I had a babysitting gig that entire summer, turned on the television to this quirky show with weird sketches I had never seen before, except for maybe on SNL. I thought it was the funniest thing ever. Dave was too cool for early morning...perfect for late night. Was his biggest fan and still am. There will never be another Letterman.
This is great! I had just returned to college (30 years old), when I found him on daytime tv. Watched anytime I didn’t have class. He’s always been my kind of humor!
Allen Ludden and David Letterman have a history. Ludden effectively discovered Dave and was somewhat instrumental in Dave's move to Los Angeles, even putting him up in he and Betty White's guest house for several months while developing a failed game show pilot. That's why Dave is so insistent on letting the audience know that Ludden was in on the joke and Dave was not trying to belittle him in any way.
I remember this show when it came on the airwaves just after I’d graduated from the sixth grade in the summer of 1980, and I didn’t understand it one bit. It wasn’t until 20 months later in February 1982 that Late Night with David Letterman premiered that I finally understood Dave’s humor and his show.
It seemed for decades that the only people who even knew of Dave's Summer 1980 morning show were those of us who were around to watch it when it originally aired. A lot of people seemed to think that "Late Night" was Dave's first network show. But now, because of the internet and UA-cam, not only is a whole new audience being introduced to Dave's 1980 morning show, but those of us who watched it are kind of "finding each other," for lack of a better way of putting it. Also noteworthy is the guy who was part of developing "Hollywood Squares" for CBS in 1965 was the very guy who would end up canceling it 15 years later to make room for Dave on the daytime schedule when at NBC: Fred Silverman.
In the publicity run-up to the premiere, there was a commercial which had Dave and Edie with a caption at the bottom of the screen saying "This man is not David Letterman." So, being 10 years old, I thought, OK, they're trying to be honest and not deceive us as to this man's identity. He is not David Letterman. Summer, 1980, I have nothing to do but watch TV in the morning. I found out, OH, this IS David Letterman. I got so hooked on the show that I have a vivid memory of playing outside and suddenly realizing, OH MY GOD! I'm missing Letterman! Ten years old. A couple of years later, I just happened upon the very ending of one of the very first episodes of Late Night with David Letterman. OH MY GOD! Letterman's back on TV! And so, I've been a fan for 42 years.
Thank you Don for assembling all these morning show clips! I used to watch Letterman to relax when I came home from working the night shift in a hospital ER, so it's memorable to me. I enjoyed the short lived a.m. show but clips are hard to find. Much appreciated.
Thanks for everything you're doing, it's amazing to be able to see this stuff. I was born after Dave went to CBS, so I never got a chance to see Late Night or The Morning Show. I really love it, and I know you have loads of requests, but it would be great if you could upload more full episodes. Maybe you get more copyright trouble with those, but for me they are the best. Anyways thanks again for doing all this, and giving people like me the opportunity to see these shows.
First Show: "And Now, a Man for whom NBC Canceled 3 Game Shows..." Last Show: "And Now, a Man who has been Replaced by 2 Game shows..." What a bookend.
Fascinating to see brilliant head writer and Letterman girlfriend Merrill Markoe at 25:24. She did so much to shape the pioneering and offbeat humor of Letterman's early years on TV.
I was too young to ever watch this but even as I heard of it later on...I've never seen it until this week. Great stuff. NOW I see why people made a big deal out of this show.
Probably my greatest summer ever. I must have been in ninth grade (though school was out.) Mom and dad would both be at work, so I had the house to myself. Coffee, buttered toast, and Mr. Letterman's twisted humor, weirdly pierced by Mr. Newman's semi-serious intermission. Then came SCTV, Beavis and Butt-head; Ren and Stimpy, and Tim and Eric (good job!) But my own indoctrination to irony started here.
If I was asked to describe the feeling of the early to mid-1980's in music form, I would use that slow smooth jazz saxophone intro from this show. I swear to God, everything on TV back then used that sound.
It's so good. I miss sax. 80's was sax baby. Nothing like staying home from work or school etc and watch daytime tv in the 80's. You had peaks valleys and when in the valley you went outside or did something else lol... great times. You could BREATHE back then. Relax, move freely not crowded...simpler times, even though every gen says that lol but it's true... I'm not sure about that today or anymore...
The saxophone was THE instrument of the early 80s....all of the comedy movies, like Mr. Mom, Night Shift, and most of the t.v. sitcoms had this style of saxophone music.
