ftp.pasteur.org/FAQ/

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ ftp.pasteur.org/FAQ/ / ftp-pasteur-org-FAQ.zip / FAQ / letterman / faq

Wrap

Internet Message Format | 2001-03-13 | 65.3 KB

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!newspump.sol.net!ddsw1!news.mcs.net!not-for-mail From: barnhart@MCS.COM (Aaron Barnhart) Newsgroups: alt.fan.letterman,rec.arts.tv,alt.tv.talkshows.late,news.answers,alt.answers,rec.answers Subject: alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (Part 1 of 3) Followup-To: alt.fan.letterman Date: 20 Oct 1996 03:01:02 -0500 Organization: MCSNet Services Lines: 581 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Message-ID: <54cm7u$ef2@Venus.mcs.com> Reply-To: letterman@mcs.net NNTP-Posting-Host: venus.mcs.com Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about the Late Show/Late Night with David Letterman. New readers of the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup should read this FAQ list before posting. Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.fan.letterman:83983 rec.arts.tv:229451 alt.tv.talkshows.late:4407 news.answers:84838 alt.answers:21290 rec.answers:24818 Archive-name: letterman/faq/part1 The alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list Last-modified: Fri Jul 5 00:10:32 CDT 1996 Version: 9.12 Part 1 of 3 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the alt.fan.letterman Newsgroup From New York: Still the world's largest CHAT ROOM ... It's the FAQ LIST for David Letterman! with the A. F. of L. newsgroup ... and FAQ compiler Aaron Barnhart ... plus Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra ... and now ... a man who refuses to give up his clunky old Newton 110 ... DAAAAAAVID LLLLLETTERMAN !! * * * Top Ten Questions Asked on the A. F. of L. Newsgroup. * * * 10. Where can I write to get free tickets to the Late Show? ANSWER: Send a postcard (no letters) with your name and address to Tickets Late Show with David Letterman Ed Sullivan Theater 1697 Broadway New York, NY 10019 Requests are limited to 2 tickets. Only one request per six months is allowed, and a response is not guaranteed. Ordinarily, requests for specific dates cannot be accommodated, but it doesn't hurt to ask. 9. Where can I find today's Top Ten List? ANSWER: Check out the CBS Home Page at http://www.cbs.com/ (that site has a complete and searchable archive of CBS Top Tens). 8. What happened to the TOPTEN mailing list? ANSWER: CBS Television owns it now, but as yet has not revived it. For now, go to their Web page. 7. Why does Dave cackle and then give me that weird look when he's sitting at his desk? ANSWER: He wants you to switch off your t.v. and go to bed. 6. Can I send e-mail to Dave? ANSWER: Yes! Lateshow@pipeline.com is the official mailbox of LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN and is manned by the show's research department. Your mail will be instantly acknowledged by a mailbox "robot" at the LATE SHOW and you may subsequently get a personal response from a staffer -- but don't hold your breath. 5. Remember every night in the early months of _Late Show_ when Dave would get a standing ovation? Whatever happened to that? ANSWER: It's been replaced by the hourlong, uninterrupted sitting ovation. 4. Hey! Last night I was watching Jay Leno's show and he did a comedy bit that was exactly like one Dave had done on *his* show! ANSWER: We're not counting the monologue, twit. 3. We're coming to New York next week! Any chance we can get standby tickets for the show? ANSWER: Sure. See below. 2. Why doesn't Dave have guest hosts on his show, like Johnny Carson used to have on The Tonight Show? ANSWER: Look where it got Carson. And the Number One Question Asked on the A. F. of L. Newsgroup: 1. Who do I need to sleep with to use the Letterman archive at <ftp://ftp.mcs.net/mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman/>? ANSWER: Yeah, I know, it's a pain trying to get in. There's not much I can do about this, now that the archive is sitting at about 35 megabytes. MCSNet generously donated that space in late 1993 and since then has seen its customer base increase 30-fold. They have been raising the number of simultaneous FTP sessions allowed, but obviously not enough to meet demand. Be persistent and keep logging in. If you are an Internet Service Provider and are willing to make a long-term commitment to house