Byron said:

What made me a Letterman fan for life:

(skip to the 4:00 minute mark in the first video)

And a pretty good read on Letterman's place in late night TV, from Rolling Stone:

How David Letterman Reinvented TV

Today, talk shows work off the model that Letterman, not Carson, built. "You see his influence in every talk-show host – Jon Stewart, Conan, Colbert, all those guys," says [Jimmy] Kimmel. "We're all 100 percent guilty of stealing from Letterman. That show changed everything, and it changed the humor of the United States more than anything I can think of. We all got a lot cooler all of a sudden."

Because of Letterman, celebrity is no longer treated with unquestioned reverence, the audience is in on every mocking joke and pop-culture reference, and self-knowing humor and showbiz sarcasm pervade the work of avowed Letterman fans like Tina Fey and Howard Stern. "As a kid I would watch The Mike Douglas Show, but it felt like a different world," says [Judd] Apatow. "When Letterman was on, I thought, 'I know these people and this sense of humor – this is a world I have to find a way into.' There were six or seven people or groups who changed comedy in the Seventies and Eighties – Saturday Night Live, Monty Python, National Lampoon, Richard Pryor and Steve Martin – and Letterman is at the top of that list."

Most folks will tell you The Tonight Show format was built upon the shoulders of several men, Allan, Parr, and Carson., those guys set the standard. Some of skits that Letterman has done were based on skits Jack Parr once did. The American Masters profiled Johnny Carson last month. the did an excellent job of giving a historical perspective of " The Tonight Show" ; how the format evolved but how basic elements of the past were still present in today's respective TV talk show formats.

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[Edited 10/16/13 17:51pm]

I don't watch him anymore but back in the 80s I watched EVERY night. He was hilarious - the stuff he'd come up with as pranks, the characters on the show, and running gags was like nothing I'd ever seen before.

I loved it when:

he'd call his mom on air

he'd phone up random people or places

throwing random things - tvs, watermelons, 100s of balls, etc - off the top of buildings to the street below

the various "prancing fluids" fountain he had for awhile and the stuff he used in them: chocolate syrup, Listerine, milk

going through fast food drive-thrus and giving the workers a hard time/working AT a fast food restaurant and giving drive-thru customers a hard time via the speaker

I know I'm forgetting a ton of other stuff. I loved the guy back in the day when he still wore sneakers.

This one is pretty funny and made me hungry

I loved it in the earlier days but after the change i stopped it wasnt good anymore .. never watch him now

artist76 said:

Gunsnhalen - It seems like you're coming around to the letterman lure? It's good to see that you're starting to appreciate him. That Dolphin performance - I love that Letterman saw the pretentiousness and absurdity of Prince of that era, and wasn't afraid to poke fun at it. I read old threads on here that Prince left Mayte on the sidewalk after that show - he jumped into his limo and dashed off without her, then swung back around to get her. '90s Prince was an easy target for jokes. I also used to watch letterman but not anymore. Like many entertainers, he was fresher and better when younger, then maybe you run out of the fire or ideas with age. You mention how grumpy and conservative he seems - I think he's making a caricature of the grumpy old man. He accepts that he's an old white man and he's acting the part, to make fun of it. Not only does he shake his head at long-haired rock stars, he also pretends he's hard of hearing, having heartburn, etc. So I think he's being sardonic, Like rodeoschro, I thought he handled 9/11 in a dignified, exemplary manner. I wished more of our real leaders showed the same humanity, emotion, yet strength that he showed on that first show after. That's a moment when you realize how much of a responsibility celebrities really do have as someone who comes into so many people's homes every night, someone we look to to reflect and model how we feel. It's not all fun and games. They can, and (unfortunately) do matter. I've seen interviews with him, like the Oprah one, and he seems like a good guy.

Well, kind of. His 80's and even 90's stuff some of it is funny as hell. So i will give him his credit! but still... modern Letterman just rubs me the wrong way.

And it could be he is doing all the things you mentioned here! maybe he is just playing up a bit... but i wish he could go back to the edginess he once had.

TD3 said:

Byron said:

And a pretty good read on Letterman's place in late night TV, from Rolling Stone:

How David Letterman Reinvented TV

Most folks will tell you The Tonight Show format was built upon the shoulders of several men, Allan, Parr, and Carson., those guys set the standard. Some of skits that Letterman has done were based on skits Jack Parr once did. The American Masters profiled Johnny Carson last month. the did an excellent job of giving a historical perspective of " The Tonight Show" ; how the format evolved but how basic elements of the past were still present in today's respective TV talk show formats.

===============================

[Edited 10/16/13 17:51pm]

When the RS article said talk shows now work off Letterman's "model" and not Carson's, I don't think they meant the format of the Tonight Show...I think they meant the attitude and approach that Letterman took towards the genre.

