Name: Barbara Walters Interviews David Letterman, January 29, 1992
Uploaded: 2022-12-31T03:55:03.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Barbara Walters Interviews David Letterman, January 29, 1992' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-12-31. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Barbara Walters Interviews David Letterman, January 29, 1992' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-12-31. Transcript available.

the childhood in Indiana happy memories largely happy memories middle child
right
you know what we hear about middle children raised by poodles did you know that
is that
in your nose no I didn't know that that's nice
we used to call every few months requesting an interview with David Letterman
he would say no
then maybe and sometimes even probably but never yes when he finally said the
word I almost didn't
believe him we've been down this road too many times he'd never really done a
television interview
of any consequence so getting him to the chair after he committed was no easy
feat but when he
finally sat down he was an open book talking for the first time about all the
women he had invited
into his life and the one he hadn't in a moment David Letterman for a man who's
on television most
every night it's amazing how little anyone knows about David in 1982 he premiered
a bold
new show called late night which featured consistently original and offbeat
humor television comedy has
never been the same a native of Indiana David Letterman's first show was a
college radio program
at Ball State University in Muncie he parlayed that success into a job as a
local TV personality in
Indianapolis photograph made earlier of the United States today then David
moved to LA where he made a name
for himself first as a comedy writer and as a stand-up comic
he first stepped into the mainstream with the short-lived variety show called
Mary starring Mary Tyler Moore but as with so many young comics the big break
was on the tonight show with Johnny Carson in Letterman Johnny found a kindred
spirit who consistently made
him laugh after an NBC morning show on which letterman flopped Carson's
production company found him a spot on late night
and a place in television history letterman and his writers have opened up
comedy revealing humor in the simplest and silliest of notions his interview
approach is sometimes considered mean spirited but many guests say that sitting
down with letterman is better described as a sort of survival test
his personal life is to say the least low-profile if it weren't for that
unfortunate woman who kept breaking into his Connecticut home we'd never have
read anything about him we do know he married young divorced and had for a
while a serious romance with Meryl Markle the original head writer of his show
when I spoke with David Letterman in 1992 it was before his successful move to
CBS and the ever
a revolution from late night to late show at the time he was at the time he was
at the time he was at the time he was at a crossroad in his career late night
was marking its 10th anniversary at NBC David was contemplating whether to stay
at the network that had chosen his old friend Jay Leno to succeed Johnny Carson
considering all of the unwanted attention focused on letterman by the press at
the time I was nervous myself about interviewing him I'd heard he was shy and
very guarded but he was nice relaxed and answered everything
did you ever think that you would be doing this for 10 years nope nope maybe
two two years the the only other network television experience I had had lasted
I think less than six months I think it lasted six weeks and so when we get a
chance to do this show I assumed that it would if it stayed on a year it would
be a miracle and if it stayed on longer than a year it would be a mistake
so what do you think now well it's obviously a terrible mistake it's a
miserable mix-up how do you stay fresh how do you do it night after night well
in terms of staying fresh we we gave that up I guess in the second year
it's the same old story the same night after night it's the same nonsense yeah
we get a we get a really good idea and then we'll do it every night for a
couple of months and then we'll continue to do it and then just beat it to
death and then after we've beaten it to death we'll do it for another year
so we don't have to watch anymore right we've seen it all yeah I pretty much
absolutely for someone who is as shy as I keep hearing you are painfully shy
painfully shy yeah what are the other things really socialized I believe that
that's that's it too doesn't like to deal directly with people
uh well that's not necessarily true but you go out every night and do what you
don't have to do which is a warm-up with the audience I mean facing them why
uh it's it's fun you you uh you get a chance firsthand to see the people to to
get a look at them to you know to smell them
uh it's you know I don't know it's it's uh it's it's I think it's more for me
than for them it's a good way for me to figure out uh who they are and how they're
feeling and and and what we can try to do to to to make their part of the show
more pleasant because I think night in and night out from for me the most
