David Letterman
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David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American talk show host, comedian, and television producer. Letterman's ironic, often absurd comedy is heavily influenced by comedians Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs, and Johnny Carson. He is most known currently for being the host of his own show, The Late Show with David Letterman.
Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Harry Joe Letterman, was a florist who passed away in 1974; his mother Dorothy, a Presbyterian church secretary, is an occasional personality on his show. He has an older sister, Janice, and a younger sister, Gretchen. One of his early comedic influences was the Cincinnati talk show host Paul Dixon. Letterman graduated from Ball State University, receiving a B.A. in telecommunications in 1969. He began his broadcasting career at Ball State's student-run radio station, WAGO - AM 570 (Now known as WCRD, 91.3). A rare aircheck of Letterman on WAGO can be heard here.
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Early TV Career
Letterman began work as a radio talk show host and on Indianapolis television station WTHR as a local anchor and weatherman. He received recognition for his unpredictable on-air behavior, which included erasing state borders from the weather map and predicting hail stones "the size of canned hams." One night he reportedly upset his bosses when he congratulated a tropical storm on being upgraded to a hurricane.
In 1975, Letterman moved to California with hopes of becoming a comedy writer and started writing material for sitcoms. He also began performing stand-up comedy at The Comedy Store, a famed Los Angeles comedy club and proving ground for young comics.
Letterman had a stint as a cast member on Mary Tyler Moore's variety show Mary, a guest appearance on Mork & Mindy, and appearances on game shows such as The $20,000 Pyramid. His dry, sarcastic humor caught the attention of talent scouts for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and Letterman was soon a regular guest on the show. Letterman became a favorite of Carson's and became a regular guest host for the show starting in 1978.
Soon afterwards, Letterman was given his own morning comedy show on NBC, The David Letterman Show. The show was a critical success, winning two Emmy Awards, but was a ratings disappointment and was cancelled after a brief run during the summer of 1980. NBC kept Letterman under contract and tried again in a different time slot; in 1982, Late Night with David Letterman debuted on the network.
Letterman's show, which ran weeknights at 12:30 am eastern time, immediately following The Tonight Show, quickly established a reputation as being edgy and unpredictable, and soon developed a cult following (particularly among college students). The show was markedly different than the soft-sell talk-show competition (including his own lead-in); Letterman as an interviewer could be sarcastic and antagonistic to the point that a number of celebrities have even stated that they were afraid of appearing on the show. Letterman's reputation as an acerbic interviewer was born out of moments like his verbal sparring matches with Cher, Shirley MacLaine and most notably, Madonna (see Madonna on Letterman).
Image:Daveln.jpg The show often included quirky, genre-mocking regular features, including "Stupid Pet Tricks", throwing things off the roof, the Top 10 List, and a facetious letter-answering segment on Thursdays ("Viewer Mail" moved to Fridays in 1987 when a fifth night was added to the program's weekly broadcast schedule). Other memorable moments included Letterman using a bullhorn to interrupt The Today Show TV program, which was on the air conducting a live interview at the time, announcing that he was not wearing any pants; interrupting Al Roker on the Live at Five live local news by walking into the studio; and the outrageous appearances by comedian Andy Kaufman, Late Night writer Chris Elliott and comic book writer Harvey Pekar. In one highly publicized appearance, Kaufman appeared to be slapped and knocked to the ground by professional wrestler Jerry Lawler. (Lawler and Kaufman's friend Bob Zmuda later revealed that the event was staged.)
Hosting The Late Show
Image:Johnnylatenight.jpg Letterman remained with NBC for eleven years. When Johnny Carson announced that he would retire in May 1992, a protracted, multi-lateral battle erupted over who would replace the long-time Tonight host. Eventually, executives at NBC announced Carson's frequent guest-host Jay Leno as Carson's replacement. Letterman, a longtime protégé of Carson's and who had frequently credited Carson with boosting his career, was reportedly bitterly disappointed and angry at not having been given the Tonight Show job. In 1993, after receiving advice from Carson, Letterman moved to CBS to host a new show, The Late Show with David Letterman. In 1996, HBO produced a made-for-television movie called The Late Shift, based on a book by Bill Carter, chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for the coveted Tonight Show hosting spot. About a year after Late Show began, Carson made a surprise appearance during a "Top 10 List" segment. The audience went wild as Letterman stood and invited Carson to sit at his desk. Such was the overwhelming applause that Carson was unable to deliver the joke (the applause having gone on too long) and he humbly returned backstage.
The Late Show competes in the same time slot as Leno's The Tonight Show. Letterman has garnered both critical and industry praise; his shows have received 67 Emmy Award nominations, winning twelve times in his first twenty years in late night television. Leno consistently beats Letterman in the ratings, with a lead that has grown over the years to two million viewers but has been narrowed, as of February 2005, to less than a million viewers (5.8 vs. 4.9 million) [1]. Letterman has also consistently ranked higher than Leno in the annual Harris Poll of Nation's Favorite TV Personality; as of 2003 Letterman ranked third in that poll, behind Oprah Winfrey and Ray Romano, while Leno ranked ninth.
Letterman started his own production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated, which produces his show and several others, including Everybody Loves Raymond, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and several critically acclaimed, but short-lived television series for Bonnie Hunt.
