If there’s one thing David Letterman took away from his quick visit to Bangor, Maine last month, it’s how to properly pronounce the city’s name: It’s “Ban-GOR,” with an emphasis on the second syllable (not the first).
Letterman, as we’ve reported, was in The Pine Tree state to help send off the country’s very last local late-night host, Dan Cashman, whose long-running The Nite Show with Danny Cashman is set to air its final episode later this month.
Letterman’s appearance on the show aired Saturday night, giving viewers across Maine a chance to see what a very surprised audience witnessed in person three weeks ago when Letterman emerged as Cashman’s surprise guest during the taping of the last regular episode of his show.
Cashman, a lifelong Letterman fan was clearly thrilled to welcome the legendary host, but the feeling appeared to be mutual as Letterman told viewers of Cashman, who has produced 15 seasons of The Nite Show on his own, signing up an ad hoc network of local stations to carry the show and even selling sponsorships,”This is a self-made man, and this [show] is the product of his life in the recent, well, last 20 years, for god’s sakes. This is no small accomplishment.”
Though it was apparently Letterman’s first visit to Bangor since he was a child, the city did find its way onto Late Night with David Letterman in 1987 after the host learned that his ratings in Bangor were abnormally low. Hoping to increase viewership there, Paul Shaffer composed an original song about Bangor, while Letterman briefly took to reading names out of the city’s White Pages on a nightly basis.
After Cashman reminded Letterman of that bit, the duo reprised it, with the two hosts choosing someone out of the local phone book and calling them. Though the voice on the other end of the line (a gentleman named Dan Tremble) was a stranger to Letterman, he was apparently familiar to many in the audience, as he currently serves both a member of the Bangor City Council and a County Commissioner. (Small towns, amirite folks?)
All jokes aside—or really, interspersed with jokes throughout—Letterman spoke at length about his own struggles adapting to life after leaving late night himself nearly a decade ago. “Not many people in their lifetime are lucky enough to get to do exactly what they want to do. I am one of them. You also are one of them… It’s not easy. I’m being honest. It’s not easy. It took me quite a long time to [not] miss the routine daily.”
“I’m better now than I was a year ago, and better than I was two years ago,” he added. “But the first couple of years I felt like I might have to go into a program to get over not having a program.”
Perhaps explaining why he chose to travel to Maine to guest on The Nite Show as it bids farewell, Letterman told the show’s host, “You have represented something that we’re now saying goodbye to in our culture, and I don’t feel good about that,” to which Cashman responded, “Neither do I.”
Letterman’s entire appearance on The Night Show with Danny Cashman can be viewed in clip form on the show’s YouTube Channel.