a mirror of the Letterman archive, by all means drop me a line. * * * Questions People Ask About David Michael Letterman. * * * Was Dave born to an actual American family? On April 12, 1947, to Joe and Dorothy Letterman. Dave's dad was a florist and had what Dave calls a "big personality. He was loud and liked to goof off and say funny things and do things to provoke you and get under your skin." By contrast, Dave's mom, as we have all witnessed, "is the least demonstrative person in the world." When Joe died over 20 years ago, Dave said it was "the worst time in my life." Dave's mom was church secretary for many years at Second Presbyterian Church in Broad Ripple, Indiana, now part of Indianapolis, which is where the Lettermans (including Dave's two sisters) grew up. She is now remarried and living quietly in Indy, except when she's out promoting her new cookbook. * I understand that during his growing-up years, Dave was pretty much, and I'm quoting now, a "dork." Over 30 years ago, Dave worked during high school in the Atlas Super Market, an Indianapolis institution even then. Caroline Latham's book "The David Letterman Story" shows Dave standing next to an enormous side of beef. It is fair to say that in the photo Dave looked (quoting an alt.fan.letterman poster) "like a 16-year-old serial killer." In his own defense, Dave has said, "I think there's something wrong if high school is the greatest experience of your life." * Where did Dave attend college? Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He was a TV/Radio major with a minor in speech, and pledged Sigma Chi. Some of his frat brothers described Dave as very funny and self-confident. Dave has been generous with donations to the university and was largely responsible for the new Sigma Chi building at Ball State. In 1985 he endowed the David Letterman Scholarship there, an annual gift to a telecommunications major based solely on his or her creativity, *not* grades. * Is Dave married? Dave was married to his college sweetheart Michelle Cook, but they divorced in 1977. Then from 1978 to 1988 he was involved with comedienne Merrill Markoe were engaged, who met him on the standup circuit and went on to become Late Night's first (and, many would agree, best) head writer. But that fizzled -- Merrill told the New York Observer (12/11/95) that her last words to Dave were, "Why don't you go fuck yourself" -- and she took off for California and a writing career. Dave is presently in a relationship with former Late Night staffer Regina Lasko, who is also active in Dave's professional life and is reportedly pushing for marriage (see Dave's interview with Entertainment Weekly, 12/4/95). * I heard that Dave used to be a weatherman in Indianapolis. From 1969 to 1974, as an intern and later a full-timer, Dave worked for his hometown Channel 13 as booth announcer, host of a Saturday morning kids' show and of the late-late movie, and yes, as weatherman. Dave once reported that the city was being pelted with hail "the size of canned hams" and he also enthusiastically congratulated a tropical storm when it was upgraded to hurricane status. Another gem: "Let's take a look at the cloud-cover photograph made earlier of the United States today and I think you'll see that once again we've fallen to the prey of political dirty dealings. And right now you can see what I'm talking about: the higher-ups have removed the border between Indiana and Ohio, making it one giant state! Personally, I'm against it." Didn't he have a radio show, too? For about a year following his t.v. job. It was at WNTS, back when it was all-talk. This gig did not go so well for him. "I was miscast because you have to have somebody who is fairly knowledgeable, fairly glib, possessing a natural interest in a number of topics," he later told an interviewer. "That certainly is not me. I don't care about politics. ... The Nixon-Watergate nonsense was the perfect example of something about which I knew nothing and couldn't have cared less." So Dave got bored and started making stuff up. According to Caroline Latham, he once told listeners that their beloved 230-foot-tall Soldiers and Sailors Monument "had been sold to the island of Guam, whose government planned to paint it green in honor of their national vegetable, the asparagus." >>> It has been rumored that Dave got fired for his on-air remarks at Channel 13 or WNTS. In