Why David Letterman Has (Almost) Always Creeped Me Out
At the beginning of the 1980s, the former TV weatherman and favored Carson Tonight Show fill-in was being groomed by NBC for something big.
Alas, The David Letterman Show wasn’t that something. Sure, it won a couple of Emmys, but it was cancelled after five months.
Most observers note in retrospect that Letterman’s glib, ironic sarcasm and cool indifference guaranteed that the program wouldn’t last long. After all, the show’s time slot is better suited to the likes of Regis & Kathy Lee. Especially 32 years ago, viewers at 10am were overwhelmingly housewives and seniors, accustomed to morning TV staples like cooking segments and easily digestible interviews with B- and C-list celebs.
Letterman and the show’s developers envisioned something edgier (even though “edgy” wasn’t really a word then). So The David Letterman Show was an uneasy compromise that was doomed from the start.
Everyone involved seems to know it.
One of Letterman’s promos serves as less of an enticement to tune in than a dare — or a warning not to bother:
And clearly Letterman doesn’t look all that comfortable on the show itself:
But the studio audience doesn’t seem to mind. I know I didn’t, and all these years later, I retain a certain affection for the program.
Video clips from Letterman’s morning show are hard to find. I hoped to track down some man-on-the-street segments — the show really came alive when Letterman stepped outside the studio.
Over at Splitsider, Ramsey Ess confirms my recollections of what made the short-lived show enjoyable, and Letterman’s later style so grating. He writes:
The most obvious difference between the morning show and the later programs is Dave’s interview style. While there have been many excellent interviews throughout the years, there are just as many where it is clear that Letterman has no interest in talking to his guest. Sometimes he makes no effort to hide this; when CBS made him have each newly kicked off Survivor castaway on his show, he made them stand on the opposite side of the studio. There’s none of that on the morning show. Whether he’s interviewing 80-year-old blues legend Sippie Wallace or or Dr. Howard Cotton, head of Mt. Sinai’s headache clinic, David seems engaged and interested in everything they have to say. Perhaps this could simply be chalked up to the greenness of his interviewing; he’s new to the game and hasn’t become jaded towards guests that no hold no interest for him.
Actually, I’d chalk it up to the absolute opposite of “greenness.” I’d call it “professionalism.”
I think you’ve stumbled upon your answer when you mention the name Carson alongside Letterman.
Letterman is a liberal. Despite the opportunity to be a national media figure and the fame and fortune that has accompanied it, he is bitter, angry, condescending and resentful at everything around him and, worst of all, despises his audience – the very thing that made him what he is.
Carson was the exact opposite. He was a demanding taskmaster but he had a genuine love for what he did and engaged fully with both the silliness of the things he had to do as well had a genuine affection for his audience. He was a humble man from humble background, and when he left the scene he returned gracefully to the anonymity of a non-public life. I do not know Carson’s politics – he never tipped his mitt to my recollection – but I’d wager he was a conservative.
What a contrast.
I think the most people who were in a position to know have said that Carson was a mainstream liberal. But his genius was that most of his viewers weren’t able to discern it from his monologues or interviews.
Just proves my contention that the less I know about an entertainer’s politics the more likely I am to pay attention to their work. And vice versa. I still look up bits and pieces of Carson shows on YouTube from time to time. Letterman? fuhgedaboutit.
More than one person has noted that Dave’s late night career can be divided into pre- and post-Chris Elliott periods, though it may have just been that once he had X number of standard routines (Top 10 list, Stupid Pet/Human tricks, etc.) he just put it on cruise control. Once he got to the 11:35 Eastern time slot on CBS, it was obvious whatever edginess the other shows had offered was long gone, and the CBS period now makes up almost two-thirds of Letterman’s show-hosting lifespan. Career-wise, that would be the equivalent of Carson having put The Tonight Show on autopilot sometime around the end of 1972 (and Johnny had a lot of stock routines. But it’s a lot easier to make them work if you actually seem to be enjoying what you’re doing, instead of showing off a “too cool for the room” snarky disdain for your recurring bits).
