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David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an award-winning American television personality, late night talk show host, television producer, Indy Racing League car owner and philanthropist. His first major success was on the long-running NBC television program Late Night with David Letterman, before he transferred to CBS in 1993 to his current position on The Late Show.
Letterman is once divorced, from Michelle Cook, and had a long-term relationship with a former writer and producer on Late Night, Merrill Markoe. His longtime fiancée, Regina Lasko, is 13 years younger than he. They have one son, Harry Joseph, born November 3, 2003. He is named for Letterman's father, Harry Joseph ("Joe") Letterman. They currently reside in North Salem, New York.
Letterman's ironic, often absurd comedy is heavily influenced by comedians Steve Allen, Andy Kaufman and Johnny Carson.
Early career
David Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Harry Joe Letterman, was a florist who died in 1974; his mother Dorothy Letterman (neé Hofert, now Dorothy Mengering) (born July 18, 1921), a Presbyterian church secretary, is an occasional figure on the show, usually at holidays and birthdays. He has an older sister, Janice, and a younger sister, Gretchen. One of his early comedic influences was the Cincinnati talk show host Paul Dixon, but the person who would influence his life the most would be Johnny Carson, host of the Tonight Show.
Letterman attended Broad Ripple High School in Indianapolis and later graduated from Ball State University, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He received a B.A. in telecommunications in 1969. He began his broadcasting career at Ball State's student-run radio station, WAGO - AM 570 (Now known as WCRD, 91.3). A rare aircheck of Letterman on WAGO can be heard here (registration required). (The voice of Letterman's first wife Michelle Cook can be heard on the clip, playing a character in a sketch.)
Weather
Letterman began work as a radio talk show host and on Indianapolis television station WLW-I (now called WTHR) as a local anchor and weatherman. He received recognition for his unpredictable on-air behavior, which included erasing state borders from the weather map and predicting hail stones "the size of canned hams." One night he reportedly upset his bosses when he congratulated a tropical storm on being upgraded to a hurricane. He had a nervous habit of clapping his hands together.
Move to LA
In 1975, Letterman moved to California with hopes of becoming a comedy writer and started writing material for sitcoms. He also began performing stand-up comedy at The Comedy Store, a famed Los Angeles comedy club and proving ground for young comics.
Letterman also appeared in the summer of 1977 on the short-lived Starland Vocal Band Show. About this, he made various jokes about how fortunate he was that nobody would ever see his performance on the program (because of its low ratings).
Letterman had a stint as a cast member on Mary Tyler Moore's variety show Mary, a guest appearance on Mork & Mindy (as a parody of est leader Werner Erhard), and appearances on game shows such as The $20,000 Pyramid. He also hosted a 1977 pilot for a game show, entitled The Riddlers that was never picked up. His dry, sarcastic humor caught the attention of talent scouts for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and Letterman was soon a regular guest on the show. Letterman became a favorite of Carson's and became a regular guest host for the show starting in 1978.
NBC
Morning Show
Soon afterwards, Letterman was given his own morning comedy show on NBC, The David Letterman Show. The show was a critical success, winning two Emmy Awards, but was a ratings disappointment and was canceled after a brief run during the summer of 1980.
Late Night
NBC kept Letterman under contract and tried again in a different time slot; in 1982, Late Night with David Letterman debuted on the network. Letterman's show, which ran weeknights at 12:30 am eastern time, immediately following The Tonight Show, quickly established a reputation as being edgy and unpredictable, and soon developed a cult following (particularly among college students). The show was markedly different from the soft-sell talk-show competition (including his own lead-in); Letterman as an interviewer could be sarcastic and antagonistic to the point that a number of celebrities have even stated that they were afraid of appearing on the show. Letterman's reputation as an acerbic interviewer was born out of moments like his verbal sparring matches with Cher, Shirley MacLaine and most notably, Madonna (see Madonna on Letterman).