fact, the only place he ever got yanked from was Ball State's pathetic 10-watt all-classical campus radio station. * What else can you tell me about Dave's career in show bidness? When Dave arrived in Hollywood in 1975 he found work as a comedy writer for Jimmie Walker and Paul Lynde. In the summer of '76 he starred in the CBS four-week vehicle for the Starland Vocal Band (they supplied the songs, he supplied the laughs), and in 1978 was a player on Mary Tyler Moore's short-lived variety show, also on CBS. Because of his friendship with game-show legend Allen Ludden, Dave landed a guest-star spot on Dick Clark's _$10,000 Pyramid_ and Ludden's own _Liars' Club_ as a "guest celebrity." (Incidentally, he was brilliant on the _Pyramid_: he never had to guess the answer more than once. But Dick Clark plainly didn't care for Dave's efforts to insert snide comments into the fleeting moments given over to actual banter.) In his career, Dave has also played a Werner Erhard-alike in an episode of _Mork and Mindy,_ a sleazy Hollywood agent-type in a _Laverne & Shirley_ episode (though I haven't seen that one), made several appearances in _Open All Night_ (a t.v. show which lasted the season between the morning and late-night shows), and appeared in a murder mystery called _Fast Friends_ that starred Dick Shawn as a talk show host who drops dead and is replaced by Dave (later Shawn would actually keel over on stage and expire, and it would be a couple of minutes before the crowd realized he wasn't acting). More recently, Dave has made small appearances in _The Building,_ _The Larry Sanders Show_ (playing himself, he leaked to Larry that the 12:35 show on CBS would be given to Tom Snyder, which in fact turned out to be true), and the Adam Resnick-Chris Elliott feature film _Cabin Boy_ (1994). He has also co-produced two sitcoms, both for CBS, both busts, both with Bonnie Hunt: _The Building_ and _The Bonnie Hunt Show._ * I wonder why Dave doesn't do more movies? In fact, Dave was under contract to Touchstone Pictures, but has since extricated himself from it. What happened was Michael Eisner, the chairman of Walt Disney Company, signed Letterman to *not* do movies for other companies. "Eisner's kid had gotten ol' Dad to wrangle some tickets when Dave was in L.A.," recalls Bill Jones, who saw Eisner interviewed by Bob Costas on _Later._ "Eisner ... got excited when he got there and saw the huge lines and movie-premiere atmosphere. He's thinking, this guy is like a movie star/rock star already. What could we do if we actually put him in the movies? Delighted to find the next day that Dave had no movie obligations, they contacted Dave's people. They were shocked to find that our TV Pal wanted no part of any movie deal. He was pretty sure he would suck, and told them so many times. ... Dave suggested they go look at his screen test for _Airplane!_ in the role eventually played by Robert Hays. After the contract was signed, they finally did, and Eisner said he turned white as a ghost -- Dave really was that bad." Eventually, as Bill Carter reports, the contract was terminated and Disney's money more or less cheerfully refunded. Dave named his movie production company Cardboard Shoe. Before that, he had a production company for his NBC morning show (1980) called Space Age Meat, and his 1981 HBO special "Looking for Fun" was a Recreational Poultry production. Dave owns the rights to his current program on CBS, his morning show and HBO special, but not to _Late Night._ * What the hell is this thing Dave's got for Tom Snyder? Dave was a big _Tomorrow_ fan and has claimed to have seen between 80 and 85 percent of the shows that ever aired (Merrill Markoe, his live-in at the time, says Dave "revered" Tom). So although strictly speaking he is the man who displaced Snyder in 1982 -- but NBC accelerated Tom's demise by pairing him with Rona Barrett and turning the pleasant chatfest into the obnoxious _Tomorrow: Coast to Coast_ -- Letterman has always said publicly that Snyder ought to be on network television again. Sure enough, in August of '94 Dave made good on his word, but as alt.fan.letterman poster Bill Jones pointed out, it's not the first time: "Much of the first ten Carson years of the Tonight Show were erased [1962-72, the New York years]. They were going to do same thing to the Tomorrow tapes after Snyder was gone, but they were stopped by -- David Letterman! One of the reasons that ... Tom described Dave as a true friend." (Those tapes are now safely stored at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.) * I've heard it said that had Dave gotten the _Tonight_ gig, he would've abandoned the _Late Night_ format entirely -- not just honed its rough edges like he did on CBS -- and done a show very much like Carson's. The writer and infomaven Mark Evanier, who knows Leno, Letterman and many of the people who work for them, says, "One of Dave's current writers even told me he was glad D.L. didn't get the gig because he thinks Dave would have dumped most of the staff, moved to Burbank and done something that more resembled a variety show." Yet no one will dispute that Dave *has* made a significant change by switching networks and venues. He may not do a variety show but whatever that is he's doing, it ain't the old _Late Night._ Merv Griffin once said that all talk show hosts must freshen up their format every few years. He said he did it by switching networks and time slots, while Johnny Carson did it by firing his staff. If those are the primary choices, then it seems Dave has chosen to take the Merv road. * I have wondered if Dave was a recovering alcoholic. He had John Larroquette on the show one night, who is recovering, and talked about the days when he used to drink heavily. Unfortunately, Dave is just the kind of enigmatical, jealously guarded private person that the media looove to speculate about. He is not forthcoming at all about his personal life in this or any other department. For the record, Dave used to drink a lot but gave it up not long into his _Late Night_ run. And yes, whenever you see him tippling from a bottle of colored liquid purporting to be cooking sherry during the culinary segments of the program, you can be rest assured it's not alcohol. The bottle switch is the oldest trick in the book. * Who was the woman who kept breaking into Dave's Connecticut home claiming to be "Mrs. Letterman"? Margaret Ray. And she still breaks in from time to time, according to Dave in his January 1994 _Playboy_ interview. He says he has tried to get her some psychiatric help, because the state has let her case "fall through the cracks." * * * Questions People Ask About _Late Show with David Letterman_ (CBS, August 30, 1993- ) * * * Wait! I forgot to order tickets and I'm going to be in New York. Are there standby tix available? You may get standby tickets for the show each tape day at the box office at the Ed Sullivan Theater. Standbys are distributed on a first-come-first-served basis, and are limited to one per person. Standbys do not guarantee admission. _You must be 16 or older to pick up a standby ticket and attend a taping._ And the consensus among those who've tried is that you had better get there early in the morning to have a shot at standby tix. The actual giveaway of spare seats occurs at 12 noon. CBS pages now number the standby tickets as they give them out. That way, recipients can enjoy the afternoon in beautiful Midtown knowing that when they return, they will reassemble in the same place in line they had formerly. * I've got tickets to the Big Show! When should I show up to get good seats? Any other tips? The tapings start at 5:30 p.m. Seating is on a first-come- first-served basis, and tickets are numbered when you arrive. Try coming at about 1 p.m. (Some attendees say come a little later, like about 2:30 or 3, to avoid getting seated right up front, where one's view can be obstructed by all the equipment.) After your ticket is numbered you'll be told to return at 3:55 p.m. At that time ticket holders line up by their numbers and are eventually escorted inside the building. Some former audience members endorse *not* getting advance tix but waiting in line for standbys instead, the advantages being you have a lot more control over what day(s) you see the show (provided the line isn't too long), and you'll probably get balcony seats, which feature unobstructed views. Standbys discussed above. But if you want any chance of getting on camera, swapping gifts for t-shirts, or participating in the fabulous prize giveaways, you need to show up early and get a front-row seat. The Ed Sullivan Theater typically is chilled to between 48 and 52 degrees Fahrenheit. * How are the nightly Top Tens put together? Jon Beckerman, who is now the show's