The Life of David Letterman Part 2

After David Letterman's short lived success on his morning comedy show, NBC gave him a new show with a different time format. Late Night with David Letterman was born in 1982 as he was still under contract. It aired after The Tonight Show which really just added to the show's success along with Dave's comedic unpredictability. His show was far different from other talk shows by the fact that he always spoke his mind the good and the band and it scarred some celebrities to the point where they wouldn't appear on his show.

The show was famous for its abnormal features that included dropping objects off the roof of a five story building, stupid pet tricks, and the top 10 list. It was really set apart from moments Letterman created such as interrupting a live interview on The Today Show using a bullhorn to state he was the president of NBC and not wearing any pants. David's show was long lived with the new form of talk show humor that he brought to the world.

It would be eleven years that Letterman remained on NBC and was in May of 1992 that Johnny Carson unexpectedly announced that he would be retiring. This resulted in a huge battle over who would replace The Tonight Show's host. It was later announced by NBC executives that Jay Leno would be the replacement despite Caron's pleading request that David Letterman take over his role. His huge success had cost him the job he'd wanted as the executives felt he was too popular appearing at the time and show he was already on.

Dave later followed what he said was Carson's advice and started his own show on CBS in 1993 as what we know today as The Late Show. In 1996, HBO produced a movie about the battle over who would replace Johnny Carson based on the book by Bill Carter of the New York Times. Letterman made fun of the movie and joked that the actor that was supposed to look like him with the right camera angles and makeup still looked nothing like him. After a year of The Late Show's success, Carson showed up during the top 10 list to show his support where the fans went so wild that he was unable to deliver his joke and returned back stage after his short appearance.