David Letterman 8-30-1993 Show Open

[JMMT7022801]

Wow! This happened on my 16th birthday!

[zufgh]

I think Letterman is one of those guys whom people don't get just how good they are until they retire.

[Nokorola]

And I thought that The Late Show's current set looked dated, I now stand corrected.

[alienhuman]

The 2 dislikes are probably NBC executives.

[GrassValleyGreg]

Letterman is the king. The quality is also excellent!

[guy2008rules]

CBS over NBC any day!

[bobszvetics1]

@guy2008rules THAT ISNT SAYING VERY MUCH WHERES JOHNNY DEAD ALONG WITH T.V

[mcrbillytalent]

stereo sound :O lol

[ir10031981]

happy 17th anniversary on CBS Dave! I got hooked on your show back in 1995.

[sweuhl1]

dave is a much better host.leno books guest that the public is more interested in and is more mainstream.letterman's humor is dry and not crackerjack.america likes simple.seinfeld basic in your face stuff.and good natured.

[7ees]

Woops, it turns out that "Letterman was previously the host of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC from 1982 to 1993". [Wikipedia]

So, this wasn't his First Ever hosting. He had 11 years of experience prior to the Late Show..

I wonder how he started out.. lol

[tvrewind]

@7ees The clip is of the first CBS show. David also had an NBC morning program before his late night NBC program.

[7ees]

I can't believe this is the first ever episode of the Late show. I expected Dave to have started out as an inexperienced, boring & insecure host. But he appears to be very confident, as though he's been doing this for years.

Good for Dave! Love his show

[RealDefentertainment]

gosh i`m thinkin this was the first ever Letterman show, I gotta find the NBC one

[tripjet999]

Ah, the good 'ole days, before he was caught for the philandering!

[uplateweb]

Dave should let Conan guest-host sometime. They're in the same "I've been screwed by NBC" boat.

[thehivpositiveshow]

good, very good. i get sad when i see this, because dave just doesn't have it anymore. conan really reminds me of this era of letterman.

[Robohump]

@thehivpositiveshow It's like they are two completely different people. He had so much eergy back then and you could tell he actually tried. It's pathetic how he has sleepwalked through his show for the past 15 years. Why does he even bother? Just retire if you aren't going to try.

[wertyhhp]

As a British person i wish one of our channels would air the Late Show in the UK we get the Tonight show on CNBC Europe and i used to watch it when Leno was host and judging by what ive seen of Letterman on the internet i cant for the life of me understand how Jay beat Letterman in the ratings for 15 years hes not even funny with the content that he stole! Letterman always was the King of late night since carson left after all he created 2 franchises Late Night and The Late show Viva Letterman!

[batrama310]

His contract is up this fall, but I really HOPE that he doesn't retire!!

[RetroBoyWontDie]

Nah, Kalter over Wendall for me, simply because Kalter is used in sketches. "Big Red" is such a great perv/madman. So underused now.

[kril154]

he is the king of late night...it doesnt matter if he was #1 or #2 on the rating..

[nWo24life]

I also thought it was really cool that Bill Murray was the first guest for both "Late Night with David Letterman" on NBC, and then on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS. Dave is the king of late night, period.

[mkrobinson95]

How is he the king of late night when his show was #2, and Jay's was always #1?

[Robohump]

@mkrobinson95 Letterman was the clear #1 in the ratings from 1993-1995.

[mkrobinson95]

@Robohump - so what? He hasn't been #1 against Jay Leno in 15 years ... clearly the late night viewing public prefers Jay Leno to David Letterman. An objective view of the ratings proves this ... if you don't like Leno, then fine, but at least admit that he is the preferred choice of the masses.

[Robohump]

@mkrobinson95 You said that Jay was "always #1". I was just correcting you. Some people forget, but Letterman's show was the hottest show on TV for almost 2 years (93-95). It was also considered the hippest show on TV from 1982-1995. It was only after he bombed at the Oscars that he lost a lot of his "hip" aura. Instead of being fashionable to watch Letterman, it became fashionable to dislike him. He's never been the same since.

[mkrobinson95]

@Robohump - my comment about Jay "always" being #1 was in reference to nWo24life's comment "Dave is the king of late night, period" ... operative word "is". Dave had PLENTY of time to recover after the Oscars if he is truly "the king".  The fact is he didn't, and obviously couldn't. My original comment to nWo24life simply questioned how someone can be the "king" when they are not #1.

[fallenone202]

@mkrobinson95 Preferred choice of the masses: like Christianity.

[fivesecondsonly]

That is some Intro. Much better then the one they have now!

[northberlin]

its too long everyone would get tired of it after awhile

[hgates101]

the greatest day in comedy history right here folks.......

[bigbosscentral90]

David Letterman is the greatest performer in the world. Thanks for uploading this historic show.

[hgates101]

much more exciting the the jay lenos new show!!

