Gary Emenitove writes…
I don't think that repetition on Letterman (or Leno, for that matter) is a bad thing. I cite the Master — Johnny Carson — where I, and presumably millions of others, looked forward to Carnak, Art Fern, and other bits. They were predictable (recall the moment where he paused just before "…THE FORK IN THE ROAD!") and they were cornerstones of a segment of The Tonight Show of that era. Just how is "Will It Float?" any different? The point is not whether something floats (just as the point with the Tea Time Movies were not the brief movie snippets themselves). The thing I look forward to is the production of it — the theme song for the segment, the hula-hoop and grinder girls, the sound effects, the interplay between Dave and Paul. Sure, it's predictable. And that's precisely why I do like it.
Well, the big difference between Dave's "Will It Float?" and Johnny's Tea Time Movies is that Johnny only did Tea Time Movies three or four times a year. Dave seems to do "Will It Float?" three or four times a week.
A certain amount of repetition is not a bad thing, and it's great to develop recurring segments that viewers look forward to. Carson, however, had a terrific instinct for when something (or in the case of guests, someone) was appearing too often. That even included his own appearances. Johnny took his many nights off, in part on the premise that America would tire of him if he did five shows a week.
I get the feeling that a lot of TV shows these days that are done in front of a live audience don't know the difference between entertaining the warm bodies in the seats and entertaining the folks sitting at home. Live audiences are a different breed. They go in, wanting to see all the recurring bits. They want to hear all the catch-phrases. Basically, they want to see in person all the routines and show elements they know well from watching at home…and of course, they're usually bigger fans of the program than the average viewer. A lot of sitcoms — including at least one I worked on — have suffered from playing to that dynamic for cheap applause. Even those same people wouldn't want to see all that stuff if they were sitting at home.
Letterman plays to a studio audience of Dave worshippers. At times, that audience is even pre-screened with a trivia test to make sure they're steady watchers and know all the running gags. It's nice that he wants to reward his loyal viewers but I think he'd have a better show if he had some people out there who didn't love every single thing he does, especially if they've already seen it eight hundred times. I sure like him better when he's doing things he's never done before.