Don! Thank you for uploading so much great Letterman footage! I never knew how great he was before I started watching his really transgressive weird stuff from the 80s.
I used to watch this show, and loved it. One memoral event was that Dave had a mannequin dropped from up in the catwalks unannounced and it terrified people. He ended up giving the mannequin to some audience member but later had to ask for it back.
Seeing that first segment of the first show, it's legitimately impressive to see how early the voice of the show was put into place. Pretty amazing and utterly unique. No one was doing this at the time, not by the longest shot.
I don't know what else to say but you were correct that was incredible the first time I saw this it was what the hell is this...I don't know what NBC was thinking but God bless them. One day before my 16th birthday and this shaped a lot of my life afterwards. Casey and proud as a peacock.
Edie McClurg was the best thing about Letterman’s morning show. She often did a “Polly’s Pointers/ household tips” segment that was always hilarious. I would love to see those again. I remember once she had Christmas decorating feature and she showed viewers how to make a tiny nativity scene inside a McDonald’s styrofoam hamburger box that practically had me and my mom on the floor laughing.
Thanks to my father, who worked at Sears repairing TVs and told me about some guy's very funny morning show, I got to see some of this that summer. Then as a college freshman a year and a half later, I was excitedly talking up a new late night show by some guy who had had a hilarious daytime show. My best memories of the morning show are the funny give and take Dave had with Edwin Newman during the news brief.
This is great. It seems so tame now, but I'm sure this was totally revolutionary and off-the-wall in 1980. There was nothing else on television even remotely like this. Conan O'Brien once described Dave's show as "The Anti-Talk Show." I've noticed Dave always liked to peel back the curtain and demystify television. That's why you would see the clips after the stunts to show just how they did it.
This is amazing. You can certainly see the Bob Stewart/Bruce Burmester influence in that first set. Blinding! The guy who said "This is NBC" before the cold opens was Casey Kasem, the official network promotional voice at the time.
Reportedly NBC asked Dave whom he wanted as a producer, and Bob Stewart was literally the only guy he could think of. Dave had done some game shows for Bob and respected his experience, but Stewart clearly was not the right guy for Letterman's type of comedy.
Wow, thanks for putting these up. Do you happen to have the show where Edwin Newman finishes reading the news and then says "would you like to see what I have in my pockets?".
This was filmed in Studio 6A at 30 Rock. This was the same studio where Dave shot his "Late Night" show, as did Conan O'Brien. Jimmy Fallon briefly used this studio for "Late Night" at the end while they were renovating 6B across the hall for "The Tonight Show." His old "Late Night" set was in 6B, and NBC built a replica of it for 6A. Jimmy also used 6A for "The Tonight Show" earlier during the pandemic when there were no studio audiences. 6B holds a lot more people now than 6A, so 6A probably didn't feel so cavernous with no people in the seats. Seth Meyers uses 8G, which is just down the hall from 8H where "Saturday Night Live" is filmed.
I watched Dave everyday after school waiting for M.A.S.H & WKRP IN CINCINNATI to start but I quickly learned to love Letterman. I still remember the WINKY'S COW PASTE he would give away and all the different things people used it for. A totally hilarious repeating skit they did.
This is Dave's brilliance at his best! But in 1980's with cookie cutter talk shows, this was insane and people couldn't figure Dave's humor yet. Especially at 9:30 AM when housewives, and unemployed people watched TV, even less so. Therefore, it's not surprising at all that the morning show failed. Too much brilliance for the masses to understand yet. Also, Frank Owens is a great musician, but the band was too mellow. It was good choice to bring in Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band. They're still the best house band ever!
@@legasiguy551 you are correct sir but without that summer it might never have happened late night on the other hand you mean Edie McClurg didn't appeal to the American housewife? She's always appealed to me. Just that giggle...
This is really amazing. Now, I know how David Letterman began in terms of hosting talk shows just by watching this montage. I do have one question for you, though. Do you have David Letterman's first Opening Remarks segment from The David Letterman Show? I don't mean from the first show, which you've shown in this segment. I mean, the one from July 21, 1980.
@@dongiller Thank you very much. I can't wait to see it. Also, I would appreciate it if you could upload the first hour-long edition of The David Letterman Show and another edition of The Tonight Show guest-hosted by David Letterman.