The show often included quirky, genre-mocking regular features, including "Stupid Pet Tricks", dropping various objects off the roof of a five story building, the Top 10 List, and a facetious letter-answering segment. Other memorable moments included Letterman using a bullhorn to interrupt The Today Show TV program, which was on the air conducting a live interview at the time, announcing that he was the NBC president and that he was not wearing any pants; interrupting Al Roker on the Live at Five live local news by walking into that show's studio which was in the same building as Letterman's studio; staging elevator races with commentary by NBC Sports' Bob Costas, and the outrageous appearances by comedian Andy Kaufman, Late Night writer Chris Elliott and comic book writer Harvey Pekar. In one highly publicized appearance, Kaufman appeared to be slapped and knocked to the ground by professional wrestler Jerry Lawler. (Lawler and Kaufman's friend Bob Zmuda later revealed that the event was staged.) Actor Crispin Glover once aimed a kick at Letterman's head; the host immediately left the set. When the show returned after a commercial break, Glover had disappeared. A guest shot by writer Hunter S. Thompson was cut short, apparently after Thompson offered to shoot off fireworks on the studio floor. Peter Ustinov was the midpoint guest on the night of Letterman's famous "upside down show," during which the television image was gradually rotated 360 degrees over the course of the hour; Ustinov was shown completely upside down during his appearance, in close-up, but Letterman himself was only shot from a distance during this part of the show. After leaving NBC Letterman would gripe about his former bosses.
CBS
Late Show
Switch to CBS
Letterman remained with NBC for eleven years. Upon Johnny Carson’s unexpected announcement that he would retire in May 1992, a protracted, multilateral battle erupted over who would replace the long-time Tonight host. Eventually, executives at NBC announced Carson's frequent guest-host Jay Leno as Carson's replacement, despite Carson's professed desire to see the torch passed to Dave. Letterman had ironically become a victim of his own success — NBC’s confirming Letterman's high ratings in the 12:30 (EST) time-slot signaled that the network preferred to hold on to Letterman in the 'Late Night' gig. Letterman, a longtime protégé of Carson's who had frequently credited Johnny with boosting his career, was reportedly bitterly disappointed and angry at not having been given the job on the Tonight Show.
In 1993 reportedly on Carson’s advice, Letterman departed NBC to host his own show opposite Tonight on CBS at eleven-thirty, The Late Show with David Letterman. Three years later, HBO produced a made-for-television movie called The Late Shift, based on a book by New York Times reporter Bill Carter, chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for the coveted Tonight Show hosting spot. Letterman would mock the film for months afterward, specifically on how the actor playing him did not resemble him in the least. ("They took a guy who looked nothing like me and with makeup and special camera angles, turned him into a guy who looked nothing like me, with red hair.") About a year after Late Show began, Carson made a surprise appearance during a 'Top 10 list' segment. The audience went wild as Letterman stood up and proudly invited Carson to sit at his desk. Such was the overwhelming applause that Carson was unable to deliver the joke (the applause having gone on too long) and he humbly returned backstage.
Popularity
The Late Show competes in the same time slot as Leno's The Tonight Show. Letterman has garnered both critical and industry praise; his shows have received 67 Emmy Award nominations, winning twelve times in his first twenty years in late night television. Nevertheless, Leno consistently beats Letterman in the ratings. At one point Leno's lead was as large as two million viewers, but narrowed, as of February 2005, to fewer than a million viewers (5.8 vs. 4.9 million).
On September 22, 2006, Variety reported that the Tonight Show with Jay Leno won its 11th consecutive season and Leno stretched his lead over Letterman to 31% in total viewers with 5.7 million on average compared with 4.1 million for Letterman, 3.4 million for "Nightline" and 1.6 million for Jimmy Kimmel.
Letterman has however consistently ranked higher than Leno in the annual Harris Poll of Nation's Favorite TV Personality; as of 2004 Letterman ranked second in that poll, behind Oprah Winfrey.
Academy Awards
In early 1995, it was announced Letterman would host that year's Academy Awards ceremony. Critics blasted Letterman for what they judged as his poor hosting of the Oscars. In a joke about their unusual names, he started off by introducing Uma Thurman to Oprah Winfrey, and then the both of them to Keanu Reeves ('Uma...Oprah! Oprah...Uma! Oprah, Uma...Keanu!'), and many of his other jokes fell flat.
Letterman recycled the apparent debacle into a long-running gag. On his first show after the Oscars, he confessed 'Looking back, I had no idea that thing was being televised.' For years afterward, Letterman would bring up how horrible a host he was, although some have defended him by saying it was the show itself, not him, that was poor that year.
Heart Surgery
On January 14, 2000, a routine checkup revealed that an artery in Letterman's heart was severely constricted. He was rushed to emergency surgery, receiving a quintuple bypass.
