Reflections On 'Late Night With David Letterman'

What is the history behind Late Night With David Letterman?

The beauty of working with David Letterman was that he had a very clear cut vision of what he wanted to do. He had done a morning show, which failed miserably, which then goes back to the question of how late night and daytime cross over. He didn't do well in daytime because it wasn't his forte. He couldn't speak to that audience. They cancelled his show, and I think it was either Fred Silverman or Brandon Tartakauff at NBC who had the vision, I think it was Silverman actually, to realize that this guy is the next Johnny Carson.

How did Letterman's show differ from its predecessors?

When Letterman came about, it was really about reinventing it for a younger audience. The audiences for those shows became very old. In the same way that Lorne Michaels reinvented sketch comedy and live sketch comedy for a new generation, Letterman did the same thing for talk shows.

How did Letterman's show change when it moved to the 11-30 time slot?

When we went to 11:30, I think it had to be a little slicker. I don't think the show could have been that much about failure, but it had to be about success. You're the cream of the crop, you made the 11:30, you're an upper class man, you can't do freshman stunts anymore without losing the essence of what the show was, or what the star was. You had to balance all that out. You were a flagship for the network now, and to Letterman's credit; he's brilliant at that. He truly knows how to adapt and work and rework. Everyone was taken by surprise by how strong he was at 11:30. There were critics who said they'll never be able to do that show, they'll never succeed, it's too crazy, they'll never be able to do a late night, an 11:30 at night show. He proved everybody wrong for a lot of years.

What was the climate behind the scenes at Late Night?

What you see was what you got. We always looked at the show as if you opened up the doors of the studio or the offices for an hour. What you saw on that show was the same mood, the same silliness, and the same stunts. We used to do that in the office all day long. We would throw things off the buildings. We were a bunch of idiots.

What is the best part of working on late night talk shows?

I'll tell you what I miss most not doing late night talk shows. I miss the amount of information that I was able to have access to. When I produced a late night talk show, I would get every CD that hit the market, I would get every book that came out, I would read every press release that any press agent would send out. I would go to see every Broadway show, I would get invited to every screening of every film. So as a result I was kind of bombarded with pop culture. I think also as a result, there was a sense of being in touch with youth. I knew their music. Even though I would never listen to Limp Bizkit or whoever the act at the time was, I knew their music because it was my job to know it, and when I left that show I kind of stopped doing that, and I miss it. I miss working for a late night talk show.

What is the worst part of working on late night talk shows?

Being on a daily deadline is a killer; it's truly something that makes that business a young man's business. When you have to put out a product every single day, with that high level of quality, it's hard. It eats up your life. And it's more than just the hours that you put in on the job; it's the hours that you have to be aware of everything going on. It's the hours that you have to spend in dark theaters. I was doing The Late Show; I used to approve all the comedians. I would approve the stand-ups we had on, and I would spend, you know, four out of seven nights a week, in the back of a night club watching acts. That's a lot of time. As it turned out, it took me all those years later, when I left the show, to start a family, and get married and have some resemblance of a life.