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Information about The David Letterman Show

The David Letterman Show
StarringDavid Letterman
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes90
Production
Running time90/60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channelNBC
Original runJune 23, 1980 – October 24, 1980
External links
IMDb profile


Enlarge picture
Dave walking out on the last David Letterman Show


The David Letterman Show was a ive morning NBC talk show hosted by David Letterman every weekday from June 23 to October 24 1980.

Background

A precursor to 1982's Late Night with David Letterman, the show was a critical success but the edgy comedy did not go over well with morning television watchers, more used to talk shows, soap operas, and game shows. The show had replaced the daytime version of The Hollywood Squares, High Rollers, and Chain Reaction on NBC's schedule (NBC president Fred Silverman nearly cancelled Wheel of Fortune in favor of Letterman as well, yet Silverman eventually decided not to do such when he realized Wheel was one of the network's highest-rated daytime shows).

Guests

Valri Bromfield, Edie McClurg, Rich Hall, Gerard Mulligan, Merrill Markoe and Paul Raley all appeared on the show (with all but Bromfield also serving as writers). Edd Hall (later the announcer on Jay Leno's Tonight Show) and current Late Show producer Barbara Gaines were both production assistants, while stage manager Biff Henderson and director Hal Gurnee would follow Dave to his next two shows. Announcer/comedian Bob Sarlatte was replaced partway through the run by Bill Wendell, who would also announce on Dave's next two shows. Music director was Frank Owen.

Among guests who appeared were Steve Allen, Andy Kaufman, Wil Shriner, Judy Collins, photojournalists Jon & Keiko Alpert and Jeff Greenfield, who reviewed the first show on the air, as it happened, and was rather apathetic toward the whole thing. Bill Maher can be seen in the audience of the first episode as well (though he was not an official guest), and Conan O'Brien claims he hitchhiked to New York just to see a broadcast in NBC's Studio 6A, which has also been home to some of Jack Paar's NBC programs, later Late Night with David Letterman and now Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Episode status

The first 30 episodes were all 90 minutes, but the show was cut to an hour for the last 12 weeks (60 shows). Of the 90 episodes broadcast, only 83 or so survive in the Late Show archives in New York. A brief clip from #90 (see still above) was shown on Dave's 15th Anniversary show in 1997, and some episodes are apparently available for on-site viewing at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York.

External links

David Letterman

David Letterman entertaining troops in Iraq.
Pseudonym Earl Hofert
Birth name David Michael Letterman
Born March 12 1947 (1947--)
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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National Broadcasting Company

Type Broadcast television network
Country  United States
Availability    United States, also distributed in Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean
Founder David Sarnoff
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June 23 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1305 - Flemish-French peace treaty signed at Athis-sur-Orge.

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-1980- 1981 1982 1983  1984 .  1985 .  1986 .  1987  . 1988  . 1989  . 1990 

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October 24 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events


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-1980- 1981 1982 1983  1984 .  1985 .  1986 .  1987  . 1988  . 1989  . 1990 

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National Broadcasting Company

Type Broadcast television network
Country  United States
Availability    United States, also distributed in Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean
Founder David Sarnoff
..... Click the link for more information.
talk show (American) or chat show (British) is a television or radio program where one person or group of people come together to discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host.
..... Click the link for more information.
David Letterman

David Letterman entertaining troops in Iraq.
Pseudonym Earl Hofert
Birth name David Michael Letterman
Born March 12 1947 (1947--)
..... Click the link for more information.
June 23 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1305 - Flemish-French peace treaty signed at Athis-sur-Orge.

..... Click the link for more information.
October 24 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events


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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
1977 1978 1979 - 1980 - 1981 1982 1983

Year 1980 (MCMLXXX
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
1979 1980 1981 - 1982 - 1983 1984 1985

Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII
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Late Night with David Letterman was a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993 after Letterman left NBC when he moved to Late Show on CBS.
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talk show (American) or chat show (British) is a television or radio program where one person or group of people come together to discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host.
..... Click the link for more information.
soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television or radio. Programs described as soap operas have existed as an entertainment long enough for audiences to recognize them simply by the term soap.
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game show involves members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. In some shows contestants compete against other players or another team whilst other shows involve contestants
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The Hollywood Squares is an American television comedy and game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win money and prizes. The "board" for the game is actually a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by an entertainer (or "star") seated at a
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High Rollers was an American television game show which aired on the NBC network from July 1, 1974 to June 11, 1976 and again from April 24, 1978 to June 20, 1980. Two different syndicated versions were also produced, the first a weekly series from September 8, 1975 to
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Chain Reaction is an American game show, where one word leads to another, and the right word leads to loads of cash. There have been three incarnations of the series: Bill Cullen hosted the original series on NBC from January 14, 1980-June 20, 1980 save for two
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Fred Silverman (born September 13, 1937 in New York City) is an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at CBS, ABC and NBC and was at least partly responsible for bringing to television such programs as Scooby-Doo (1969-1986),
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Wheel of Fortune aired on NBC from January 6, 1975 to June 30, 1989. It was seen on CBS from July 17, 1989, to January 11, 1991, and again on NBC from January 14, 1991, until its final cancellation on September 20, 1991. It always aired in the late morning, between 10:00 a.m.
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Edie McClurg

Edie McClurg at the 34th Annual Annie Awards.

Born July 23 1951 (1951--) (age 56)
Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
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Rich Hall (born 10 June 1954 in Alexandria, Virginia)[1] is an American comedian and writer. He was a writer and performer on the sketch comedy TV series Fridays, Not Necessarily the News, and Saturday Night Live.
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Late Show with David Letterman is a multiple Emmy Award-winning hour-long weeknight comedy talk show broadcast by CBS from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City. The show debuted on August 30, 1993.
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Merrill Markoe (born 1951) is an author, a television writer and a sometime standup comedienne. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. She has written for many television shows, among them the failed 1977 revival of Laugh In, Newhart,
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Edd Hall (born December 7, 1958) was the announcer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1992 to 2004. He was replaced by John Melendez.

He often introduced himself saying "...And me, I'm Edd Hall.
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Barbara Gaines, a 1975 graduate of George W. Hewlett High School and 1979 graduate of Ithaca College, is Executive Producer of The Late Show with David Letterman. She has held that position since May 2000.
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James Jackson Henderson Jr. (born October 3, 1946 in Durham, North Carolina, U.S.) is an American television personality who is best known for his work on The Late Show with David Letterman as a stage manager.
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