Late Show with David Letterman

DAVE >> Thank you and good night.

Conan

CONAN >> He’s been the North Star for me and for every comic of my generation.

Jimmy Kimmel Live

JIMMY >> I would watch a television show that is very important to me ... It was called Late Night with David Letterman.

The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon

JIMMY >> David Letterman is courageous.

David Letterman, the end

David Letterman is a broadcaster before he is anything else. Before he is television star, before he is a late night talk show host, before he is a stand-up comic, before his Midwestern sensibility, before Top Ten lists and Stupid Pet Tricks, he is a broadcaster.

When Letterman had quintuple bypass surgery in 2000, removing doubt that there was a ticker in there somewhere, he introduced the doctors and nurses who cared for him. “So it was five weeks ago today that these men and women right here saved my life,” he said. He broke down, and a new Letterman emerged — one with better blood flow, more heart.

His desk was a bully pulpit. When John McCain “suspended” his presidential campaign and canceled his Late Show appearance in 2008, Letterman exposed him as a phony. When Jay Leno undermined Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show two years later, Letterman called it “vintage Jay.” When he became the victim of a blackmail attempt, Letterman admitted to affairs with staff members and apologized to his wife, because Jack Dall’s No. 1 rule of show business is: Look ’em in the eye and speak from the heart.

Late Show with David Letterman

NORM >> David Letterman was the greatest talk show host who ever lived.

Late Show with David Letterman

Guest >> Martha Stewart

Late Show >> Tom Waits collection

Tom Waits, 1983-2015

Late Night
1. December 21, 1983
2. February 6, 1986
3. October 16, 1987
4. October 5, 1988

Late Show
5. September 27, 1999
6. May 8, 2002
7. September 28, 2004
8. November 27, 2006
9. July 9, 2012
10. May 14, 2015