supervising producer and de facto head writer, says: "Every day each (or almost each) writer turns in a few topics. Rob Burnett [the show's executive producer] pitches a few to Dave, who picks one. At about 2:30 or 3:00 we get the topic for the night's list, and everyone turns in a page of jokes (anywhere from, say, 5 to 20) by 3:45. [The head writer] (selectively) pitches jokes to Dave and composes the list from jokes that Dave approves. As you can see, it's pretty last-minute." * When exactly did Dave start referring to himself as "Regis Philbin"? The earliest reported sighting I've made of Dave naming his alter ego was the 1989 broadcast from the Chicago Theatre, when Penn Jillette asked Dave to write his name on a playing card as part of a magic trick. There's really nothing more to this than to Dave paying respect to his favorite broadcasters, a pantheon that includes Philbin, Toms Brokaw and Snyder, and Late Night's all-time most frequent guest, Marv Albert. * Well, finally Dave is back to reading multiple letters during the "viewer mail" bit. Why'd it take so long? Early in the show's CBS run, head writer Rob Burnett told a reporter that this was one of many "improvements" that needed to be made to the show to make it feel more fast-paced than the NBC version, since it was the consensus of Dave's staff that the earlier airtime for _Late Show_ required a tighter, peppier format than the old _Late Night._ There was probably also a practical consideration in that the writers no longer had Monday off, like they did at NBC, to plan multiple elaborate gags for the rest of the week, including viewer mail bits. My guess is that no one was very happy with wagering the whole Letters segment on a single gag and that, despite the extra work involved, they figured out a way to shoehorn more letters in. >>> By the way, if that "Letters, We Get Letters" theme that bookends the segment sounds familiar, you probably remember watching Perry Como on t.v. back in the 1950s (e.g., Kraft Music Hall). That was *his* viewer-mail theme. * The audience laughter sounds sort of canned. First of all, the theater is heavily miked. Second, the show clearly has more energy than the old _Late Night_ did. Third, audiences seem to be falling out of their seats at even the lamest monologue jokes, in stark contrast to the audience across America sitting in stony silence before their sets. It's not fake laughter and applause you hear, but the excessive noises of an overhyped and giddy studio audience, and as far as my ear is concerned there's little difference between the two. * Has anyone else noticed that the show seems to be running a little long? Perfectly normal. The show runs from 11:35:00 pm till 12:36:30 pm Eastern time. * These days the show seems to have some pretty noticeable edits made to it on a regular basis. I don't remember the program being edited for time quite so much back at NBC. Our pal Mr. Donz5 provides this eyewitness account: "The first show I was lucky enough to attend was in 1984. There was a recurring shtick before each segment (or after, I forget which) where a model sang some insipid song. But the show ran too long, and every bit with the singer in it was taken out when it broadcast that night. Shows are routinely edited for that very reason: it went on too long." That, however, is a minor instance. There have been numerous reports in recent months of show tapings that have gone deeply into overtime -- once, nearly an hour -- owing to Letterman's increasing tendency to stop the taping and re- shoot pieces he felt didn't go properly. This represents a total departure from the days of Carson, when Johnny felt so strongly about keeping the broadcast going that, if he were still changing costumes after a bit and the time for the commercial break had ended, Ed McMahon would sit in Johnny's desk and move the show along. * Does the Microphone on Dave's Desk actually work, or is it just a prop? (Thanks Mark Weber) Yes, the microphone (an old RCA DX 77) does work, but is usually reserved for special occasions, such as when Dave is "playing along with the band" by hitting it with a pencil. The crew at NBC gave him the mic when he left. Dave's primary mic is the wireless "tie-clip" variety. There was a report that Dave's mike was stolen off his desk during the renovation of the Ed Sullivan Theater in the spring of 1996, but I can tell no difference