David Letterman's final shows...

I remember Letterman before Late Night. Horribly awkward on game shows, especially on $25,000 Pyramid and the Gong Show. About the only thing notable about his morning show was a lame running Joe Garagiola gag. But he did turn things around with a style that was Internet before the Internet made his game seem quaint, and he kinda aged out of a lot of his physical stuff. And he also perhaps became too human (the heart surgery and the affair) to be truly above it all.

He was fortunate to be able to get the venerable ride into the sunset that Leno was not able to. That was NBC's fault: There's no way there should have been a three-year countdown to a Conan takeover. More to the point, Conan should never have been the Tonight Show's host. Whenever he appeared on the show as a guest, crickets could be heard. It wasn't a good fit, Conan's solid comedy skills notwithstanding. NBC needed Leno to rescue the whole deal, if it was to be rescued. Basically, Leno was hung out to dry by how it was handled; he was in a fight against Letterman and Conan that he wasn't going to look good fighting.

The Hugh Grant interview is mentioned as a turning point for Leno passing Letterman. Sadly, the OJ trial was probably part of that, too. I still have nightmares about the Dancing Itos.

 

Ah, Letterman's morning show. The brainchild of one Fred Silverman, "The Man with the Golden Gut". Yeah, and a tendency to wreck a network schedule.

No doubt Letterman's morning program was quirky and funny. It was exactly the wrong audience. NBC canceled three game shows (Hollywood Squares, High Rollers and Chain Reaction) to make room for this show, which originally was 90 minutes.

It was trimmed to an hour within six weeks.

 

Watched my local 10PM CBS news tonight and expected to see a Letterman re-run at 10:35pm (CT). Instead they aired a re-run of The Mentalist.

I'm somewhat surprised as my local CBS station in Chicago is an O&O and not an affiliate and I was expecting three months of Letterman re-runs until Colbert's show starts. Is CBS making a mistake by doing this as people looking for late night entertainment are now more likely to sample Kimmel & Fallon's show. They may like what they see and stay there. Is CBS hurting Stephen Colbert by doing this?

 

Peyton Manning shares his thoughts on Letterman. I thought this was pretty cool.

After final Late Show, Peyton Manning pens tribute to David Letterman | The MMQB with Peter King

 

Letterman was my hero in high school and college before the move to CBS. I think he coasted for awhile on CBS (and, as someone mentioned earlier, the constant applause instead of laughing by the Ed Sullivan Theater audience has bugged me since 1993, even in the finale), especially once Leno passed him in the ratings and he had some disputes with management. However, I think post-heart surgery, Dave really started doing the show he wanted to do with more guests that interested him, rather than the constant movie-pluggers who clogged up Leno every night, and maintaining, or maybe even reigniting the musical influence that he had since the NBC show. It was better over the last few years than a lot of people, especially fans of the old show, gave him credit for. He lost his fastball but he was still a crafty, old junk-baller who could toss up some real gems every once and awhile. The last 2-6 weeks were great television, even if much of it was a farewell tour.

 

I don't understand this either. I could get a "cool down" period of a week or two with re-runs or no new content, so people could decompress with Letterman to Colbert, or running Letterman re-runs until Colbert starts. (When Ferguson left, they tried guest hosts like Drew Carey, and that crash and burned from a ratings perspective.) But why months of re-runs of regular shows?

 

When Letterman was thanking the people who showed up for the final Top 10, he seemed the most genuinely excited to see Manning.

 

James Corden referred to Letterman as "America's older brother" - seems pretty on the nose. And Corden's bass player? Didn't know bass players were allowed to look like that.

 

Late night ratings don't matter much in summer. They'll clear the air and create some buzz for Colbert's debut.

 

You won't want to follow Dave anyway. Much better to follow whatever follows Dave.

I was critical of Leno's first few tonight shows because they weren't johnnys. And I dont think Conan was doing much to move my needle after the first week or so. Much better to viewers some time to reset and recalibrate expectations.

 

CBS is showing Mentalist reruns at all stations. Seems strange, considering "The Mentalist" was canceled.

 

Fact that may be interest nobody but me: I noticed when Letterman's credits rolled that one of his exec producers was not there: Maria Pope, who moved into the driver's seat back when Burnett was doing more Worldwide Pants stuff. She'd been in Dave's doghouse, though, but he never really fires people. She'd been with him since 1982.

Turns out she left to be supervising producer for Jimmy Fallon two months ago.