The other problem of course, is Letterman’s increasing foray into partisan politics over the past decade, which is why this week’s show with Olbermann has the potential to be unintentionally funny. With Keith on the show, it will be fair game for Dave to mock his Current TV successor, Eliot Spitzer, and he can even make weasel tort lawyer jokes about Joel Hyatt. But Al Gore? Dave pretty much spent the last decade trying to show the compassionate, wise, all-knowing Al would have been a far better choice for president than Chimpy McBusHitler, so if Keith starts ranting about the former VP being a lying, miserable, cheap SOB, how’s Dave going to handle that? Bring up Sarah Palin’s on the Today Show earlier Tuesday to try and change the subject?
I largely agree, but Letterman’s been off into partisan politics for more than 20 years. I found his morning show to be genius, but the night show went downhill in the late 80s. Letterman always said he knew nothing about politics, & went on to prove it anytime he made a political comment. The irreversible slide came with his attacks on VP Dan Quayle, which involved no humor, and became simply bitter, more and more so. All his comedy lost its uniqueness after that, and in recent years he’s been little more than an Olbermann who occasionally laughs. He went on to fulfill what Cher said to him when she first appeared on his show. He asked, ‘why haven’t you come on before now?’ She replied, ‘I thought you were an a——.’ That’s where he is now. Too bad. The morning show was brilliant.
He did start getting into politics in the late 1980s, but I remember a 1999 show on CBS when James Carville was the guest, and Letterman ripped him a new one when he started mouthing talking points about the Lewinsky scandal being all the Republicans’ fault.
So he was hostile to politicians, but at least until the last 8-9 years, (or 12, if you add the 2000 election period and take out the post-9/11 interregnum) he was disdainful to both sides at times. The new Letterman is no better than the more rabid talking heads on MSNBC in blaming all of the country’s woes on the right, which is why it’s going to be interesting to see if Keith brings up Gore’s name or if Dave lets him rant on about Al’s weaselness, since Dave can only joke about Gore’s intensity (or his weight), not his truthfulness or the correctness of his politics.
Dave lost me in 2006 when he couldn’t decide if he wanted the US to win in Iraq.
I agree, Kathy. As a 22-year-old in 1980, Letterman’s morning show was a breath of fresh air. I remember he had Fred Rogers on as a guest, and Letterman interviewed him in a non-sarcastic way, something that would not happen on his show today. Rogers even sang “It’s You I Like” from the “Neighborhood” show to Letterman, and Dave didn’t even make a wisecrack. I think the most famous bit on the show was “Floyd Stiles Day”, a show honoring a elderly farmer from Missouri. At the end of the show, a blizzard of confetti came down from the studio ceiling, some of which was set on fire by sparklers that were, for some reason, on a cake. Dave and some of the guests tried to stamp out the fire; then stagehands came on with fire extinguishers that made the confetti swirl around on the floor. All through this, the audience was laughing hysterically; they thought this was part of the show.
On the same note, I recall when Letterman interviewed a very young and nervous Amy Carter. He was polite, gracious, tried hard to make her feel comfortable and never made fun of anything she said – and there were several opportunities to do so [how many of us could go on national TV as a 17 (or so) old and not get tongue-tied or say something silly that could easily be taken by a skilled interviewed and made fun of?].
What a change from the current Letterman.
Dave hasn’t been funny since he was the weatherman at Channel 13 in Indianapolis in the 70′s. I can remember when the weather “map” (must have been hand-drawn) showed Indiana and Ohio as one state, because there was no boundary line between the two. He came up with some funny names for the combined state…but he still was’t funny enough for me to remember them. Now he’s just another snarky lefty hack.
More or less “As we go to the map, we can see that someone has erased the border between Indiana and Ohio. Personally, I’m agin’ it.”
Don’t ask me why I remember that, I never saw him live as a newscaster, just that clip years later. Weird what sticks in a brain.
Letterman was good in the 1980s. (Or maybe it was because I was a high school & college student at the time.) Part of the appeal was that he was the anti-Carson, cynical and not always into his guests. It was enjoyable because he’d skewer both the right and the left. But like so many others (including Jon Stewart) he’s tilted so far left (and has for a long time) that it’s boring. Plus he’s gone from ironic, hipster cynicism to just our right anger. And that preceded the Johnny Carson inheritance.
What’s up with the anger and petulance on the left?
Anger & petulance is what they are made of.
Rbj,
Ecclesiastes 10:2-3.
