Saluting A 30-Year Letterman in Late Night Entertainment

On February 1, 1982, Late Night With David Letterman debuted on NBC. It was on at 11:30pm in Chicago, and being just 13 years old at the time, I'm pretty sure I didn't stay up to watch it. But I've seen clips of Bill Murray as Dave's first guest--now readily available on YouTube--and this week have enjoyed watching Letterman and crew celebrate their 30th anniversary. 

Bill Murray guested once again on Tuesday night and for the actual 30th anniversary show last night, Howard Stern, who also goes way back with Dave, was the only non-musical guest.

Of course, Letterman's show--as it has been since August 30, 1993--is now titled The Late Show, broadcast by CBS and airs an hour earlier. But Dave, bandleader Paul Shaffer, the CBS Orchestra and all involved have been remarkably consistent in delivering quality entertainment for 30 years.

Like Dave himself, quite famously, I was a fan of Johnny Carson, but Letterman's run on late night television has now surpassed his mentor's. And certainly since Carson's retirement in 1992, if not before, Letterman has been the best in the talk show business and my favorite by a wide margin.

Jay Leno might get better ratings on the Tonight Show, but I can't watch him for a minute. And though I enjoy Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel to some extent, if my television is turned on and tuned to a broadcast station anytime after 10:30pm, 9 times out of 10 it will be to see the Late Show.

That said, I actually watch David Letterman far less than I like him. Sure, I'll probably catch him once or twice a week, but far from every night. So of the 5,433 shows cited in the graphic above, I doubt I've seen more than a thousand, yet I've always enjoyed the ones I have.

And I even had the good fortune, largely by coincidence, to attend a live taping--the only one I've been to--of his 25th anniversary show in 2007. The main guest then was, yes, Bill Murray (a bit ironic that it's Groundhog Day). It was quite a fun experience. At the time, the Bears were about to play the Indianapolis Colts--from Dave's hometown--in the Super Bowl, and I prepared a Top 10 list of reasons why the Bears would beat the Colts. Well, that didn't come true, and my list never made it to air--and probably not even to Dave, though I gave it to a staff member--but you can see it here. Wow, the Bears being in the Super Bowl sure seems a lot longer ago than 5 years, doesn't it?

So the fact that Letterman--who had a quintuple bypass in 2000 and will turn 65 on April 12--is celebrating 30 years of being a late night visitor in people's homes is rather astonishing and laudable.

In tribute, I recommend Paste Magazine's compilation of Letterman's Top 10 moments. However, even among shows and interviews I've seen and remember, I think they're missing a few great ones.

Famously in 1982, comic Andy Kaufman and wrestler Jerry Lawler got into an on-air brawl, even dousing Dave with coffee. The fight was later revealed, long after Kaufman's death, to have be staged, but it made for riveting television (and much conversation at school the next day). Beware that this YouTube clip is unedited and uncensored, which means there's a good deal of profanity (I can't find a clip of what exactly was broadcast).

As I cited in this post, Letterman was good friends with musician Warren Zevon, a frequent guest and occasional substitute for Paul Shaffer. After disclosing his having terminal cancer in the fall of 2002--he would pass the next year--he made a memorable last appearance on Letterman, including his final public performances (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV). Also quite moving is Letterman's tribute after Zevon's death and for real archivists, this is Zevon's first appearance.

Correspondingly, along with all the humor Letterman has brought in his monologues and his interviews, one can't overlook the importance and influence his show has had as a showcase for myriad musical acts, including many making their initial television appearance. I enjoy finding such "time capsule" clips on YouTube, including performances by R.E.M., Dinosaur Jr., The Pixies, Screaming Trees, Bruce Springsteen (on Dave's last NBC show and a subsequent E Street Band reunion in 1995), Radiohead, Wilco, Amy Winehouse, Adele and perhaps most famously, Foo Fighters on Dave's first show following heart surgery.

Certainly, Letterman can be rather acerbic, which is probably why America as a whole tends to prefer Leno. But though he is at times notoriously harsh on his guests--such in this chat with Paris Hilton following her 2007 jail stint--he usually reserves his rancor for those who deserve it.

