'Late Show' host David Letterman signs off for the last time
After 33 years on late night television 鈥� hosting both CBS鈥檚 "The Late Show" and NBC's "Late Night" 鈥� David Letterman signed off for the last time on May 20.
While the show produced no tears from Mr. Letterman, it was an as he called "The Late Show" "the most important show of my life." The CEO of CBS, Les Moonves, came on stage to personally thank Letterman, and although the show ran 17 minutes over its one-hour time slot, CBS made room for its star鈥檚 farewell.
The show began with a . A clip from Gerald Ford's inaugural address stated that 鈥渙ur long national nightmare is over鈥� 鈥� a sentiment echoed by George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush until President Barack Obama added 鈥淟etterman is retiring.鈥� A concerned Letterman then entered to ask 鈥測ou鈥檙e just kidding, right?鈥�
On a friendlier note, many fellow late night talk show hosts took time on their own programs to . Conan O鈥橞rien interrupted his own show to tell his audience to 鈥済o watch Dave instead.鈥� Jimmy Kimmel attributed his own success to Letterman, as it was after being a guest on his show that ABC approached him about hosting his own show. Jimmy Fallon reminisced about how after 9/11 a tragedy-stricken New York turned to Letterman for answers.
The last rendition of Letterman's reoccurring Top 10 segment focused on "" and brought in many frequent "Late Show" guests, including Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Chris Rock, Peyton Manning, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Martin, Barbara Walters, and Alec Baldwin.
The group came up with a variety of clever one liners. "30 Rock" stars Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey, respectively, said 鈥淥f all of talk shows, yours is most geographically convenient to my home," and聽 鈥淭hanks for finally proving men can be funny." Chris Rock, in a fashion true to the Letterman tradition, burned CBS saying, "I'm just glad your show is being given to another white guy."
Letterman will be replaced by former host of 鈥淭he Colbert Report鈥� Stephen Colbert, who will take over "The Late Show" on Sept. 8. Although Letterman, who did not have a say in the choice of his successor, that he thought his leaving would be a good opportunity to put a person of color or a woman on late night TV, he did take the time during his final episode to say he was excited to see Colbert host the show.
鈥淚 wish Stephen and his staff and crew nothing but the greatest success,鈥� .
The Foo Fighters, frequent musical guests on the show and , closed out the show with their sentimental hit song 鈥淓verlong," which was interspersed with a montage of famous Letterman moments from the last 33 years.
As the Monitor reported, Letterman鈥檚 years as a talk show host shaped not only the landscape of late night television, but the direction comedy took for the years that followed. 鈥淭onight Show鈥� host Jimmy Fallon summarized Letterman鈥檚 influence in a tearful tribute on Monday:聽
I, like many of you, grew up watching Dave鈥� If you saw somebody throw a watermelon off a roof, and you go, oh my gosh, adults get paid for doing that? That type of stuff had never been done on TV before. This was at 12:30 ... so this was kind of like unexplored space, this is like the Wild Wild West. And I think this show, what late night has become, is a result of him playing with the genre and experimenting and exploring, and I, like every kid who grew up watching him, will miss him.
