Everything Else

I only know about this because I had lunch at the airport bar today and their displays had been running HLN, which is just a giant corporate media circle jerk. So no, I won't. With all the media options available today I can't imagine anyone getting anything out of cable, satellite or terrestrial broadcasts. Let alone missing anything.

I can honestly say I have never seen his show...

What about you? You started the thread, so will you miss him?

Oskar45 wrote: :?:

No, I don't watch TV. Thats the reason why I have time to build Nekoware packages.

diegel wrote: No, I don't watch TV. Thats the reason why I have time to build Nekoware packages.

ha good point

I found Letterman entertaining, but quirky, when I was in college in the late 80s, but as time went on, he became more prickly and political. I get enough of that elsewhere, so I stopped being a regular watcher many years ago. I can't remember the last time I saw a whole episode -- probably the mid-90s. He has been able to attract some great guests to the show throughout the years, especially musical guests. Personally, though, I get the sense that he has become a bit of a cliché or a caricature of himself in recent times.

Then again, people probably say the same thing about me.

As someone who's watched Letterman from his very first year I can say that I've always admired his absolute and utter refusal to take anything of a corporate nature seriously. Whenever a corporate entity tried to mess with him he called them out for being exactly what they are, "weasels"....

No.

I haven't really watched him since the 90s, but these were always some of my favorite bits:

I miss the Colbert Report. The recap episode before Colbert took his spot was alright.

Letterman?

jimmer wrote: Letterman?

Yeah, you know, you get the jacket and the ducktail and give your class ring to the girl ... then when she gets pregnant in the dropdown seat of the Rambler at the drive-in, her dad gets the shotgun and you get married.

I won't miss him, but I'll remember him fondly. Letterman was deliciously different even when he was an ass, at least for the first ~15 years, and somebody would inevitably bring up something from the show the following day, so...

I saw what I remember as his first week on the air doing his short-lived morning show - home sick from school - and loved it. All of the regular bits they did to a series of object the first however many years - running a steamroller over them, throwing them off a tower - they first did on the morning show as quick bits done to the then-ubiquitous NYC cardboard cup of coffee with blue greek-style artwork on the side.

Late Night was a fixture for me until something like the end of the 90s, I guess, even if it was only to tune in just long enough to catch the Top 10 list. I'm not sure when I stopped doing that. For that matter, I'm not sure when The Daily Show became the same sort of evening ritual...

But Letterman was just entertainment. Shockingly different for network television, and a trailblazer for those that would follow on cable especially. Would Dennis Miller or Bill Maher have gotten their first late night shows if Letterman hadn't gone ahead? But by contrast Stewart and Colbert had more of a message, with something current that deserved attention, delivered in an entertaining way. Seems more important to me now, and I wonder what Colbert's show will be like in September.