One hand clapping lillehammer tv#
In 1985 when he introduced the then-shocking Sam Kinison for his network TV debut, he said, “He is one of the strangest and most original comics working today. Providing a home for oddballs and misfitsĮarly on, Letterman made a habit out of booking bands on the way up, not-so-famous actors and freaky comedians. In 1994, Letterman had his mom report from the Lillehammer Winter Olympics. He once disrupted outdoor segments of the “Today” show by talking to them via bullhorn from an office window. Early on, Letterman wandered the halls of NBC - talking to anyone he happened to see - executives, administrators, janitors. In “Biff Henderson’s Golf Cart of Death,” Letterman joined Biff on a drive through a pyramid of condiments. Letterman announcer Alan Kalter, stage manager Biff Henderson and cue card guy Tony Mendez all appeared often in sketches and bits. He put staffers and other non-pros on-air and turned them into regular performers. Typical entry: “Oprah did not call.” The two were in a supposed feud for many years, but eventually kissed and made up and appeared on each other’s shows. Busted! In something of a reverse version, Letterman did a segment called the Oprah Log, where he read daily from a diary chronicling his attempts to get on Oprah Winfrey’s show. Letterman revealed that to be a lie, by broadcasting an internal feed with McCain getting ready for an interview with Katie Couric. McCain had said he was headed to Washington, D.C., to help draft a proposal for a ballot. When presidential candidate John McCain cancelled at the last-minute, Letterman didn’t gloss over it. Sometimes he got annoyed at the audience, saying things like, “Don’t clap for that.” And in 2014 when he announced his upcoming retirement, he did so after telling a touching story about spending time with his young son. When he was the center of a 2009 scandal over affairs with staffers, he owned up to it, even making on-air jokes about his blackmailer’s demands. In 2000, when he returned to his job after quintuple heart bypass surgery, he brought his treatment team of doctors and nurses onstage and nearly cried as he thanked them for saving his life. After the death of his idol and mentor Johnny Carson (whom Letterman credited with launching his own career, and whose final television appearance was on “The Late Show”) Letterman did a heartfelt tribute. Letterman didn’t have to play the distracting entertainer every second. Knowing exactly when to take a perfectly timed beat While wearing a natty Velcro number, he took a running start, jumped on a trampoline, hurled himself at a Velcro wall - and stuck.ħ. Letterman himself splashed into a tank as part of a segment called “Suits,” in which he tested out various suits made of everyday objects like Alka-Seltzer tablets (he fizzed when lowered into the water) or magnets (he adhered to a refrigerator). In “Will It Float?” Letterman and bandleader-sidekick Paul Schaffer dropped objects into a large tank of water onstage. Other big laughs came from “Small Town News,” featuring excerpts from local papers. He frequently read and answered viewer mail on-air or with a gag like visiting the sender’s home.
Letterman found comedy in the everyday and stuck with it in regular bits like “Stupid Pet Tricks” (126 total) and “Stupid Human Tricks” (89 total). Total Top Tens by the time the show wraps: 4,605.ĩ. It debuted in 1985 with “Things That Almost Rhyme with Peas.” Over the years, guest presenters added another layer of humor: see actor John Malkovich reading “Top Ten Things That Sound Creepy When Said by John Malkovich,” or our current president and then-senator intoning the farcical “Top Ten Barack Obama Campaign Promises” in 2008. The segment mocked the media convention (ahem) of ranking everything from the eligibility of bachelors to the popularity of songs, while shunning anything in eleventh place and beyond. Here’s how his hosting style forever changed late-night TV. Beginning with “Late Night” on NBC in 1982 and continuing with the “Late Show With David Letterman” on CBS in 1993, the gap-toothed, be-spectacled, Indiana-born “Dave” became America’s most exceptional everyman - finding unconventional ways to point out the silliness of daily life.