The Left’s is angry because they KNOW they are fools, but to educate themselves with the Truth would require EFFORT they are too lazy to attempt.
Or maybe it’s better explained by Jesus, in John 8:42-47?
I’m with you on Letterman. He comes across to me as a dyed in the wool elitist and a left wing cynic.
And a fake New Yorker; I think that may also have had soemthing to do with it. He lived in the suburbs, and I don’t think he understood New yorkers, at least those outside Manhattan. The fake “night” in the window pretty much symbolizes it.
Was that John Tesh in the audience in the second video around 1:12?
I never thought that Letterman was likeable or funny.
I tried watching Letterman’s late night show when he first came on, but very quickly I got tired of all his ‘stupid’ segments and inane comedy. And, in the final analysis, I turned him off when I came to the conclusion that via his schticks and assorted whatevers HE WAS LAUGHING AT US, NOT WITH US.
Bitter old crank who, like many Liberals, never appreciates the great gifts he’s been given but craves his ObamaLike ‘Perfect World’ toddler fantasy.
what a relief somebody that finally said what i’ve known since before he moved to cbs, thank you
My own relief too as I thought I was one of the limited number of people that never cared for him or his style.
I was in college when Letterman’s morning show was on and I had an 8am to 9am (CST) class, after which I would go back to my room and catch the hour of Letterman (not a fan now, however, and never watch The Late Show). Highlights of that morning show, in my view, must include the appearances of stone-faced NBC newsman Edwin Newman. Although always serious and straight in his newscasts, Newman was actually quite funny, and his appearances on Letterman’s morning show often garnered standing ovations from studio audiences.
One segment that was also quite funny was Letterman giving reports on Olympic events, such as ice skating, whereupon he would play a vinyl record with tiny skaters on it appearing to be racing.
After Dave became a wear-my-politics-on-my-sleeve, bitter & unfunny liberal on his late night show, I stopped watching.
Thank you, Kathy, for your insight. You have capably expressed the reasons that I have thoroughly despised Letterman’s show. If I must be entertained at a late hour, it certainly will not be by this oaf.
Going back to when he was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson I never saw anything worthwhile in Letterman.I cannot understand his popularity. But I guess we live in an age where mockery, ridicule, scorn and belittling passes for comedy.
Spot on.
I love clean comedy. I enjoy and laugh at ‘blue’ comedy when it is funny.
I’ve laughed when a frustrated Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) strikes Manuel. Cleese wrote the script and knows he presents himself (at least, his character) as the buffoon.
Wanda Sykes tells people she’s a comic (I wouldn’t have known.) She says I hope this guy loses a kidney. Her audience laughs. (I think her audience agrees; and since she claimed to be a comic , they agreed by laughing). If she had identified herself as a pundit or newsman that same audience would show that same agreement by applause.
These mainstream players have no Sense of Humor, They’ve seen an audience laugh somewhere else and they’ve conflated ridicule with humor, crassness with humor…
The audience is no better. If a stranger said the same thing in line at McDonalds, they’d say “That’s sad” But a designated funnyman says it and they want to be in the group that’s laughing. Don’t ask anyone in the audience, “How is that funny?”. They just want to laugh together.
I remember that show quite fondly…coffee cup theater, Rich Hall and Sniglets. Right after math class and before studio every morning my freshman year. He was actually quite funny as a weatherman as said above.
Letterman pretty much does the same show every night. Jay Leno at least is quick and can think on his feet. Conan has never been funny, and apparently, never will. Why on earth some idiot at NBC decided they had to put Conan on the Tonight Show as the host is beyond me. They seriously damaged the brand and snapped a multigeneration viewing streak.
By the way, people tell me all the time Jay is a liberal and a Democrat, but I have a hard time telling. His jokes pretty much consider anyone and anything fair game – and he’s pretty middle of the road in jabbing politicians.
>>Conan has never been funny, and apparently, never will.
He’s a very funny writer, which is a different skill set than being funny in front of the camera. The episodes of The Simpsons that Conan wrote are hysterical funny; the show started its decline when he left.
Conan also did a great commencement speech at a University awarding former president GHW Bush an honorary doctorate. He, Conan, paid a wonderful tribute to Bush for his WWII service as a navy pilot. I was so touched by Conan’s words that I teared up watching the speech on YouTube. (It’s probably still out there, and I recommend watching it.) The portions of Conan’s speech in which he gave advice to the graduates were both funny and thoughtful.
