David Letterman: A Life On Television

Watched "David Letterman: A Life On Television" tonight, putting a cap on Dave's career (granted, with a couple weeks to go).  The clipfest gave a good overview of what his show has been like since 1982; thanks to Executive Producer Vinnie Favale, who has been a Dave-o-phile from the start (see this entry by Mark Evanier, whose blog you are probably reading instead of this one).

I did miss seeing a few guests (although, granted, they could have flown by and I missed them):

-The musical montage was sadly lacking Nirvana, R.E.M., The Grateful Dead, Roy Orbison and Sly Stone (from the NBC years) plus Green Day and Phish (from the CBS run).

-No glimpses of stand-ups Norm MacDonald, George Miller, Brian Regan, Mitch Hedburg or Tom Dressen... nor of frequent guests Siskel & Ebert, Martin Short, Tony Randall or Charles Grodin.

-There was a nice tribute to Johnny Carson's connection with Dave, but no mention of Paul Newman (whose only talk show appearances were on the "Late Show").

-No mentions of announcer Bill Wendell or director Hal Gurnee, both of whom appeared regularly on-air until they retired in the mid-90s.

Again, I could have just missed them; leave a comment below if I did!

And while you're at it, let Ken Tucker know that Dave's first guest on his 1980 morning show was NOT Bill Murray... it was photojournalist Jon Alpert.