David Letterman can't complain his last show is going without notice. The tributes, the articles…amazing. Reporters are tracking down people who were in a running bit on Dave's old show in 1987 for comment. It's probably a lot more press than Johnny's departure got…though in fairness, Johnny left when we didn't have eight zillion online magazines and websites all vying for a piece of the story.
I can't be the only person who notices that most of the pieces that talk about the brilliance that is Letterman cite examples from the last century and the previous network. What they mention from this century and this network are not the moments that he and his writing staff came up with but when circumstances beyond their control created a special event: Dave coming back from his heart attack, Dave coming back from shingles, Dave announcing the birth of his son or his marriage, Dave getting blackmailed…and many more, including his post-9/11 broadcast. He handled most of them with skill and integrity but then the next night, it would be a pretty conventional talk show again.
One of the sharpest pieces I've come across about Dave's legacy is this one by Josef Adalian. Some of the non-sharpest ones act like Dave has still been donning suits of Velcro® and sending Larry "Bud" Melman to the Port Authority Bus Terminal for the last decade or two.
These days, most of America regards Johnny Carson as a sacred figure who practically owned the hour of our lives during which he was on the air. My recollection is that this view of Johnny was not widely-held until the nation realized he was going away. You will find few critical appraisals of his greatness while he could still be taken for granted. He was to many a boring, slightly smutty comic whose monologue jokes and Mighty Carson Art Player sketches all bombed and who sat behind a desk asking smirking questions of starlets and making faces to the camera.
Of course, that was before he went away. Once he announced his retirement, he started to become a demi-god and it accelerated from there.
America this week is appreciating Letterman anew. Folks who haven't watched him for years (save for those "event" nights) are hailing him…and I'm not saying he doesn't deserve plenty of hailing. Most talk shows of the last few decades have tried to "do" Dave's show on NBC to some extent, the one notable exception at times being Dave's show on CBS. In the grand tradition of his idol Mr. Carson, Dave is being appreciated because we can't have him anymore. Ain't it like that with so many things in this world?