Screw him; he’s a no-talent, mean spirited wise-@ss who only appeals to others of his ilk. A rather large group indeed.
I believe the word for the latterday Letterman is smug. It’s not very charming when the all-knowing-left all get smug together.
I haven’t watched Letterman since Warren Zevon’s goodbye show. We Zevon fans are grateful for those last three albums Zevon would probably not have been able to record without Letterman pushing for someone to sign him up (Zevon had been without a recording contract for several years.) I remember him waving the demo of what would be the first Artemis album and begging for someone to release this (it had the same cover it was released with.) It wasn’t about Letterman, that’s the thing, it was about his feelings for someone else. I’m afraid I can be certain now that anything that happens on the Letterman show will be all Letterman, Letterman’s politics, Letterman’s boredom, it’s all going to be him.
Yes, I too agree with you Kathy, Letterman is another Leno in my book. Both are self-absorbed arrogant asses. Now Conan and Jimmy Fallon are both funny, creative and listen to their guests. Also, during the writer’s strike, Conan kept the show going and those were the very best shows I believe, that he has done. There is no comparison with Leno or Letterman, they are blatantly NOT FUNNY, totally rude and I have no use for either one nor would I walk 10 steps to see either show.
I stopped watching David Litterbox a very long time ago, when he stopped being funny.
Besides, I hate liberals.
That said, I can’t blame Litterbox for not wanting to waste his viewers’ time with each of the bozos who were kicked off “Survivor.” Here’s why: “Reality TV” is, at best, a bore-fest. Those of us who despise “reality TV” and who can’t stand to watch even a single minute of it don’t want to see its execrable denizens invading other shows that we do watch. The minute they show up, we change the channel or shut the TV off, and that’s that.
What I’m reading is a bunch of disgruntled whiners mad at Letterman because he skewers Romney almost every.single.night for caging his dog to the top of his station wagon for a family drive to …… Toronto, Canada – years ago, but he did it.
Mike Huckabee’s son tortured and killed a stray dog and daddy intervened to get his son off the hook, wonder if Dave knows about that.
And yes, “Teddy” Kennedy should have had his arse kicked every day for the rest of his life while in the Senate for what he did to Mary J. Kopechne.
Letterman?
Feh.
My guess is, what you really don’t like about Letterman is that he skewers Romney almost every.single. night about caging his dog for a twelve hour drive to Canada.
Wonder if he knows about Huckabee’s son torturing to death (by hanging) a sick, stray dog and Huckabee using his influence to get him off easy.
Kathy, I’m with you. I used to laugh out loud regularly, while watching his daytime show — even my mother enjoyed the show, and has fond recollections of his “first Fourth of July fireworks of the day” segment, where he and the audience, under full lights, “ooohed” & “aaahed” over the sound of fireworks (and nothing to see, of course). Neither of us can stand to watch what he has become in the intervening years.
It appears PJMedia is rigged to not accept opposing viewpoints. (KInd of like the Rush Limbaugh show)?
Lol.
Gee. A liberal who doesn’t have the patience to wait for a comment to post and then complains of censorship.
Apologize and admit you were WRONG. It’s part of adulthood. Another part of adulthood is being able to wait for “deferred gratification” instead of hitting “send” repeatedly like a rat trying to get another pellet.
I posted, got a short response from this website with words to this effect “you’ve already posted this, haven’t you?”
I’m not a Liberal, what makes this crowd think that?
The knee-jerk attack on Rush at a Website that’s very popular with conservatives?
Obviously, you’ve never listened to the Rush Limbaugh show. Otherwise, you’d know that liberals get pushed to the front of the phone queue.
I used to like Letterman in the 80′s but then again, I voted for Clinton. I’ve woke up since then.
Now I view him as a bitter old man with a TV show instead of a lawn to chase children off of, that doesn’t have enough sense to make a graceful exit.
I’m guessing his farewell will be an announcement on Drudge that he died of a sudden heart attack, and a week of Paul Schaffer and Bruce Willis running highlights of the last 30 years.
Won’t watch that either.
