re: Letterman Final Show Thread

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I think its pretty on point. The Dave we saw in the 80's & 90's isn't the Dave who said goodbye last night.

Dave should've had The Tonight Show. That's for sure.

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I agree with your statements.

The political shite that this guy adds...

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Once Letterman figured this out, he blamed us — he turned on us, his fans, at least those of us who weren’t urban, left-wing hipsters.

After raging himself out against NBC; after raging himself out against Leno; sometime after his 2000 heart attack (that told him he was no longer a young man and running out of time), Letterman blamed America’s Heartland for his failed dream.

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... is useless conjecture.

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I think its pretty on point. The Dave we saw in the 80's & 90's isn't the Dave who said goodbye last night.

Dave should've had The Tonight Show. That's for sure.

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Agreed.

Bill Carter once said on Bill Simmons' podcast that losing that battle for the Tonight Show and then going on to lose the ratings battle the first few years pretty much killed the "old" Letterman, the guy from the 80s and early 90s that everyone in comedy idolized.

He also mentioned something I never really knew about Letterman that hurt his chances to get the Tonight Show and hurt him at CBS -- he didn't have that great of a work ethic. He never did much lead-in or promotional work for other shows, and he never wanted to do the CBS up-fronts or interact with sponsors. Also, he only tapes 4 days a week, taping Friday's show on that Monday, which meant that the material for the Friday show had to be canned and couldn't be too time-sensitive.