Thursday, May 21, 2015

LETTERMAN FINALE

Tried to stay up to watch the Dave Letterman show finale but couldn't stay awake. I found it pretty much the same as the few other times I tried to watch it. A few great laughs, a couple of good laughs and then a lot of filler that frankly bored me.

I know he's seen as a late night TV innovator and his show and style of humor inspired a lot of other late night show hosts (Conan O'Brien most obviously) even if Letterman got a lot of his ideas from Steve Allen on the original Tonight Show long before Johnny Carson. (Letterman was seen as a great innovator when compared to Carson's more straight jacketed format and style.)

Happy for those who dug Letterman that he was around so many years for them...me, I'm looking forward to Colbert...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol.....I too was looking at watch, waiting for it to end.

suzanne

AlamedaTom said...

Thanks for the mention of Steve Allen, who was the best IMHO. Letterman, Carson, Leno, and the rest often did very funny bits, but only Steve Allen danced on the borders of crazy. Smock smock! The planned sketches were always funny and a bit insane, but looking back on it my favorite times were when Steve (or Louie Nye or Tom Poston) said something that was unexpectedly funny, which would set Steve off on his maniacal cackle, which could go on for several minutes punctuated by his valiant, but failed, attempts to compose himself. I wish I could remember more of these episodes, but I do remember one that set Steve off for a good two or three minutes. Here is what I recall:

There was a "man on the street" interview where Steve asked the guy what he did for a living. The guy said he was a paper hanger. Steve kind of chuckled over that and then realizing he may have hurt the guy's feelings he said, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not knockin' hangers" (so far so good), but then he spontaneously blurted out "but then again I'm not hangin' knockers either." In those days, "knockers" were a good set of breasts, so once he realized what he had said he started his crazy laugh and simply could not stop. I loved those moments. Bless his great soul...

~ Willy

Lally said...

Willy, what a terrific memory...as I emailed you, I loved and still love Steve Allen, the original...