23 years ago today...

[ChuckNet]

I don't know if Dave starting playing to the masses a few years into his LATE NIGHT run or if magically I just figured it out, but I never found his morning show to be all that funny.

In the beginning, the network \"suits\" wanted a more convential variety show, w/Dave doing cooking demonstrations and so forth. After producer Edythe Chan and director Bruce Burmster (direct from Stewart's camp...their boss was supposed to produce the show, but left shortly before its premiere over creative differences) were replaced by Robert Morton and Hal Gurnee, respectively, the show began hitting its stride, but it was too late.

However, the imminent cancellation did give the show a chance to let Dave really be himself and give us a glimpse of things to come...

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious \"Chuckie Baby\")

[Matt Ottinger]

In the beginning, the network \"suits\" wanted a more convential variety show, w/Dave doing cooking demonstrations and so forth.

Not to mention my favorite incongruous element -- live news updates with Edwin Newman, who was actually on the set with Dave for the first little while.  They eventually removed Newman to a separate studio that Dave would \"throw\" to, but even the unflappable Newman never entirely got used to having to wait for the studio audience applause to die down before he could start.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Skynet74\' date=\'Jul 16 2003, 10:54 AM\']ya see, that really Sucks. Just to think if Wheel was canceled instead, we could of been watching The Nightime versions of High Rollers and Chain Reaction every evening now instead of Wheel and Jeopardy.  I can picture the High Roller Mobile traveling across the Country for contestant searches. A Big Truck with two Giant Dice on the side! :-)
[/quote]
Heehee I remember reading back on ATGS that Merv had been trying desparately to sell Wheel into syndication, during the Woolery days. I'm assuming that this is when they thought it would be cancelled in 1980, and therefore Merv wanted to go ahead with a syndie deal, even though a lot of syndicators were extremely reluctant to do syndicate Wheel.

BTW, if there had been a nighttime HR, would Trebek have done J!? :-)

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Jul 16 2003, 01:49 PM\']

I don't know if Dave starting playing to the masses a few years into his LATE NIGHT run or if magically I just figured it out, but I never found his morning show to be all that funny.

In the beginning, the network \"suits\" wanted a more convential variety show, w/Dave doing cooking demonstrations and so forth. After producer Edythe Chan and director Bruce Burmster (direct from Stewart's camp...their boss was supposed to produce the show, but left shortly before its premiere over creative differences) were replaced by Robert Morton and Hal Gurnee, respectively, the show began hitting its stride, but it was too late.[/quote]
I guess I should've clarified--it even took me a couple of years into his LATE NIGHT run before I got the gist of his humor (granted that if I knew then what I know now I probably could've appreciated the first couple of years and the morning show that much more).

As an aside, Morty never produced the morning show--that honor (?) went to Barry Sand (Morty was elevated from segment producer of LNWDL to producer when Sand left to helm the [rightly] lamented WILTON NORTH REPORT, then shared executive producing chores with Peter Lassally when Johnny left THE TONIGHT SHOW and Lassally moved to NY to be with Dave).

Doug

[johnnya2k3]

I was too young to remember Letterman's daytime show, but one of the clips they showed on Headliners and Legends from it was his audience waving homemade signs to the camera (similar to those you see on Raw and Smackdown) when he came out. Some were...

KILL WINK? (referring to Wink Martindale)
NOBODY CAN FILL THE GAP LIKE DAVID
DAVID LETTERMAN FOR PRESIDENT, (some other name) FOR V.P.
And my favorite: NBC IS A PEACOCK! (since they were dead last among the Big Three networks at the time)

Of course Dave would get a second chance in 1982 replacing Tom Snyder, and the rest was late night history.

Jonathan Allen

[tommycharles]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Jul 16 2003, 03:16 PM\'] the [rightly] lamented WILTON NORTH REPORT [/quote]
 What was that, exactly? All I could gather from reading \"The Late Shift\" was that it kept Arsenio from a regular show on FOX.

[ChuckNet]

Not to mention my favorite incongruous element -- live news updates with Edwin Newman, who was actually on the set with Dave for the first little while.

Bill Adler reported in his book \"The Letterman Wit\" that the audience would cheer at the news stories they like and boo the ones they didn't...he described it as \"like doing the news in a nightclub\", for which Newman quickly learned to roll w/the punches and play his delivery to the audience.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious \"Chuckie Baby\")

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Jul 17 2003, 11:28 AM\'][quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Jul 16 2003, 03:16 PM\'] the [rightly] lamented WILTON NORTH REPORT [/quote]
What was that, exactly? All I could gather from reading \"The Late Shift\" was that it kept Arsenio from a regular show on FOX.[/quote]
It was a poor effort (to say the least) to do a comedic take on the news and died quite quickly (the one witty moment I do recall was some comedienne doing a commentary on the Kelly LeBrock \"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful\" commercial:  \"No, Kelly, we hate you because you're exceedingly annoying.\").  When Joan Rivers was forced out of her LATE SHOW, Arsenio Hall was among those who filled in as FOX warmed up WILTON NORTH as the eventual replacement.  Under Hall's hostship the ratings got better (not dynamite--after all this is FOX we're talking about) but had FOX not already committed to WN as a replacement they've could've kept him aboard.  By the time FOX pulled the plug on WN, Arsenio Hall had already inked the deal with Paramount to start up his show and FOX had to scramble to find someone who could fill the slot (Ross Shafer, soon to host MG90, was among the people who tried. . .and failed).

Ironically enough, Conan O'Brian was one of WN's writers.

Doug

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Jul 17 2003, 09:57 AM\'] (Ross Shafer, soon to host MG90, was among the people who tried. . .and failed).
 [/quote]
 One needs to be aware that Ross Shafer wasn't without pedigree for the Late Show gig...he left Almost Live, Seattle's version of SNL, to take that job.

(We would just about kill to get Almost Live back here in first run. I know they used to air it on Comedy Central...it's even funnier when you _live_ here and get all of the regional jokes.

[Don Howard]

the [rightly] lamented WILTON NORTH REPORT

Two game show announcer connections to this show.

Announcer #1 was Michael Hanks, from the God-awful mid 80s edition of Break The Bank.
Announcer #2 was Don Morrow, just a few weeks before he succeeded Jay Stewart on $ale of the Century.

BTW, if there had been a nighttime HR, would Trebek have done J!? :-)

I'd like to think Tom Kennedy would've gotten the gig, based on his stellar work on Split Second. Ah, what could've been.

[uncamark]

Two game show announcer connections to this show (\"The Wilton North Report\").
Announcer #1 was Michael Hanks, from the God-awful mid 80s edition of Break The Bank.
Announcer #2 was Don Morrow, just a few weeks before he succeeded Jay Stewart on $ale of the Century.

And the show's theme music, featuring a fiddle on amphetemines, was by Edd Kalehoff, was very much in the mold of his late 80s work like \"Double Dare\" and was by far the best thing about the show.