Name: David Letterman on The Today Show January 29, 1982
Uploaded: 2016-04-01T20:47:16.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'David Letterman on The Today Show January 29, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-04-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'David Letterman on The Today Show January 29, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-04-01. Transcript available.

Dave Letterman is back. We around here were real glad because Dave Letterman
was the best entertainment near lunchtime there ever was in this building.
Turns out not all of America tuned in daytime to the Dave Letterman show, but
activity in this building came to a dead halt because it was the funniest show
on television morning, noon, or night.
That's very nice of you.
Well, no, it's honest. I mean that sincerely.
Dave is back in New York. You're going to host a late-night television program
that premieres Monday night, which makes...
How are you? Are you just sick about it or excited?
No, I'm a little of both. I'm a little nervous, but I can hardly wait to get it
on and on its way because the first show...
The trouble with doing a new series of shows is the first show because as much
as you try not to emphasize it as anything significant,
nonetheless, it's still the first show, and you feel like you've got to do
something special, and that creates a little anxiety.
But I'll be glad to get this thing off the ground, as we say.
How do you anticipate Tuesday morning if there are, and I doubt that there
would be, but reviews, you know, like they have on theaters?
What are critics likely to say Tuesday morning?
I don't much care because I found a way to deal with that. Pills and whiskey.
I don't know. I don't know what they're likely to say. I hope we're going to
make a real honest effort.
This is... I don't think you can fault the effort going into the show and the
quality of people we have working on it.
So after that, it's a roll of the dice, you know.
You must be thrilled to be back, just the opportunity to live here in Manhattan
again.
I'm presently... I don't have a house to live in. I'm living in a hotel in
which I'm the only person not from Argentina.
And every evening when I return to the hotel, we go up in the elevator, and
everyone but me discusses the historical inaccuracies in Evita.
And I feel very left out, but that's where I'm presently making my home.
So in depression, you head out to the streets of the city, and you walk, and
you have discovered, as we will show in a clip now from the new show,
part of a series of reports you are doing called The Shame of the City.
...Center of the Arts. But some people are out to destroy it for everyone.
I'm here on the corner of 50th and 7th Avenue, where we see something, maybe it's
just a little thing,
but for my money, more hard evidence of the shame of the city.
Planing a party, try one of these.
The sudden, arbitrary addition of an extra E, and a missing N down here.
I don't know about you, but this is the kind of thing that really gets me
steamed.
Excuse me, sir, could you come in here? What is your name, please?
My name is Denny.
Denny, do you work in this establishment?
Yes, sir.
Now, were you aware of the fact that there are two misspellings in this sign?
Yes, I know.
You do know, but yet you put the sign up.
I'm going to change that.
You are going to change it.
Yes, sir.
Thank you very much, Denny.
There you have it, a blight on society remedied, and frankly, I was proud to be
a part.
Is this a regular feature, The Shame of the City?
We're trying to assemble a regular feature.
As it turns out, there's just not that many things wrong with New York City,
so we're kind of coming up empty-handed.
Besides, what's wrong with planing a party?
I've had many parties that I wish had been planed.
It was interesting.
When we did this, as you know, any time you put a camera on the street of New
York City,
thousands of deadbeats will assemble for no particular reason other than the
assembly of deadbeats.
As we did the piece, we realized planing was misspelled, or planning was misspelled,
and these was misspelled.
And as we did it, somebody from the crowd hollered out, oh, yeah, and luscious
is also misspelled.
So people on the street were aware of the fact that the sign actually had three
misspellings.
A dictionary-carrying.
I would guess so, yeah.
You see that a lot on the streets these days.
Yes, you do.
Did you realize, as you returned from Los Angeles to complete the round trip
over the last year,
that you were flying over the old hometown?
You're from, let's be honest.
You're from Indianapolis.
That's right.
I'm willing to own up to it.
Did you know that when we lived there, we were what they now call flyovers?
I didn't realize that there was a term for people who actually traveled over
the state of Indiana.
It is not just Indiana.
It is everybody who does not live in New York or Los Angeles.
Oh, flyovers.
And it's a rather arrogant term that people who are also bi-coastal use to
describe the people in the middle who I guess they mean don't matter.
Hmm.
Well, that's terrible.
I'm very proud of my Hoosier heritage.
It sounds like something would be the middle section of an Indiana basketball
program, doesn't it?
Bobby Knight and the Hoosier heritage.
It's a proud story.
Bobby Knight's Hoosier hotshot, you mean.
That's right.
I like Indiana.
It's great.
I wish I was there now.
You mean at this very moment?
No, no, not at this very moment.
But it's a little smaller than New York City.
It's not as big as New York City.
And it's a little, I don't know, it's a very pleasant place in which to grow up.
And I often miss it.
If you had to set out to do a shame of the city report from the hometown, where
would you begin?
I think it would be bad hairpieces.
There were a lot of them.
You see a guy walking down the street like he's got an end table on his head.
And I think that would be a place to begin.
I could name names at this point, but I won't.
You're on.
Oh, I'm on.
I'm sorry.
You're on.
You're on.
I'm sorry.
I'm enjoying listening to you snort.
You incapacitate the interviewer.
You can self-interview yourself.
Well, I don't know.
No more rum.
I'm lost.
Oh, no, you're not lost.
You're doing a fine job.
What time is the show on Monday?
The show will be on at 12.30.
And we are going to have plenty of fun.
I believe our first guest will be Bill Murray from the old Saturday Night Live
and recently
the big screen.
And also a guy I'm very excited about meeting, Mr. Wizard, Don Herbert.
And remember, Mr. Wizard?
Of course I remember.
And we're going to conduct experiments and we'll show the home viewers the set.
We're going to take a behind-the-scenes look at the facility from which we
broadcast this
epic.
And who knows?
We'll probably auction off a Buick or two.
And like I say, America, who knows?
You might not get another chance, so don't blow it this time.
Best of luck, Dave Leverman.
Thank you, Jane.
Pleasure to see you again.
We'll be back after a message.
We'll be back after a message.