in the replacement. * What time do they tape the show? From 5:30 to 6:30 pm, Eastern time. Says Dave, "Everything I do is designed to help me do the best job I can between 5:30 and 6:30." The thing is done live, as Dave has always felt the energy would drain out of the show were everything subject to retakes. * Why are there *two* guest chairs? Siskel and Ebert. * I have a bet with my friend. He says the Top Ten List grew out of the "Book of Lists" that were so very popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I say it was a spoof on Casey Kasem's _American Top Ten_ t.v. show. Who's right? You're both wrong, according to Donz5. "Actually, when Dave debuted the Top 10 on September 19, 1985, he preceeded it by mentioning McCall's [magazine's] October, 1985 'Top 10 Sexiest Men' list. It grew from there." * What kind of ratings is the big shoo getting versus Jay et al.? Poor. -- Aaron Barnhart letterman@mcs.net Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!ddsw1!news.mcs.net!not-for-mail From: barnhart@MCS.COM (Aaron Barnhart) Newsgroups: alt.fan.letterman,rec.arts.tv,alt.tv.talkshows.late,news.answers,alt.answers,rec.answers Subject: alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (Part 2 of 3) Followup-To: alt.fan.letterman Date: 20 Oct 1996 03:01:09 -0500 Organization: MCSNet Services Lines: 626 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Message-ID: <54cm85$ef4@Venus.mcs.com> Reply-To: letterman@mcs.net NNTP-Posting-Host: venus.mcs.com Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about the Late Show/Late Night with David Letterman. New readers of the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup should read this FAQ list before posting. Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.fan.letterman:83982 rec.arts.tv:229450 alt.tv.talkshows.late:4406 news.answers:84837 alt.answers:21289 rec.answers:24817 Archive-name: letterman/faq/part2 The alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list Last-modified: Fri Jul 5 00:10:33 CDT 1996 Version: 9.12 Part 2 of 3 * Exactly what can a guy in a bear suit do in New York City? (Thanks Natraj Kini) o Get into the "Flashdancers" strip club o Hail a cab o Enter the Russian Tea Room o Get a hug from a stranger o Convince an outdoor restaurant patron to share her lunch with him o Get the time from a stranger o Say hello on a New York City payphone * What are some of Dave's "Indiana-isms?" From Tim Veatch -- o ask...or as we say in Indiana...ax o Bush...or as we say in Indiana...Boosh o extra...or as we say in Indiana...extree o Illinois...or as we say in Indiana...Illinoiz o Italian...or as we say in Indiana...Eye-talian o mosquitos...or as we say in Indiana...skeeters o nuclear...or as we say in Indiana...nuc-u-lar o President Clinton...or as we say in Indiana...Pars'dent Clinton o pumpkin...or as we say in Indiana...punkin o show business...or as we say in Indiana...show bidness o similar...or as we say in Indiana...sim-u-lar o special...or as we say in Indiana...spay-shul o statistics...or as we say in Indiana...suh-tistics o veteran...or as we say in Indiana...vet'rin o Washington...or as we say in Indiana...Warshington o wolf...or as we say in Indiana...woof * Why did the _Late Show_ move its home office from Sioux City, Iowa to Grand Rapids, Michigan in June 1995? Dave was a guest on CNN's "Larry King Live" on a Friday night and a caller from Grand Rapids made the request. Dave said okay and on Monday it was done. One year later, he moved the home office to Wahoo, Nebraska following a protracted and not terribly entertaining "graft competition" between the citizens of Grand Rapids and Wahoo, who were encouraged to send in souvenirs and other goodies in an attempt to sway Letterman's decision (which needless to say was always, always going to go Wahoo's way). * I want to get an authentic K & L Rock America souvenir and possibly glimpse Mujibur & Sirajul. Where do I go? K&L's Rock America is located at 1705 Broadway (10019), just down the street from the Ed Sullivan Theater. The phone is (212) 757-3926. (Thanks Tony Rice) * I rented that "Cabin Boy" video and Dave Letterman had a cameo in the movie, but in the credits they announced that "Earl Hofert" played the part played by Dave. Who's Earl Hofert? Possibly an uncle on his mom's side. Every now and then you'll hear him use "Hofert" on the show. Also "Henderson." * I heard