David Letterman took a little while before he weighed in on the cancellation of the show he created at CBS and Stephen Colbert kept going for another decade.
Letterman’s voice obviously matters, because, with Johnny Carson gone, there is no star in late-night with a more lasting comic and cultural impact. And, of course, he is legendarly a guy who doesn’t kowtow to corporate bosses—or anybody else.
In a video posted to his YouTube channel last Friday, Letterman called firing Colbert “pure cowardice” and CBS “gutless” for doing it.
Not a minority opinion in the world of late night, where just about every other host had by then already turned up on Colbert’s show in solidarity. But still, this was Letterman. He spoke with the passion of the originator.
Letterman’s look has certainly changed since he signed off at CBS; his cracker-barrel, old-settler, voluminous white beard is now his signature, instead of the cigars, the sneakers, the double-breasted suit jackets of old.
But unlike his own idol, Carson, he has not gone gentle into that post-late night. In fact, more and more, Dave has been a presence across late night and other talk shows, a funny, insightful, companionable presence, on shows as disparate as Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC and The Nite Show with Danny Cashman in Bangor, Maine.
You may also have recently seen him with John Mulaney on his wildly unconventional Everybody’s In LA on Netflix, dropping in on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, or sitting down with Colbert in his old digs at the Ed Sullivan Theatre. (Want to see the master at work? Spend a few minutes and watch him take “The Colbert Questionert.”)
Letterman has been making these visits often enough for people to wonder if he maybe wants to stage a comeback. Not really. He goes on the shows, I’m told, sometimes because he has a personal connection to someone, a producer most often, or because he likes the show and wants to endorse it. (See: his appearance on the now-defunct Desus and Mero from 2020.)
That was also clearly the case with the local show from Maine, as the host was closing out his career as a small-town TV host. Letterman was his idol, of course. Dave showed up and, in his own old metaphor, blew the roof off the place, though at the time he asked that no advance audio of that appearance be made available.
That was a bit unusual, because talking is what Letterman does now when he’s on TV, both on these guest appearances, and his own continuing show on Netflix, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
What often happens when he turns up on these shows is that Dave is so animated, interested, and of course so funny, that he dominates the show, even if he’s not expressly trying to take over as host.
The most recent entry in this canon was his drop-by to the talk show—on QVC of all places—Busy This Week featuring another late-night veteran host, Busy Philipps.
Letterman is not likely a regular viewer of QVC, but the show’s co-host and producer, Caissie St. Onge, began her career as an intern for Letterman early in his CBS run, and he evidenced great affection for her.
So there he was. The show was clearly taped well before the Colbert contretemps, so that topic did not come up. But plenty of other interesting things did, a credit to Philipps, who led him through a range of topics without ever looking like she was cribbing from pre-planned questions.
And she knew when to step back and let him ply his trade, jumping from anecdotes to observations to a quick joke that just popped into his head. Several had to do with the plate of cabbage he had asked for as a snack, apparently sincerely because he enjoyed cabbage-snacks as a kid.
Early on Philipps made a telling observation herself: “You want to take over the show?”
And Letterman came back with a telling line of his own: “No, I just love being on TV.”
In the most simple form, this looks like the truth. As gifted a broadcaster as has ever hosted this kind of show, Letterman glides easily and gracefully into his element when he looks into a camera and starts talking.
Philipps and St. Onge put together an especially interesting thread, questioning whether he remembered singular moments from the 6,000 (!) shows he hosted, and citing examples from three women guests who shared memorable moments with Dave on his show.
Madonna and her infamous curse-fest with a cigar; Drew Barrymore with her spontaneous desk jump and flashing; and Cher, with her blunt appraisal of Dave’s character, which prompted the famous censor choice between ass and hole. (They bleeped the latter.)
Letterman had something to say, mostly funny, about all of them.
This was a full hour of Letterman as guest, minus a few plugs for outfits, shoes and fake plants. The show could not possibly have asked for a better guest to discuss the joys of cabbage.
Once you’ve done QVC and local TV in Bangor you might expect there to be no limits to what might interest Letterman enough to turn up and face some more cameras. But so far he has resisted one likely stop.
Dave has not submitted himself to the flaming wings of Hot Ones, the YouTube phenomenon of a talk show that has lured celebrities of all stripes to sit and answer good interview questions from host Sean Evans while they try to swallow liquid flames on chicken pieces.
Have they not called?
They have, I can report. And Letterman, who was able to have a nice chat with Evans when they were both among the talent honoring Conan O’Brien when he won the Mark Twain Prize this year, does enjoy the Hot Ones format, though he has yet to sign up for that test.
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Great writing from the always great Bill Carter. No one knows Letterman like he does!