During the initial weeks of his recovery, friends of Letterman hosted re-runs of the Late Show, including Drew Barrymore, Ray Romano, Robin Williams, Megan Mullally, Bill Murray, Regis Philbin, Charles Grodin, Nathan Lane, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Jerry Seinfeld, Martin Short, Danny DeVito, Steve Martin, and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Later, while still recovering from surgery, Letterman revived the late night tradition of 'guest hosts' (a practice that virtually disappeared on network television during the 1990s) by allowing Bill Cosby, Kathie Lee Gifford (recommended by Regis, who was asked first but had no time in his schedule), Dana Carvey, Janeane Garofalo, and others to host new episodes of The Late Show. Cosby, the show's first guest host, refused to sit at Letterman's desk out of respect, using the couch instead; Garofalo also followed suit, utilizing a set of grade-school desks instead.
Upon his return to the show on February 21, 2000, a visibly thinner and weakened Letterman brought onstage all of the doctors and nurses who had participated in the surgery and his recovery (with extra teasing of a nurse who had given him bedbaths -- "This woman has seen me naked!"), including Dr. O. Wayne Isom and physician Louis J. Aronne, who makes frequent appearances on the show. In an unusual show of emotion, Letterman was nearly in tears as he thanked the health-care team with the words "These are the people who saved my life!" The episode earned an Emmy nomination. For a number of episodes, Letterman would continually crack jokes about his bypass, including saying " 'Bypass surgery - it's when doctors create new blood flow to your heart. A bypass is what happened to me when I didn't get The Tonight Show! It's a whole different thing.'."
Additionally, Letterman invited the band Foo Fighters to play "Everlong", introducing them as "My favorite band, playing my favorite song." During a later Foo Fighters appearance, Letterman said that the Foo Fighters had been in the middle of a South American tour which they cancelled to come play on his comeback episode.
Letterman would again hand over the reins of the show to several guest hosts (including Brad Garrett, Elvis Costello, John McEnroe, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Bonnie Hunt, Luke Wilson and bandleader Paul Shaffer) in February 2003, when he was diagnosed with a severe case of shingles. Later, Letterman tried using guest hosts for new shows broadcast on Fridays, but that experiment did not last long, possibly due to the decreased ratings from these shows.
September 11
On September 17, 2001, David Letterman was the first major American comedy performer to return to the television airwaves after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In his opening monologue, absent the usual musical opening credits and cheering audience, an uncharacteristically serious and very emotional Letterman struggled with the reality of the attacks and the role of comedy in a post-9/11 world, saying
“ The reason we were attacked, the reason these people are dead, these people are missing and dead ... They weren't doing anything wrong, they were living their lives, they were going to work, they were traveling, they were doing what they normally do. Uh, as I understand it -- and my understanding of this is vague, at best -- another smaller group of people stole some airplanes and crashed them into buildings. And we're told that they were zealots fueled by religious fervor, religious fervor. And if you live to be a thousand years old, will that make any sense to you? Will that make any goddamned sense? ”
His guests that night were then-CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather, who was very emotional as well and spoke with feeling about the courage of firefighters as well as reading verses from the song, America the Beautiful. Dave got his first laugh when, at the end of his monologue, he said, "And thank God Regis is here so we have something to make fun of." Before September 11, various mocking and self important descriptions were affixed to New York City at the beginning of the show, but starting with the September 17, 2001 show and continuing to the present announcer Alan Kalter introduces the show as being "From New York, The Greatest City in the World, it's The Late Show with David Letterman!" Also, the opening shot of the credits was a view of Battery Park and the World Trade Center. This was changed to an aerial shot of the Empire State Building.
Contract renewed
In March 2002, as Letterman's contract with CBS neared expiration, ABC expressed the intention to offer Letterman the time slot for long-running news program Nightline with Ted Koppel, citing more desirable viewer demographics. This caused a minor flap that ended when Letterman re-signed with CBS. Letterman addressed his decision to re-sign on the air, stating that he was content at CBS and that he had great respect for Ted Koppel.
December 4, 2006 CBS announced that David Letterman has signed a new contract to host the Late Show with David Letterman through the fall 2010.
"I'm thrilled to be continuing on at CBS," said Letterman. "At my age you really don't want to have to learn a new commute."
Letterman, who marked his 13th anniversary as host of the Late Show on August 30, 2006, celebrated 25 years in late-night comedy on February 1, 2007. Since its debut on CBS, the Late Show has been honored with nine Emmy Awards (including six for "Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program") and 54 Emmy nominations. Previously, Letterman won five Emmys and received 35 Emmy nominations for "Late Night with David Letterman" during its 11½ years on the air.
