Adios, Dave

David Letterman quitting Late Night and NBC in 1993 and moving his show to CBS was a risky thing. Starting at 10:30 (central time) he would be going up against the Tonight Show, the show that had ruled that time slot for almost 40 years. The Tonight Show was a comfy habit for people winding down before bed. Set in California, it also had easier access to celebrities than Letterman's Late Night show set in New York. Realizing the show's energy was more productive in New York, Letterman chose to operate the CBS show from that city.

To their credit, CBS took a chance also by giving him a lot of leeway. They even remodeled the theater for the show.

There'd be no more Late Night frat boy antics (well, at least not as many). Letterman was a decade older and he knew some of that wasn't going to fly in the earlier time slot.

The Late Show was going to be produced from the old Ed Sullivan Theater. Ed Sullivan had been a staple of TV variety shows from 1948-1971. Letterman was one of the 73 million people glued to the set the night the Beatles made their historic first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Many years later, Letterman would be able to watch one of the Beatles perform lie on the marquis of the Ed Sullivan Theater as Paul McCartney and his band gave a free mini concert to the people crowding the streets around the theater.

Letterman always featured some of the best most interesting music out there, but his proximity to Broadway enabled him to feature numbers from Broadway musicals, something frequently done on the Ed Sullivan show.

Letterman took less and less field trips as his time at CBS progressed and admittedly, I missed that a little. He was playing with a bigger toy now though, and the reality was he was much better known. The antics he pulled off during the Late Night years probably would be more difficult considering his notoriety. He didn't lose that love of stunts however, and the ability to cordon off Broadway to pull off an outside production helped immensely. In some respects, the frat boy matured just as did the party he was throwing. Broadway was great for Dave, and for the next 22 years, that street outside would be host to a number of fun and fabulous spectacles.

The Late Show was glitzier than its predecessor. The theater larger, the set more impressive. The World's Most Dangerous Band became the Late Show Orchestra with horns. And Letterman emerged triumphantly from the nastiness of the Tonight Show scandal hosting not a retread of a show that had been on since the mid-50s, but rather, hosting his very own show. A template created by him and his staff on a larger scale than the previous one. 



Those who thought he would fail without the strong lead-in that the Tonight Show provided were proven wrong. As were those who thought the show would tank competing against the Tonight Show. In fact, for the first two years, The Late Show dominated the Tonight Show in the ratings. While this didn't last, the ratings were never low enough to threaten the show's continuation on CBS.

In fact, Letterman would be on air long after both of his rival's Leno's retirements from the Tonight Show. Indeed, Jay Leno had signed a contract in 2004 that he would step down from the Tonight Show in 2009 handing the reins over to Conan O'Brien. A chronic workaholic, Jay couldn't stay away long and arranged with NBC to start The Jay Leno Show, which seemed like a truncated version of the Tonight Show. Shown before the nightly news, it served as a poor lead-in to the Tonight Show and O'Brien's ratings began to dip. Skiddish, NBC called Jay Leno back to take over the show again, and he was only too happy to oblige. Thus started the second Tonight Show scandal. 

Confident in his own standing now, Letterman watched from the sidelines, commenting on the whole affair as only someone who'd experience similar could. He knew the players and understood the dynamics.

 




When the smoke cleared, Leno lasted another four years at the Tonight Show before finally handing it over, for real this time, to Jimmy Fallon. 

So Letterman lasted longer than his idol, Johnny Carson, and longer than his one-time friend/one-time rival Jay Leno. But now it's time to say goodbye. Letterman is 68 years old. A year older than his idol Carson was when he retired. Perhaps, like Carson, he wants to go before the welcome wears out.

In some respects, like his idol, people began to question whether or not he had lost his edge. He was the irreverent wise-ass we knew starting out. 

I don't completely agree with this. I don't think he lost his edge as much as the perspective shifted. He could still goof around with his own exuberance, still slam some points home when he wanted to but he had decades of life experience to reshape his attitude. He grew up.

But then, I grew up too, so maybe my perspective has changed also. Maybe that's one more reason I'm going to miss him. 

Mightier than the Sword

Happy Banned Book Week!

There's something wrong in a country professing a right to freedom of speech needing to have a week highlighting books that people have attempted to ban. Of course the U.S. isn't the only country that's had its battles with banning, presently or in the past. The Nazis made a whole thing about it, deciding to "purify" their Aryan culture the way they were trying to "purify" their Aryan genes.



We are far from that. Although there was that time in the 60s...



It's easy to let passion get ahead of judgement. (Your message, for example, gets a bit fuzzy when you allow members of the KKK represent your movement).

Per the saying, the pen is mightier than the sword. Honestly, in a sword fight, I think I'd reach for a blade over Bic, and yet if handled correctly, a pen could take down an entire regime. The sword has more immediacy. With the pen, you have to be patient as the ideas that spring from it have to sink in.

Like ink on a page.

Malala Yousafzai, ten tons of bravery packed in a young girl's body, was shot in the head by men terrified of her ideas about women's education and peace. They chose the "sword" because they were scared of her pen. And when asked by Jon Stewart what she would do if confronted again by terrorists...well you listen to what she had to say:



The freedom she's fighting for may not even be won in her lifetime (though I truly hope it is. No woman should have to fear seeking an education). But she's planted the seeds and has been tending to the garden in the hopes that eventually the blooms will come.

Now many of the books on the banned/challenged lists aren't even nearly that important to the social fabric. Their messages aren't quite that earth shattering. They're really not. But what Banned Book Week highlights isn't necessarily the books themselves, but rather that method used far too often of silencing the unsettling. Silence the message that might make people think beyond what we tell them to think. You cut this one for this reason, then you cut that one for that reason, and the next thing you know you have a lovely bonfire and people standing around watching as important questions and ideas go up in smoke.

Banned Book Week is a reminder to take our right to free speech responsibly. It's a responsibility born not only by those speaking, but by those listening. If you don't like what you're hearing, don't try to silence the argument. Offer a better one instead.

For a list of frequently challenged books, click here.