Someone, please help me out. Was hoping to see a clip from a Letterman show that I know I watched from the early 80’s but so far have been unable to confirm. I’ve searched the internet and questioned friends and family but no one has seen the show I am about to describe. Was I hallucinating or dreaming that morning?? The show in question began as they always did but with one exception: the entire show from beginning to end was dubbed in Italian. Dave’s voice was very distinctive, a deep, smokey Marcello Mastroianni tone. There were Italian woman speaking for the women and male Italian voices for Paul and all the other guys on the show. It was brilliant and unforgettable.
There was one repeat that was dubbed with other English-speaking voices, and one repeat that was dubbed in Spanish. But there was never a show that was dubbed in Italian. Here’s the Spanish-overdubbed show - ua-cam.com/video/zUEWILMJIlE/v-deo.html
The ill-fated Fred Silverman NBC years are fascinating. As disastrous as Silverman's tenure was, he did plant a few seeds for the network's total dominance in the eighties, including Letterman (also "Hill Street Blues" and "Cheers").
I just finished reading Letterman's biography (good read), and if I remember correctly, he was livid over that door prank, although he played it off well on TV.
I'm going way out in left field for this, but do you happen to have the "Coffee Cup Theatre" segments from the morning show where Dave would show a *very* short segment of an old poverty-row film, complete with a recap of what had gone before (I seem to recall it took him a couple of weeks before he even got past the opening titles). The film was 1935's "Suicide Squad", no connection to the much later DC Comics film of the same name. I was lucky enough to find a copy of the movie but it would really tickle me to be able to relive Dave's snarky comments; my favorite was "Is Larry really gonna eat with that fork?"
I do. In fact, I extracted all of the clips from the shows to compile them into one collection, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet, as I figured its interest would be nonexistent. You’re the first person who’s brought it up, who actually remembers them. The running segment was continued during the early months of Late Night, then called “Nightcap Theater,” and the featured film was “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Dave asked Ron Howard, on to promote “Night Shift,” to introduce one clip, and he obliged. Maybe I’ll include both “Coffee Cup” and “Nightcap” in the compilation. That should double the views from 3 to 6. :)
Yes Dave's morning show was definitely better as a nighttime show. Unfortunately I was in college when this was on otherwise I would have watched it. The only thing we watched after class was Mister Roger's Neighbor.
Im 32 and wasn’t born yet, but I love this stuff. All of those people had no idea they were watching one of the few late night legends. Sure he never hosted the Tonight Show, but Carson himself preferred Dave take it over and considered him to be his successor, which he proved to be for decades. The late night shows today are nothing compared to even Daves morning show. I believe Conan to be the successor of Dave, he doesn’t do a 20 minute Trump hate monologue, I also hate Trump, but to devote most of your show to hating the POTUS is not what late night talk shows should be and its not creative or funny to blast Trump every night. Conan doesn’t bring politics into the show, and sticks to the same silly humor that Dave did. Hopefully he sticks around for a long time when he retires a new guy comes in and keeps it going like Carson, Letterman and Conan would want. Thats my very long 2 cents lol
Oh, and Edward Numan would come on to do the morning news update (remember those?) and Letterman would interact with him because this was actually live television. Numan would always be totally deadpan. Except, once, I saw just a little sparkle in his eyes and a twitch of his lips at some absurdity David had thrown him.
I know Dave did the stand up and TV weather before this, but did he have any prior experience with leading a show? He seems so comfortable here. And his persona never really did change much from this.
The theme music is very nice but man, to my ear, just a complete mismatch for the Dave Letterman vibe and style of comedy. The pensive melancholy descending melody line is almost sleepy sounding, nothing like Dave or the mood in his audiences. I realize that this was daytime TV in just into the 80's, but man, the driving upbeat intro that Paul used to play in the show's early heyday was so much better suited to Dave's style. The music was just synonymous with the Dave and the show. I almost wonder if this early show would have been more successful with a better theme, one that at least had some up notes after the down notes, like the old Tonight Show theme did. I never saw this show when it aired so this stuff is always a treat. Thanks!
I think you latched onto the reason - it was for a 10 am show, and the problem for Dave was the hour of the day. Once he replaced Tom Snyder, it all fell into place.
I think had the show started in the fall instead of late spring/early summer, it would been good. Because during summer, it had a tourist vibe but when fall came, the natives came back surly and all.
Wow! It's amazing to see how David Letterman used his short-lived morning show to become the late night talk show host that he was from 1982 to 2015. Now, wait! When David Letterman received word from NBC that he would follow Johnny Carson after the morning show went off the air, Carson Productions didn't want his show to be like The Tonight Show, and the morning show wasn't like The Tonight Show, either. So, doesn't that mean that he had been following Carson's rules for the most part since 1980 even before Carson Productions took over and he moved to the 12:30AM timeslot on NBC?
