Name: David Letterman Discusses His 1980 Morning Show, 1980-1995
Uploaded: 2020-06-23T18:15:46.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'David Letterman Discusses His 1980 Morning Show, 1980-1995' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-06-23. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'David Letterman Discusses His 1980 Morning Show, 1980-1995' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-06-23. Transcript available.

It's so nice of you to take the time. I know you're really busy.
No, I've got nothing to do.
If you're hosting a low-rated morning talk show, you've got plenty of time.
I remember a long time ago, I used to do a morning show here at NBC in 1980.
It was like three months, if it was on that long.
Paul, you weren't on the morning show, were you?
I was not on, though.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
I watched it towards the end.
And the show was not doing well at all.
And every day, there are a lot of various columns in either of the two or three
newspapers in this city,
where they just have to fill space, as you know.
And they would add little items about how the show was in trouble and it was
going away
and things weren't looking good and this and that.
And so you'd get up in the morning, it would be very depressing to read that.
And then by the time you got to work and you got active with the show, you'd
kind of throw it off.
And one day we were out on the street, just like you mentioned, and we're doing
some videotaping.
And a guy goes by, and we sort of got the sidewalk blocked.
And he looks over the crowd and he says, oh, it's Dave.
And then he does this, he says, goodbye, Dave.
It's very annoying.
Yes, yes.
It was very sad.
When you got the morning show on NBC that wound up being canceled, you were
doing a lot of the same sort of thing that eventually was very successful in
late night.
And for reasons that probably had to do more with the time slot than your
performance, the show failed.
Did that make you think that maybe you couldn't do it?
Did you come into the late night thing with a lot of anxiety?
I'm sorry, I wasn't listening.
Good.
Nor were most of the people out there.
No, it was the morning show.
Let me make it more direct, and that way your mind won't wander.
Coming off screwing up on the morning, did you think you sucked and you'd go
down the drain in the late night?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, any time in show business, television and so forth, you don't
know.
Your one shot may be it.
So after the morning show was canceled, I really didn't know, and it was a
great period of anxiety for me.
And fortunately, I was very, very lucky.
I have been as lucky as anybody can get in show business and television because
I got another chance.
And the morning show was largely kind of an on-the-air audition because we had
many obstacles to overcome,
not the least of which was the time period, as you suggested, but a lot of
stuff.
We came to New York ready to do that show thinking we had all of the answers,
and like Tuesday, after we had gone on the air, we realized we didn't have
hardly a clue.
So it was, if anybody had watched the show from the first day to the day we
were canceled,
and I find that hard to believe, that they could do that,
I think they would have seen a really strange kind of experimental evolution
that might have been in some respect pleasing and in some respect disgusting or
embarrassing.
But after it folded, I was worried that I'd never get another shot.
Although that show represented the first time anybody recognized the comedic
genius of Edwin Newman.
Ed Newman was great.
I can remember it was Fred Silverman's dream to put together a family of people
on the show,
and we got Ed Newman as our newsman.
And I had never met him before, caught him a couple of times looking in my
windows,
but that was really my only exposure to Ed, so to speak.
And he came on and he...
Interesting choice of words in that scenario.
He was, and still is, a very bright man, a very witty man,
and I think in that context, as limited as the exposure was,
the people in the studio audience felt a real warmth and took quite a liking to
the guy,
and it was, he was always a plus for us, when the list of pluses was pretty
short.
You know, ladies and gentlemen, by coincidence, today, June 23rd, is it June 23rd?
I think so.
1995, June 23rd, 1980, was the first show I ever did on network television over
there at NBC.
No kidding.
15 years ago.
Thank you very much.
Look at this.
That show, we started that show as the morning show on NBC,
and we started on Monday, and Wednesday it was canceled.
That's not right.
But it was very nice of the network we work for now, CBS, to remember this
occasion.
They gave me a little gift, look at that, commemorating my 15 years ago.
Boxing Junior.
Oh, lovely.
Very nice.
Nice.
I'll take those.
I'll enjoy these in the car on the ride home.
Junior Nets.
I mentioned this earlier, that 15 years ago, today,
my very first network television show, and many of us here on The Late Show,
were working on that same, were you on that show?
I wasn't on it, no.
Oh.
I joined right after that.
Okay.
Was not on in the morning.
All right.
