David Letterman's Talk Show Legacy

People seem to be divided into two categories when it comes to David Letterman. Either you love his humor or you hate it. Whatever group you fall into, you have to admit that he has led an interesting public and private life thus far.

David Michael Letterman was born April 12, 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father Harry was a florist who died in 1974. His mother Dorothy is a Presbyterian church secretary, and at age 85 still makes appearances on Dave's show on holidays. He has an older sister named Janice and a younger sister named Gretchen. He went to Broad Ripple High School in Indianapolis and later graduated from Ball State University with a BA. telecommunications in 1969.

His first foray into television was as a weather caster an anchor man in Indianapolis. From there, he moved to California in 1975 to try comedy. He has varied success and eventually was noticed by talent scouts and began to make appearances on The Tonight How with Johnny Carson. he became the regular guest host for Johnny in 1978 and many thought he would eventually take over for him.

In 1982 Late Night With David Letterman began on NBC, following the Tonight Show. His unique brand of comedy soon caught on and the show became a hit. He established such trademark skits as Stupid Pet Tricks, The Top Ten, and Viewer Mail. Despite his success with NBC, there were problems between the network executives and Letterman.

When Johnny Carson retired in 1992, Jay Leno was picked by NBC to take over hosting the Tonight Show, and in 1993, Letterman left the network to launch his own show, Late Night With David Letterman, opposite the Tonight Show. Carson made a guest appearance on the Late Show about a year after it began and often wrote many of Dave's jokes.

Even though Leno consistently beats Letterman in ratings, Letterman has been consistently ranked higher than Leno in poles on favorite talk show host. Letterman's shows have received 67 Emmy Award nominations, winning twelve times in his first twenty years in late night television.

On January 14, 2000, a checkup showed that an artery in Letterman's heart was severely constricted and he immediately had emergency surgery, receiving a quintuple bypass. In the weeks of his recovery, the Late Show has numerous guest hosts, including Bill Cosby as the first. On February 21, 2000, Dave returned to the show and brought on stage all the doctors and nurses who helped him. This show earned an Emmy nomination.

Letterman also suffered from shingles in February 2003 and used guest hosts again until he recovered.

The Late Show was the first major comedy show back on television after the 9/11 attacks in September of 2001. The guests were Dan Rather and Regis Philbin. It was a very moving episode.

Letterman also started his own production company called World Wide Pants. It produces his show and several others, notably the past favorite Everybody Loves Raymond, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Ed, and several short-lived television series for Bonnie Hunt.

Letterman indulged his passion for racing, remembering going to the track with his father, and became part owner of Rahal Letterman Racing. His team has won an Indianapolis 500 race and sported Danica Patrick, one of the first and most talented female Indy racing drivers.

Dave has been married and divorced once from Michelle Cook and had a previous relationship with writer Merrill Markoe. Regina Lasko, 13 years younger than Dave, is his fiancée and mother of Harry Joseph who was born November 3, 2003. The boy is named for Dave's dad and is Letterman's only child. The family lives in New York.

No matter what you think of his comedic style, you have to give Letterman points for persistence and success. He is a late night icon with 25 years experience and that is second only to Johnny Carson who had 30. That could be a Top Ten all on its own.