In my last post I wrote about David Letterman setting May 20, 2015 as that date for his final "Late Show."
There were be a lot of memorable moments between now and then. Here are some predictions of things I think will happen between now and then.
- Jay Leno will be a guest. Jay and Dave started out together on the L.A. comedy scene in the 1970s. They were good friends until Leno got the nod to take over the "Tonight Show." That marked one of the longest feuds in the history of television. I have a feeling that the booking of Leno as a guest will be a huge TV moment. It will be a huge ratings win for Dave and one that will be talked about for years to come.
- Harry Letterman will make an appearance. Dave's son is now 11 years old, and from the stories he tells, there is no one that means more to him than his son. We rarely get to see hm except for an occasional picture that he shows every so often. I think it would be neat to see the two chat on TV.
- Bill Murray will be his final guest. Bill was Dave's first guest on "Late Night" in 1992 and "Late Show" in 1993. Murray has always been a great guest, and always finds a way to top himself with each new appearance he makes. There is no other guest that could send Dave out in style. It would be the perfect bookend for Dave's late night career.
- Dave's final show won't have guests. I believe that Dave will take a page from Johnny Carson's book and will do his final show by himself. It will consist of some of his most favorite moments over the years, and it will be a time for him to speak from his heart. No one on television today can do that quite like Dave.
A date has been set for David Letterman's final "Late Show." It will be Wednesday, May 20, 2015. Letterman made the announcement during Wednesday's taping of the show. The date is two days shy of the 23rd anniversary of Johnny Carson's final night on the "Tonight Show."
Letterman will leave the late night arena as it's longest serving host. By the time he hangs up his microphone he will have 6,028 episodes of "Late Night" the "Late Show" under his belt.
The news comes with finality. Beginning next summer, Dave won't be there to provide his take on current events, give us a Top 10 list or banter with Paul. The occasion will be a somewhat sad one for me, but it doesn't seem to have the gravity behind it as when Johnny Carson retired. Maybe it's because Johnny was the only game in town when he left compared to these days where there are many other offerings at 11:30. It could also be that maybe my tastes have change. Maybe it's that Dave has changed.
I was one of those teenagers that would fight sleep to stay up on Friday nights to watch Dave. It was the night when he read viewer mail, one of my favorite bits. Sometimes I would tape his show during the week just to see what he would come up with to break the barriers of TV. To say that he was an influence on me is a huge understatement. Tina Fey remarked during Letterman's induction at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012 that most of the guys she knew in high school and college wanted to be David Letterman. They repeated his jokes, his mannerisms, and even the way he dressed. Tina Fey described me as I was in the 1980s.
But things changed. I don't watch much TV after 11:00 pm anymore. I usually keep up with the late night shows the next day either on the DVR or online. Chalk that up to job responsibilities.
Maybe it's because that I got tired of Dave. I think that it started to happen in 2009 after the news came out regarding his affairs with staffers of his show. It was unconscionable to think that Dave would cheat on his marriage. I'm not one to judge, but the whole situation left a bad taste in my mouth. I give him credit for working on that problem and for working on saving his marriage.
Another reason is that his humor wasn't as cutting as it used to be. Letterman was a master at turning broadcasting on its ear back in the day. He broke the conventional wisdom of how a talk show was done. He took ideas from Steve Allen and Ernie Kovacs and worked them for a new, young audience of TV viewers who weren't around to see those two comedians in their prime. Whether it was being dunked in a vat of water wearing a suit made of Alka Seltzer or disrupting the Channel 4 news down the hall at NBC it was inventive. We had never seen anything like it before. Dave also wasn't afraid to take on his guests and would find a way to knock them down a peg or two.
The David Letterman we see today is a shadow of what we saw in the 80's and early 90s. His talk show is more conventional. He is more polite to his guests, and we rarely see him attempting a stunt that would be talked about at work or school the next morning. His monologues are often one-sided politically and sometimes it seems as if he is phoning it in.
Don't get me wrong, I am still a fan of David Letterman's. He was an influence to me when I started out in broadcasting, and when I try to use humor in everyday situations. There are many moments and memories that he created over the years and they will be ones that we will remember for a long time. I'll be one of the millions that will fight sleep on May 20, 2015 to tune in and salute a TV legend.