that the late Bill Hicks was censored once on Dave's show! They never showed his act, and replaced him with some lame in-house comedian. Well, it's true. On the night of October 1, 1993, comedian Hicks (who died in early '94 of pancreatic cancer) delivered a routine that, in post-production, was deemed inappropriate for broadcast. Although initially co-executive producer Robert Morton claimed CBS standards and practices had ordered the cut, CBS later countered that *Worldwide Pants* had cut Hicks -- the truth is probably that both offices agreed on the excision. In a subsequent piece in _The New Yorker,_ Hicks complained that Letterman's staff 86'd the routine because of attacks on pro-lifers that did not appeal to the show's "mainstream" audience, which Hicks clearly believed was a fiction. Angus MacDonald, who was in the audience that night, has a different interpretation of the events: "He did do a joke early in the same routine that could be taken as being anti-gay ... Basically, Hicks made fun of bigots ... [and was] impersonating a bigot -- 'Those people have gone too far. We've got to draw the line,' or words to that effect -- for a stretch of many seconds during which there was virtually no audience laughter, though one guy in our row yelled 'Yeah' in agreement to the excerpt above. Creepy. Because no one was laughing, Hicks had the worst of both worlds: controversial material that was not entertaining. The rest of his routine, as detailed in the New Yorker article and elsewhere, was well received. There was almost no reporting about the gay joke, though, and I think the silence it induced may have had as much to do with the excision as the attack on right-wing Christians." A recent special on the life of Hicks airing on Comedy Central included interviews with Dave and Morty, both of whom expressed regrets about the incident. Dave said he felt even worse knowing that he won't be able to make it up to Bill now that he's gone. Incidentally, the 10/1/93 broadcast is the only one on CBS to have featured Dave as the introductory voice-over, since Bill Wendell had gone home before the decision was made to nix Hicks. * What's the deal with Teri Garr? I heard she has MS. No, she has a degenerative back condition that went undiagnosed for too long. She's receiving treatment now. (Thanks Richard Handal) * Who are the the members of the "CBS Orchestra?" o Paul Shaffer, leader/keyboards o Anton Fig, drums o Will Lee, bass guitar o Sid McGinnis, guitar o Felicia Collins, guitar o Bruce Kapler and Tom "Bones" Malone, horns The first four players comprised The World's Most Dangerous Band when Dave was on NBC (more musicians from that show in the NBC section below). There was talk that the network might litigate to keep certain items of _Late Night_'s "intellectual property," including the band name, so the boys came up with this in-your-face moniker. What happened to funkmeister Bernie Worrell? He left. It didn't work out. Anyway, you'll agree the band sounds much better with a horn section, no? * Heyyy, knock me out with some of those great musical intros Paul and the band have done over the years for Dave's guests. Below is a sampling -- please, no more submissions for this area! Besides these, two selections should be singled out from the variety of bridges that Paul uses to play Dave over to his desk: the themes from "I Love Lucy" and the old Jack Benny t.v. show (it includes bars from "Yankee Doodle Dandy"), two huge shows on the early CBS Television Network. o Prince's "I Want To Be Your Lover" for Kim Basinger o "White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash/Melle Mel for Cokie Roberts (thanks Malinda McCall) o "Everytime You Go Away (You Take A Piece of Me With You)" by Paul Young following "Top Ten Things Overheard at the Lorena Bobbitt Trial" o "I Am the Walrus" by the Fabs for Mike Wallace o "Faith" by George Michael for Faith Ford o "If" by Bread during Dave's throw-Wonder-Bread-at-the- audience sequence o "Turn, Turn, Turn" by the Byrds for Laura Dern o "A Day in the [Dana] Life" for Dana Carvey o "Thank You Falettinme Be Myself (Again)" by Sly & Family Stone, as one of Dave's staff and his grade-school gym teacher were re-enacting a groin rejuvenation exercise o A Sam & Dave tune, when Sam (Donaldson) was on with Dave o "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton following a Top Ten list on the