Name: Countdown to the Debut of LN with David Letterman, 40th Anniversary
Uploaded: 2022-01-18T03:35:43.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Countdown to the Debut of LN with David Letterman, 40th Anniversary' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-01-18. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Countdown to the Debut of LN with David Letterman, 40th Anniversary' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-01-18. Transcript available.

Countdown to the Debut of LN with David Letterman, 40th Anniversary

You
Now what did you decide to do after the daytime show was cancelled?
Were you thinking about retirement again or well, I've retired five times
Well, the the what happened it probably financially the most satisfying thing
that ever happened to me on one
when they cancelled the morning show they
Went to David and gave him a contract not to work for anybody else for a year
and
They pay him so much week and they did the same thing for me
So I was I was for a year almost a year. I was getting paid every week and when
Dave called and told me we're going back on the air. I felt disappointed. I
Said it goes. It's the best gig I've ever had
Now what did you do in that year with getting paid? Did you I worked on my
house?
Yeah
Yeah, was it sort of a tacit agreement between you and Dave that when he came
back you would be his director?
There was no quite I mean, it's funny
That's a good question because I never thought of it. I mean NBC had already
Give me a contract for not working. So it was assumed that I would be directing
when we came back
Did you have any idea of how you would come back or what time period you would
have or?
Well, we're taking the fellow who was place. We were taking Tom Snyder. Yeah.
Yeah, and actually he was a nice guy and Dave liked him and felt
Felt guilty that he was taking that spot, but he wanted he wanted to go back on
the air
When did you first hear that that was going to be your next adventure with Dave?
I got a call from Dave saying that you know that the children, you know, he he
was we were going back on the air
They were giving it to Tom Snyder
Spot was a great excitement on both. You know your parts about he was I I
Was I was I was kind of as I said before I was kind of had mixed feelings
because who doesn't like free money?
money, you know
So were there many plans as to what you would do with this new time slot?
Did you sit down and discuss it or you just end up?
Producing a show well, you know, I think we just sat down and start producing
say what in segment one will do this
I'm going you know, it's kind of like the morning show only after dark
You
Well, here's the bad news folks. It looks like I'm going to be
Did you hear that sounds like we have an otter loose in part of this
How many of you heard a wild animal being tortured?
We'll take care of that. I think the boom the man operating the boom microphone
was that you or the equipment sir?
Well, let's just pretend it was the equipment
Yeah, sir when Johnny's gone nothing, but the best for the guest host, you know
Yeah, let me use that old rusty thing you don't care
Anyway, the bad news looks like I'm going to have to be moving to New York now.
I like no, that's all right now
I
Love New York because once you've lived there for a while you realize that the
city is being staged by Alan Funt, you know
It's just
Alan Funt was an interesting guy and still is that wonderful television show he
got to satisfy all of his
Strange desires you know be things like we've hidden the camera inside this
butcher shop what the customers don't realize the butcher is actually convicted
Maniac slasher meat axe wagman and let's watch the fun now
So
But when I found out I was moving to New York it was funny I called my mom and
you know
Moms are always sentimental about stuff like that you're going away to college
or you're going away for a vacation or you're going to
New York and mom said oh you're moving to New York and I said yeah and she says
well
Pack something bulletproof
The greatest thing I've seen in New York City they get these cabs you know what
cabs are don't you of course you do
The signs in the backseat of the cabs it says please do not leave valuable
items in the cab
This of course has got to be a sarcastic remark
Sir my wife and I enjoyed the ride so much we're leaving you this diamond brooch
It's uh
So I was all set to move and as you may or may not know rent is exorbitant in
New York City
And I was lucky enough I found a place in which to dwell
Uh sounds like a song doesn't it?
We didn't have a planned song did we?
A song planned either
Um
Uh found a place
Seven hundred dollars
Pretty nice and then I got a phone call today from one of my neighbors
Saying that there had been a fire
And it was destroyed and the neighbor told me that the fireman told him that
they had never
Seen a car burn like that before
Were there any other major differences between the daytime show or you just
began?
Well we had we had a music that Dave liked the morning show the music was good
but it wasn't
Paul Schaefer was just the right cause Dave liked contemporary music and Paul
was very good
And keeping up with all the music we have we had great music acts
Uh a lot of it having to do with Paul Schaefer's acceptability in that field
Let's talk about how in 1982 you came to work with David Letterman
Right after I left Saturday Night Live with everyone else
David got his morning show on NBC
He was starting the very next fall in my recollection
Um
Um
And I got a call would I like to come in and
Excuse me and talk to the producers about doing
Uh the David Letterman morning show
And I think it was that I had just finished what this
What seemed like a long long run here I am 27 years later still working for
Dave now
But at the time five years that's enough and I let me try to do some other
things
And the morning
Dave and I have a joke that we say on the air quite often
When he says Paul you didn't do the morning show did you and I say no
Why not I couldn't get up that early
I wasn't too far from
From the truth
Uh I could I didn't want to start another show right at that time
I didn't
End up doing the show but
Now did he approach you who approached you?
