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Farewell, Dave… thanks for the laughs.

After more than 30 years, the king of late night TV hands on his crown.

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The last ever episode of The Late Show with David Letterman screens next week, bringing to and end more than 30 years of Dave on the late shift on NBC and CBS.

With more than 6,000 shows across two networks that’s an awful lot of television. A lot of guests, top tens and anecdotes, and plenty of it off the cuff.

It is also a run that outstrips Johnny Carson and his contemporaries.

Amongst a cavalcade of celebrity interviews, stupid pet tricks, feuds with Oprah and celebrating the local Deli, how can we forget those weeks when Letterman was off-air undergoing surgery? Or his sombre touch facing a nation from the Ed Sullivan Theater following the 9 / 11 attacks.

“We’ve lost 5,000 fellow New Yorkers, and you can feel it, you can see it,” Letterman said. (The toll would be revised to just under 3,000). “It’s terribly sad.

“If you live to be a thousand years old, will that make any sense to you?” he said. “Will that make any goddamned sense?”

The big name guests have been paying tribute to Dave. Everyone from Cher to Obama.

Jon Stewart said: “He was for me, and I  think for many comics of my generation, an incredible epiphany of how a talk show or entertainment, or how television – for god sake! The man put a camera on a monkey! It seems so simple now, but back then, it was mind blowing…There are so few people who can innovate that format, and then to have the kind of longevity – the list is: Dave.”

Next week the final guests next week on TEN are:

11:30pm Monday: Oprah Winfrey and comedian Norm Macdonald.

11:30pm Tuesday: Tom Hanks and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedde.

11:30pm Wednesday:  Letterman’s first Late Night guest Bill Murray will make his 44th appearance.

10:30pm Thursday: CBS is keeping the final show under wraps, describing it as “an hour filled with surprises” and — of course — a final Top Ten.

“Up until this weekend, I was feel everything you might feel – nervous, uncomfortable, out of sorts, concerned. And now I kind of feel like, you know what? I have spent enough time feeling this way. It’s all but over, so I kind of feel like it is over now,” he says.

Of his final segment, Letterman says, “It will be a variety of visual images, you know, in various presentation, and then just me saying thanks and good night.”

It’s surely the end of an era.

Source: NPR.org, Wall Street Journal, Deadline

18 Responses

  2. Massive Letterman fan. Sadly I think the episodes have been getting less funny as the days are coming to a close. Didn’t find the routine with Clooney amusing at all and Bill Clinton was just incoherent for the entire interview (who cares about Chelsea’s baby?!) As much of a musical genius Paul Shaffer is the “On broadway” video he made was terrible…would have been better as a spoof…he certainly can’t sing to save himself. Looking forward to Oprah!

  5. I’m a big fan of the late night shows and have been watching Letterman on and off for over 20 years .. I’ve mentioned before that the last month of shows have been great .. Especially Ray Romano .. Of course without Letterman there wouldn’t have been Everybody Loves Raymond. If it hasn’t already been done they should do Dvd’s of music acts and interviews

  6. My late-night tv viewing wont be the same anymore. I try watch the show most nights, and find it great.

    I like the guests they’ll have this week. I cant wait til Thursday (and sad too) to see how it’ll wrap up. They had a great guests over the last 2 weeks too, including Barrack Obama, Michelle Obama (both on separate nights) and even Bill Clinton.

  7. Last nights ep with Al Pacino wanting to do the Top Ten,George Clooney handcuffing himself to Dave and Tom Waits “Freeing the glutens” was hilarious

  8. I wish David Letterman all the best for his future. Late nights on Ten won’t be the same. Madonna should have made an appearance on his last shows.

    1. Madonna’s publicist commented a couple of months ago that she would be making an appearance before the show ended. She’s in New York at the moment, so it’s possible that she’s one of the “surprises” for the last show.

  10. * Eddie Vedder, David… but we can forgive early Saturday morning typos!

    I hope Madonna is on the show on Thursday, his most memorable (for the wrong reasons) guest in recent times needs to make an appearance!

  11. Didn’t Ten show the last ever Oprah episode during primetime – 8.30pm on a Wednesday?

    I am sure Ten wouldn’t be stupid enough to put Letterman’s final show at 1am. No excuses since they also have the ONE and ELEVEN options this time.

    And there’s also TENPLAY or you can probably watch it on Youtube at a reasonable time.

      1. Thanks. TEN is no longer sending me programming information, so there will unfortunately be misinformation about their shows on the site.

        Good to see TEN brought it forward after I suggested this in a blog.

      2. According to online guides, the finale will air at an even earlier time of 9.45pm and run for an hour (not 90 minutes as previously scheduled).

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