Ever notice that every public figure on the Left is “bitter and resentful”? From comedians to actors, to the ‘talking heads’ on the alphabet news networks. They think they are smarter than the ‘average Joe/Josephine’ and cannot stand to be corrected by viewers’ comments on their fallacious “facts.”
I’m thinking this might be an American thing, since the native citizens of other countries have not had the individual freedom that sparks an interest in learning the Truth. For once one knows the Truth, one cannot help but try to charitably educate the uneducated.
First time I saw Letterman’s nighttime show in the early 80s, he was running over children’s toys with a steamroller. Nice.
He would embarrass and ridicule kids on his show if he thought it would get him a laugh. He’s a bully.
My wife always thought he was diddling that girl on his staff, turned out she was right.
To me, Letterman was neutered by two events. One was letting Madonna back on his show after she made a mockery of it. Two was begging for, and finally getting Hillary! on the air when she was running for the gift NY Senate seat in 2000.
I only watched for Grinder Girl.
“Will Success Spoil David Letterman?” – Damn Right! What the hell happened to the guy? He was once the most innovative and entertaining talk-show host we had. He did it by suborning the coventions of the genre with hilarious stunts and a gift for wicked irony. He also played fair with everyone. As soon as he got the CBS late-night gig he morphed into a caricature of himself. The best thing about the young Letterman was his honest self-deprecation. He always had that “I can’t believe they’re paying me to do this” sense of himself. Now he’s a pompous jerk frantically trying to be hip. Very sad.
I was a teenage fan of his brief morning show; it was just smartly different, slyly teasing of its guests and the host seemed to be having fun. I continued as a Letterman fan for many years – it was a “just before bedtime” ritual to watch at least the first half of the show.
However, as time went on, I lost interest. I though it was me that had changed – my father always thought Letterman a creep; maybe I was becoming my father?
But around 2000 (or so, I was keeping track), I stopped watching. Letterman’s trademark cynicism, frozen grimace, mannerisms, crankiness – they all either become tedious routine or unpleasant indications of his character.
I don’t agree with Kathy often – I think if she saw me on the street she’d be making her own patented witticism about “next time, we’ll pick our own cotton” – but she has her moments. It amuses me that when one acerbic creepy personality points out the flaws in an equally acerbic creepy personality.
Since folks have raised other names, I wanna put in a good word for Jimmy Kimmell. I hate practical jokes and he loves them, so that turns me off. But otherwise, I like him, he’s hosting the Emmys this year, and he cried on the air when his uncle died and it was quite touching.
PS does anyone remember the “Letterman Killed Bill Hicks” thing?
PPS my mom was the one who got me into the Letterman morning show too.
I often have to go to bed before Kimmel comes on, but I like his opening segments when I can watch them. It helps that he often makes fun of Oprah.
Letterman gets 3.3 million a night. I think it’s safe to say that there are at least 1 percent of Americans who are a-holes and support their fellows.
Rush Limbaugh, btw, gets between 15-20 million a week. As I understand it, radio ratings are based on the number of different people who tune in over the week.
Most of the 3.3 million who watch Letterman nightly would be the same people, which would give LImbaugh a much higher reach.
– and even felt sorry for him when he lost out to the creep Leno, but Dave is a creep too now.
Back when he took those shots at Palin’s daughter I reprogrammed my TV to not show CBS programming.
I haven’t watched CBS or Letterman since. Haven’t missed Letterman or CBS either.
It’s true… Letterman’s self-deprecation was a big part of what made me such a big fan all through the ’80s. But losing Carson’s seat brought out the absolute worst in him, the bitter, petulant diva.
Then CBS threw millions at him, reinforcing those worst qualities as he took CBS’s show as a ‘consolation prize’. It was fine for awhile, but his triple-bypass, rather than humbling him, instead he imagined himself bulletproof. He fathered a son with his longtime GF (though we now know he was sleeping with interns on the side) and when the writer’s strike ended, those first shows back were truly weird to watch. He had a full beard and looked every bit like a guy who’d enjoyed spending time with his son and had to be dragged back, kicking and screaming… like he’d rather be anywhere else but there.
But the show generates so much money for himself and all the people on the show, it seems like he’s obligated to be there… just amplifying the spoiled-rotten brat he’s become on screen now. He’ll say whatever he wants, interview and slag anyone he wants. Do the same old gags over and over. He doesn’t care. It’s almost as if he’s daring CBS to fire him… which they won’t. They haven’t got a backup plan.
