In honor of the 35th anniversary of the premiere of "Late Night with David Letterman"...
There's been so many Letterman retrospectives over the years (Dave's anniversary shows on NBC, news shows on his retirement, etc), but I rarely see any of the following clips excerpted. Here now are some interesting bits of "Late Night (and Show) with David Letterman"...
-The ninth NBC late night episode (02/15/1982) opens from Dave's point-of-view.
-On Late Night's second International Night, Dave welcomes "The Steve Martin of Peru," Mel Cochita (which I've also seen written as one word, "Melcochita" or as "Mel Conchita"). His androgynous stylings make some of the jokes even funnier. Stay tuned after the interview for a hilarious Larry "Bud" Melman bit. (#320, 11/30/1983)... I wonder if anyone has ever noticed that the very first episode of SNL (10/11/1975) had closing credits in which everyone's name had "Bud" inserted as a nickname (Al "Bud" Franken, for example). Lorne Michaels has said he did this as a gentle poke at the then-seemingly-over-prevalent nickname of "Bud." Could Larry Melman (real name, Calvert DeForest) have been named in a similar fashion?
-Solid Gold dancer Darcel Wynne appears in 1983 to dance the Top 10... Most Wanted Fugitives. This was a parody of the segment on her show when dancers would writhe rhythmically to snippets of the Top 10 songs each week. On "Solid Gold," though, each of the 10 segments was taped separately. Here, she has to dance continuously throughout... and the segment seems to last for a looooooonnnnnng time. Poor Darcel is clearly getting out of breath about halfway through, but she does an excellent job. And just the concept here smacks of Merrill Markoe's art-school background. The post-interview features a clearly smitten Dave trying awkwardly to flirt. Oh well.
-This starts with an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger (lame) but move past that to the 5:00 minute mark to watch a re-enactment of the death of President Zachary Taylor. Classic. (Show #1451, 06/27/1991). You can click here to get right to the good stuff.
-Martin Short showed up on 08/2/1991 (#1468), with a great re-enactment of his appearance alongside Bette Davis on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."
-Late Night's 7th Anniversary (02/02/1989) included a healthy selection of funny guest clips that don't always show up in retrospectives.
-Soon after moving to CBS, Dave hosted Phil Hartman, who starts with some good prop work with a cigarette. (02/17/1994).
-A quick clip (from 1994?) of an attempted recurring character: Donnie, the page who likes to suck up (played by a post-Ben Stiller/pre-NewsRadio Andy Dick).
-"Paul Shaffer: Behind the Music"... one of the most elaborate, cameo-packed and sharply written taped pieces from the CBS years (May, 1998).
-Not from Dave's shows, but from the short-lived 1981-82 ABC sitcom, "Open All Night." Dave does a meta-cameo here ("Terry Runs Away," 01/09/1982) in between his two NBC shows. Despite what he has always said about not being able to act, he's hilarious in this scene (written by the great team of Ken Levine and David Isaacs). This episode also featured Ian Wolfe, aka Hirsch the Butler on WKRP. By the way, I give "Open All Night" high marks in the "Worst Theme Song" contest.
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