Splitsider

In the New Yorker's 1978 profile of TV icon Johnny Carson, author Kenneth Tynan pinpoints the essential quality of Carson's genius: contempt. It's what the paterfamilias talk show host imparted to fellow midwestern David Letterman, rightful heir to the Tonight Show estate. In the early days however, Letterman ran aground. As the 1980s saw the Late Show struggling to find its way, there was no telling what Carson saw in the weatherman-turned-bumbling court jester. Dave's routine lacked both the deceptive modesty and turnaround wit he's now able to muster five nights a week, even, and especially when, his guests falter.

Letterman was never a great comedian. Jay Leno was. [...]

Everyone knows that Merrill Markoe just wrote a book called Cool, Calm & Contentious. But did you know she also did a first book? It’s true, because that is how ordinal numbers work, and for the purposes of this, it is Late Night with David Letterman: The Book.

Perhaps you can tell by the cover that this book was published in 1985 (also: there are some Tip O’Neill jokes). But: it captures a lot of what we might now refer to as “Late Night High Ironic” and at the time was referred to as “confusing to anyone not accustomed to constantly adjusting their point of reference”. That [...]

On December 19, 1984, after devoting entire episodes to a bar mitzvah and an intermediate school's election night, and before their episodes from an airplane and a hotel room, Late Night with David Letterman presented Christmas with the Lettermans, a one hour send-up of every single cheesy Christmas special that had ever run on television. The special, which ran unsuspectingly on a Wednesday during Letterman's usual 12:35am time slot, won Late Night the Emmy for outstanding writing in a variety or music program for the second year in a row.

The special began with NBC's classic "brought to you in living color" identification that welcomed viewers to countless peacock [...]