#worldwidepants

Repping all kinds of late night talk shows at the gym today. #Letterman #WWHL #WORLDWIDEPANTS #Mazel (at Los Angeles, California)

Late Night with David Letterman premiered in 1982, airing weeknights at 12:30 AM. The program became recognized for its skewering of "normal" TV niceties; it embraced the weird and often the awkward, and Letterman's interviews in those early years were often laced with uncomfortable pauses and sarcastic remarks, and sometimes outright hostility. These were TV interviews that deliciously seemed to make fun of TV interviews. Letterman famously feuded with guests like Cher and Madonna, as well as cult figures like the brilliant comic-book author Harvey Pekar (who became one of Letterman's most popular sparring partners, was eventually banned from the program for life...then was invited back twice more.) Late Night also became home to strange, "unprofessional" types such as Brother Theodore and Larry "Bud" Melman, whom one could not have imagined appearing on any other TV talk show at that time. There were the famously disturbing must-see Andy Kaufman appearances, plenty of other jarring, awkward and incoherent interview exchanges, surreal skits and experimental nonsense shot at remote locations, shows broadcast entirely from the desk of Letterman's cramped backstage office...etc. It was a great show, an unpredictable game-changer.
 In '93, after NBC failed to give Letterman The Tonight Show following Johnny Carson's retirement (though Letterman was clearly Carson's choice), Late Night packed up and moved to the 11:30 slot on CBS. Late Show with David Letterman was inevitably a little tamer than its predecessor, due both to the earlier time slot, and simply the fact that we'd been watching Dave's eccentric behavior for a decade already. We'd come to expect it. Still, right til the end last night, Letterman peppered his broadcasts with rude remarks of the most welcome kind, backhanded insults and intimate observations, and an endearing disregard for the rules of television propriety. He continued to experiment, and just have silly fun, with his medium. Younger TV hosts have certainly been influenced by him, and adopted much of his off-the-cuff attitude, but Letterman was the first and remains the King. He's widely admired for his innovations as a broadcaster, with the notable exception of a hack writer named Justin Wm. Moyer, who knotheadedly opined in the Washington Post yesterday that Letterman is retiring as "among television history's biggest losers", because for years he came in 2nd to Leno in the ratings. Talk about Missing The Point. (Mr. Moyer today is presumably unimpressed that on last night's farewell episode, four American Presidents appeared to say so long to "the loser"...but I digress.) As Allesandra Stanley wrote in the New York Times, "Mr. Leno...got 'The Tonight Show' and higher ratings, but in the end, Mr. Letterman won the legacy." (Note to editors of the Post entertainment section: you might want to step up your game.)
 Ah well...Letterman was always one of those guys who was a magnet for criticism from certain mainstream-entertainment types. Everyone didn't "get" him, and that's why so many of us loved him. Gnite, Worldwide Pants.