kib

Andrea Sande and Nadine Hennelly, the original "Hi-Ho" girls they ain't.

This quote from Scheft made me feel better about things: "I'm very happy that he gets to be the first guy to leave on his own terms. Because none of those other guys got to leave on their own terms."

Holy smokes, I'd forgotten all about Brother Theodore. Pretty much sums up the whole endeavor, can't imagine anyone on today's landscape having Ted (or his ilk) on their program.

Prediction (not based on anything in particular): Last song played - "My Hero"

Give Carson some credit on that. Supposedly Letterman asked Carson for his advise during and after the "Late Shift" skirmishes and Carson's sage words were "Own your own show"

The alpha male of the tribe was "Donz5". Apparently his archive of tapes was more complete than NBC's, CBS's or Worldwide Pants because he got tapped for material used in some of the specials over the years. Dude was a walking encyclopedia for all things Letterman.

Dennis Miller had the best take on this. He said it was odd that Jim Nabors talked like he was all goofed up but sang just fine and Dylan was the complete opposite.

CNN is doing an hour special tonight at 9:00 EDT. What makes this noteworthy is, as a news org CNN has a little more latitude in using NBC clips. The promo seemed to be chock full o' Late Night material.

IIRC Carson had double eraser pencils. Kind of used them as drumsticks (he played the drums) and bounced them off the desk like Dave does.Two erasers=double the chance of getting a good bounce.

I don't know GaryE. Seems kind of pointless considering Corden has shown no institutional memory to speak of, I think he was only a guest once or twice on Letterman's program and didn't his people make a stink when Dave cracked wise about Corden's build? We'll always have the charming transition Ferguson did after the Darlene Love Christmas show. Props to Kimmel and his decision to run a repeat so he can stay home and watch the last program. Fallon's doing exactly what I expected considering he put up a 'knockoff' version of the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee some weeks ago before the body was even cold. Not unlike Leno, he's being a good company man. I might have thought Conan would have made some gesture beyond the outstanding written piece he did a few days back, but he's got his own troubles so no foul as far as I'm concerned.

Very happy Al Chez was included in the "On Broadway" video, sad Bruce Kapler wasn't. (that must have been some epic breakup) Also pleased Sanborn was included since he was akin to being the 'fifth Beatle' for the band for many years.

Funny, I read it as Leno wouldn't be making an appearance after Dave said he declined an offer to do the "Tonight Show" at the end of Leno's run out of respect that it might take away the spotlight on their wrapping things up. Who knows? Leno's sense of respect, in my humble opinion, is suspect at best so he may well crash the party. To Howard's credit, his feelings about it were unambiguous.

Slate has unleashed a torrent of pieces marking the occasion, the most charming of which follows the author's attendance at each of the late night talk show tapings. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2015/05/late_night_s_live_tapings_what_it_s_like_to_be_in_the_studio_audience_for.html

A thoughtful (if not bordering on academic) examination of the Letterman/Leno/Fallon/Colbert preference and lineage debate: http://www.salon.com/2015/05/06/we_need_david_lettermans_america_how_the_lenofalloncolbert_choice_defines_us_and_how_we_see_the_world/

Thanks for the reminder. Who could forget promos from guys like CBS staff announcer Hal Simms cooing the words Silk Stalkings... BTW - That whole "Crimetime After Primetime" didn't necessarily get clearance across the entire network. There were more than a few affiliates still running bars & tone, cartoons and infomercials. IIRC, there were a few stations that had to be persuaded to run Letterman when he came onboard.

Understood. As they say "It's just business" and WWP & CBS will no longer be conducting business in a few days, so why would there be any expectation that Dave would offer a 'best of' package to a company he's no longer doing business with? No harm, no foul except for awhile we're going to thrust back to the days when CBS was running Krazy Kat cartoons, color bars or whatever it was that they aired at 11:35 prior to Letterman. The only person who's going to get burned badly is the stout kid from the UK who is tying up the transmitter at 12:35.

I'd love to see a run of "best-of" but after CBS didn't offer Dave the courtesy of an opinion of who took over, as well as retaining the "Late Late" slot as a CBS produced product, I think it's safe to say WorldWide Pants and CBS don't have much of a business relationship anymore these days.

The name is Pascual...

Thankfully the show ran How many Easter Bunnies can fit in a H&R Block last week. The wonderful part about that clip was it was early on in the show's run when the greater NYC metroplex wasn't altogether wise about getting pranked by Dave. As Dave pointed out, "H" was a good sport, but "R" was a hot head.

Glad they got part of the 9/11 thing in. Great to see some of the old bumper photos in (IIRC, Edd Hall was responsible for those) Also noticed legendary CBS producer Susan Z was involved with the project. Pretty cool show...

I don't know how in the world you could fit it in, but by god I wish they could run Dave's post 9/11 desk chat. Defining moment from TV boy to national treasure.

Cronkite!!!

Where was the "cape" bit in Paul's highlight reel?

Before he saddles up for Montana I'd love to see Dave have a small, but memorable role as a really dark son-of-a-bitch in a Scorsese film. No Cabin Boy sock monkey cameo, but a softly spoken pure evil crime boss or something who was responsible for all the crap that went down in the story but isn't seen until the last reel. One of those deals where the main character finally meets the person who been wrecking his life. The wood paneled office door creaks open, cigar smoke wafts from behind a red leather office chair which slowly spins around to reveal Dave wearing a $5000 suit and the same expression on his face as the photo of him running without his track shoes in St. Bart's they showed a few weeks ago. Then Dave just snarls out the filthiest two or three lines ever captured on film. Jump cut to some poor bastard getting eviscerated on Dave's orders. Boom. In... Out... Holy crap what did I just see????

I think what really triggered the escape was crawling under Tommy's carpet. He spent an inordinate amount of time dusting off whatever was lurking under the rug after the game of 'hide and seek'.