How Will David Letterman Be Ranked and Remembered?
There was a time when late-night talk show hosts were the most trustworthy people in America.
Five nights a week, we invited them into the cozy confines of our homes. We allowed them into our most intimate private quarters — our bedrooms — where millions laughed, while others made love, and far more dozed off and snored through opening monologues. Picking a favorite nocturnal chaperon was deeply personal, like pledging loyalty to a sports team or buying the same brand of soap over and over again. East Coasters tended to prefer the New York-based David Letterman Show, who could be edgy and even confrontational at times, even with his guests. Meanwhile, West Coasters leaned towards the far more easygoing Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the show set in Los Angeles.
Letterman put us all to bed one final time last night, which was the end of the line for more than 6,000 shows broadcast over 33 years. He serenaded us to sleep more times than anyone else in history, eclipsing even the silver-haired ironman, Johnny Carson, by two full years, bronzing him into what likely will be remembered as the Lou Gehrig of late-night entertainment. The boyish gap-toothed former stand-up comedian originally from Indiana clearly matured over the years. Then again, he never changed much either. He never really seemed to take himself, or his role as our onscreen television nanny, too seriously.
Unfortunately, Letterman remained on the air a bit too long. He should have retired some years earlier, as was clearly evidenced by a dull and rather stoic farewell show last night. Then again, rushing to his defense, how could Letterman simply pack up and walk away from pulling in $25 million a year, plus the royal perks of being one of the most powerful people in entertainment? There’s a reason popes and supreme court justices usually stay on for life, and Letterman must have been just as absorbed into his role as America’s chosen chancellor, the preferred authority to feed us low-calorie news, mock celebrities, while occasionally making us laugh a little.
Since television’s early days in the 1950s, the registry of late-night talk show hosts has ranged from legendary to downright abysmal, with the bulk falling somewhere in between. The gambit runs from the best (Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Dick Cavett, Steve Allen, Tom Snyder) — to average (Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Craig Ferguson, Carson Daly) — to worst (Arsenio Hall, Russell Brand, Pat Sajak, Chevy Chase). Note that Letterman’s position in this hierarchy remains uncertain.
As a total package, no one’s likely ever to top Carson, who was not only consistently witty and engaging over a span of three decades when America and its comedic tastes changed radically, not to mention what network censors allowed on the air. He was also a multi-talented performer, known not just for his perfectly-timed deadpan comedy, but singing and performing magic tricks, as well. Carson was extraordinarily well-read and it often showed on the air. He regularly featured writers and intellectuals as guests (sometimes against the producer’s wishes), and often raised the bar on what had been low expectations for the wasteland of late-night entertainment. Any given night on the same program Carson’s guests might include — Jimmy Stewart, George Carlin, animal trainer Jack Hanna, and William F. Buckley, Jr.
Carson’s version of The Tonight Show also served as the expressway to immediate superstardom. He was the gatekeeper of new and undiscovered talent. A phone call from his office could change someone’s life. Carson frequently invited previously-unknown comedians onto his show — including women, blacks, and other minorities for the first time — often giving them their first big break. The list of comedians introduced to America by Carson over his 31 years on NBC reads like a “Who’s Who” of contemporary stand-up — almost entirely at Carson’s personal initiative. Later on, his successor Leno rarely did much to help new and upcoming talent. Virtually no major figures we recognize today ever got much of a break from Leno or his show. His nightly pantomime consisted of little more than fawning celebrity worship and debasement of comedy down to the lowest common denominator. That smarter people generally preferred Letterman over Leno wasn’t so much bragging rights for the New York show, given the appalling lack of preparation by a poorly-read, frequently disengaged, and seemingly bored host in Burbank going through the motions every night.
Letterman was neither as good as Carson, nor as bad as Leno. Very often, he was just as good as his guests and sometimes better, which included pretty much the entire gambit of pop culture icons who lived between 1982 and 2015 — from movie stars to sports figures, to politicians. Some of his musical guests and their performances became storied chapters in our own lives — from a 13-minute extended jam that ran way past the bottom of the hour and yet was allowed to continue uninterrupted by James Brown (1982), to the only Sonny and Cher live musical reunion ever to take place following their divorce and break up (1987), to the Foo Fighters canceling a series of concerts and flying halfway across the world to be the first act to play for Letterman after his open-heart surgery, to the late Warren Zevon being given the stage alone alongside Letterman for the full hour shortly after being diagnosed with deadly mesothelioma (2002). If Letterman gave us nothing else, we shall harbor those memories.
No doubt, Letterman’s quirky style and propensity to say awkward things at the wrong time weren’t suited to everyone’s tastes. As the years passed by and his show count moved past 3,000, then 4,000, then the 5,000 marks — he gradually became less relevant. Writers departed and while the delivery stayed the same, the jokes were different. Letterman’s “Top Ten Lists” haven’t been the next-morning water cooler conversation for a very long time. Changing styles and alternative tastes in comedy, not to mention a proliferation of pseudo-celebrities and flash-in-the-pain reality stars lacking any real talent became the biggest challenges for Letterman, as fewer viewers seemed as interested in watching the seemingly unrehearsed interplay between Letterman and bandleader Paul Shaffer just prior to a sit-down interview with Paris Hilton. Style replaced substance.
Indeed, the vast void of cutting-edge comedy on nightly television was filled and eventually clinched by far funnier competing late-night cable hosts, including Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Wittier and far more interesting material was flowing steadily from those two desks, as mainstream allegiances shifted from CBS (and NBC) over to Comedy Central. By 2011, more Americans reported they were getting the daily news from Stewart and Colbert than the network’s own evening news programs. Fittingly, Colbert will be taking over Letterman’s chair, yet another indication of a massive shift in what late-night viewers are now demanding in terms of the mishmash of news, entertainment, and comedy.
The passing of this proverbial baton from one generation to the next is a part of living. Most of us experience these rituals at various stages of our personal lives and professional careers. Now retired, Letterman just so happens to be going through the motions on national television, surrounded by adoring fans, a dedicated staff, and plenty of other famous people.
Fortunately, this appears to be a welcome change that is very much needed. Rarely is the newcomer to a well-established television show with a beloved host able to fill such big shoes and meet lofty expectations. But just as a thin, young standup from Nebraska once took Jack Paar’s seat on the late-night television stage back in 1962 and then proceeded to craft his own style and establish a loyal following, the next in line of succession here is also likely to redefine the landscape.
Farewell David Letterman. Welcome, Stephen Colbert.