important variable uh of that show even after 10 years is how the audience
feels about it
David you have been asked this before and answered it but I'll have to do it
again there are some viewers
and guests who say you are smug condescending mean yeah does that bother you no
uh if somebody says
I'm going through a bad divorce please don't don't ask me about my divorce uh
somebody in my family is sick
please don't ask me about my family I have a drinking problem please don't ask
me about my drinking problem
by the way all of these things are presently happening to me I knew you were
going to say
Barbara don't ask me about any of these things that's 32 questions I have to
cancel so if you
then get on the air and ask that person one of those questions I think that's
mean yeah
but but if you make a joke about a person's tie or about a person's uh uh socks
or or whatever and and
perhaps they don't take it as good naturedly as you had hoped I'm not sure that
that's meanness but I
think maybe that's what people were perceiving David I've read most of the few
interviews you've done
and in one you said comedians are depressed nasty sullen backbiting and jealous
is that a good
description of you this is a uh this is an observation that came to me after
spending about
five years at a place in los angeles called the comedy store and I think people
understand what this is
now uh it's uh a showcase for young comedians and and when I began doing stand-up
comedy I left
Indianapolis in 75 and went out there because I knew here was a place that you
could try to do this
and in in that group of people at the time there must have been like two dozen
guys men and women
there was a pattern part of that did emerge that seemed to be guys were always
depressed and they
were always worried about they didn't do as well on stage as they had hoped and
somebody else was
doing Merv Griffin and they didn't get a chance to do Merv Griffin and and why
can't I be on the
Merv Griffin show and why can't I be on the Mike Douglas show so as as a subplot
to the lives of of us
out there I think that that could be a safe description a fair description yeah
do you remember your first
appearance on the tonight show yep it was at the time and probably will
regardless of what happens
be one of the if not the most satisfying moment uh for me in big time
television because you did well
with Johnny yeah yeah yeah it was uh I don't know it took me weeks to unwind it
was it was uh very
exciting and and and not much since has come even close to that there was the
morning show that you did
at NBC that's right okay you can still laugh yeah at the time it was it was uh
awfully painful the
experience um and in show business and I guess just like any other business you
think well now I've got
to go to the end of the line and who knows whether or not my number will be
called again so it was uh
it was difficult for me what did you do that year I fought with my girlfriend
well and the time just flew by
you know you mentioned your girlfriend but um
one of the things that isn't that well known about you is that you were married
when you were in college for
seven years right and broke up no no it was nine years nine years yeah uh yeah
I got married in college and
um madly in love with this beautiful woman uh girl maybe and um you know it was
all right by and large
we had a happy time together and then um and then I went a little nuts and uh
misbehaved and uh uh it
came apart but I I think that it's uh my own doing or my own undoing want to
get married again yes
someone in your life right now yes someone you want to marry uh yeah someone
you want to tell us about
uh well like what do you want to know height weight name who she is and are you
really going to get
married oh I I it's hard for me to imagine myself not being married again um
because you know I would
like to have a family and uh I think the the prudent way to do that is marriage
um the fact that I was
married early and for a long time and that it came apart is is sort of like a a
warning
to me that has stayed with me and I'm and I'm not eager to get married again
and have another one
come apart so I'm I'm taking my time have you asked her ask her to what why I've
asked her to drop the
topic you've asked me to drop the topic no you've asked her to drop the topic
no I spent a great deal
of my time saying hey let's talk about that later what's for dinner she was
somebody who used to work with
you yeah is that you don't want to say more no what I mean you know I got
enough people moving in at my
house as it is so let's well what about that woman who kept breaking into your
something funny about
no that there's nothing funny there's nothing funny about it and and uh um it
was at a time when I
didn't really live in that house I lived all my free time I was living in
California this was a house in
Connecticut yeah still is the house in Connecticut and um spending all of my
free time in California
and got a call uh one night from my assistant she had been notified by the
police that somebody had
been picked up at the uh at a tunnel or a bridge crossing uh at the Hudson in
my car uh with a young
child claiming to be uh my wife and uh I mean it sounds amusing but it the
