Name: A David Letterman Talk Show Narrative, Part 2 of 4: Transition from NBC to CBS
Uploaded: 2023-12-19T19:26:44.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'A David Letterman Talk Show Narrative, Part 2 of 4: Transition from NBC to CBS' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-12-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'A David Letterman Talk Show Narrative, Part 2 of 4: Transition from NBC to CBS' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-12-19. Transcript available.

A David Letterman Talk Show Narrative, Part 2 of 4: Transition from NBC to CBS

Thank you.
World Wide Pants proudly presents The Late Show with David Letterman.
World Wide Pants, the most trusted name in pants and entertainment and pants.
Carter was great. I'll never forget the first time I met Carter. He had just
started with
the New York Times. And we were competing with Arsenio Hall. And it was a
Monday night. And
in the Sunday Times, Arsenio took out a full, it was when he first started,
took a full page
ad in the Sunday Times in the arts and leisure section. And in that same
section, Bill Carter
wrote a very favorable review. All right. The next night, I'm at a party at the
Russian
tea room for Billy Crystal had done a special called The Midnight Train to
Moscow, where
he went to see his relatives in Russia. And so they had the premiere at the
Russian tea
room. And somebody introduces me to Carter. And I was a little drunk on vodka.
And I go,
I go, what kind of fucking paper do you call that New York Times? No kidding.
You have a review,
a favorable review for Arsenio Hall. And it's a full page ad. What kind of
fucking rag are you
running there? Blah, blah, blah. And I just berate Carter. I scream, I'm
screaming at him,
ask him about it. And I'm screaming at him. I get home that night and I realize
what I've done.
So the next day I call Carter and I go, Bill, I had a few too many drinks. I
love the New York
Times. You seem like a lovely guy. I hope we have a long and fruitful
relationship. He goes,
I found it very entertaining. Don't worry about it. And we became friends after
that.
Well, here's the thing. Johnny did not want to get involved. He was an NBC guy.
He was very close to
Bob Wright, head of NBC at the time. They've traveled together. They were very
close friends.
So he did not want to elbow his way into this conversation. He was clearly a
supporter of
Dave's. People knew that, but he didn't want to say it. He'd had conflict with
Leno over his crazy
manager, all of that. But he wanted to steer clear of it. So I really needed
him for a couple of things
in this, especially I needed him to confirm his conversation with Dave, which
was the ultimate
conversation with Dave. I needed that really badly. Yeah. I needed his side of
the conversation. I had
Dave's side. I needed his side. As a reporter, right? Like, like, yes, I'm
doing a narrative. I can,
I can write the story and say, David Letterman says this happened. I can do
that. But if both people
tell me, I can just redo the conversation because now I have the evidence of
both sides. Yes. So I need
both. Yes. So how am I going to get Carson? Well, I made an appeal to his
lawyer, Ed Hook Stratton.
Yeah. The hook. And, and Hook Stratton seemed to want to not necessarily help
me, but to kind of be
a player in it. Like he, he liked being involved. And we had a couple of lunches
at the grill in Beverly
Hills, which was Johnny's favorite restaurant, just me and Hook Stratton. And,
and I basically,
you know, was trying to see if he could, and he said, well, I'll ask Johnny and
it's going to be
hard. And he, he wasn't making any commitments. And finally he said, why don't
you, why don't you
type up a list of questions and maybe I'll get them to Johnny and maybe he
might respond to some of
that. If he knows what you want to ask. And I said, you know, so he'll send me
back written answers.
That's not really what I like, but it's better than nothing. Absolutely. So, so
I had this strategy
because I thought, I know one thing that may get Johnny's real interest. And
that was a story that
Dave told me. And Dave told me this story that about, I don't know, two, three
years into his
late, late night show on NBC, when it's, when he's a phenomenon and he's on the
cover of Rolling Stone
and all of this is happening for him. He, he's in his office one day and his
assistant says that
Johnny's then lawyer, Bombastic Bushkin, Henry Bushkin, has come to see Dave.
And that was not
unusual because the Carson Productions had a very small piece of Letterman's
show, like 5%. But,
and Johnny always paid, I mean, Dave played fealty to Johnny always. So his
lawyer's here. Okay. I'll
talk to him. So Bushkin comes in, Bushkin sits down and tells him, we are so
impressed. You're doing
great. It's fantastic. All this tension, blah, blah, blah. But, you know, we
think, you know, we'd like
to line you up and sign you up to Carson Productions. Now we'll sign you up
because then when Johnny does
retire, you'll be in line to get the show. And Dave starts to wonder about this.
And he says something
hinky going on. Yeah. Does, does Johnny know about this? And Bushkin says, well,
no, I haven't discussed
it with him yet, but I think this is a great idea for both of us. And
immediately Dave was like, this is a fire. I do
not want to be anywhere near. Yeah. And he basically says, well, okay, I'll put
you in touch with my
manager, Rollins, Jack Rollins. And, and, you know, you guys can talk about it.
I'm going to stay,
steer clear of this, but you know what, why don't we set up a thing? And then
he leaves and Dave tells
the decision, never let that guy know this again, basically. So, so I had this
story, right? And I
thought, I wonder if Johnny knows that happened because Johnny had by then had
a massive falling
out with Bushkin and we said robbed him and all that. Yeah. So in my questions,
I include, so I heard
from Dave that there was this thing where Bushkin showed up and offered him the
tonight show to succeed
you. Right. And that was one of my questions. And I had like, you know, I tried
not to do too many.
Maybe I did 10. Right. That's not a question, Bill. That's a trail of breadcrumbs
right there.
That's genius on your part to do that. Well, I, I was desperate. I really
wanted to talk to him.
