"The David Letterman Show"

[The Pyramids]

I've heard the story how 'Hollywood Squarse' and 'High Rollers' were cacnelled in 1980 to make way for "The David Letterman Show" on NBC. Dave's Emmy winning show lasted four months, but served as a blue print for "Late Night" in 1982.

But I have never heard on Bob Stewart-related sites that Bob Stewart was the orginal producer of the New York based talk show. I have a Newsweek cover story on Dave from 1986 that recaps his career. Regarding the morning show, it reads "original producer Bob Stewart left exactly four days before the premier, leaving the production staff in chaos, and the network executives hated what they saw."

Later in the article Dave recalled the original director who sounds like it could have been Mike Gargullio. Dave said 'the first director was a game show director, and he could direct a game show in his sleep, but he could not direct a talk show.Basic rules of television directing were being violated...the guest would be saying something and the shoot would be on me...finally he started to shoot evertything with one wide shoot. It looked like a security camers at 7-Eleven."

[Jimmy Owen]

I think the first director of Letterman was Bruce Burmester.

[chris319]

Mike Gargiulo was busy with That's My Line in California at the time. Mike might have been a pretty good director for Letterman given the opportunity. Ultimately Letterman hooked up with Hal Gurnee and they became good friends.

I've seen more than one director get in over their head when they know how to direct a highly-formatted show by rote but have done little else. Bruce Burmeister may have fallen into that category.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Oct 9 2004, 11:06 AM\']I've seen more than one director get in over their head when they know how to direct a highly-formatted show by rote but have done little else. Bruce Burmeister may have fallen into that category.

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As someone who's read credits for a lot of shows over the years, I've noticed that Burmester has been given credit many times as being a "computer coordinator" for variety specials such as the Oscars, the American Music Awards, etc.  Not sure what the job entails though (and whether any of his directing experience came into play for that--someone with more TV savvy could probably help).  Now whether shows like that fall into the "highly formatted" category is another matter entirely.

Doug

[chris319]

I've noticed that Burmester has been given credit many times as being a "computer coordinator" for variety specials such as the Oscars, the American Music Awards, etc. Not sure what the job entails though (and whether any of his directing experience came into play for that--someone with more TV savvy could probably help).

The point is, he's not directing those shows, but good for him that he's working.

[whizofthequiz]

I was in the audience for the pilot they shot at 30 Rock for the morning show. All the Stewart regulars were there including Eydith Chan, Tony Pandolfo, AND Ann Marie Schmitt.

It seems the problem with the pilot was, in my opinion, they tried to build a family of “regulars” around Dave like Rich Hall, Jimmy Breslin, and Edie McClure. Poor Dave was lost with all these people doing their thing. It was awful.

I’m glad that Dave was true to himself and finally found a style that worked for him.

Who could forget his last NBC daytime show where he had a buzzer and kept buzzing it saying “this all you need for a successful show.” That was followed by the dancing girls dressed up as playing cards singing “Las Vegas Gambit” to Dave’s then theme. Classic Letterman!

[rugrats1]

Who could forget his last NBC daytime show where he had a buzzer and kept buzzing it saying “this all you need for a successful show.” That was followed by the dancing girls dressed up as playing cards singing “Las Vegas Gambit” to Dave’s then theme. Classic Letterman!

For those of you who want to "relive" this last moment, someone gave the transcript of that song in an earlier thread:

http://gameshow.ipbhost.com/index.php?show...714&#entry12714

[bricon]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Oct 9 2004, 01:55 PM\']As someone who's read credits for a lot of shows over the years, I've noticed that Burmester has been given credit many times as being a "computer coordinator" for variety specials such as the Oscars, the American Music Awards, etc.  Not sure what the job entails though (and whether any of his directing experience came into play for that--someone with more TV savvy could probably help). 
[/quote]

I found out first hand about 15 years ago, when I worked the United Cerebral Palsy telethon.  Bruce devised a computer program that took the elements in the show rundown --talent intros, musical numbers, standup comedy, tape playbacks, toteboard updates, etc.,  and displayed them on large monitors on both the studio floor and in the booth.

What made this particularly useful is that it did time calculations and displayed running time, clock time and an over/under time for all to see.

If there was a time crunch, a segment could be pulled, and the new timeline would be updated and displayed instantly.  And likewise, elements could be added with a new timeline generated.

And, for another game show connection,  the UCP Telethon was produced by Pasetta Productions at that time.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'bricon\' date=\'Oct 10 2004, 01:06 AM\']I found out first hand about 15 years ago, when I worked the United Cerebral Palsy telethon.  Bruce devised a computer program that took the elements in the show rundown --talent intros, musical numbers, standup comedy, tape playbacks, toteboard updates, etc.,  and displayed them on large monitors on both the studio floor and in the booth.

What made this particularly useful is that it did time calculations and displayed running time, clock time and an over/under time for all to see.

If there was a time crunch, a segment could be pulled, and the new timeline would be updated and displayed instantly.  And likewise, elements could be added with a new timeline generated.

And, for another game show connection,  the UCP Telethon was produced by Pasetta Productions at that time.

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You certainly qualify as someone with more TV savvy.  I always knew there was a reason to love this board.  Thanks, Brian!  

Doug

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'bricon\' date=\'Oct 10 2004, 01:06 AM\'][quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Oct 9 2004, 01:55 PM\']As someone who's read credits for a lot of shows over the years, I've noticed that Burmester has been given credit many times as being a "computer coordinator" for variety specials such as the Oscars, the American Music Awards, etc.  Not sure what the job entails though (and whether any of his directing experience came into play for that--someone with more TV savvy could probably help). 
[/quote]

I found out first hand about 15 years ago, when I worked the United Cerebral Palsy telethon.  Bruce devised a computer program that took the elements in the show rundown --talent intros, musical numbers, standup comedy, tape playbacks, toteboard updates, etc.,  and displayed them on large monitors on both the studio floor and in the booth.

What made this particularly useful is that it did time calculations and displayed running time, clock time and an over/under time for all to see.

If there was a time crunch, a segment could be pulled, and the new timeline would be updated and displayed instantly.  And likewise, elements could be added with a new timeline generated.

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Which explains why I've seen Bruce credited on live shows (including "Paranoia," a show Brian may've heard of) as a "backtimer."