[mustanghugger]

eh..jay isnt so funny anymore. :/

[cs00024]

never was

[clinton984]

Not that one? Wendall beats the crap out of that annoying Alan Kalter. C'mon, thumbs up for that last post. I still watch Letterman but that music intro back in 1993 is way better.

[clinton984]

this opening and the announcer is way better than the show opener now.

[northberlin]

u dont think a minute long opening would get a little tiresome?

[hgates101]

letterman 4 ever!

[julianpulido1]

DAVE DAVE DAVE DAVE!!!!!! 2:03

[damanwithdacam]

leno ovr letterman, but letterman ovr conan

[steadfastcoward]

I am so thrilled with the quality of this clip!

Thank you for presenting such a top quality product.

[scubabelvoir]

Letterman has my heart. He's terrific - none better.

[hgates101]

Dave over leno any day!!!!

[JBRIENZA711]

of all the theme,s letterman has had since he,s been on cbs the first one was the BEST.....we miss bill wendell and calvert deforest......ive NEVER watched LENO LETTERMAN RULES!

....

[hkfreak]

What is the opening theme?

[theonlyrealMugsy]

that fast cut time thing as Dave walks on is the Ed Sullivan show theme.

[hkfreak]

I mean the OPEN open.

[theonlyrealMugsy]

that's the old Letterman theme.

They've had 3 total, I think.

The best one was the one where Schaeffer held that Hammond B3 note at the beginning for a long time.

[knicksfan89]

that thing at the beginning with the this is cbs pastiche with some old man was very funny who was he?

[tvrewind]

That was Calvert DeForest. He was a regular on David's show on NBC-TV. They called him Larry "Bud" Melman on that show. David made him a regular on his CBS-TV show also. Calvert died on March 19, 2007. Do a Google search, lots of material available on this wonderful character.

[steadfastcoward]

Calvert DeForest was a better partner to work with than anybody except Ed McMahon. The man had method and timing down so well that you'd doubt it took effort! The only bits I never liked are the ones where he was supposed to be confrontational and came off too serious. Time I feel proved my thoughts to be correct, Larry 'Bud' was one never meant to have a malevolent bone in his body.

We ALL miss him terribly, things were never the same afterward.

[fizzygillespie]

Ah, this brought back memories. I still have this on tape...but didn't feel like digging it out. This worked just fine. Basically, I just wanted to see how much he had aged. And now I'm depressed. Mujibur/Sirajul 2008.

[99c08]

Paul had a little hair LOL.

[MatchinMike]

Does anybody know the name of the song Paul plays when Dave enters?

[AdamNedeff]

It's the theme from "The Ed Sullivan Show."

[videonut33]

I DID NOT KNOW THAT!!!

[juliet97]

no one ever got so screwed over as David Letterman. Even Johnny Carson told him he would walk. Infact, the only show Johnny Carson ever visited after he hung it up was David Letterman. He never even talked to Jay Leno again. The movie about everything is entertaing, but a lot of the things jay leno started doing after two years, were things Letterman had been doing for over a decade. NBC were such poor babies trying to say everything was their "Property" WHat a joke.

[MegaObserver1]

@juliet97 Johnny did talk to Jay Leno a few times on the phone after he retired, mostly about what old Tonight Show clips to use for particular guests. Johnny owned the rights to those clips and when Leno wanted to use a clip, he had to get permission. Johnny told Jay to ask him personally, and Leno said Johnny was always gracious, never denied permission and even had a few suggestions of his own.

[smokes2468]

I remember this years ago. It was a big deal at the time. He even beat Jay Leno in the ratings in his first two years on the air on CBS. This is a great show to watch every night. He has not lost his talent at all. He is still a funny man every week night. It will be sad when David Letterman retires because he has been on television longer than all of the others right now. He started at NBC in 1982 and CBS in 1993 so he will be missed. I think people will miss him more than Jay Leno.

[geoffds]

Yeah, it sucks. Letterman was whooping Leno in the ratings. The turning point was in July 1995 when Hugh Grant appeared on Leno following Grant's prostitution scandal. For whatever reason, Leno has been winning ever since. :(

[steadfastcoward]

Politics and SEX.

Carson at least added a lemur on his head and cutting off your Slossen (?) at the Slossen cutoff and had the guts to show comedians who might be funnier than he was, even hire them to fill in (well, maybe Joan didn't work out but where did you first see Garry Shandling)?

[jgarin07]

I was four years old and I can still vividly remember when Dave came to CBS in '93. The flying screens intro I can remember.

Dave has such class.

[steadfastcoward]

Amen. I'll add my 2 cents in the opinion that late night TV was in danger of reverting to old movies or the test pattern in 1982. Tom Snyder was awesome but until Late Night aired you'd be damned lucky to get him in one piece on the coax OR microwave feed from UTAH to BOISE The night the Clash were on made me mad as it had the usual missing programming and nearly lost or gone audio and that stupid voiceover, "due to signal losses from our station in Salt Lake, portions of this program are lost"!

[AdrianHoliday]

...and a late night talk show rivalry begins