The initial episodes sampled here don't seem that funny, but it looks like after a few months the show hit its stride and provuded the template for the classic and groundbreaking humor of the early seasons of 'Late Night with David Letterman.'
Don might correct me but when they knew the show's future wasn't looking good they threw caution to the wind with nothing to lose and built a cult following before being cancelled.
A little cringey with Allen Ludden suffering from stomach cancer at the time and would be in a coma within a few months and then would die the next summer.
“All” my videos? The very few that have them will remain as such. The choice here is sharing with the watermark or not sharing with the watermark. If you’re unhappy with that choice, go please find another channel that has these videos without the watermark. Hint: you won’t find them. And “WTF” is always a persuasive argument.
That was a great summer off school; waking up every morning to watch David Letterman. Good times.
I agree.
Same here!
Couldn't remember how I could have watched this. It was summer!
I had a babysitting gig that entire summer, turned on the television to this quirky show with weird sketches I had never seen before, except for maybe on SNL. I thought it was the funniest thing ever. Dave was too cool for early morning...perfect for late night. Was his biggest fan and still am. There will never be another Letterman.
Hey look, it's the Sausage King of Chicago!
Back again to listen to Don Giller’s labor of love - replaying the genius of early Dave Letterman.
Thanks again, Don!
Thanks!
I was 12 that summer and watched it every morning!
Don Giller doing Don Giller things. Saving relics of pop culture history.
Thanks for sharing this. I remember watching these during the summer of 1980. Wish I was 17 years old again. Brings back great memories.
I was in college and I would run back to the dorm to watch this in 1980.
This is great! I had just returned to college (30 years old), when I found him on daytime tv. Watched anytime I didn’t have class. He’s always been my kind of humor!
Well if you don't have any class Letterman's for you
Allen Ludden and David Letterman have a history. Ludden effectively discovered Dave and was somewhat instrumental in Dave's move to Los Angeles, even putting him up in he and Betty White's guest house for several months while developing a failed game show pilot. That's why Dave is so insistent on letting the audience know that Ludden was in on the joke and Dave was not trying to belittle him in any way.
I remember this show when it came on the airwaves just after I’d graduated from the sixth grade in the summer of 1980, and I didn’t understand it one bit. It wasn’t until 20 months later in February 1982 that Late Night with David Letterman premiered that I finally understood Dave’s humor and his show.
It seemed for decades that the only people who even knew of Dave's Summer 1980 morning show were those of us who were around to watch it when it originally aired. A lot of people seemed to think that "Late Night" was Dave's first network show. But now, because of the internet and UA-cam, not only is a whole new audience being introduced to Dave's 1980 morning show, but those of us who watched it are kind of "finding each other," for lack of a better way of putting it. Also noteworthy is the guy who was part of developing "Hollywood Squares" for CBS in 1965 was the very guy who would end up canceling it 15 years later to make room for Dave on the daytime schedule when at NBC: Fred Silverman.
Started watching September 1980 morning shows, never stopped!
I remember this show! My brother and I were just shocked and amazed that Dave got on tv at all.
I remember thinking that but Letterman had a rare likeable quality that overcame his awkwardness. Miss him.😥
Thanks for sharing these, Don! I haven't seen any of these...Fascinating!
In the publicity run-up to the premiere, there was a commercial which had Dave and Edie with a caption at the bottom of the screen saying "This man is not David Letterman." So, being 10 years old, I thought, OK, they're trying to be honest and not deceive us as to this man's identity. He is not David Letterman. Summer, 1980, I have nothing to do but watch TV in the morning. I found out, OH, this IS David Letterman. I got so hooked on the show that I have a vivid memory of playing outside and suddenly realizing, OH MY GOD! I'm missing Letterman! Ten years old. A couple of years later, I just happened upon the very ending of one of the very first episodes of Late Night with David Letterman. OH MY GOD! Letterman's back on TV! And so, I've been a fan for 42 years.
Thank you Don for assembling all these morning show clips! I used to watch Letterman to relax when I came home from working the night shift in a hospital ER, so it's memorable to me. I enjoyed the short lived a.m. show but clips are hard to find. Much appreciated.
Thanks for everything you're doing, it's amazing to be able to see this stuff.
