Who’s David Letterman?

Dave Letterman on the Rolling Stone cover 2015

David Letterman is on the cover of the Rolling Stone this month and apparently it’s a big deal he’s retiring. He’s on this show called “The Late Show” with David Letterman at 11:35 on CBS. He interviews famous people and has this top 10 list which makes people laugh.  Apparently it’s pretty popular since it’s been on the air for 33 years.   News to me.

Late Night (Show) with David Letterman

Dave Letterman on Rolling Stone Cover 1982

In 1982, the Rolling Stone article titled “David Letterman: Resurrection After Midnight” examined if Late Night TV “will survive into the twenty-first century or will be replaced by video games.”  This new host “David Letterman” was taking over and no one knew what to expect after Johnny Carson.  Who was Dave?

“I never had a whole lot of friends, but I was in the group of people that was always making fun of everybody else. You know, we weren’t in the honor society, so we made fun of the honor society. And yet we weren’t the guys stealing cars, so we made fun of the guys stealing cars. We couldn’t do much. My grades weren’t good, and the guys I hung out with, their grades weren’t really good. And we couldn’t go out with the really good-looking girls. We would egg their houses. We’d find the best-looking girl and without ever even asking her out – we’d just assume she wouldn’t go out – we’d just go egg her house on theory, you know, just, hell, ‘Screw you, I know you’re not gonna go out with me, so we’ll egg your house.'”

Another quip:

“I think if you have any sense, you’ll adopt the view of life,” he says matter-of-factly, “that if the bucket of shit can explode, it will explode.”

This is how the author of the article, Lewis Grossberger, concludes:

Letterman seems to have the right instincts and equipment for interviewing. He’s smart. He listens – an amazingly rare talent – and can ask pertinent questions. Or he can go for laughs. He has good moves: wit, whimsy, charm, sarcasm. His insult whip snaps the air; it doesn’t cut flesh. He wears well. He has high growth potential.  

33 Years Later

David Letterman and Jay Leno

“If you look around at the other people doing it and look at me, it’s almost like a pair of shoes you haven’t worn in a hundred years,” he says. “‘Gee, I think we can probably get rid of these.’ I still enjoy what I’m doing. But I think what I’m doing is not what you want at 11:30 anymore.”

He says the lack of YouTube-ability is “a weakness of our show. I hear about things going viral, and I think, ‘How do you do that?’ I think I’m the blockage in the plumbing.”

He’s 68 years old and understands his time is through.  I’m sure critics would say he was passed his time a decade ago.  His ratings are losing to Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel is right up his rear.  To do a job in the national eye for 33 years is worth applauding even if the opinion is he just isn’t that funny anymore.

I hardly watched Dave so you may be asking why I’m even writing about him.  This is a good question.  I have a good answer.  I read how he is spending his time and I envy it.  I want to spend my life the way he is spending his.

“Where Dave’s ranch is (Montana) has some of the most incredible wildlife in America.” Hanna says. “Grizzlies, black bears, mountain lions, elk, moose, wolverines. It’s like going back in time. Those plains have not changed in 500 years.”

“In the summer, it doesn’t really get dark until 11, maybe midnight,” Letterman says. “so you stay up as late as you can, and then finally, about 11:45, when it’s just crepuscular, you wait for that last line of light to duck down behind the mountains. It’s beautiful – the Milky Way is so bright that it actually washes out the stars. I always sleep with my glasses on, so that when I wake up in the middle of the night – which, at my age, is every 18 minutes – I’ll be able to see satellites and planets and constellations and shooting stars. It’s remarkable.”

cre·pus·cu·lar
adjective
of, resembling, or relating to twilight

I’m actually curious if my audience likes a post like this.  I obviously took most of it from the Rolling Stone article but since they write better than me, I’d expect it should be good material.  Plagiarism sure, but good material.