We were . Trump.

@@steveconn Oh yeah he was hilarious. Intentionally and unintentionally.

maybe when we get another David Letterman... but he is irreplaceable

You mean Jimmy Fallon reuniting the California Dreams isn't the height of original comedy?

Conan

How old were you? I was born 56 days after this show lol.

I actually attended 1 of the 2 practice shows Dave did on 1/28 & 1/29. They never aired, but I found out about them when I called NBC guest relations to ask about tickets.

Back when late night tv and new york were cool

I wasn't.

@@rondobson1828 I also attended a practice show! The only guest was Soupy Sales.

Also, Chris Elliott appears in the control room. Thus the thumbnail.

psdavenport- too bad he didn’t migrate to the CBS iteration of Dave’s show.

jrh11254 Calvert also opened The Late Show when it's first program aired and was seen from time to time until his passing in early 2000's.

@@jrh11254 When Letterman moved from NBC to CBS in 1993, the Melman name was retired, as NBC insisted that the character of "Larry 'Bud' Melman" was their intellectual property. However, starting from the very first edition of Late Show with David Letterman, DeForest continued to play exactly the same character he had played on Late Night - he now simply used his own name to do so.

@@dongiller I missed it at first. BEARDLESS Chris Elliott. wow

Excellent observation.

and Merrill Markoe was a thing of beauty…

Thanks!

The NBC years were gold. I didn't watch much of the CBS run because I was working a lot and just couldn't catch it.

Thanks, but it’ll never happen.

@@dongiller Well, we can still dream, even if there's no chance. #RestoreTheGillerCut

@@dongiller Never say never! : )

I’m glad you got to discover Dave, but I think the word “sarcasm” is both cheap and inaccurate.

@@dongiller more irony and dry humor

I was a junior and hitting the books to hard to see this. What a shame.

Bill Murray was on drugs on that first show.

@@LoveKeepsGiving Aww, ya ruined the magic. 😉

Yaaaayo, member his salt deficiency

@@weaksignal8009 21:45 looks like Dave might have gotten into the salt as well?

Or on drugs?

This is great. Are you sure about the Shakedown Show dates? I have the 1/28/82 show - Small Town News, Simon Bond, Rita Stipo and her home movies, Livingston Taylor, a closing sermonette, and donuts made throughout the show. But nothing for Friday the 29th. Any memories?

The morning show lasted only 18 weeks, from late June to late October 1980.

@@dongiller watched almost every one of the daytime shows that summer Until skrewel castrated...hated when it started. Learned more from Letterman than skrewel.

@@hankkingsley9300 so you’re the one. :)

Letterman Was one of those shows where you went where were you when you first saw it

Thanks to our lord Brandon Tartikoff and his boss Grant Tiinker (before 1981, it was Fred Silverman)

I hear that. I taped the shows onto audio cassette until I finally bought my first VCR in mid-February 1985, and it was non-stop taping from there. I eventually acquired all of the shows on video before that, but it took over 30 years to reach 100%.

Don Giller Dang, a VCR in 1985 was still like $300+. That's like $700 today. I noticed the music as the showgirls were lining up was a disco version of the same music Dave would later use when he had the fountain in front of his desk...the dancing water.

Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. :)

Don Giller - Thanks for posting so much of the early Dave! Forgot how great they were, and didn’t discover the show until ‘86 when I bought a VCR.

@@dongiller You're doing the lord's work Don. Thank you.

Sounds riveting!

@@johnl5350 Weld done

Once the show got in the groove it was so good

I put it up on the 35th. :)

Thus the thumbnail.

I thought so, but I didn't know he was kicking around the studio from day 1.

BTW great name! May Ian Hunter find you also I never saw the first show...holy moley...dancers etc

@@krisscanlon4051 I did watch the first show when it aired, and while I do have a vague recollection of Bill Murray, oddly enough the thing I remember best is the guy at the end of the show reciting the dialogue from some obscure movie from memory. Dave was so fresh and "off the wall" at that point in time, and he came across as much hipper than other talk show hosts of that era like Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, etc. Nothing against any of those guys because I liked them all. But they were geared for my parent's generation, while Dave spoke to a younger audience. Great days, I wish they'd put all those NBC episodes out in reruns or on a streaming service.

Yes; I created this particular thumbnail because Chris is just behind Dave's left wearing a green hat.

Made him his first guest when he went to CBS.

All planned. C'mon.

That’s the reason I chose the thumbnail. He worked with the production staff.

Some new product on the street called " tequila."

Don Giller Ha ha ha

Taped in 6A, not 8H (except during the summer of ‘86 when 6A was being renovated). 8H was SNL. Yes, Steve, from the beginning until Spring ‘86. The history of the musicians here - donzblog.home.blog/2022/04/17/the-musicians-on-late-night-with-david-letterman/

​@@dongiller I stand corrected. How do you know all this?

​@@dongiller I read your blog. wow dude

@@jaymo8206 I live alone. :)

@@dongiller Your efforts at sharing these vintage DL shows & LNWDL are epic and appreciated. It's like a trip back to the 80's.

He was an NBC employee and was probably working on another program at the time. I've occasionally seen his name in Live-at-Five credits. He was working with Dave as early as the 1980 morning show.

Don Giller Thanks.

6th floor; Studio 6A.

@@dongiller those studios must have taken up 2 floors

The entrance to the studio was on the 6th floor. The entrance to the audience seats was on the 7th.

March 2, 1988. Unfortunately, I haven’t. And will no longer be able to.

@@dongiller is the Letterman channel cracking down on stuff?

@@erickziglar7967 It’s complicated, and I’m hesitant to elaborate.

Not anymore, unfortunately, though the full second show is up, as well as segments from the third and fourth.

You mean, _a has-been_ .

No I’m pretty sure this was Dave being Dave.

Yeah its kinda similar in that both were antishows so probably influenced it in some way

It might be a stretch to consider Letterman was influenced from the original Tonight show in the 1950s hosted by Steve Allen. But, I've felt that their attitudes were much closer than the stuffiness of the others until Late Nite.

@@WokerThanThou I think you're right. Allen seemed to share Letterman's disdain for show-biz phoniness.