Jaime Weinman writes about David Letterman, specifically about how viewers who only know him from the last decade or so may wonder how this cranky guy stayed on so long and why he is so revered. Whenever friends of mine discuss great moments with Dave, it's always something from his NBC show or the early days of his tenure on CBS.
It's never anything from this century…or when it is, it's because fate, not Dave's wish to do something different, forced a memorable moment on him. His post 9/11 speech was memorable. His shows when he returned from major medical problems were memorable. His speech about being blackmailed was memorable. It was rarely anything that occurred on a "normal" episode. On those, he seemed to be striving for uniformity, even to the extent of repeating monologue jokes from the night before.
CBS, by the way, is airing a prime-time special about Dave's career with them on May 4, hosted by Ray Romano. It will include a lot of those memorable moments. Dave's last show is May 20.
After he departs, we're probably going to hear a lot more from folks who worked inside his operation. I'll own up to a certain curiosity as to Wha' Happened? It just seemed over the years that he got more and more uninterested in prepared comedy bits, in doing remotes, in doing much more than entertaining the studio audience. Almost every episode I've watched the last few years included some joke that was incomprehensible to home viewers since it was a reference to something someone in the audience had said during the non-televised warm-up.
My pal Paul Harris wrote in a not-dissimilar essay…
While his legend will always include dozens of memorable moments and wacky bits he created (or borrowed from Steve Allen) and his paradigm-shifting attitude towards late-night television, which spawned the current generation of competitors, the fact is that it's been a long time since Dave said or did anything original.
Paul and I have talked a lot about Letterman, a guy we both admired tremendously. We agreed that at some point, Dave became utterly uninterested in his own show and especially anything that required work or prep. He couldn't even feign interest in about two-thirds of his guests, which is the main thing that drove me away. When I did watch the last few years, it was because I saw he had on some guest — like a Steve Martin or a Tom Hanks — who might make Dave care and rise to the occasion. When he was good, he was very good. He almost reminded you of the guy who followed Carson all those years on NBC.
I can name some factors other than Letterman himself that harmed the show — factors that have hurt all the late night shows. One is that viewing audiences have shown a marked disinterest in reruns that feel like reruns. Carson used to select shows to be repeated from a year or so back on the theory that viewers would have largely forgotten what happened on them and would be ready to see them again. Rating patterns the last few years have yielded a new working premise: Old shows feel like old shows.
Today, all the late night talkers select reruns from just a few weeks back because (a) they now assume that even those who like the program aren't, even in the age of TiVo, watching every night…and (b) current references will make it feel more like a new show. Mr. Carson did his shows with the idea that he was building a library; that highlights from any show could be rerun forever. He even pushed for things like Carson's Comedy Classics, a series which reused old segments.
No one has so much as suggested that what Dave, Jay, the Jimmies, et al, have been doing the last ten years has any reuse value anywhere. The shows aren't even being rerun weeks later on the networks' late night schedule or their cable channels, as was done a lot a decade ago. The stars and their staffs are all aware they're probably doing disposable shows, many of which will never be seen again, a few of which will be seen one more time, then will disappear.
Also, audience patterns have shown that the best way to get tune-in is to book the hot star or the hot new movie or the hot new series. This has presented problems for a guy like Dave who probably hasn't watched the hot new movie or series and doesn't have much interest in its hot new star. But more than that, to book the hot new star, you now have to contend with the hot new property's publicist who frets that one awkward, unplanned moment will harm the hot new marketing campaign. They want to know the questions in advance. They want to veto certain questions. They don't want the hot new star getting stuck in a situation where he or she would have to ad-lib.
Leno, in his exit interviews, has spoken a lot about the frustration of dealing with these publicists and handlers. I'll betcha Dave has even more frustration…and a strong sense that this just ain't his game anymore. That was one of Carson's main problems in his last few years. He just plain didn't know (or care to know) a lot of celebs he had in his guest chair (or should have had in his guest chair)…and those folks did not come on for unscripted conversation. They came on to stay "on-message" about the movie they had opening next Friday.
I'm not sure that what has ruined late night TV for me is wholly the fault of the guys behind the desks these days. I think it has a lot to do with what they have to do to stay viable, ratings-wise. At some point, someone at CBS must have talked to Dave about creating "viral videos" and I'll bet his eyes glazed over and he thought, "I've been doing this too long to learn a whole new set of rules."
The main thing that interests me about Letterman these days is to wonder what he's going to do with the rest of his life, entertainment-wise. Leno couldn't beat Dave when it came to witty ad-libbing and revolutionizing the late night form but he's blitzed him in career management. Jay has something to do now and Dave doesn't. Jay is very happy (and well-compensated) doing stand-up and a little cable show that, wisely, in no way resembles The Tonight Show. Dave was never happy doing stand-up and for him, a little cable show would be such a comedown, especially if it was a low-rent version of what he's done in television the last several decades.
I hope he comes up with something. When he's on his game, he's a very clever man and one of the most important talents in television history. I wish there was a cable channel reairing his old NBC shows so that new generations might know that…and why some of us care about that unhappy old guy who's stepping down next month.