I need a day or two away from this blog…from the entire Internet, actually. It's nothing serious. I just won't be as "here" as I usually am for a little while. You won't notice because I'll send you to something else online that is far more entertaining than anything you'll find here.
YouTube now has a Letterman Channel filled with authorized (it appears) clips from past David Letterman shows. What's more, they seem to all be from back when Dave was really, really good. Here's one of my favorite Top Ten lists which Dave presented with an assist from Mr. Top Ten himself, Casey Kasem…
You may disagree — in fact, I know folks who disagree — but I found Dave increasingly less fun to watch during his last decade or so on CBS. There were golden moments, sure, but I switched from TiVoing him each and every night to watching the best clips that showed up on YouTube. I also lost a lot of respect for the man for some of the things he did to his staff and his competition.
Never lost my respect for all the innovation and refurbishment he brought to the talk show format. Never lost my respect for his writers who I thought were some of the best to ever work in television. I know someone who dearly wants to believe that David Letterman ad-libbed every single thing he said on television for thirty-three years, even when he was reading it off cue cards. No, I don't think so.
But there was a point when I couldn't watch him every night any longer; when it felt like he didn't even want to be there. So it's nice to have this new channel, along with the many, many, Dave clips all over YouTube to remind us that when he was good, he was very, very good. I will embed more videos from that channel, I am sure, but you might want to go over there and browse all of what's there now. Back soon.