I was born after Dave went to CBS, so I never got a chance to see Late Night or The Morning Show. I really love it, and I know you have loads of requests, but it would be great if you could upload more full episodes. Maybe you get more copyright trouble with those, but for me they are the best. Anyways thanks again for doing all this, and giving people like me the opportunity to see these shows.
born when now? and you were young even when he retired
First Show: "And Now, a Man for whom NBC Canceled 3 Game Shows..."
Last Show: "And Now, a Man who has been Replaced by 2 Game shows..."
What a bookend.
PIX Promos & More And when Dave went to late night: “And now, a man who shouldn’t be up this late...”
Yay! I’ve been looking for this. My first intro to lettermen...Thanks
I was a young mom in the summer of 1980..i enjoyed this morning show.
Thanks for posting this! I adored this show when it aired back in the day.
Fascinating to see brilliant head writer and Letterman girlfriend Merrill Markoe at 25:24. She did so much to shape the pioneering and offbeat humor of Letterman's early years on TV.
I was too young to ever watch this but even as I heard of it later on...I've never seen it until this week. Great stuff. NOW I see why people made a big deal out of this show.
Probably my greatest summer ever. I must have been in ninth grade (though school was out.) Mom and dad would both be at work, so I had the house to myself. Coffee, buttered toast, and Mr. Letterman's twisted humor, weirdly pierced by Mr. Newman's semi-serious intermission. Then came SCTV, Beavis and Butt-head; Ren and Stimpy, and Tim and Eric (good job!) But my own indoctrination to irony started here.
Thanks for saving this!!!!
I was 17 and loved it. Unique for that era!
You've really outdone yourself, Don. Thanks for sharing this.
If I was asked to describe the feeling of the early to mid-1980's in music form, I would use that slow smooth jazz saxophone intro from this show. I swear to God, everything on TV back then used that sound.
And the old Payless shoes font.
@@Mario_N64 Lol absolutely. That font was everywhere.
It's so good. I miss sax. 80's was sax baby. Nothing like staying home from work or school etc and watch daytime tv in the 80's. You had peaks valleys and when in the valley you went outside or did something else lol... great times. You could BREATHE back then. Relax, move freely not crowded...simpler times, even though every gen says that lol but it's true... I'm not sure about that today or anymore...
The saxophone was THE instrument of the early 80s....all of the comedy movies, like Mr. Mom, Night Shift, and most of the t.v. sitcoms had this style of saxophone music.
Don! Thank you for uploading so much great Letterman footage! I never knew how great he was before I started watching his really transgressive weird stuff from the 80s.
Wow! I vaguely recall that Letterman was on daytime. Thanks again.
I used to watch this show, and loved it. One memoral event was that Dave had a mannequin dropped from up in the catwalks unannounced and it terrified people. He ended up giving the mannequin to some audience member but later had to ask for it back.
I was 16 watching this from my grandma's. He was great here.
Seeing that first segment of the first show, it's legitimately impressive to see how early the voice of the show was put into place. Pretty amazing and utterly unique. No one was doing this at the time, not by the longest shot.
I don't know what else to say but you were correct that was incredible the first time I saw this it was what the hell is this...I don't know what NBC was thinking but God bless them. One day before my 16th birthday and this shaped a lot of my life afterwards. Casey and proud as a peacock.
Don, you've done it again! 👏
I've never seen these.
Not many did when they aired. :)
Edie McClurg was the best thing about Letterman’s morning show. She often did a “Polly’s Pointers/ household tips” segment that was always hilarious. I would love to see those again. I remember once she had Christmas decorating feature and she showed viewers how to make a tiny nativity scene inside a McDonald’s styrofoam hamburger box that practically had me and my mom on the floor laughing.
Edie’s at the end of this clip - ua-cam.com/video/hnEF61sj5ks/v-deo.html
Thanks to my father, who worked at Sears repairing TVs and told me about some guy's very funny morning show, I got to see some of this that summer. Then as a college freshman a year and a half later, I was excitedly talking up a new late night show by some guy who had had a hilarious daytime show. My best memories of the morning show are the funny give and take Dave had with Edwin Newman during the news brief.
This is great. It seems so tame now, but I'm sure this was totally revolutionary and off-the-wall in 1980. There was nothing else on television even remotely like this. Conan O'Brien once described Dave's show as "The Anti-Talk Show."
I've noticed Dave always liked to peel back the curtain and demystify television. That's why you would see the clips after the stunts to show just how they did it.
Yes it was
Great little collection here, Don. Thanks!