In January of 2000, Letterman underwent quintuple heart bypass surgery. During his recovery, friends of Letterman hosted reruns of the Late Show, including Drew Barrymore, Ray Romano, Robin Williams, Bill Murray, Kathie Lee Gifford, Regis Philbin, Charles Grodin, Julia Roberts, Bill Cosby, Bruce Willis, Jerry Seinfeld, Martin Short, Danny DeVito, Steve Martin and Sarah Jessica Parker. Upon his return to the show on February 21, 2000, Letterman brought onstage all of the doctors that had performed the operation, including Dr. O. Wayne Isom and physician Louis J. Aronne, who makes frequent appearances on the show. In an unusual show of emotion, Letterman was nearly in tears as he thanked the doctors. The episode earned an Emmy nomination.
Letterman would again hand over the reins of the show to several guest hosts in February 2003, when he was diagnosed with a severe case of shingles.
Image:Johndave.jpg On September 17, 2001, David Letterman was the first major American comedy performer to return to the television airwaves after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In his opening monologue, an uncharacteristically serious and very emotional Letterman struggled with the reality of the attacks and the role of comedy in a post-9/11 world, saying, "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?"
In March 2002, as Letterman's contract with CBS was expiring, ABC expressed the intention to offer Letterman the time slot for long-running news program Nightline with Ted Koppel, citing more desirable viewer demographics. This caused a minor flap that ended when Letterman re-signed with CBS.
Image:Johnnyondave.jpg
In early 2005, it was revealed that retired King of Late Night Johnny Carson still kept up with current events and late-night TV right up to his death that year, and that he occasionally sent jokes to Letterman. Letterman then used these jokes in the monologue of his show, which, according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally (a onetime producer for both men), "[Johnny] gets a big kick out of." Lassally also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor." [2] Letterman also frequently employs some of Carson's trademark bits on his show, including "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Paul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band" and the "Week in Review". The late Carson reportedly wrote all of the jokes Letterman used in the opening monologue of his first show after Carson's passing.
The show started to broadcast in HDTV format on August 29, 2005, one day before its 12th anniversary show.
On December 1, 2005, daytime talk queen Oprah Winfrey returned to Letterman's show, ending a 16-year "feud" between the two TV titans. Winfrey's appearance garnered Letterman his highest Nielsen ratings(13.5 million people) in ten years, tripling his average numbers.
His guests
According to the Late Show Newsletter, the following comedians have appeared most frequently on Letterman's two late-night talk shows as of April 2004:
- George Miller (55 appearances, plus four "From My Room" taped segments)
- Richard Lewis (52 appearances)
- Jay Leno (40)
- Robert Klein (37)
- Jeff Altman (36)
- Billy Crystal (35)
- Jerry Seinfeld (34)
Outside of television
- For a time, Letterman was engaged to Late Night head writer Merrill Markoe, but their relationship eventually fell apart. Markoe moved to California soon after to pursue a writing career.
- In 1985, Letterman established the Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship at his alma mater, to provide financial assistance to Department of Telecommunications students, based solely on his or her creativity, and not high academic grades —Many reports have stated that in order to qualify for the scholarship a student must have a C average or below. This is not true, nor has it ever been true. The scholarships are based on creativity regardless of grade point average. Letterman continues to regularly donate to Ball State and other organizations through his American Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming.
- In 1988, Margaret Mary Ray was arrested while driving Letterman's Porsche near the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City. Ray claimed to be Letterman's wife. Ray went on to be arrested repeatedly in subsequent years on trespassing and other counts. In one instance, police found her sleeping on Letterman's private tennis court at his home in New Canaan, Connecticut. Ray spent nearly ten months in prison and 14 months in a state mental institution for her numerous trespassing convictions. On October 7, 1998, Ray was struck and killed by a train in an apparent suicide in Colorado.
- In 1994, Letterman appeared in the Chris Elliott film Cabin Boy, as the "Old Salt in the Fishing Village." He is credited as Earl Hofert, a pseudonym Letterman employs occasionally, the name borrowed from an uncle on his mother's side of the family.
- In 1996, Letterman became co-owner of the open-wheel racing team known as Team Rahal, with former Indianapolis 500 champion Bobby Rahal. The team changed its name to Rahal Letterman Racing in May 2004, and later that same month, team driver Buddy Rice won the Indianapolis 500. This was an exciting win indeed for Indianapolis native Letterman, who has attended the race regularly since he was a young child. Normally a private person away from the studio (like his mentor, Johnny Carson), Letterman uncharacteristically gave many interviews following the race.
- Also in 1996, Letterman provided the voice of the character "Mötley Crüe Roadie #1" in the animated motion picture Beavis and Butt-head Do America, again using Earl Hofert as his name in the end credits. Letterman has often expressed an appreciation for Beavis and Butt-Head, once calling it "the only thing [on television] that consistently makes me laugh".
- Letterman, along with bandleader Paul Shaffer and Late Show stage manager Biff Henderson, celebrated Christmas 2002 in Afghanistan with United States and international military forces stationed there. The three visited Iraq around Christmas in 2003 and 2004 as well.
- On September 12, 2003, Letterman announced that his long-time girlfriend and ex-colleague Regina Lasko [3] was six months pregnant with his child. His son Harry Joseph Letterman, named after David's late father, was born on November 3, 2003.
- In March 2005, local police in Choteau, Montana, where Letterman owns a home, foiled an alleged scheme to kidnap Letterman's son.
- In late October 2005, Jay Leno told the New York Daily News that he and Letterman have not spoken to one another in 13 years.
See also
- Madonna on Letterman - info on some of Letterman's most talked about shows, including the 1994 interview in which the singer said the word "fuck" fourteen times.
- Craig Ferguson
External links
- David Letterman at the Internet Movie Database
- The Official Late Show with David Letterman Website on CBS
- List of Letterman Fan Sites on Yahoo
- Letterman biography from his hometown newspaper
- 1999 article on Letterman from salon.com
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