So, anyway, we have now, and I have to tell you something,
this is the kind of thing that embarrasses me silly.
I have not seen this videotape in 15 years.
Really?
I did not look at it this afternoon.
I will not look at it.
I'll be under the desk when they play it here in a minute.
This is like 50 seconds, if you can stand it.
I'm begging you.
I'm begging you.
Don't.
No.
No.
No.
If you can stand it, this was the very first network television show that we
all did 15 years ago,
this very day.
Here we go, and I'm terribly sorry.
Roll it.
David Letterman.
Hi there, and welcome to The David Letterman Show.
I'm David Letterman.
We're coming to you live from New York City, et cetera, et cetera.
I know my haircut makes me look like a duck.
All right.
Let's see if you have one of these at home.
Well, I'll show you what they are.
You know what I like to do on Saturday evenings?
Good.
Coming up in this segment, Hector Mundus has raised a monkey in a New York City
apartment.
It was just a short step from that particular job to my next full-time bit of
employment,
that is local television personality.
Oh, God.
Oh, look out.
I went first of all turning into the spinning box.
All right.
You see here a very, the highly poisonous Venezuelan canal snake.
As you can see, that videotape was made several years before the invention of
the blow dryer.
Oh, man.
Now there was something.
Oh, man.
Now there was a serious golfer, if you know what I mean.
But you know, Paul, 15 years later, I'm Captain TV.
Say that?
Uh-oh.
It's Captain TV.
It's Captain TV.
I'm charging on the radio.
He's the guy with the late night show.
Hey, hey, hey.
Hey, hey, hey.
He's Captain TV.
Okay.
Thank you.
Nice to see you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Okay, here it is.
It's time for tonight's top ten list.
Let's go.
Let's get excited.
Let's do something.
Look like I've been selling cars or something, huh?
You want to look at the new Nissans or something?
No.
How about a Toyota?
We can put you in a Toyota.
You like that?
You're looking for a wagon or something sporty.
Yeah, hey.
Hey, hey.
Thank you very much.
Hey.
Yeah, hi.
How are you?
I got me a little TV show here in the morning.
Could I be a bigger newt?
Hi.
Nice to see you.
Woman who lived with a chimp for a year.
She'll be our first guest.
Yeah, there I am.
Yes, sir.
Bring her up.
Yeah, I got me a...
What was I, 12 then?
It looks like it.
I mean, it's kind of like a little 4-H project here, this little show of mine.
It's been such a pleasure just sitting here, listening to you talk, and I just
want to tell you how much I admire your show now and the morning show that you
did and everything else you've done.
The morning show especially was always, when I was in college watching it, was
one of the greatest things I ever...
Oh, knock off the bulls**t.
All right.
Look, if I'm going to be sliding you my resume, I've got to butter you up.
You know, you mentioned the morning show earlier tonight on our show.
Today, coincidentally, in an odd way, 15 years ago, June 23rd, 1980, was the
first day of my morning show at NBC.
And it did not last as long as your show here has lasted.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
And on tonight show, we showed some videotape of the very first show.
And when I heard that I was going to be on the program, I wondered if in some
way it might be of use to you to show you, since this is your last show, some
videotape of my last morning show.
I'm not necessarily proud of this.
No?
I have not seen it.
I cannot look at it.
It troubles me to watch.
We can turn that around.
It has never been seen, to my knowledge, since its original airing late in the
summer of 1980.
So just take a look at this.
And I'm not saying it's great.
I'm not saying I'm happy about it.
I'm just saying I lived through it.
All right.
Here we go.
Let's take a look.
The morning show, ladies and gentlemen.
Monday, there's going to be a show here called Las Vegas Gambit.
And you're going to be hearing a lot of these things.
Now here to sing a visual tribute to that show, Harv Mann, ladies and gentlemen.
And our salute to Las Vegas Gambit.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
It's the Las Vegas Gambit show.
I think that is very moving.
You know, I think I might have had a puffer on my hair.
Anyway, I lived through it.
I've done pretty well since.
And I know the same is in store for you.
Well, I really appreciate it.
And I appreciate you coming by.
It means so much to us.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate my time.
Ladies and gentlemen, David Letterman.
Coming up, talk show John, Kevin Meany, Buffalo, Tom, and we'll see you in a
little bit.
Thank you very much.