Holy hell what a jem. Better than any morning today.
Aww, he was so tender rooster young there. 😸
This is amazing. You can certainly see the Bob Stewart/Bruce Burmester influence in that first set. Blinding!
The guy who said "This is NBC" before the cold opens was Casey Kasem, the official network promotional voice at the time.
As I understand, Stewart left the show before its premiere.
Reportedly NBC asked Dave whom he wanted as a producer, and Bob Stewart was literally the only guy he could think of. Dave had done some game shows for Bob and respected his experience, but Stewart clearly was not the right guy for Letterman's type of comedy.
This is fantastic. Thanks for posting.
Hey Don, do you happen to know where to find the 50th anniversary show? The one with the couple celebrating their 50th anniversary I mean.
I put this up in 2017. Not the entire show, but it’ll have to do.
ua-cam.com/video/mCKK4tjOyDk/v-deo.htmlsi=9xdDm0WQsZ47uh1s
Wow, thanks for putting these up. Do you happen to have the show where Edwin Newman finishes reading the news and then says "would you like to see what I have in my pockets?".
The only “pocket” reference I found from Edwin was “Sing a song of sixpence and pocketful of rye” from July 1, 1980.
This was filmed in Studio 6A at 30 Rock. This was the same studio where Dave shot his "Late Night" show, as did Conan O'Brien. Jimmy Fallon briefly used this studio for "Late Night" at the end while they were renovating 6B across the hall for "The Tonight Show." His old "Late Night" set was in 6B, and NBC built a replica of it for 6A.
Jimmy also used 6A for "The Tonight Show" earlier during the pandemic when there were no studio audiences. 6B holds a lot more people now than 6A, so 6A probably didn't feel so cavernous with no people in the seats.
Seth Meyers uses 8G, which is just down the hall from 8H where "Saturday Night Live" is filmed.
Thank you
Don, did you work for NBC, or do you have a source. Thanks for the uploads
Never worked for NBC. Or CBS. My source is my video collection.
And thanks!
I watched Dave everyday after school waiting for M.A.S.H & WKRP IN CINCINNATI to start but I quickly learned to love Letterman. I still remember the WINKY'S COW PASTE he would give away and all the different things people used it for. A totally hilarious repeating skit they did.
I wonder how many times a week (or day) Jimmy Kimmel looks at your collection?
This is great... thank you
The Allen Ludden album is available on iTunes and is actually surprisingly enjoyable.
I love his theme... Also good to hear Casey. NBC had him, CBs had Rick Dees. They're voices are etched in my brain.
Head writer Merrill Markoe just after the 25 minute mark. Very cool!
This is Dave's brilliance at his best! But in 1980's with cookie cutter talk shows, this was insane and people couldn't figure Dave's humor yet. Especially at 9:30 AM when housewives, and unemployed people watched TV, even less so. Therefore, it's not surprising at all that the morning show failed. Too much brilliance for the masses to understand yet. Also, Frank Owens is a great musician, but the band was too mellow. It was good choice to bring in Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band. They're still the best house band ever!
One tiny correction: the show aired at 10 am, not 9:30.
@@dongiller The point being that Dave was far too advanced for a morning housewife show. But it was a training ground for his future late night show.
@@legasiguy551 you are correct sir but without that summer it might never have happened late night on the other hand you mean Edie McClurg didn't appeal to the American housewife? She's always appealed to me. Just that giggle...
Yes, housewives and late shift workers don't have your IQ.
we bought a vhs recorder to tape this show & watch it after working 2nd shift. We thought it was great!
Thanks Don!😁
This is really amazing. Now, I know how David Letterman began in terms of hosting talk shows just by watching this montage. I do have one question for you, though. Do you have David Letterman's first Opening Remarks segment from The David Letterman Show? I don't mean from the first show, which you've shown in this segment. I mean, the one from July 21, 1980.
I do.
@@dongiller Great! Then, will you please post it on UA-cam? That would really make me feel better about how my year has been.
In time.
@@dongiller Thank you very much. I can't wait to see it. Also, I would appreciate it if you could upload the first hour-long edition of The David Letterman Show and another edition of The Tonight Show guest-hosted by David Letterman.
Thanks Don!
