Farewell, David Letterman

Tonight, one of the best signs off after a final broadcast.  I thought it would be fitting to share my memories and experience with the 'Late Show' and David Letterman.

As a kid, I somewhat remember staying up late and watching Johnny Carson on the 'Tonight Show.'

Somewhere along the line I took notice of David Letterman the hour after Johnny doing his thing on NBC.  He was sarcastic, irreverent and funny.

When Johnny signed off for the last time, I remember the media reports about a late-night war and who would be taking over after his departure.

As we all know, Jay Leno took over the spot that Dave had been dreaming of, leaving him with a tough decision to make.

Ultimately, Dave moved his show over to CBS and set up shop in the Ed Sullivan Theater.  The late-night war began and it was a great time for late night television.

While I thought Jay Leno did a nice job, for some reason I was really into David Letterman's humor.

On July 18th, 1996 I began driving out to New York City with my buddy Coby in a rented Pontiac Grand Prix.  He had scored tickets to a taping and as big fans we were both super excited to see the show.

(On a side note, I'll always remember the date as we were driving out the morning after TWA-800 exploded and crashed off the coast of New York after taking off from J.F.K. International Airport.  We listened to coverage on the radio most of the way as pieces of the plane were washing up on shore.)

When we got to New York, we stayed in a hotel outside the city and took a bus in for the show.  Since we had heard horror stories of the people we would encounter - like shady guys selling fake Rolex watches out of their trench coats - we made an agreement.  If anyone were to approach us, we would make like we were in a conversation and keep walking.

It looked like rain on this particular day and we weren't 100 feet into our walk when a guy asked if we'd like to buy an umbrella.  Per our agreement, I looked at Coby and kept walking.  Coby stopped and began chatting the gentleman up.  As to not look stupid I just kept walking, as the man began screaming at me...

"Sorry to take up so much of your precious time!"

I waited at the next corner until Coby showed up... with an umbrella.  We had a laugh.

At the theater, we spent some time walking around taking pictures.  We stopped at Rupert Jee's deli and got a sandwich and a picture with the theaters longtime neighbor.  We stopped by the t-shirt store on the otherside of the theater and met Mujibar and Sirajul.  (All of these guys were regulars on the show.  Somewhere, in some box I have pictures to show you...)

Inside, the theater was kept very cold, just the way guests always joked during the show.

The guest that night was actor David Duchovny and musical guest Sponge.

After introducing David Duchovny, Letterman noticed that Duchovny's fly was down and asked if he wanted to start the segment over.  He agreed.

When he restarted, as if coming back from a commercial break, Letterman commented that the theater was rather drafty that night... an inside joke for the guests!  (To this day whenever I hear Letterman make a side joke and it doesn't make sense, I know it had to be something similar to what happened the day we were there.)

The show ended and we went out to catch dinner and make our way back to the hotel.  We were excited to watch the show and called home to let everyone know they should keep an eye out for us.

While we didn't make it on television, we were happy with our experience and made our way home.

Later, when I watched the video tape of the show, I noticed as the credits were rolling and the camera zoomed out, it came to a stop and you could see the backs of our heads right in front of the camera.  We made it on TV!  (Well... kinda-sorta.)

As I've been watching the shows over the last few weeks, for some strange reason it's been very emotional to me.  I guess I feel like I'm losing an old friend.

Thanks for the laughs, Dave.  Enjoy your retirement.

~CMF