And as the clip below illustrates in showing what may be his finest hour, one of Letterman's best traits is honesty. Though far from depicting a typical Late Show, I believe the video also portrays why he has been such an important presence in our lives for the past 30 years. For that, and all the years of laughter, music and more, I say, "Thanks, Dave."

The Best of 2011: The TV Shows I--and My Friend Dave--Enjoyed Most Over the Past Year

I don't watch nearly enough television.

I mean, it seems like I do--especially if you count movies watched on TV--but despite having a handful of series I watch regularly and other shows I catch sporadically, I somehow seem to avoid everything that friends, critics and the general public seem to love.

I don't watch any reality TV or talent shows, despite my fondness for musicals I haven't liked what I've seen of Glee and I've yet to get into most cable dramas, such as Breaking Bad, Dexter, Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men.

And even though I enjoy sitcoms, between whatever else I do, I just don't seem to ever see
Modern Family, 30 Rock or How I Met Your Mother, to name some that I have enjoyed but not often or of late. And though Parks & Recreation and Community are getting a lot of love on "Best of" lists, such as this one by Paste Magazine, I think I've only seen one or the other once, years ago.

So now that I've told you why you really shouldn't much care what I think--for another more expert opinion, see this list by Maureen Ryan, the former Chicago Tribune critic who now writes online--here are my picks for:

The Best TV of 2011

1. The Good Wife - CBS

2. Friday Night Lights - NBC

3. Person of Interest - CBS

4. World Series Game 6 - Fox - One of the best baseball games I've ever seen. The last day of the regular season was also high drama, but I didn't see that much of it. For me, sports remains the best reality television. 

5. Homeland - Showtime

6. Ringer - The CW

7. Beavis & Butthead - MTV

8. Burn Notice - USA

9. Castle - ABC

10. Royal Pains - USA

I also wanted to give a shout out to the HD cable channel, Palladia. It shows all kinds of concerts and pop music movies and is my favorite "time waster" channel. If you have digital cable, you probably have it, so look for it.

In the months ahead, I'm planning to watch all the back episodes of Breaking Bad and Mad Men, the latter of which is returning with new episodes in March. But given my relative lack of breadth in viewership, I've enlisted the choices of my friend Dave.

Dave's Picks (not ranked)

Breaking Bad - AMC

Justified - FX

The Killing - AMC

Curb Your Enthusiasm - HBO

American Horror Story - FX

Modern Family - ABC

Downton Abbey - PBS

Dexter - Showtime

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - FX

Baseball - 9/28/11 - The last day of the regular season

These are in addition to some of the shows I cited, like Homeland, The Good Wife, Friday Night Lights, Ringer and Beavis & Butthead.

Friday Night Lights Completes Another Winning Season

TV Show Spotlight

Friday Night Lights
NBC/DirecTV

I've come to accept that it's probably a character defect that I have never been captivated by Mad Men or almost any of the other television shows that friends and critics seem to rave about (although I do enjoy Burn Notice).

On the other hand, I'm somewhat proud of myself for never succumbing to shows like Jersey Shore, the Real Housewives of anywhere or any reality TV fare for that matter, including American Idol or Survivor. So I guess while I don't appreciate the most supposedly brilliant of television shows, I also don't get into the most tawdry.

But the show that I have found phenomenal ever since it debuted in 2006, and which I consider the best show on TV, is Friday Night Lights.

While FNL has long garnered critical support--the Tribune's Maureen Ryan has been an especially avid supporter--the show has never been much of a success in terms of viewership. In its third and fourth seasons, and up-and-coming fifth and final one, the drama has been relegated not only to 13-episode seasons but has aired exclusively on DirecTV in the fall, with NBC presenting it beginning in January in 2009 and May this year. Not being a DirecTV subscriber, it has been frustrating to have to wait so long to see new episodes, but the show is so well done that a delayed-season is better than none at all.

Although I imagine some people stay away from Friday Night Lights due to its football theme, you need not be anymore of a football fanatic to enjoy the show's deeply compelling human stories than one likely needs to be an advertising expert in order to enjoy Mad Men.