sadness of it is you get to see
firsthand what a disturbed person is like and it's very sad and it it it must
be despair the likes of which
you can't conjure David Meryl Marko who was the head writer on your show when
you began and the only female
writer in your program and someone you gave great credit to um that lasted a
long while she was great
she was terrific and she uh I think is uh one of the big reasons for the
success of the show uh early on
uh and and I think that she and I as a couple you know paid the price for for
working together and so
forth and I always felt badly about that because again I think that it was um I
look back and I
think oh maybe yeah I screwed this up too but uh I don't know screwed this up
too well I just I just
think I probably wore her out you know because uh in in addition to the the
daily ups and downs and vagaries
of personal life between a man and a woman uh we also had the daily ups and
downs and vagaries of trying
to keep a television show alive uh and that's that's too many ups and downs and
vagaries don't you think
she was the one who was with you during that that year when you weren't working
that's right yeah yeah
no I um I I don't know what the relationship would be like now uh you know I
just wonder if um
if I'll ever be able to repay her because she was very important to me
next David Letterman on Jay Leno and Johnny Carson
one of your quotes from a past interview is some people are born not to be
happy people I am one of
them I don't think I said that did I say that quote unquote oh I must have been
miserably drunk
miserably drunk yes well speaking of miserably drunk geez I really said that
yeah wow
the childhood in Indiana happy memories uh largely yeah happy memories middle
child
right you know what we hear about middle children raised by poodles did you
know that is that in your
nose no I didn't know that that's nice mommy poodle and the daddy poodle yeah
no I had a great
childhood it was uh I wish I had something to complain about I mean it was I
was I had an older sister
and a younger sister and uh mom and dad and um played little league baseball
and and um had a had a tree
house uh um was um you know dropped out of school in the fourth grade and ran
away yeah I was tortured
by circus people right uh found me naked wandering in the desert six weeks
later mm-hmm other than
that it was okay yeah well those are things I'll just overlook but you were not
a cool kid when you
were in school you were uh just a jerk just a nerd you're a nerd a goofball
yeah but now you're so
don't get upset but you're so cute why were you such a nerd then I I still
think I you know you know
it's just uh some people I think Barbara are are born not to be happy whatever
where have I heard that
your dad was a florist did you like him were you close to him uh I was I think
close I mean he was he
had to work really hard and he he worked uh long hours he was a small business
owner um and worked
holidays and uh six days a week and so we didn't physically weren't as close I
think we had a pretty
good relationship and I did like him he was he was uh of the family he was the
goofball he was the uh
funny yeah yeah funny and kind of a oh dad stop it kind of funny you know oh it's
dad it's it's goofy
dad again stop it you're making his old dad uh and then we'd hide under the
house for weeks at a time
uh yeah but I mean he was uh you know everybody says this but you walk by a
mirror now and sometimes
you you you you catch you say oh geez that's that's what my dad used to look
like and uh it's it's
satisfying you know he didn't he died in 74. yeah so he didn't really he didn't
really hang around long
enough to see the kind of success yeah he died when he was 53. uh you know and
I think about that but
it it it doesn't trouble me and uh because I like to think that he was happy
enough with uh what had
become of me up till that point you know I mean regardless I I think that you
know he was proud of
me just by virtue of uh the fact that he was my father and I was his son so I
you know I don't
think you can um uh worry about that too much and your mother your mother oh
don't get me started oh let's
talk about mother mother who never who never really had any great interest in
show business no to her
credit yeah uh a very nice woman uh for six years was the equipment manager for
the buffalo sabers yes
mom uh and is is I think as happy or happier now in her life than she's ever
been she has a
a new granddaughter I have a new niece and uh and that was that was great fun
you know and uh
see I think mom's in pretty good shape you have always said that you're a great
fan of johnny carson
you like him very much personally yep okay here it comes why do you think you
weren't chosen to replace
johnny um uh why I'm not sure I mean I think the the practice in the practical
sense of it I was
doing a show that came on after johnny and from the very beginning by virtue of
that we all knew and
understood and wanted to do something that was different so that we could not
be accused of all
they're just they're just trying to be johnny they're trying to do the same
kind of show that
carson is doing and we were lucky enough that it succeeded to some measure what
we read was that you
