How did Steve Allen influence the talk show format?

How did Steve Allen influence the talk show format?

Steve Allen opened it up and started doing things that were very much like what we did with Letterman. He took cameras out in the streets, he was doing crazy stunts, he was jumping into vats of liquids and other crazy things like that. He was really the pioneer. When Letterman started his show, I know he watched a lot of Steve Allen tapes, and a lot of Ernie Kovac's tapes and things like that. But Steve Allen brought a certain looseness to the form.