mwbmis

Fully engaged Letterman was capable of some great interviews. I said in the Letterman thread that CBS should have made a push for him to go to 60 Minutes when he retired from the Late Show. He could have punched up some of their celebrity pieces as well as some of the old curmudgeon Andy Rooney type stuff.

My favorite Late Show intellectual property joke is still Brokaw coming out during the monologue the first night on CBS and scolding Dave while taking a couple of the cue cards.

Eric F

And we all know the kids were running out to snatch up those Larry Bud Melman action figures...

Rex Fenestrarum

Well, there are many older episodes on YouTube. I watched a few of them when Letterman announced his retirement, and I think they've held up pretty well. Or at least better than most full episodes of Saturday Night Live. A lot of people think 70s era Saturday Night Live was the funniest thing ever on TV, but I think it's because of all the clip shows (which emphasized the famous skits), and the half-hour syndicated reruns (which cut all of the non-funny skits from the episode).

I don't know about you guys, but to me, comedians have a definite shelf life. Sure, society itself changes, and jokes about Jews or Italians or "broads" are no longer funny because it's socially unacceptable. But comedians themselves - their schtick, if you will - is only funny for a time. Ever watch Steve Martin's standup from the 70s? It's painfully unfunny now. Robin Williams standup? Still kind of funny, but we're all so familiar with his mile-a-minute delivery by now that it's lost much of the humor. George Carlin seemed like a bitter old hippie in his last comedy specials, when he wasn't rehashing the same old "place for my stuff" or "baseball and football" routines he'd been doing for decades. Would Sam Kinison's extra-shouty humor still be funny today? How about Andrew Dice Clay and his "nasty Guido" schtick? How about someone more modern and less polarizing, like Frank Caliendo... the guy does the same 12 impressions, which were funny in 2002, but are old hat now.

Everyone says that Letterman lost something when he moved to CBS. I agree. But I don't know if it's because CBS told him to "grow up and lose the wackiness", or whether Letterman was just tired of doing it, or whether he worried about dating himself. In my mind, he kind of did all of the above in an attempt to become "Carson-like", to become the "elder statesman" of late night TV, if you will. I think he did become a better interviewer at CBS... but he lost most of his appeal (to me) by doing so.

Nick Danger

Letterman definitely lost the wackiness. I saw an article about it during the transition. They had to drop the small but funny guests like Kamarr the Discount Magician.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYTVcCvTUs

Phantom Dreamer

The last Late Show was a year ago tonight.

hdnmickey

Bingo. Rarely missed an episode while he was on NBC. I used to have one of those jackets he wore in that video that was posted. But I got I too young, grew out of it, and let it go. God I was stupid in my youth.

Paff

Not to turn this into an SNL thread, but man, you took the words right out of my mouth on this one. So many people said that SNL died the moment the original cast left, but they forget how many unfunny skits they used to air. Or the terrible short films. Or the long musical jams when they were short on material and just let the musical guest play. Like anything on SNL, there's amazing stuff in there (skits, films, bands), but a lot of crap too.