = 1 hour 2 minutes per episode | creator = David Letterman | starring = David Letterman, Paul Shaffer | country = United States | network = CBS | picture_format = 1080i HDTV | first_aired = August 30, 1993 | last_aired = Present | num_episodes = 2,500, as of January 24, 2006
| imdb_id = 0106053
|}} The Late Show with David Letterman is an hour-long weeknight comedy and talk show broadcast by CBS from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City. The show debuted on August 30, 1993 and is produced and hosted by David Letterman. The show's music director and bandleader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is Paul Shaffer. The head writers are brothers Justin Stangel and Eric Stangel. The announcer is Alan Kalter, who replaced Bill Wendell as announcer in 1995. The show airs at night, but is recorded the afternoon of the broadcast.
Letterman was previously the host of Late Night with David Letterman (which many news articles still call Letterman's show even today) on NBC from 1982 to 1993. Shaffer, Wendell, and several members of the band were also with the NBC show.
Contents |
Sketches
Memorable Guests
Madonna
Template:Main In March 1994 pop star Madonna appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote her new album Erotica. The unofficial "Queen of Pop" who is known for controversy infamously swore thirteen times throughout the interview and refused to leave at the end. Letterman, who asked her questions on various topics including her nose ring, music and love life was soon branded a "sick fuck" after he suggested Madonna kiss a member of the audience. Madonna went on to ask if Letterman was wearing a "rug", whether he wanted to smell a pair of underwear she brought on the show, or whether he thought the microphone was sexually big. In between this Madonna often swore and referred to sexual themes including her vagina saying quote: "Did you know it's good to pee in the shower?" Eventually, she swore so much that the producers went to commericals and showed comedic monologues of Madonna. At the end of the interview, when Madonna refused to leave, Letterman cut to a break and when they returned Madonna was gone. Letterman has since stated "I'm not pleased with the way I handled it. I should have said, 'You say that word one more time and you're gone. That's it. Adiós.' And I didn't." in USA Today. Madonna appeared days later on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and appeared predictably mellow. Her return to Letterman was in 2000 while promoting album Music.
Drew Barrymore
In a 1995 episode, actress Drew Barrymore stood on Letterman's desk and flashed her breasts as part of an erotic dance (the cameras did not capture the actual "flash"). The dance shocked the usually unflappable Letterman. It was reportedly a gift from Barrymore for Letterman's birthday. Said Letterman, "I couldn't have been more pleased."
Oprah Winfrey
Image:Daveoprah.jpgLetterman and Oprah Winfrey have had a peculiar public relationship. Although Winfrey appeared twice on Letterman's Late Night show in the 1980s, she had never appeared on The Late Show and Letterman had never appeared on Winfrey's show. Winfrey had described her visits to Late Night as difficult. Despite Letterman's jocular attempts to woo Winfrey onto his show, Winfrey did not visit The Late Show from 1989 until December 1, 2005. "I want you to know, it's really over, whatever you thought was happening," said Winfrey during the broadcast, and presented him with an autographed picture of herself and Uma Thurman to commemorate his "Uma... Oprah..." debacle at the 1995 Academy Awards. About 13.4 million people, according to preliminary Nielsen Ratings, tuned in to watch. "The Late Show" last attracted as large an audience in February 1994, when it had the Winter Olympics face-off between figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding as a lead-in. It drew its best adults 18-49 rating (4.4) since Letterman's return to the show following heart surgery in February 2000.
Janet Jackson
Pop star Janet Jackson appeared on the show in February 2004, the day after her infamous Super Bowl incident where her breast was revealed in a "wardrobe malfunction". When asked by Letterman about the incident she said "Jesus Christ" and had to be censored. If the incident had not occurred this phrase may not have been blocked but was due to a five second delay put in by CBS. During the interview, she was also asked questions about her brother Michael Jackson's arrest, to which she did not answer and said she "did not want to talk about it".
Courtney Love
In March 2004 rock singer Courtney Love flashed David Letterman six times — once while standing on his desk. The next day she was arrested in New York City for throwing a microphone stand at a man.
