tywebb2112 wrote:
Been a Letterman fan since the get go. Was (and still am) a Carson guy before that, and have always appreciated how Dave looked up to and paid tribute to Johnny. The Letterman shows here toward the end have mostly been terrific IMO, especially because he's been having guests and music acts that he likes and not so much the usual parade of random people promoting whatever. I still occasionally go back and watch Johnny on YouTube. I'm already doing that with Dave.
i remember once in the mid-late 00s i was watching dave one night and he had someone like paris hilton on and out of nowhere he just kind of externalized "you know what i am? i'm a pimp for the entertainment industry..." and he went on this little 30second rant about the nature of late night tv and paris or whoever just kind of sat there looking like she was about to shit herself. that was golden. that was as real as the guy gets nowadays when he's not watching F1 or something.
colbert was the don of late night stuff IMO, so i wanna see what he can do with the format. but going back and watching old proper late night w/david letterman stuff reminds me of this one quote i heard about the show that was something like "late night with david letterman was like one big inside joke that you were in on" and that nailed it for me. somebody else said that what johnny carson did to build up the majesty and aura of the late night talk show was the antithesis of what david letterman did to deconstruct and essentially ridicule the inner workings of the late night talk show. dave was the counterpunch to johnny and you couldn't have the kind of success dave had unless you had johnny there before him to build up the late night talk show into this big formal prim and proper entity that was then ripe for the picking when the next generation came along.
of course as time goes on and the anti-establishment becomes the establishment everything loses it's serrated edge and essentially becomes a butterknife, but hey, who wants to have milquetoast without butter? i'll be interested to see what colbert can do before he gets old rich and jaded... and even then i hope he nails some people cuz he's got the improv wit to pick up where dave left off.
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