Someone, please help me out. Was hoping to see a clip from a Letterman show that I know I watched from the early 80’s but so far have been unable to confirm. I’ve searched the internet and questioned friends and family but no one has seen the show I am about to describe. Was I hallucinating or dreaming that morning?? The show in question began as they always did but with one exception: the entire show from beginning to end was dubbed in Italian. Dave’s voice was very distinctive, a deep, smokey Marcello Mastroianni tone. There were Italian woman speaking for the women and male Italian voices for Paul and all the other guys on the show. It was brilliant and unforgettable.
There was one repeat that was dubbed with other English-speaking voices, and one repeat that was dubbed in Spanish. But there was never a show that was dubbed in Italian.
Here’s the Spanish-overdubbed show - ua-cam.com/video/zUEWILMJIlE/v-deo.html
@@dongiller thanks so much! I don’t speak Spanish but it seemed so much funnier than had
they spoken undubbed.
The two moments I remember from this show was the Traffice Island vacation and a super cut of his "um"s
Wow - that band can really fire up a crowd...
The ill-fated Fred Silverman NBC years are fascinating. As disastrous as Silverman's tenure was, he did plant a few seeds for the network's total dominance in the eighties, including Letterman (also "Hill Street Blues" and "Cheers").
Love Don’s dedication.
28:11 - A very young Biff Henderson!
As mentioned in the description.
Poor Al tripped and almost fell at 6:23
I just finished reading Letterman's biography (good read), and if I remember correctly, he was livid over that door prank, although he played it off well on TV.
Dave’s morning show was better than his late night show
I agree
This is as priceless as the wheel of fortune porcelain dog
I'm going way out in left field for this, but do you happen to have the "Coffee Cup Theatre" segments from the morning show where Dave would show a *very* short segment of an old poverty-row film, complete with a recap of what had gone before (I seem to recall it took him a couple of weeks before he even got past the opening titles).
The film was 1935's "Suicide Squad", no connection to the much later DC Comics film of the same name. I was lucky enough to find a copy of the movie but it would really tickle me to be able to relive Dave's snarky comments; my favorite was "Is Larry really gonna eat with that fork?"
I do. In fact, I extracted all of the clips from the shows to compile them into one collection, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet, as I figured its interest would be nonexistent. You’re the first person who’s brought it up, who actually remembers them.
The running segment was continued during the early months of Late Night, then called “Nightcap Theater,” and the featured film was “Plan 9 From Outer Space.”
Dave asked Ron Howard, on to promote “Night Shift,” to introduce one clip, and he obliged.
Maybe I’ll include both “Coffee Cup” and “Nightcap” in the compilation. That should double the views from 3 to 6. :)
Was Space Age Meat eventually absorbed into Worldwide Pants, hence the watermark? Where do Cardboard Shoe and Recreational Poultry fit in?
Their only connection is that Dave - not NBC, HBO, or CBS - had full ownership to those shows.
Curious to know, where these episodes wiped by NBC?
NBC doesn’t own these shows, so it’s uncertain whether they have any shows.
Who knew that the germ of 'Dave's Record Collection" would be an Alan Ludden album! (6:42)
You look like Dave.
Yes Dave's morning show was definitely better as a nighttime show. Unfortunately I was in college when this was on otherwise I would have watched it. The only thing we watched after class was Mister Roger's Neighbor.
Would it be possible to see the Allen Ludden segment? I've never actually seen an interview with him.
Sure. I’ll add it to the request list.
Just wish the Worldwide Pants logo wasn’t quite so visible, but I assume this was something you had no control of, Don.
It's complicated. :)
Im 32 and wasn’t born yet, but I love this stuff. All of those people had no idea they were watching one of the few late night legends. Sure he never hosted the Tonight Show, but Carson himself preferred Dave take it over and considered him to be his successor, which he proved to be for decades. The late night shows today are nothing compared to even Daves morning show. I believe Conan to be the successor of Dave, he doesn’t do a 20 minute Trump hate monologue, I also hate Trump, but to devote most of your show to hating the POTUS is not what late night talk shows should be and its not creative or funny to blast Trump every night. Conan doesn’t bring politics into the show, and sticks to the same silly humor that Dave did. Hopefully he sticks around for a long time when he retires a new guy comes in and keeps it going like Carson, Letterman and Conan would want. Thats my very long 2 cents lol
Dave did guest-host The Tonight Show, subbing for Johnny, fifty times from 1979 to 1981.
Oh, and Edward Numan would come on to do the morning news update (remember those?) and Letterman would interact with him because this was actually live television. Numan would always be totally deadpan. Except, once, I saw just a little sparkle in his eyes and a twitch of his lips at some absurdity David had thrown him.