were hurt that you weren't even considered sure you have a successful show that's
on after it but
weren't you hurt that you weren't considered real oh david really not you said
how harm good for jay
well I say not hurt I was never I was never angry I was never bitter uh
disappointed of course because
I mean that that's a great job who wouldn't want to have that job um but I was
never hurt I was never
angry I was never I was never mad at jay I was in the last couple of years last
year and a half there have
been things uh about my relationship with nbc that I was angry about were you
upset that you were not
considered for the tonight show I think I think I was considered I think that I
was considered and
rejected yeah obviously yeah how did you find out about it I knew about it a
long time before the
announcement um no I was angry is not the word I guess I guess maybe because it
was a yet another
circumstance in my relationship with the network that I was I was discouraged
by because I felt like
after you have four or five things that are tough that you have to fight
through that you have to keep
screaming what about this you said you were going to do this and you didn't do
this or what about this
you didn't tell us you were going to do this and then you did it you go through
four or five of those
things and then you realize well you know maybe there's something wrong here is
it the straw that
broke the camel's back do you want to stay with nbc uh i i think i think i
would like to stay with nbc if if
um yeah if i would like to stay with nbc i like the idea of staying i like i
like the security of being
at one place for a long time you said if you get 10 years in the show i think
you're dumb if you don't
examine this as a crossroad is this a crossroad yeah i not a maybe a milestone
what is it a difference
between a crossroad and a milestone yeah a milestone you say this is terrific
and you go on uh-huh a
crossroad you say i can go this way or this way what's the difference between a
cold spell and a
cold snap what's the difference between answering this question and dodging i
don't know i forget the
question the question was it's been 10 years another 10 years well uh i don't
know another 10 years on the
show i i like uh working in television and and uh i would like to spend another
10 years working in
television uh i just don't know whether i'm the person to continue doing this
show much longer
because you know it's it's um it's a lot of college kids and uh prisoners and
stuff who else if not you
well maybe somebody who's 34 as opposed to 44. what would you like me to say
about you when people say
what was he really like um a powerful man you could feel his presence a block
away you know what i think
this is funny one time we had goldie hawn on the show and uh i was i was always
interested in her name
and i said to her like the second or third question i said hi nice to see you
how's the
movie you look great you smell great good to have you with us and i said have
you always been goldie
and she pauses for a second she says well you know i've always just been me and
if and if being me
is being goldie then i and i said no no no no i i mean was that the name your
parents gave you when
you were born i said i'm not exactly barbara walters here we all enjoyed a big
laugh
very often comedians creep into our hearts by exposing their own letterman
remains guarded and
has therefore set himself apart in every generation there are only a few people
who break the boundaries
of comedy and invent a new form letterman can tell a very dumb joke and look
very smart doing it he has
a wonderful sense of the ridiculous filtered through the complex mind of a
comic virtuoso

Barbara Walters Interviews David Letterman, January 29, 1992

the childhood in Indiana happy memories largely happy memories middle child
right
you know what we hear about middle children raised by poodles did you know that
is that
in your nose no I didn't know that that's nice
we used to call every few months requesting an interview with David Letterman
he would say no
then maybe and sometimes even probably but never yes when he finally said the
word I almost didn't
believe him we've been down this road too many times he'd never really done a
television interview
of any consequence so getting him to the chair after he committed was no easy
feat but when he
finally sat down he was an open book talking for the first time about all the
women he had invited
into his life and the one he hadn't in a moment David Letterman for a man who's
on television most
every night it's amazing how little anyone knows about David in 1982 he premiered
a bold
new show called late night which featured consistently original and offbeat
humor television comedy has
never been the same a native of Indiana David Letterman's first show was a
college radio program
at Ball State University in Muncie he parlayed that success into a job as a
local TV personality in
Indianapolis photograph made earlier of the United States today then David
moved to LA where he made a name
for himself first as a comedy writer and as a stand-up comic
he first stepped into the mainstream with the short-lived variety show called
Mary starring Mary Tyler Moore but as with so many young comics the big break
