Remembering Larry "Bud" Melman and Calvert DeForest From Late Night With David Letterman

Whatever the Name, His Appearance with David Letterman was Always Comic Gold

I was in front of the television the night that Late Night With David Letterman premiered. I had been a big fan of Dave since catching a stand-up performance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Heck, I even watched his morning talk show. So you can well imagine the intensity of my expectations for entry into the more wide-open and suitable arena of late night talk shows. Over the years I had forgotten all about Larry Bud Melman's opening bit-the takeoff of the opening from Frankenstein. That's one of the few Melman bits I had forgotten.

Calvert DeForest, the man who appeared on Late Night With David Letterman as Larry Bud Melman, died recently as you probably know. You may well wonder why DeForest wasn't known as Larry Bud Melman on Letterman's CBS show. Well, the truth is that NBC is run by a bunch of weasels with all the loyalty of a horny high school kid who was just come on to by his best friend's girl. The suits at NBC would rape their grandmothers if they thought it would bring back Must See TV on Thursday. NBC of course will go down in history as the network that preferred the comedic stylings of a man whose claim to comedic immortality rests upon giving the world "Dancing Itos" over the man who made the network truckloads of money with such inventive comedy bits as elevator racing, throwing fruit off the top of a building, and Stupid Pet Tricks. Yes, NBC legendarily screwed David Letterman by handing over the coveted Tonight Show host job to Jay "I Make the Suits At NBC Look Like Jesus Christ" Leno. And then they had the nerve to claim that the character of Larry Bud Melman was their intellectual property. (Let's make it a law that the word "intellectual" can never be used in conjunction with NBC unless it involves Keith Olbermann.) What did NBC do with their precious character of Larry Bud Melman following Letterman's exodus to CBS? Nada. Nothing. The network stole a beloved character from millions and, in typical NBC fashion, gave nothing in return. Jay Leno couldn't have found a more deserving company to pay him for his nightly experiment in a comedy show that provides no laughs.