Newman; Edwin Newman.
I know Dave did the stand up and TV weather before this, but did he have any prior experience with leading a show? He seems so comfortable here. And his persona never really did change much from this.
He used to host a show at the local TV network in Indianapolis.
@@MrGSfan Besides the weather? I wonder if there's any footage of that.
Yes, YT is chock-a-block with tracks from the Allen Ludden album... RCA, right Donz?
Um... sure. :)
The theme music is very nice but man, to my ear, just a complete mismatch for the Dave Letterman vibe and style of comedy. The pensive melancholy descending melody line is almost sleepy sounding, nothing like Dave or the mood in his audiences. I realize that this was daytime TV in just into the 80's, but man, the driving upbeat intro that Paul used to play in the show's early heyday was so much better suited to Dave's style. The music was just synonymous with the Dave and the show. I almost wonder if this early show would have been more successful with a better theme, one that at least had some up notes after the down notes, like the old Tonight Show theme did. I never saw this show when it aired so this stuff is always a treat. Thanks!
Written by Michael McDonald.
@@dongiller I think it's lovely, just not a good match.
I think you latched onto the reason - it was for a 10 am show, and the problem for Dave was the hour of the day. Once he replaced Tom Snyder, it all fell into place.
This sounds like the kind of music you would expect from a show that came on immediately *after* Dave.
I think had the show started in the fall instead of late spring/early summer, it would been good. Because during summer, it had a tourist vibe but when fall came, the natives came back surly and all.
Pants hitched up high grampa style there at the start
6:19 Anyone else see Al trip and fall as he was leaving?
I forgot that Conan O'Brien's band ended up in same spot that that Letterman's started in
Wow! It's amazing to see how David Letterman used his short-lived morning show to become the late night talk show host that he was from 1982 to 2015. Now, wait! When David Letterman received word from NBC that he would follow Johnny Carson after the morning show went off the air, Carson Productions didn't want his show to be like The Tonight Show, and the morning show wasn't like The Tonight Show, either. So, doesn't that mean that he had been following Carson's rules for the most part since 1980 even before Carson Productions took over and he moved to the 12:30AM timeslot on NBC?
i didn't even know Paul was on the morning show
He wasn’t.
Did the show's repertory company do SNL-style sketches, or were they just playing characters that Dave could pretend to interview?
The latter. Rich Hall did bits with his props, and Wil Shriner put on film clips he had put together, but no repertory sketches.
The initial episodes sampled here don't seem that funny, but it looks like after a few months the show hit its stride and provuded the template for the classic and groundbreaking humor of the early seasons of 'Late Night with David Letterman.'
Don might correct me but when they knew the show's future wasn't looking good they threw caution to the wind with nothing to lose and built a cult following before being cancelled.
I was very disappointed when this was canceled.
BEST MOMENT....O WE HAVE A FIRE.
Cold open #65 was a monty python flying circus bit.
It's...
Hal Gurnee wasn’t the original director. And it shows.
August 15 (#6) is the earliest date in this collection with Hal as the director.
All them coffees for $10.
I recall the skits with PJ Rails, and I think the name is Jim Hall (I might have the name wrong). I thought they were funny, imho.
You may be thinking of Rich Hall, but PJ Rails was portrayed by writer Paul Raley.
@@dongiller Yes, thanks! Do you know if there are any video's of their skits?
I have all but 5 of the morning shows but haven’t catalogued them as thoroughly as I have Dave’s Late Nights and Late Shows. Yet.
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think Donna was giving Mr. Letterman some gah-gah eyes!
Of course and he knew it. That's why he had to burst Al's bubble.
The "World Wide Pants" watermark is annoying.
It’s either the watermark or no video.
A little cringey with Allen Ludden suffering from stomach cancer at the time and would be in a coma within a few months and then would die the next summer.
He was well enough to later guest on the show - ua-cam.com/video/yg-mgvrffjs/v-deo.html
SO MUCH TALENT WASTED.
Can you please do something about the worldwide pants logo in the middle of all your videos i mean WTF
“All” my videos?
The very few that have them will remain as such. The choice here is sharing with the watermark or not sharing with the watermark. If you’re unhappy with that choice, go please find another channel that has these videos without the watermark. Hint: you won’t find them.
And “WTF” is always a persuasive argument.
Don Giller You have Herculean patience, Don.
Todd Serotiuk Naw, I just know how to filter what I really think. :)
I’m mad at this free entertainment! Do what I want, exactly as I demand!