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| David Letterman’s final episode: a stoic but touching send-off for the Late Show | David Letterman’s final episode: a stoic but touching send-off for the Late Show |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| As late-night talkshows have been changing hands pretty rapidly in the US recently, there have been a lot of farewells. Each goodbye is suited to the host, and David Letterman always played things close to the vest. | As late-night talkshows have been changing hands pretty rapidly in the US recently, there have been a lot of farewells. Each goodbye is suited to the host, and David Letterman always played things close to the vest. |
| For all the impact he has had on the comedy and late-night worlds, his Late Show never strayed into sentimentality. This is a man who used his mother as a correspondent at the Olympic Games and we still never really knew what he was like behind closed doors. His show ended the same way. | |
| That’s not to say it wasn’t a great and fitting farewell, but for those who were looking for Letterman to have some sort of outpouring of emotion, that wasn’t going to happen and it certainly didn’t. The proceedings through the first hour might even be construed as a bit stale. | That’s not to say it wasn’t a great and fitting farewell, but for those who were looking for Letterman to have some sort of outpouring of emotion, that wasn’t going to happen and it certainly didn’t. The proceedings through the first hour might even be construed as a bit stale. |
| The episode started with the living presidents and the ghost of Gerald Ford being glad that the long national nightmare of David Letterman is over. That was followed by a minute-long ovation for Letterman taking the stage for the last time in the Ed Sullivan theatre in Manhattan. | The episode started with the living presidents and the ghost of Gerald Ford being glad that the long national nightmare of David Letterman is over. That was followed by a minute-long ovation for Letterman taking the stage for the last time in the Ed Sullivan theatre in Manhattan. |
| Letterman took a couple of shots at himself, saying that his 6,028 shows over 22 years amounted to about eight minutes of laughter. He also joked that when he messes up in future he’ll have to go on someone else’s show to apologise. | Letterman took a couple of shots at himself, saying that his 6,028 shows over 22 years amounted to about eight minutes of laughter. He also joked that when he messes up in future he’ll have to go on someone else’s show to apologise. |
| The proceedings were peppered with reminders of shows past, including Letterman’s first daytime talkshow, where he started a small fire on the stage – accidentally – after the first episode; a guest appearance by Andy Kaufman with snot on his face; and an early stupid pet trick that went awry. For those too young to remember or, well, too old to remember, this was a nice reminder of the Letterman that we’ve been reading so much about recently but haven’t seen in a decade or so. | The proceedings were peppered with reminders of shows past, including Letterman’s first daytime talkshow, where he started a small fire on the stage – accidentally – after the first episode; a guest appearance by Andy Kaufman with snot on his face; and an early stupid pet trick that went awry. For those too young to remember or, well, too old to remember, this was a nice reminder of the Letterman that we’ve been reading so much about recently but haven’t seen in a decade or so. |
| There were also several montages, the first of which was a funny one of Letterman interacting with children. Nothing groundbreaking, just cute and clever. There was a great segment that showed a day in the life of Late Night, which didn’t really hold any surprises except for how strange band leader Paul Shaffer looks without his glasses. | There were also several montages, the first of which was a funny one of Letterman interacting with children. Nothing groundbreaking, just cute and clever. There was a great segment that showed a day in the life of Late Night, which didn’t really hold any surprises except for how strange band leader Paul Shaffer looks without his glasses. |
| As always, even when letting us in, Letterman keeps us at a distance. The best bit was from a 1996 episode, when Letterman posed as a Taco Bell employee and harassed the customers over the loudspeaker. It just showed how great the show could be even when not cherrypicking the jokes for a best-of compilation. | As always, even when letting us in, Letterman keeps us at a distance. The best bit was from a 1996 episode, when Letterman posed as a Taco Bell employee and harassed the customers over the loudspeaker. It just showed how great the show could be even when not cherrypicking the jokes for a best-of compilation. |
| The star-studded portion of the night was the top 10 list, during which Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and Bill Murray said the things they always wanted to say to Letterman. | The star-studded portion of the night was the top 10 list, during which Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and Bill Murray said the things they always wanted to say to Letterman. |
| The segment was a bit underwhelming, but with star wattage that high, the laughs would really have to be huge to outshine the celebrities. However, Rock got in a zinger with: “I’m just glad your show is going to another white guy.” | The segment was a bit underwhelming, but with star wattage that high, the laughs would really have to be huge to outshine the celebrities. However, Rock got in a zinger with: “I’m just glad your show is going to another white guy.” |
| Fey slayed with her: “Thanks for proving men can be funny,” and Louis-Dreyfus got to embarrass Seinfeld to his face by saying: “Thanks for letting me participate in another disappointing series finale.” | Fey slayed with her: “Thanks for proving men can be funny,” and Louis-Dreyfus got to embarrass Seinfeld to his face by saying: “Thanks for letting me participate in another disappointing series finale.” |
| In the last 30 minutes of the broadcast, which many who allowed their DVR to record the episode will miss because it ran longer than usual, Letterman did allow himself to get a lot more personal, talking about his mother, his family, and how the Foo Fighters, who performed, helped get him through the open-heart surgery that sidelined him for months back in 2000. He didn’t get as choked up as his successor, Stephen Colbert, did talking about his mother’s life, though he did give Colbert a short and sincere endorsement at the top of the programme, which is as much goodwill as you’re ever going to get out of Letterman. | In the last 30 minutes of the broadcast, which many who allowed their DVR to record the episode will miss because it ran longer than usual, Letterman did allow himself to get a lot more personal, talking about his mother, his family, and how the Foo Fighters, who performed, helped get him through the open-heart surgery that sidelined him for months back in 2000. He didn’t get as choked up as his successor, Stephen Colbert, did talking about his mother’s life, though he did give Colbert a short and sincere endorsement at the top of the programme, which is as much goodwill as you’re ever going to get out of Letterman. |
| The end of the programme was perfect Letterman – always professional, always unique and always focused on humour. He let a montage of the best moments remind us what we’ll be missing. His thanks to Shaffer, the crew, the guests, and the viewers showed that he didn’t want this to be remembered as a cult of personality, but something created by a great number of people who, he says, “deserve more credit for this show than I ever will”. | The end of the programme was perfect Letterman – always professional, always unique and always focused on humour. He let a montage of the best moments remind us what we’ll be missing. His thanks to Shaffer, the crew, the guests, and the viewers showed that he didn’t want this to be remembered as a cult of personality, but something created by a great number of people who, he says, “deserve more credit for this show than I ever will”. |
| We’re not going to miss Letterman personally, but we’re going to miss this institution that he created. And that is what was getting the farewell, not the man himself. In that respect, this was a perfect and classy way to wrap things up. | We’re not going to miss Letterman personally, but we’re going to miss this institution that he created. And that is what was getting the farewell, not the man himself. In that respect, this was a perfect and classy way to wrap things up. |
| But Letterman being Letterman, he wasn’t going to get through this celebration without several bouts of self-mockery. There was one quote, when he talked about all the tributes we’ve been seeing recently that summed up the whole evening. | But Letterman being Letterman, he wasn’t going to get through this celebration without several bouts of self-mockery. There was one quote, when he talked about all the tributes we’ve been seeing recently that summed up the whole evening. |
| “We’ve done over 6,000 shows, and I was there for most of them, and I can tell you a pretty a high percentage of those shows absolutely sucked,” he joked. “In light of all this praise, deserved or not, save a little of it for my funeral.” | “We’ve done over 6,000 shows, and I was there for most of them, and I can tell you a pretty a high percentage of those shows absolutely sucked,” he joked. “In light of all this praise, deserved or not, save a little of it for my funeral.” |