Name: Countdown to Late Show w/David Letterman, July, August 1993
Uploaded: 2017-08-05T16:46:15.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Countdown to Late Show w/David Letterman, July, August 1993' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-08-05. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Countdown to Late Show w/David Letterman, July, August 1993' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-08-05. Transcript available.

Countdown to Late Show w/David Letterman, July, August 1993

The bridge of the 64th All-Star Classic will continue after this message and a
word from your local station.
Coming this summer, get ready for a whole new late night on CBS.
Love songs. Nothing but love songs.
Starting August 30th. Same Dave. Better time. New station.
Order now and receive a handsome tote bag.
Late Show with David Letterman.
An important reminder from this network's new Late Show host.
You can't spell scuba without CBS.
Same Dave. Better time. New station.
What's the new Late Show with David Letterman going to be like?
It's like trying to drink scalding hot coffee with a face full of Novocaine.
And now, a promise from CBS's new Late Show host.
That's quality with a capital K.
Same Dave. Better time. New station.
Later this summer, look for David Letterman on CBS.
You know, if you remove the glass from your television set, you can feed me
peanuts.
Later this summer, a new world of late night television begins on CBS.
Think of it as a mini-series that never ends.
Starting August 30th. Same Dave. Better time. New station.
Is someone frying bologna?
This is CBS.
So, Mark and I are back, 17 minutes after the hour, so look who is on the cover
of Time Magazine that hits the stands today.
David Letterman.
David Letterman.
Rested. He's ready.
He's got a week to read that, and he kicks off next Monday.
One week from tonight, that's right, the television event of the season hits
the screen when Late Show with David Letterman debuts right here on CBS.
It's a story that started to take shape back in January when CBS plucked the Peacock
Network.
It started to take shape back in January when CBS plucked the Peacock Network.
I just want to, at this point, thank these people for, certainly, their
patience.
I mean, could it have dragged on a little longer?
And also, I would like to thank them for their generosity, because...
Ever since David Letterman signed his big late-night deal with CBS, he's been
the most talked about and written about man in television.
Even though he hasn't made a television show in months, that doesn't mean Dave's
been taking it easy.
He spent lots of time with the press, where the first question is almost always
about the fight with his former bosses about which comedy routines can switch
networks along with Dave.
We'll just do all of the stuff that we want to do, and that'll be fine.
We'll do all of the stuff that we want to do, and they'll sue us, and, you know,
that'll be fine.
And by the way, if that comes to trial, get a seat down front.
People also wonder if Dave's sense of humor will work as well an hour earlier.
It'll either seem very odd to see me an hour earlier, or it'll seem okay.
I think it'll, you know, I see myself almost every hour of the day, and I think
that's fine.
And a few journalists wonder if Dave's fans will hate him now that he makes so
much money.
If that happens, I'll just, you know, buy a new audience.
Well, he certainly hasn't lost his timing during his time off.
What else has been going on with Dave?
Well, he picked up this year's American Television Award for Best Talk Show.
Honestly, nothing makes you feel more like a winner than entering through a
storm drain.
Thank you.
And once that award show was over, Letterman was joking about it on the Larry
Sanders Show,
where Gary Shandling plays a talk show host who's upset that Letterman got the
award.
I'm not kidding around this time. Take it. Please.
It wouldn't mean a lot to me to take it.
Go ahead.
Okay.
This is what's been going on in Dave's new home while he's been out on the road.
Construction workers and technicians are turning the old and decrepit Ed
Sullivan Theater
into a state-of-the-art television studio,
a multimillion-dollar job that's going down to the wire.
And all along New York's famous Broadway,
Dave's new neighbors are already telling stories about encounters with the
Great One,
or at least with members of his staff.
We did work with Letterman a few times in the past.
Oh, you did?
You're sure when he was over at the other network.
How come you don't have on the window, you know, dresser to the stars or...
We're working on something. We have something in the works.
Did you give us, maybe, without giving away a little sneak preview of what we
might see?
Some kind of a list of some of the reasons why you should shop at Academy Tuxedos.
Well, the rumor is going around that you got the best pizza in New York City.
Well, that's what they say.
Does Dave know that yet?
Yes, he's been here a few times.
Has he been down there?
What did he order when he came down?
Well, he eats most of them in a restaurant.
Yeah, so most of them, he eats like a little soft emboker.
That's his favorite dish.
And also he had pizza with pepperoni and anchovies.
One day, I read from newspapers.
I was, "Wow!"
You know, that's become a really good place.
Yeah, that was really shocking.
Yeah.
If he were to come in here,
what things do you think he might like to play with and to look at?
Because you've got a lot of neat stuff in here.
Yeah, uh, maybe some character things or T-shirts.
And this will probably be Dave's favorite neighbor.
And we're 50 high-heeled steps off Broadway.
Just around the corner from his new theater, he'll find Animal Axe, the pet
department store, where he can always find an audition going on for a stupid
pet trick.
Has she ever been on Letterman?
Well, no, she goes, uh, we thought we would wait to see if the program gained
any dignity.
And if so, she'd consider it.
A woman with paw prints up the side of her dress, talking about dignity.
We're going to show you some of that this week.
On Wednesday, Paul Schafer and the whole band, now called the CBS Orchestra,
will play for us.
Then on Thursday and Friday, David himself will be here, so it's a big week for
all of us here at CBS this morning.