Take for instance one of this season's most moving episodes in which Matt Saracen (played by Evanston's Zach Gilford) had to deal with the death of his father in Iraq and grieve for a man he barely knew. As you can see from the clip below, this doesn't have anything to do with football, just life.


In Season 4, which concluded on NBC last Friday, Saracen and Tim Riggins (played by Taylor Kitsch) were holdovers from the show's first three seasons after graduating from the fictional Dillon Panthers last season. But other than that, the show has done a nice job this season of not stringing along stories of high school students into their college years (as many a teen drama has struggled to do effectively). Instead, several new characters and storylines were introduced as former Dillon coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) had to deal with starting up the football program at East Dillon High, a school that had fallen on very rough times.

In dealing with these issues like gang violence and teenage pregnancy, Friday Night Lights never feels false or comes off as preachy; rather it depicts people dealing with difficulties in a very real manner (even if they sometimes get resolved a bit too cleanly). And even the football scenarios are so well done that I truly couldn't guess which way the season finale would end, and was quite moved by the way it did.

It might seem strange for me to be hyping a show after it has left the air for awhile, but with video available On-Demand and at NBC.com, full seasons streaming on Netflix, syndication showings starting soon on ABC Family and the 4th Season DVD being released next Tuesday, there are plenty of ways for you to get into Friday Night Lights if you haven't already. And truth be told, I was planning on writing a post around the NBC premiere back in May, but as I imagine is the case with many fine shows that I haven't "gotten into," a single episode wasn't likely to win your devotion.

With only 63 episodes of Friday Night Lights yet aired, the show won't take you long to catch up on. So kickoff with the still much-praised pilot episode and discover why this has been the best show on TV. Even if you hate football.

The Final Countdown: Time Runs Out on '24'

While there seemed to be much more hoopla and press regarding the last episode of 'Lost' on Sunday night, Monday night brought an end to the television series that was my favorite of the past decade: 24.

The around-the-clock adventures of Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, may have been better during some of 24's eight seasons than others, and the last two seemed somewhat spotty, but even at its worst, 24 never made me not want to watch.

And that's saying a whole lot.

There have been a total of 193 episodes, including a 2-hour television movie prior to Season 7, and I have seen every one, almost always either on the night it aired or within a day or two.

Sometimes 24 had plot lines, or characters, that pushed credulity.  Sometimes Jack blurred the line between "doing what needs to be done" and outright criminality, either in torturing suspects to reveal needed information or in shooting those who got in his way, even if they were just following orders at times when he was disobeying them. Occasionally things became a bit formulaic and you kind of knew what was going to happen. And in several season, there were subplots that just wasted time without really going anywhere (most vivid in my mind is this past season's strain about Dana Walsh's past).

But 24 was never boring.

And while there were often clear delineations between good and bad characters, others, including most notably Jack Bauer himself, provided interesting character studies in the midst of crisis.

In fact, while it was probably a necessity of the show, rather than a weakness, that most supporting characters came or went within a season or two, and none except Chloe O'Brian (played by Mary Lynn Rajskub) lasted all eight seasons, some of the secondary roles were so well-characterized that I wished they didn't disappear.

But at the end of the day, Jack really was a lone wolf, and to complicate the show or his life with too much baggage probably wouldn't have worked.

While I'll miss seeing Jack saving the world 24 Mondays a year, and will assuredly see the 24 movie that is said to be in the works despite being unsure of its necessity, I have to say that ending now seems right. I think 24 had run its course, to the point that it sometimes felt like a parody of itself.

Yet beyond being a visceral thrill, I think the show did add something to the art form of television by working in real time (even if people often changed settings with unrealistic expediency) and heightening the idea that "every moment counts."

Of course, 24 will live on forever in reruns, on Hulu.com and on DVD. And with the film slated for 2012 (according to IMDB), Jack will be back.

But for now he's heading out of the country, hopefully for a well-deserved rest. I wish him well.

Time's up, but it's been quite a ride.