So I, so I send it off to, uh, Bush, uh, Hook Stratton and Hook Stratton says,
uh, okay,
I'll get these to Johnny. Do not expect him to come back quickly. He may never
respond. Right.
He may say to me, uh, you know, tell him, you know, I, I like what he's doing,
but I can't,
I just don't want to be a part of it. Just don't expect much. Okay. And it may,
even if he does,
it's going to, it may take weeks before he decides on this. I said, okay.
Lots of managing expectations. You're basically describing my life with this
show right now,
just so you know. Thanks. But basically I say, yeah, I thank him for helping
and sure. And, uh,
in those days I used to work from home every Friday and, uh, the next day was a
Friday.
And I was home and, uh, in the middle of the afternoon, uh, and my phone was
not a cell phone,
it was my phone, uh, rings and I pick it up. Uh, this is Johnny Carson.
Holy crap.
You got to tell me about this Bushkin story.
And I was like, Oh yeah. Oh yes. So I, uh, I tell him that story and he says,
you, you,
you don't know that guy cheated me. And all of a sudden I'm like, I understand
that Johnny.
That's why I wanted to run this by you and everything. And he said, and I said,
can I've
got you on the phone. Can I ask you some of these other things? And he said,
well, I'm really
uncomfortable about it. But so we talk a little and I'm pulling threads out of
him in this conversation
that he's, and we're going back and forth about don't say I said that. And I
said, okay, whatever.
And we went back, but I said, I've really got to know about this conversation.
Dave says, he called you. He says, yes, he called me. And he repeats it word
for word.
But Dave, I mean, it was identical, identical. And I was like, I, I, I talked
to him for maybe 40
minutes, let's say. And, uh, I hang up the phone and I'm upstairs in the office.
My wife's in the
kitchen making dinner or something. And I just said, but she came to the bottom
of the stand.
She said, that was Carson on the phone. Right. I said, it sure was. Yeah. So
that's how I got
Johnny Carson on the landline. You could have been mowing the lawn. You could
have been getting
groceries like, like the world back then. Yeah. But I'll tell you, Johnny wants
to know about
Bushkin. He was going to hear, he was going to get to me somehow about that
story.
Oh, it's made a fun because he was the revered. He was, ah, you know, the
wizard of Oz. He was the
guy behind the curtain. He was, you know, Michael Ovitz. Oh my God. And hushed
tones. We're going to
meet Michael Ovitz. And we just abused him. We just used to abuse the shit out
of him. And he loved it.
Did he make fun of him? Obviously I didn't do it. It was all stemming from
Letterman giving us license
to do it. And then we all followed suit. We'd make fun of him. You know, he
would, we'd have a meeting
with him and we'd mention that the so-and-so's not treating us too well. They're
not giving us a lot
of guests. And he would pull out, he had a single buck slip in a leather, like
little binder that the
corners went into the thing. And he'd pull out this piece of leather and he'd
write a note and put it
back in his pocket. And Letterman would go, who are you going to kill? You're
going to kill somebody?
Is that a fucking hit list? Are you going to murder somebody? You're going to
have somebody killed,
right? And Ovitz would just laugh and, you know, giggle about it. And we just
used to do crazy shit
with him. And I stayed very good friends with Ovitz. And when Ovitz left CAA,
Letterman was very upset
because as Letterman used to say about Ovitz, he goes, he's not the smartest
guy in the world necessarily.
He's this much smarter than every agent he's ever had. This much smarter. And
it was true. There were
agents all over the place. It wasn't like this was Ovitz over here. He was this
much smarter.
Which is not to say that he wasn't a bright guy. He was a very bright guy and
very cultured.
And a lovely guy. He loved us. He just loved hanging out with us. He loved fooling
around with us and
ordering pizzas. And it was the one opportunity I think he got to be a real guy.
Yeah. He just used to love coming to the show. And I'll never forget. So anyway,
when he left
CAA and went to Disney, Letterman was very upset. He felt like he left, he lost,
you know,
his most trusted advisor and guy that got him where he, where he got.
I would tell you, it's one of the great, great times of my career. If I, if I
had, you know,
the top 10 moments, it would be in the top two. Getting Letterman was so
exciting. I give all credit to
Howard Stringer, who was the president of CBS Broadcasting at the time. And a
great believer as,
as Mr. Paley was, who founded the network, who, who, who founded, started CBS
and, and ran it,
owned it for, for most of his life. It's about show business. And, and Howard
heard the rumblings that
Dave might be available and interested. And then of course, NBC made the
decision to go with Jay
and that, you know, put it kind of a public, then it was more of a public, I
wouldn't say auction,
but it was a showcase, a presentation. ABC was in it, you know, I think it was.
Oh, Ovitz, one of the greatest setups in history with what Mike Ovitz did to
have these courtesans
show up. Yeah.
Yep. And, and the courtesans did, but, and I was not into the, in the
negotiations, you know,
that was Howard and the entertainment folks and the business folks, but, you
know, Howard wanted
Bletterman and Howard knew the value of talent. He had run the news division.
He knew the value of
talent there, uh, behind and in front of the camera. Yeah. And, and he was
determined. And I'll
never forget when he got the phone call. Uh, we were in a phone booth there,
there were attention
viewers and listeners. There were something called phone booths. And that's
where you put, uh, they
were public telephones and you put money in them to make a phone call. Uh, we
were at a press tour event
at the, what's it called? The Lowe's Santa Monica hotel, which is a beach front
hotel owned by Lowe's,
which was the Lowe's corporation, which was owned by Larry Tish, who at that
point owned CBS. Yup. And
Howard was the president broadcasting. And I was the marketing guy, uh, similar
cast of 