From the article:

Byron said:

TD3 said:

When the RS article said talk shows now work off Letterman's "model" and not Carson's, I don't think they meant the format of the Tonight Show...I think they meant the attitude and approach that Letterman took towards the genre.

From the article:

"He did the thing that everyone's tried to do since and has never done, which is to take the talk-show form and redo it," says Jerry Seinfeld, one of Letterman's earliest guests. "The mindset was, 'We're tired of pretending there are no cue cards and no cameras and nothing's rehearsed. It's late, and we're going to take over this little piece of territory and do our own thing.' Now that mindset is everywhere."

Who was the article of RS? Either he or she was born in the 70's or early 70's or they slept through the 50's and 60's. Jack Parr was notorious of going "off-script" its one of the reasons why he left, was pushed, or fired from "The Tonight Show". There several stories on what happen to Parr and his somewhat brief tenure of the program.

So if their evidence or their example is Mr. Seinfeld speaking about Mr. Letterman "approach" and/or attitude... that's a thin explanation and or evidence on how Mr. Letterman has supposedly change "Late Night" TV. I was a big fan of Letterman's but I found his CBS show to be boring.

TD3 said:

Byron said:

Who was the article of RS? Either he or she was born in the 70's or early 70's or they slept through the 50's and 60's. Jack Parr was notorious of going "off-script" its one of the reasons why he left, was pushed, or fired from "The Tonight Show". There several stories on what happen to Parr and his somewhat brief tenure of the program.

So if their evidence or their example is Mr. Seinfeld speaking about Mr. Letterman "approach" and/or attitude... that's a thin explanation and or evidence on how Mr. Letterman has supposedly change "Late Night" TV. I was a big fan of Letterman's but I found his CBS show to be boring.

You should actually read the article.

And it's not about Letterman going "off-script". There WAS no script lol...Late Night with David Letterman was basically a satire of the entire late night talk show genre.

Letterman wasn't allowed to book A-list celebrities early in his show's run--Carson forbid it, didn't want anyone skipping over The Tonight Show in favor of Late Night--so Letterman built his early shows around booking B-list talent (and C-list and Q-list lol), as well as unknowns, whether they were actually talented or not. As a result he ended up wth far edgier guests, ones who weren't just interested in promoting their movies or TV shows. And Letterman's acerbic wit played brilliantly off of those guests, creating an almost completely different talk show environment for viewers to absorb. And when A-list celebrities DID make it on to his show, they interacted with Letterman in a much different way than they did with Carson and other talk show hosts. He didn't occasionally go "off-script"...he strayed far away from the conventional talk show template every single show, and took pride in it.

Standard approaches towards late night talk shows was to have talented skit players do a skit here and there in a professional manner. Letterman used distinctively untalented performers for surreal, absurdist skits (and even just threw in stage workers), with most of the humor coming from how gawd-awful the performers were and Letterman's reactions to them.

There's nothing in the article that claims nobody did any of this before Letterman. But it rightfully acknowledges that Letterman was the one who took the rather safe late night talk show genre and create a show centered around ridiculilng damn near everything about that genre. He tried doing it with a morning show first but it failed, mainly because the audience for morning shows tended to be housewives and stay-at-home moms...they didn't get what he was trying to do. When he moved to late night (12:30 am), his audience wasn't housewives, but high school and college students. They got his humor and what he was doing.

[Edited 10/17/13 7:13am]

The closest thing I could think of that would be a precursor for Letterman's type of talk show would be the show Fernwood 2 Night (which was excellent). However, that show was more like a sitcom. But it ridiculed the talk show format and pretentions to the hilt.

artist76 said:

I love that Letterman saw the pretentiousness and absurdity of Prince of that era, and wasn't afraid to poke fun at it.

SuperSoulFighter said:

Hey and don't forget Paul Schaefer is seriously giving up the funk! He played with George Clinton!

I've always preferred Letterman's show because he tends to have more interesting musical guests than the others.

BlackAdder7 said:

It's all a matter if taste. Graham norton is as friendly/unfriendly as letterman At Least letterman speaks English as opposed to Jonathan woss who bawely tawks engwish

I think Graham Norton comes off as coming from a funny place and Letterman angry old man. I think the 80's or 90's Letterman was far better.

I think Graham Norton should be aired on US TV along side Ellen's show.

OK, is it the job that makes the comedian turn into a prick? Having to be funny every minute or two of an hour long show would be stressful. I kind of knew a guy who worked for Conan O'Brien and he said Conan was a prick too.

hey how come nobody is talking about how bad Arsenio's comeback is?

yikes!!

3rdeyedude said:

hey how come nobody is talking about how bad Arsenio's comeback is?

yikes!!

Arsenio is playing a repeat tonight......already??? Letterman sucks now

Meh.

He has a snarky, frat boy kind of humor.

I enjoy his top ten lists. Oh, and Paul Paul is a riot