Grommet

That was perfect. Going to cry myself to sleep now.

Accidents happen. Comedy gold!

The cake girls would have been worth it only if they were grinder girl and grinder girl 2. I don't want to be spoiled so I'm going to have to do something like clean my house until 11:30.

I loved Paul's constant mention of Brother Theodore when Dave was making him guess who'd been on the most. I'm officially losing it, crying in the car on my way back from lunch as I thought about tonight's show. My idiot co-worker, whom I find intensely irritating on so many levels, was blah-blah-blahing about it earlier and I came close to punching her in the face. Only those of us who truly love Dave can mourn him! stonehaven, I'll leave a squirrels-storing-their-nuts joke here in the fall.

Not silly at all, thebeanweasel. Dave's been my tv friend for 35 years and I'm going to miss him. Here's a favorite Dave story: during the OJ Simpson trial, Dave was talking about it at his desk one night. He said that every time he turned on the coverage, all he could hear was the glug-glug-glug of someone pouring a glass of water. And I thought: YES! I am not alone! It had been driving me crazy.

I loved the Meg Parsont bits. She was a good sport. I never much liked the Rupert bits with Dave feeding him lines but it was funny to see him go along with it. So will Brokaw be on tonight?

Does anyone remember alt.fan.Letterman from way back in the early days of the w w w (as Dave would say)? Those people scared me.

Thanks for all the links. Really good stuff.

I remember the morning show when the guy's shoes caught fire. Merrill Markoe mentioned it in a recent article and reminded me of the context. I'm going to watch the final show as it airs, one of the few times I'll be willing to sit through commercials. I'm still not ready, though.

I'm looking forward to Steven's show, though it surely won't fill the void that Dave will leave. But he's smart and funny, so I'm hoping his show will be good. I might start watching Rachel Maddow more regularly, but I'm afraid I'll get too angry if I ingest too much politics. I'm randomly watching shows from the past two weeks, when I feel I can deal with the crying, and just watched Norm M. Very touching.

Me too. I started watching in 1980, back when I had to actually stay up and watch it - along with prisoners. I was glad when VCRs came along because I was out of grad school by then and had to get up and got to work in the morning. I'm going to miss this thread and our little band of Dave fans. Someone said in the Rolling Stone article (Michael Keaton maybe) that he was glad Dave wasn't the most popular even though he was the best, and I agree. I've always felt that being a Dave fan shows that I'm smarter and more discerning than the average Leno fan. Or maybe it just shows that I find neurotic self-haters very funny. Jon Stewart (there's another half hour I'll have soon!) did a very nice few minutes on Dave at the end of Thursday's show. It made me cry.

I'm with Jon in not understanding the denials by Fox. I'm going with craven cynicism. They just can't bear being criticized.

Loved Sandler's song, really sweet (except for the wet line!).

Plus, crepuscular.

Agreed. I had to hold back the tears. I like his idea of 3 shows a week, two weeks a month. Is Al Gore's Current TV still a thing?

Thank you for the links! I actually tried to find the Rolling Stone issue on Sunday but was unsuccessful. Who sells magazines these days? I've never found Dave to be overly grumpy or mean, which apparently says something about me since that seems to be the lede in all the articles about him.

I haven't watched all the shows these past 2 weeks, my way of denying the end is near. I think I'll save Steve Martin, Jack Hanna, Tina and Ray for this weekend, so I can cry my way through. Nothing against Adam Sandler, but why?? I would much rather see Bonnie Hunt. I miss her.

"Did we untie Neal?" Pretty much why I've watched Dave for 35 years.

I remember the bit with Biff dropping the scissors. Watching Dave and Paul's reaction was fun. I enjoy anything that makes Dave laugh, except for Don Rickles.

Me too. It was very sweet.

Dave and Amy should do a podcast. I'd listen to them talk about anything. I'm going to miss their interaction. SJP was meh, Julie Chen was horrible but Billy Crystal was great - even the song.

I loved Wednesday's show. Al Franken's tribute was great and the Billy Eichner piece was hilarious, especially since Dave was clearly enjoying it. And I love that Eichner asked people about Biff!

Those are great. Thanks for the links!

The toast was very clever. But I also liked Matthew's sincere slobbering. I guess my wish of having him on with his wife and Amy Sedaris won't be fulfilled.

I don't post much but this forum (here and on TWoP) has been a regular stop for me on my interweb travels for many years. I actually followed Craig Kilbourne from ESPN to TDS (back when I watched too much sports) but was happy to have Jon replace him. I knew Jon only from some appearances on Letterman and the Larry Sanders show but I liked him, and he's turned out to be one of the best things on TV, Losing him and Dave in the same year - ouch. But maybe now I'll have time to listen to the audiobook of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Lincoln book. As for who should replace him, I hope the powers that be go for someone on their way up, like Jon was. (Certainly not someone like Dennis Miller, who should be on his way out and getting closer to hell.) Like Jon said, the show deserves a fully engaged host. Let's hope there's another voice out there that can do the show justice. In the meantime, this sucks.