David Letterman, Jack Paar, Desi Arnaz and the Emmys

In its early years, Late Night With David Letterman did an unusually good job of booking showbiz legends... Bob Hope, George Burns, Milton Berle, Jack Paar, Henry Morgan, Sammy Davis Jr., Don Rickles, Jerry Lewis, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson and Desi Arnaz had all appeared with Dave by 1985.  In the clip below, Arnaz makes his one and only appearance (May 23, 1983), and they get a special visitor (who had not yet guested with Dave at that point) around the 9:05 mark.


This was possible because in those days, Dave taped in Studio 6A while the local NBC station's "Live at 5" newscast would be happening across the hall, in 6B.  Dave would often go over and interrupt WNBC (likely pre-planned somewhat) including a famous incident in 1987 with Harvey Pekar (in which the artist is solely focused on Al Roker, who had once been at WKYC in Cleveland, Pekar's hometown).
For the record, Conan O'Brien also did his show in 6A, while Paar, Carson and now Jimmy Fallon used 6B.  (And just to move even further off-course, here's Don Rickles on "Live at 5" in 1985; a classic).
Getting back to Arnaz, it's interesting that Dave basically turns the whole show over to one guest -- something you would think wouldn't happen given that critics said Dave's interview skills were still developing (although he does just fine).  This happened with a number of the above-mentioned guests.  Arnaz seems relaxed and confident, just as he did when hosting SNL in 1976.  However, the physical deterioration is very apparent from 1976 to 1983.
Fast forwarding to September, 1986, Dave co-hosted the Emmys that year with Shelley Long.  Not only did he and Paul make a week-long runner out of Dave's discomfort with the whole thing, but he also appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," got in some mild jabs at Lucille Ball, and then generated some comedy from the whole thing afterward.  YouTube user Don Giller -- who posted the Arnaz clip above -- is a saint, and has put together a half-hour encapsulation of Dave and the '86 Emmys.  It's brilliantly edited, and a much better use of 34 minutes than, say, watching an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" and then teasing animals for 4 minutes.


One thing I noticed here is that Dave says to Brandon [Tartikoff], "we won't be third for much longer." I believe NBC was already in second place at this point.  It was just before the third season of "The Cosby Show," which had already paid huge dividends for the network on Thursday nights, as well as attracting talent to the network in general.  (If you're keeping track, here's the hit shows that were on NBC primetime that fall: Family Ties, The Hogan Family (aka Valerie in 86-87), ALF, Matlock, Highway to Heaven, Night Court, Cheers, L.A. Law, Miami Vice, The Facts of Life, The Golden Girls, 227, Amen, Hunter, two movie nights and the lower-rated but demographically amazing Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere).
Dave actually did a decent job of hosting that year, and fortunately did not point to the show as a career-defining failure (as he would with the Oscars a decade later).
For good measure, this is the open of the 1986 Emmys, with a cast of stars from the past.  Over on his "News From ME" blog, writer Mark Evanier has several exhaustive, interesting posts devoted to this production (and the glaring mistake you'll see at 1:40).