"Thirteen years ago, David Letterman put CBS late night on the map and in the process became one of the defining icons of our network," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation. "His presence on our air is an ongoing source of pride, and the creativity and imagination that the Late Show puts forth every night is an ongoing display of the highest quality entertainment. We are truly honored that one of the most revered and talented entertainers of our time will continue to call CBS 'home.' "
Letterman and Carson
In early 2005, it was revealed that retired King of Late Night Johnny Carson still kept up with current events and late-night TV right up to his death that year, and that he occasionally sent jokes to Letterman. Letterman then used these jokes in the monologue of his show, which, according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally (a onetime producer for both men), "[Johnny] gets a big kick out of." Letterman would do a characteristic Johnny Carson golf swing after delivering one of Carson's jokes. In a tribute to Johnny, all of the jokes used by Letterman in the opening monologue of his first show after Carson's passing were written by Carson.
Lassally also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor." Letterman also frequently employs some of Carson's trademark bits on his show, including "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Paul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band" and the "Week in Review".
Letterman and Conan O'Brien
After Letterman left "Late Night" on NBC, his hosting duties were given to Conan O'Brien. During O'Brien's first rocky year as host of Late Night Letterman was very supportive, making an amicable appearance as one of O'Brien's first guests and later filling O'Brien's audience with the stand-by audience from his own show. Letterman would also invite O'Brien as a guest on The Late Show With David Letterman. In 1996, when O'Brien celebrated his 3rd year on the air, Letterman showed up again in a bit involving a "Stray" hairpiece that once belonged to him. Years later, when NBC announced that O'Brien would take over The Tonight Show, Letterman congratulated O'Brien on his show.
Worldwide Pants
Letterman started his own production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated, which produces his show and several others, including Everybody Loves Raymond, The Late Late Show, and several critically acclaimed, but short-lived television series for Bonnie Hunt. Worldwide Pants also produced the dramady program Ed, starring Tom Cavanagh, which aired on NBC from 2000-2004. It was Letterman's first association with NBC since he left the network in 1993. During Ed's run, Cavanagh appeared as a guest on The Late Show several times.
In 2005, Worldwide Pants produced its first feature film, Strangers with Candy, which was a prequel to the short-lived TV series Strangers with Candy. In 2007, Worldwide Pants produced the ABC comedy series The Knights Of Prosperity.
| Latest news about David Letterman |
Conan Visits Late Night (with David Letterman)Conan O'Brien, the soon-to-be host of Late Night, visits David Letterman, the soon-to-leave host of Late Night and soon-to-be host of The Late Show. Aren't they adorable? Continue reading
John McCain Reschedules with David LettermanOn September 24 John McCain bailed out on an appearance on Late Night With David Letterman. Dave was okay with this when McCain said it was to rush back to Washington to work on the economic crisis, but became very upset with McCain ... Continue reading
David Letterman on the 'Squirrelly' John McCain: 'I Don't Trust Him'Funny - for all the wrong reasons... Miss d. Continue reading
Don’t mess around with David LettermanJohn McCain learnt it the hard way when he last minute cancelled his appearance on Late Show with David Letterman. David Letterman was so pissed that he spend at least 10 minutes attacking John McCain on his show. ... Continue reading
Oh, David Letterman, we love youSupposedly John McCain is going to be on David Letterman later this week, having stood him up the first time to engage in yet another Hail Mary dog and pony show “save the economy.†Dave wonders if he can trust McCain’s word when he ... Continue reading
John McCain “The Late Show With David Letterman†Appearance October 16It looks like Senator John McCain and late night host David Letterman have kissed and made up. The Republican presidential candidate is scheduled to appear on The Late Show this Thursday, October 16. The interview will be McCain’s first ... Continue reading
John McCain To Kiss and Make Up With David LettermanIn celebrity feuds that are so three weeks ago, John McCain is scheduled to visit The Late Show with David Letterman on Oct. 16. Again. McCain ignited Letterman's ire by cancelling an appearance on his show last month, then appearing ... Continue reading
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I [heart] David Letterman.[h/t Marcy] Continue reading
David Letterman rips John McCain Laura Bush oops Palin GaffeDavid Letterman rants about John McCain canceling his appearance on the show. His scolds McCain for suspending his campaign. Laura Bush tells the truth about Sarah Palin’s foreign policy experience and Sarah Palin makes a gaffe on an ... Continue reading
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