Mmm I don't remember but except to think that I got a call
I mean it's certainly the second time
When I was approached
The second time when he then was going to get a late night show
To come on after Johnny Carson even later than Johnny Carson
And that intrigued me
And at this time I was approached by his management company
Someone from the Rollins and Jaffe management company
Who were the executive producers or Jack Rollins was his particular manager
And became his executive producer
Someone from that office come in and meet Dave
And talk about this show he's doing after Johnny Carson
And so I came in and met with Dave and his producer at the time
Not Jack Rollins he was executive producer
But Barry Sand was the name of his first producer
I think he came aboard in the morning and
Then continued with Dave when he got his late night show
And I spoke to these two guys
And um
They asked
What kind of idea would you have for the band?
And you can only have four
And you're self included
That's perfect for me
Because that's exactly what I was used to
Four piece rock bands
Godspell was four piece
You know I can
That I can do
Um
And I had this concept of um
Doing
Now I must say that Howard Shore did open up
You know we were the first
We were we weren't Carol Burnett
We also were not Carol Burnettish
When it came to
The band and the type of music
That would played on the bumpers and stuff
In and out of commercial
We were we were pretty contemporary
We were playing R&B and stuff
Original tunes that we were writing in an R&B style
I wrote some tunes that were kind of like Barry White
Because that's what I was into at the time
Um
So that barrier had been broken down
And now when it was time for me to tell Dave what kind of band I would have
I thought back to my days of playing the clubs in Toronto
And um
How they would play R&B instrumentally
And I loved to play the Hammond organ
And I said well how about you know
I think of it like an R&B instrumental band
Like a Booker T and the MGs kind of thing
Playing Motown and uh
Stax and soul music
And playing instrumental versions of these things
And Dave said
Well he said I've always thought of myself as Wayne Cochran anyway
Wayne Cochran being a
Little known regional
James Brown style performer from from Miami
And when I heard him say that I said this guy is hilarious
I've got to work for this guy
Uh
And he has since told me that he didn't really consider anybody else
For the job
He saw me do
The SNL thing
Specifically
Specifically mentioned the Bill Murray
Loud singer sketches
And um
We hit it off that day in the meeting anyway
And uh
And he hired me
So now talk about putting together the band
This band
Well it was originally just just the me and three other guys
Um
And I had been doing spending the two years doing a studio work getting more
into the studio scene
Knew the various performers in town
Will Lee
Will Lee
Was um
On the first session I ever did
Uh
In town
Back in '74
Uh
On bass
And we clicked then
And uh
He is impeccable bass guitar player
One of the greatest in the world
Really one of the three top three guys in the world
Um
And he um
Was in a band himself at this time
Called the 24th Street Band
With other guys that I really liked
Steve Jordan
Who I had already worked with on the Blues Brothers
And used to work with in the studios a lot
Steve and Will were playing together
It made sense to you know
They were both too much on their instruments
It made sense to hire them both
And their guitar player too was the late group of the band
And their guitar player too was the late great Hiram Bullock
He only died within the last year
Um
And he I had worked a lot with him as well
He could play any style on the guitar
And was uh
Really like a Hendrix quality
This guy
So I had sort of a band
Ready-made band already
I couldn't hire the fourth guy
The keyboard player Cliff Carter
But uh
I still hire him now
You know when I need an extra keyboard
Or synthesizer player
And that was the original band
And we all liked
The same music
Even though guys like Hiram
Were jazz players
Um
Steve and Will too
Really what they really liked
Was rock and roll and R&B
And um
Uh
The two black guys
Steve and Hiram
They said
Do we have to play just Motown
And can't we play Rolling Stones
And stuff like that
And they sort of opened it up
To more of a white rock and roll thing too
Not just soul
Uh
So that became the style of the music that I was playing
And um
Wrote a little theme song that we still use
I
I wrote it in the style of an organ trio
Now I've kind of jazzed it up
Now that we're on
CBS
And uh
You know I was encouraged to add
Uh
Horns
And make it a bigger band
So I got an extra guitar player Felicia
On guitar
And uh
Three horns
And I kind of jazzed up the theme
But it's still the same melody as I
We started with 20
27 years
Luckily for me
Um
I had gotten used to
To
A single
A single gig here
And a single gig there
And maybe a thing here
And maybe a
Maybe an empty space here for a while
And maybe
Maybe another gig comes in
And then a sporadic
You know
It was all spotty
You know
Because it was always
One offs
It was always like one
Session
Or
Performance at a time
I wasn't part of a touring band
Right
Not much
I mean
I did a few small things
But
But that wasn't my life either
My life was basically in the city
You know
Taking one offs
For a long long time
And then
I get this phone call
To
From Paul Schaefer
About
This
This
TV pilot
That was coming up
That he
Was going to be a part of
And wanted me to be a part of
And wanted me to be a part of the band
Right
And that was the Letterman show
And it was
It
Like I said
It wasn't a
Established anything
It was just a pilot
And it was 13 weeks
Of work
The first time around
Before anything got renewed
It was like
Here's a 13 week commitment
Right
And I couldn't believe my ears
And my luck
Yeah
13 weeks of solid work
Wow
Incredible
I've never experienced anything like this before
You know
Right
Right
So
That turned of course
Into
The next 13 weeks
Contract
And then
A six month contract
And then a three year contract
And then a
33 and a third years later
You never know who you gotta run into on the streets here
For instance
You might run into Gregory Peck
You might possibly run into Richard Hare
I don't believe it
Hi Willard