The David Letterman Show

The David Letterman Show is an American morning talk show that was hosted by David Letterman on NBC. It originally aired from June 23 to October 24, 1980. Originally, the series lasted 90 minutes, then 60 minutes from August 4 onward.

David Letterman's relationship with NBC began in 1978, when he made his first appearance as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Over the next two years Letterman returned to the show several times, and occasionally served as guest host in Carson's absence. After Letterman took a job emceeing an event presenting NBC's president Fred Silverman with an Anti-Defamation League award, Silverman was so impressed by Letterman's performance that he decided to offer him a morning talk show. Silverman envisioned the new show to be framed along the lines of the 1950s CBS show Arthur Godfrey and His Friends.

In early 1980, NBC's daytime morning lineup consisted of six game shows. The David Letterman Show was made possible by the cancellation of three of them: High Rollers, Chain Reaction, and the long-running daytime version of Hollywood Squares.

The series was a critical success (and won several Daytime Emmys including the 1981 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Writing) but the edgy comedy did not capture morning television watchers, who were more accustomed at the time to talk shows, soap operas, game shows, and prime time reruns.

The original producer was Bob Stewart, a veteran quiz-show creator who had enlisted Letterman as a panelist on Pyramid from 1978 onward. However, due to creative differences, Stewart left the show four days before its premiere, and production of the first several shows fell to head writer Merrill Markoe, who acted as the show's de facto producer despite having absolutely no prior experience in the role. Much more comfortable as a writer than as producer, Markoe stayed aboard as the show's head writer for the entire run of the series but was succeeded as producer by Barry Sand. Sand joined the show in July and remained at the helm for the rest of its run. (Sand later returned to Letterman as producer for the first five years of Late Night.) Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers wrote the opening theme of the show.

After the first month, Hal Gurnee began directing the show; he'd remain Letterman's director through the mid-1990's. Biff Henderson was the stage manager, a role he served for the next 35 years of Letterman's career. The writing staff initially consisted of Merrill Markoe (head writer), Valri Bromfield, Rich Hall, Harold Kimmel, Edie McClurg, Gerard Mulligan, Paul Raley, Wil Shriner, Bob Sarlatte and Ed Subitsky. (Bromfield, McClurg, Kimmel, and Sarlatte left before the show's end; added to the staff through the run were Ron Richards, Gary Jacobs and Letterman himself, not credited as a writer on early episodes.)

All the writers appeared on camera, some fairly frequently. Seen most often, usually in character (when not on as themselves) being interviewed by Dave, were:

Familiar bits that became staples of Letterman's comedy on his later shows were originally introduced on this show. They include: "Small Town News", "Stupid Pet Tricks", and an ever-changing non-sequitur opening introduction immediately before Letterman is seen on camera. Because Letterman owned the rights to The David Letterman Show, he was able to claim ownership of all the sketches that originally aired on it; this would prove valuable in 1993, when Letterman left NBC to launch The Late Show on CBS. NBC wanted to claim that much of the work he did on Late Night was the property of NBC, but because those sketches were carryovers from The David Letterman Show, he was allowed to take them to CBS.