was on the tonight show with Johnny Carson in Letterman Johnny found a kindred
spirit who consistently made
him laugh after an NBC morning show on which letterman flopped Carson's
production company found him a spot on late night
and a place in television history letterman and his writers have opened up
comedy revealing humor in the simplest and silliest of notions his interview
approach is sometimes considered mean spirited but many guests say that sitting
down with letterman is better described as a sort of survival test
his personal life is to say the least low-profile if it weren't for that
unfortunate woman who kept breaking into his Connecticut home we'd never have
read anything about him we do know he married young divorced and had for a
while a serious romance with Meryl Markle the original head writer of his show
when I spoke with David Letterman in 1992 it was before his successful move to
CBS and the ever
a revolution from late night to late show at the time he was at the time he was
at the time he was at the time he was at a crossroad in his career late night
was marking its 10th anniversary at NBC David was contemplating whether to stay
at the network that had chosen his old friend Jay Leno to succeed Johnny Carson
considering all of the unwanted attention focused on letterman by the press at
the time I was nervous myself about interviewing him I'd heard he was shy and
very guarded but he was nice relaxed and answered everything
did you ever think that you would be doing this for 10 years nope nope maybe
two two years the the only other network television experience I had had lasted
I think less than six months I think it lasted six weeks and so when we get a
chance to do this show I assumed that it would if it stayed on a year it would
be a miracle and if it stayed on longer than a year it would be a mistake
so what do you think now well it's obviously a terrible mistake it's a
miserable mix-up how do you stay fresh how do you do it night after night well
in terms of staying fresh we we gave that up I guess in the second year
it's the same old story the same night after night it's the same nonsense yeah
we get a we get a really good idea and then we'll do it every night for a
couple of months and then we'll continue to do it and then just beat it to
death and then after we've beaten it to death we'll do it for another year
so we don't have to watch anymore right we've seen it all yeah I pretty much
absolutely for someone who is as shy as I keep hearing you are painfully shy
painfully shy yeah what are the other things really socialized I believe that
that's that's it too doesn't like to deal directly with people
uh well that's not necessarily true but you go out every night and do what you
don't have to do which is a warm-up with the audience I mean facing them why
uh it's it's fun you you uh you get a chance firsthand to see the people to to
get a look at them to you know to smell them
uh it's you know I don't know it's it's uh it's it's I think it's more for me
than for them it's a good way for me to figure out uh who they are and how they're
feeling and and and what we can try to do to to to make their part of the show
more pleasant because I think night in and night out from for me the most
important variable uh of that show even after 10 years is how the audience
feels about it
David you have been asked this before and answered it but I'll have to do it
again there are some viewers
and guests who say you are smug condescending mean yeah does that bother you no
uh if somebody says
I'm going through a bad divorce please don't don't ask me about my divorce uh
somebody in my family is sick
please don't ask me about my family I have a drinking problem please don't ask
me about my drinking problem
by the way all of these things are presently happening to me I knew you were
going to say
Barbara don't ask me about any of these things that's 32 questions I have to
cancel so if you
then get on the air and ask that person one of those questions I think that's
mean yeah
but but if you make a joke about a person's tie or about a person's uh uh socks
or or whatever and and
perhaps they don't take it as good naturedly as you had hoped I'm not sure that
that's meanness but I
think maybe that's what people were perceiving David I've read most of the few
interviews you've done
and in one you said comedians are depressed nasty sullen backbiting and jealous
is that a good
description of you this is a uh this is an observation that came to me after
spending about
five years at a place in los angeles called the comedy store and I think people
understand what this is
now uh it's uh a showcase for young comedians and and when I began doing stand-up
comedy I left
Indianapolis in 75 and went out there because I knew here was a place that you
could try to do this
and in in that group of people at the time there must have been like two dozen
guys men and women
there was a pattern part of that did emerge that seemed to be guys were always
depressed and they
were always worried about they didn't do as well on stage as they had hoped and
somebody else was
doing Merv Griffin and they didn't get a chance to do Merv Griffin and and why