Stupid pet tricks, indeed.
I kind of like those paw prints going up the left side of her dress.
I think a big dog ran right up the side of this woman, right before we got
there.
You know, I can't believe, looking at David Letterman, that he actually frequents
that restaurant.
I mean, he's lost 35 pounds.
He doesn't even tell us how he loses it.
Yeah, exactly.
23 minutes past the hour, still ahead, John Stair helps you start saving, no
matter how old you are, and Sophia Loren.
We'll be back.
It is 15 minutes after the hour.
Stay right here for Paul Schafer, and later, the whole band helps us count down
the week until David Letterman's CBS debut.
All week we've been counting down to David Letterman's arrival next Monday
night on CBS with his new Late Show.
Also means a return to the tube for the fabulous Paul Schafer and his
incredible band.
Paul and the band put out an album while they waited for the new show to start.
It's called The World's Most Dangerous Party, and Paul joins us this morning.
Hi, Paul.
Mark, nice to see you, as always.
Good to see you, Natalie dressed, as always.
It's a news thing, and so I'm wearing the news, actually wearing it on my body.
Well, I live the news, you wear the news.
I wear the news.
We're going to get to the album in a second.
One thing I've always wondered, people, you've had a lot of different lives on
television, with Comedy Central out.
We see you on Saturday Night Live.
How did you make the jump?
How did you meet Dave?
How did you become part of the Dave Letterman experience?
After the first five years of Saturday Night Live, on which I appeared as pianist
and writer and sort of supporting performer,
I spent two years freelancing as a studio musician, and one day, out of the
blue, just got a call from somebody from Dave's office.
Dave Letterman is starting up a new late-night show.
He'd like you to come in and speak to him about being his bandleader.
Well, I had started watching the show that he had had on live in the morning.
So I was very excited about the chance to go in and talk to Dave about this.
Not only that, but I heard it was going to be on later, even after, you know,
Johnny Carson.
And I thought, wow, something that comes on after The Tonight Show.
This is, even later, this, I've got to be there.
You know, this has got to be the hippest show.
I said, this is the guy who I would want to work for.
Well, that band, which became the world's most dangerous band, is on the album,
The World's Most Dangerous Party.
Yeah.
And I say this with great respect, kooky, nutty, kind of wonderful little
record here.
Why, thank you very much.
Tell me how you put this record together.
Over the 12 years of working with Dave, people say to me, you know, I wish I
could hear more of the band.
You play the introductions to songs, and then you fade into commercial.
I'm just starting to get into it.
I wish I had a record with the whole songs.
So that was the basic reason why we did it, doing a new thing where we don't
fade into commercial,
where we actually start songs, then finish them.
It's a nutty new thing that we're into.
To that, we added this concept of having a party.
When Todd Rundgren came aboard as producer, he said, what if you're hosting the
party like Hef at the mansion?
Hef always had cool parties.
Well, you know, you remember those things, Playboy After Dark and stuff that we
used to see,
where he'd say, you know, come on in, Barbie's here.
Bill Cosby was there.
Bill Cosby is in the back, entertaining the kids.
I've always wanted to do something based on that type of genre.
So this was the time to do it.
And on the record, it does sound like I am hosting the party a la Hef.
Well, speaking of hosting, we have a little home video of some of the people
who stopped by.
Let's take a look.
Oh, great.
I think there's Todd Rundgren right there.
Who's that great leather jacket you've got there, Paul?
I've got to look the part.
LL Cool J, one of the people.
You see, the people stopped by and did cameos.
There's Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.
In between cuts, you hear these people kind of rapping with me.
Hey, you know, I say welcome to the party.
Some of them sit in, like Dave Sanborn.
Great sax player.
Oh, the greatest.
And we recorded them individually, one at a time.
Then we recorded the music also separately.
Then we had a party in the studio, invited a lot of people in to listen to the
tracks that we had done.
And we recorded the sound of them singing along, grooving to the music.
And then Todd sort of married all three of them together.
So it sounds like everybody's in the same room having the greatest party in the
world.
Real quickly, the band is going to change when it comes on to CBS.
Well, it's not going to change.
The core of the band remains the same.
Two new additions, though.
But we've got two new additions.
Very excited to have a gal named Felicia Collins on guitar.
Very, very neat player.
Just recently came off the road from doing a Cyndi Lauper tour.
On keyboard, the great innovator, funk innovator, Bernie Worrell.
Very great.
You know who he is.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
He invented a lot of the funk keyboard and bass funk stuff that we heard with
George Clinton's parliament funkadelic thang, if I may use the vernacular.
I understand exactly what you're saying.
So all of us guys in the band are very excited.
We are so pumped around here at CBS to have you and David coming aboard.
We're just thrilled.
Pleasure to talk to you.
Always good to see you.
Everybody has been so nice to me this morning and at CBS in general.
I am very excited about it.
That's because we love you.
Just about a half an hour from now, Paul will be back with the band and a tune
from the album they recorded on summer vacation.
Paula?
He's going to wake us all up.
23 minutes past the hour, still ahead on CBS This Morning.
David Sharp, 17 minutes before the hour, Paul Schaefer and his band coming up.
Get ready to have some laughter and meet the man himself, David Letterman, in
the first of two exclusive interviews.
That's tomorrow on CBS This Morning.
Now, just a few minutes ago, Paul Schaefer and I talked about the countdown to
David Letterman's Late Show right 