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Late Night with David Letterman
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===Debut=== The staff responsible for preparing the launch of ''Late Night'' included [[Merrill Markoe]] in the head writing role, seasoned TV veteran [[Hal Gurnee]] as director, Letterman's manager [[Jack Rollins (producer)|Jack Rollins]] as executive producer, and a group of young writers—most of them in their early twenties, along with the somewhat more experienced 29-year-old [[Jim Downey (comedian)|Jim Downey]], who had previously written for ''Saturday Night Live'', and 27-year-old [[Steve O'Donnell (writer)|Steve O'Donnell]]. Markoe stepped down as head writer after a few months, and was succeeded by Downey who was in turn succeeded by O'Donnell in 1983. O'Donnell would serve as the head writer through most of the rest of the show's run while Downey went back to ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1984. Also on board, initially as a production assistant in charge of the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment, was 21-year-old [[Chris Elliott]]. Elliott would quickly be promoted to writer and a recurring featured player. The plan from the start was to resurrect the spirit of Letterman's morning show for a late-night audience, one more likely to plug into his offbeat humor. The show also got a house band, hiring NBC staff musician [[Paul Shaffer]] to lead the group. They were informally dubbed "[[Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band|The World's Most Dangerous Band]]" in early episodes, but this was then dropped for several years; through much of the show's run, the band existed without a formal name. The moniker "The World's Most Dangerous Band" was reinstated in 1988, and continued through the rest of the show. Realizing that NBC executives exhibited very little desire to micromanage various aspects of the show, the staff felt confident they would be allowed to push outside of the mainstream talk-show boundaries and thus set about putting together a quirky, absurdist, and odd program. Snyder's ''Tomorrow'' re-runs continued until Thursday, January{{spaces}}28, 1982, and four days later on Monday, February{{spaces}}1, 1982,<ref name=loryap82f1/> ''Late Night'' premiered with a [[cold open]]ing featuring [[Calvert DeForest|Larry "Bud" Melman]] delivering lines as an homage to the prologue of [[Boris Karloff]]'s ''[[Frankenstein (1931 film)|Frankenstein]]'', followed by Letterman coming out on stage to [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]'s "[[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)|Piano Concerto No. 1]]" behind a group of female dancers—the peacock girls who had also opened the finale of ''[[The David Letterman Show]]''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Calvert DeForest, 85; Gained Fame As Larry 'Bud' Melman of 'Late Night' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032102769.html |access-date=October 13, 2021 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |publisher=[[Nash Holdings]] |date=March 22, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=TV VIEW; DAVID LETTERMAN-A TOUGH ACT TO PACKAGE |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/13/arts/tv-view-david-letterman-a-tough-act-to-package.html |access-date=October 13, 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 13, 1982}}</ref> After a brief monologue, the very first comedy segment was a sarcastic tour of the studio. The first guest, 31-year-old comedian and actor [[Bill Murray]], came out in confrontational fashion, throwing jibes and accusations at the host as part of a knowing put-on. He remained for two more similarly sardonic segments in which he first presented footage of a Chinese zoo baby panda as a supposed home video of his recently adopted pet, before expressing newfound love for [[aerobics]] and pulling a crew member onstage, making her do [[jumping jack]]s along with him to [[Olivia Newton-John]]'s "[[Physical (Olivia Newton-John song)|Physical]]". The second comedy piece was a remote titled "The Shame of the City"; taking a general format of a [[local news]] action segment, it featured Letterman touring several New York locations pointing out various civic problems with righteous indignation. The second guest was [[Don Herbert]], TV's "Mr. Wizard", and the show ended with a young comic named Steve Fessler reciting aloud the script of the obscure [[Bela Lugosi]] film ''[[Bowery at Midnight]]''. The reviews were mixed<ref name=dtbuncon>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lfkaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kUcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6807%2C733440 |newspaper=Daily News |location=Bowling Green, KY |agency=Associated Press |last=Rothenberg |first=Fred |title=Letterman's ''Late Night'' dares to be unconventional |date=February 6, 1982 |page=6B }}</ref>—''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' wrote: "Much of Letterman's first week did not jell"—but more importantly, the show drew 1.5 million viewers, 30% more than had tuned in for Snyder's ''Tomorrow''.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Browne |first1=David |title=How David Letterman Reinvented TV |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/how-david-letterman-reinvented-tv-175056/ |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=29 September 2011 |publisher=[[Penske Media Corporation]] |access-date=October 31, 2021}}</ref> On the third night, after baseball great [[Hank Aaron]] finished his interview segment with Letterman, a camera followed him backstage, where TV sportscaster [[Al Albert (sportscaster)|Al Albert]] conducted a post-interview chat with Aaron about how it had gone. Eccentric and awkward, the show immediately established a sensibility that was clearly different from ''The Tonight Show''.<ref name=dtbuncon/> The show was produced by Johnny Carson's production company, as a result of a clause in Carson's contract with NBC that gave him control of what immediately followed ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''. Carson, for his part, wanted ''Late Night'' to have as little overlap with his show as possible. In fact, most ground rules and restrictions on what Letterman could do came not from the network but from the production company itself. Letterman could not have a sidekick like [[Ed McMahon]], and Paul Shaffer's band could not include a horn section like [[Doc Severinsen]]'s. Letterman was told he could not book old-school showbiz guests such as [[James Stewart]], [[George Burns]], or [[Buddy Hackett]], who were fixtures on Johnny's show (the fact that ''Tonight'' had long moved to Hollywood and ''Late Night'' was taped in New York helped minimize guest overlap). Letterman was also specifically instructed not to replicate any of the signature pieces of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' like "Stump the Band" or "Carnac the Magnificent". Carson also wanted Letterman to minimize the number of [[Topical humor|topical jokes]] in his opening monologue.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sims |first1=David |title=David Letterman's Long Shadow |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/david-lettermans-long-shadow/393707/ |access-date=October 27, 2021 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |publisher=[[Emerson Collective]] |date=May 20, 2015}}</ref>
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