can't I be on the
Merv Griffin show and why can't I be on the Mike Douglas show so as as a subplot
to the lives of of us
out there I think that that could be a safe description a fair description yeah
do you remember your first
appearance on the tonight show yep it was at the time and probably will
regardless of what happens
be one of the if not the most satisfying moment uh for me in big time
television because you did well
with Johnny yeah yeah yeah it was uh I don't know it took me weeks to unwind it
was it was uh very
exciting and and and not much since has come even close to that there was the
morning show that you did
at NBC that's right okay you can still laugh yeah at the time it was it was uh
awfully painful the
experience um and in show business and I guess just like any other business you
think well now I've got
to go to the end of the line and who knows whether or not my number will be
called again so it was uh
it was difficult for me what did you do that year I fought with my girlfriend
well and the time just flew by
you know you mentioned your girlfriend but um
one of the things that isn't that well known about you is that you were married
when you were in college for
seven years right and broke up no no it was nine years nine years yeah uh yeah
I got married in college and
um madly in love with this beautiful woman uh girl maybe and um you know it was
all right by and large
we had a happy time together and then um and then I went a little nuts and uh
misbehaved and uh uh it
came apart but I I think that it's uh my own doing or my own undoing want to
get married again yes
someone in your life right now yes someone you want to marry uh yeah someone
you want to tell us about
uh well like what do you want to know height weight name who she is and are you
really going to get
married oh I I it's hard for me to imagine myself not being married again um
because you know I would
like to have a family and uh I think the the prudent way to do that is marriage
um the fact that I was
married early and for a long time and that it came apart is is sort of like a a
warning
to me that has stayed with me and I'm and I'm not eager to get married again
and have another one
come apart so I'm I'm taking my time have you asked her ask her to what why I've
asked her to drop the
topic you've asked me to drop the topic no you've asked her to drop the topic
no I spent a great deal
of my time saying hey let's talk about that later what's for dinner she was
somebody who used to work with
you yeah is that you don't want to say more no what I mean you know I got
enough people moving in at my
house as it is so let's well what about that woman who kept breaking into your
something funny about
no that there's nothing funny there's nothing funny about it and and uh um it
was at a time when I
didn't really live in that house I lived all my free time I was living in
California this was a house in
Connecticut yeah still is the house in Connecticut and um spending all of my
free time in California
and got a call uh one night from my assistant she had been notified by the
police that somebody had
been picked up at the uh at a tunnel or a bridge crossing uh at the Hudson in
my car uh with a young
child claiming to be uh my wife and uh I mean it sounds amusing but it the
sadness of it is you get to see
firsthand what a disturbed person is like and it's very sad and it it it must
be despair the likes of which
you can't conjure David Meryl Marko who was the head writer on your show when
you began and the only female
writer in your program and someone you gave great credit to um that lasted a
long while she was great
she was terrific and she uh I think is uh one of the big reasons for the
success of the show uh early on
uh and and I think that she and I as a couple you know paid the price for for
working together and so
forth and I always felt badly about that because again I think that it was um I
look back and I
think oh maybe yeah I screwed this up too but uh I don't know screwed this up
too well I just I just
think I probably wore her out you know because uh in in addition to the the
daily ups and downs and vagaries
of personal life between a man and a woman uh we also had the daily ups and
downs and vagaries of trying
to keep a television show alive uh and that's that's too many ups and downs and
vagaries don't you think
she was the one who was with you during that that year when you weren't working
that's right yeah yeah
no I um I I don't know what the relationship would be like now uh you know I
just wonder if um
if I'll ever be able to repay her because she was very important to me
next David Letterman on Jay Leno and Johnny Carson
one of your quotes from a past interview is some people are born not to be
happy people I am one of
them I don't think I said that did I say that quote unquote oh I must have been
miserably drunk
miserably drunk yes well speaking of miserably drunk geez I really said that
yeah wow
the childhood in Indiana happy memories uh largely yeah happy memories middle
child
right you know what we hear about middle children raised by poodles did you
know that is that in your
nose no I didn't know that that's nice mommy poodle and the daddy poodle yeah
no I had a great
chi