Memorable Episodes
September 17, 2001
Image:917rather.jpg On September 17, 2001, The Late Show returned to the television airwaves six days after the September 11th attacks, a high-profile appearance given the anxiety and grief still felt by many at the time, especially in New York City. Letterman reportedly was considering not resuming the show (a comment that later attracted criticism).
In his opening monologue, an emotional David Letterman said:
- "We're told that they were zealots fueled by religious fervor … religious fervor … and if you live to be a thousand years old will that make any sense to you? Will that make any goddamn sense?"
That night Letterman hosted Dan Rather and Regis Philbin. The Dan Rather interview was one of the most emotional interviews in the history of the show, with both David and Dan Rather held back tears while speaking about the attacks.
Since Sept. 17, 2001, the regular opening, which had previously made fun of New York City, has consistently led with "From New York… the greatest city in the world…"
High-definition broadcasts
The show began broadcasting in HDTV on Monday August 29, 2005. About two weeks later, Tim Kennedy, the show's Technical Director, commented on the transition in the show's official newsletter:
- The biggest challenge in the HD conversion was to renovate and upgrade our old control room, audio room, videotape room, and edit room while still doing five shows a week....This entailed pulling a remote production truck on 53rd Street running somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 feet of video and audio cable just to tie the truck to the existing technical plant....
- The coolest piece of equipment is our new control room Virtual Wall. We have done away with the conventional monitor for every video source and replaced it with four 70-inch rear projection screens and within those screens we can "virtually" place as many video images as we want, anywhere we want them, and when we want it.
Kennedy and his crew won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video for a Series" during the nearly-four-month-long transition to HDTV.
Other staff
In 1996, Dave fired longtime producer Robert Morton for an apparent botched attempt to move the show to ABC in place of Nightline. Jay Leno's Tonight Show had also recently overtaken the Late Show in viewers, and director Hal Gurnee, producer Peter Lassally and announcer Bill Wendall also left around this time. Dave seemed to take on a more somber tone from this date forward, though he did promote writer Rob Burnett to Producer, a post he holds to this day. Burnett was absent from the day-to-day operations, however, from 2000-04, replaced by Barbara Gaines and Maria Pope. While Gaines took over behind-the-scenes duties admirably, Pope insisted on the on-air producer, on stage but just out of camera range. The show seemed to suffer greatly due to Pope's presence, and Dave showed a renewed sense of ease with her departure in 2004.
International Broadcasts
Australia
Brazil
Canada
Hong Kong
Latin America
Mexico
New Zealand
Norway
The Philippines
United Kingdom
Statistics
The following is a list of statistics about the first twelve years of the show:
- 2,458 broadcast hours (2,418 shows, four prime time specials, 26 guest host shows, ten Late Show Backstage shows)
- 6,312 guests, performances, demonstrations and stand-up acts
- 1,459 cameos
- Most frequent guests:
- Rupert Jee (284)
- Mujibur and Sirajul (91)
- Regis Philbin (87)
- Tony Randall (74)
- Most frequent musical guests:
- Elvis Costello (16)
- Lyle Lovett (15)
- Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson (14)
- Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, Bonnie Raitt (13)
- Blues Traveler, Foo Fighters, Jewel, Natalie Merchant (12)
- Most frequent comedic guests:
- Brian Regan (16)
- Jake Johannsen (14)
- Jim Gaffigan (11)
- Mitch Hedberg (10)
- Wendy Liebman (9)
Gallery
 December 1993 to December 1995 Opening Title Shot |
 December 1995 to March 1999 Late Show title shot |
 Late Show Title prior to the switch to HD |
 Revised Show Logo |
 Letterman delivering his monologue |
 Band leader and sidekick, Paul Shaffer, holding a note |
 Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra |
 Late Show Announcer Alan Kalter |
 Late Show Staffer Stephanie Birkitt at the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy |
 A typical Late Show Act 6 commercial bumper |
External links
- Official Sites:
- Profiles:
- Fan Sites:
- [http://groups.google.com/groups?group=alt.fan.letterman Late Show with David Letterman Fansite at Google Groups]
- Late Show with David Letterman Fansite at DDY
- Late Show with David Letterman Fansite at GeoCities
- Media:
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