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Dave
started out working as a weatherman for Channel 13, the ABC affiliate in
Indianapolis, IN. It was there
that he predicted hail “the size of canned hams.” In 1975, he and his wife packed up their bags, rode his red
Chevy pick-up and went to Los Angeles.
There, he started to write scripts for Mary Tyler Moore and Bob
Newhart. Eventually, he ended up
at The Comedy Store and sort-of learned to become a good comic by watching Jay
Leno. Dave became better and ended
up doing the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and guest hosting 51
times.
The David Letterman
Show staff
Former NBC President Fred
Silverman saw that he was good and decided that he should have a show. He did a pilot called “Leave It To
Dave” with the set resembling a pyramid and his seat a throne. He hated it. His next show was the 90-minute “The David Letterman
Show.” It was live and on
daytime. It won critical acclaim
and won 2 Emmy awards. But, it was
cancelled. Dave thought that he
was a big failure after two unsuccessful shows and that he would never be on TV
again. We all know he was wrong.
Dave on his first ‘Late Night’ set.
NBC gave him a holding
contract which paid him about a million dollars for him to stay at NBC while
virtually doing nothing. On
February 1, 1982, Late Night with David Letterman premiered at 12:30. He did the show for 11½ years. Dave won a Peabody award for
re-inventing the talk show, the show received Emmy nominations and awards. But Dave did not get to fulfill his
childhood dream of replacing Johnny Carson as the host of the Tonight
Show. That “hump” Jay Leno got it.
Dave then hired Hollywood
power-agent Mike Ovitz to get him an 11:30 show, maybe even get the Tonight
Show. After negotiations involving
millions upon millions of dollars, Dave jumped-ship to CBS and started the Late
Show with David Letterman. Here,
we saw a polished Dave, the 11:30 Dave, not the 12:30. The show has won numerous Emmys and
praise from the industry.
Koppel or Letterman?
In early 2002, the David Letterman people started to
negotiate with CBS for a new contract.
Sources said that CBS tried to strong-arm them and eventually alienated
everyone on his side. But, after all
the hoopla, Dave stayed at CBS, with a $31.5 Million salary, cross-promotions
for the show, and re-purposing on Viacom cable channels. He said that he would like to end his
(very spectacular) career, “a week from Tuesday,” at CBS.