But I do. I’ll watch almost anything else. It’s painful to watch him like this.
A tween when his show was fresh and funny in the mid-80′s, I was a fan. What a better way to get back at the parents than sneak staying up late watching a then cutting-edge adult variety show.
Dave lived in New Canaan, CT right on the border of the town I grew up in, Wilton, and right near my buddy’s house. I had seen him around and had always heard what a d-bag he was in public, at the grocery store where friends worked, at local restaurants, etc. Then one fall day he came into the ski shop I worked in (driving a d-bag bright yellow Ferrari) looking for some ski clothes. What a jerk. What 14 year-old knew what a no-talent moon-bat he was? I just knew him as a jerk.
Haven’t paid attention to him since.
I have never liked him or any of his stupid antics, but i was ready to exact some serious pain on his head when he started attacking the Sarah Palin Family, especially what this Perv sicko had to say about the 14 year old Palin girl…
I can’t comment on this article because I didn’t read it and don’t intend to but, out of curiosity, I must question why it was written and published by PJ Media? Is this publication now catering to the mentally challenged who can’t sleep and can’t read books and thus stay up at night to watch overpaid, bored and boring baby sitters of the lost?
He’s the personification of an adolescent smirk. I’m not sure what that means, but it seems to fit.
The last “shining moment” for Letterman was the monologue he delivered on his first show after 9-11. It’s been downhill ever since.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Pv3WJSc1Y
Letterman’s a real wise@$$ unless he’s up against someone who will pin his ears back like Fran Leibowitz. Then he just suxazz.
He creeps me out because he preys on pliable young female staffers and has a wife stashed in Montana with his kid.
Who watches television anymore? Aside from a few sports events, I find very little worthy of my time. Besides, Belladonna Rogers, I think, made an astute observation that mainstream media incessantly bashes males. Being a man, I have better ways to spend my time than listening to some arrogant fool belittle my gender and its contribution to human society.
When Letterman was a student at Ball State, he was fired from the college radio station–a volunteer job. Now the college named the communications building after him. I wanna slap my alma mater!
I liked Letterman’s late night shows after Carson, and I still liked his 11:35 shows on CBS, right up through the late 1990′s or even later, I forget, but certainly by the time he (a) got (re-)married, (b) started banging the interns 40 years younger than himself, he passed his sell-by date. Coincidentally at that point he turned into a brainless leftoid pushing his agenda at every opportunity. A younger Letterman knew better than to do that, for that matter the younger Letterman knew better than to think that.
Now he is so superannuated, I literally wince when I accidentally turn on the show and catch him and Paul still doing the old schtick but at about 2/3 speed, and I feel embarrassed for any guest who goes on his show.
I always thought Letterman was for guys, and Carson or Leno, were for girls.
And Letterman patterned himself more after Steve Allen. Except without the charm, or intellectualism. His sarcasm as humor is an acquired taste. Which came naturally to me back then. And which I’ve slowly lost over the years.
First, in the beginning, Late Night was not intended as a talk show. It was a comedy show. Which slowly drifted away, after his breakup with long time girlfriend, and head writer, Merril Markoe. After that, the show became more conventional. He was gunning for the Tonight Show. Which went to the much friendlier Leno. Dave was no longer “edgy,” just angry. And that is his appeal. Anger is his wave-length.
Another reason I began to lose interest, was I suspected he had become involved with a staffer. Which was someone named, I believe, Stephine. (or is that the other one?) The poor girl stuck out there, at her post in the hall. He was so focused on her, I always wondered. But by the time the bigger affair came to light, I had not been a regular viewer for years.
But the thing that stunned me even more, was his gushing over Obama. When I saw Letterman on his knees before Obama almighty, I knew I had loved the wrong thing. I once cared he did not get the Tonight Show.
Loyalty is a two way street. Something liberals do not understand. I mean any liberal. I mean that.
Smug, bored and mailing it in are all good definitions, but his earlier gutter attack on a teenager – referred to by Josie Wales – exposed him as having the mindset of a pedophiliac pervert, nevermore welcome in my home. If others don’t care, that’s on them. He’s sick. Responsible people should be embarrassed to encourage him.