space shuttle Columbia o "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" by B.J. Thomas for Jay Thomas o "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith for "Top Ten Things Aeroflot Can Do To Improve Its Image" o "It's Raining Men" (written by Paul Shaffer!) for Damon Wayans (who used it for his "Blaine and Antoine" routines) o "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night for Jeremy Irons o The theme from "Three's Company" for "Top Ten Good Things About Marrying Tom and Roseanne" o "Shipoopi," from _The Music Man_ for "Top Ten Ways To Mispronounce Jeff Gillooly" o "I Don't Know How to Love Him," as sung by the Mary Magdelene character in _Jesus Christ Superstar,_ for Mary Matalin (Joe LaRose) o The theme to the t.v. classic "Mr. Ed," for "Top Ten Signs Your Name Is Ed" (thanks Dylan Behan) o And this prize from viewer Wayne Snell: "'Groovin' by the Young Rascals for CBS newsperson Lesley Stahl (and I believe also one time for actor Leslie Nielsen). The explanation: when 'Groovin' was hot on the radio in the '60s, there was a controversy that one section of the song, 'Life would be ecstasy/For you and me endlessly', was actually 'Life would be ecstasy/For you and me and Leslie'!" * I know that Paul is from Canada, but where? Thunder Bay, Ontario. He was born there November 28, 1949. * The voice of Worldwide Pants is ... ? Jay Gardner. * Who produces and directs LSWDL? Executive Producer -- Peter Lassally (longtime Carson associate) Executive Producer -- Rob Burnett before Rob ... Robert Morton before Morty ... Barry Sand Supervising Producer -- Jude Brennan Supervising Producer -- Jon Beckerman (de facto head writer) Supervising Producer/Director -- Jerry Foley before Jerry ... Hal Gurnee (see below) Head Writer -- Joe Toplyn (but his oversight duties are now carried on by Beckerman) before Joe ... Donick Cary (1995-96) before Donick ... Rob Burnett (1992-95) before Rob ... Steve O'Donnell (1983-92) before Steve ... James Downey (1983) before James ... Merrill Markoe (the original head writer, now a very funny authoress) Notable Ex-writer ... Chris Elliott Notable Ex-Visuals Coordinator ... Edd Hall (now the _Tonight_ show announcer on NBC and brother of Stupid Pet Tricks coordinator Susan Hall Sheehan) Hal Gurnee's 15-year association with Dave as the director of all of his programs (beginning with the 1980 morning show on NBC) ended on May 26, 1995. Dave gave a brief valedictory -- which I take it was even more recognition than the modest Gurnee sought -- at the end of that night's broadcast. Dave thanked Hal generously for his work over the years, and singled out his vision for the Ed Sullivan Theater at a time when no one else, including Dave, could possibly imagine doing a television show in that unimproved dump. A small plaque was mounted outside the show's control room acknowledging this contribution. Hal continues in an advisory role to the program and is still listed in the credits for designing the show's opening sequence. Before signing on with Dave, Hal spent the better part of a quarter century as Jack Paar's director for his various t.v. vehicles, most notably _The Tonight Show._ * Boy, CBS sure pays Dave a lot of money. We don't know for sure what it is, but you're certainly right. However, given that CBS is now earning several times in late night what it made with "Crime Time," its previous entry, he is well worth the cash. Also, take a look at what other companies were willing to pay to get Dave. According to the writer Bill Carter, Viacom would have dished out $50 million per year, given Worldwide Pants a huge show budget, and made Dave the focal property, including possible special projects for Viacom-owned cable networks (MTV and VH1). But Dave wanted to be on network t.v. and so no offers besides the Big Three's were ever seriously considered. * Is the Late Show closed-captioned? It is. Scott Barvian says, "They obviously do the captioning after the final edits are done; all the spelling is correct and nothing is missed. They catch all of Paul's little comments that [we] don't always pick up ... they even spelled out Dave screaming in terror after picking up a hot towel (OHHHH! AHHHH! JEEEZ!)." This is true of all the late-night shows, in fact. Jeff Zuk adds that sometimes the closed captioning will even tell you what song the band is playing. But Karen Owen has noticed various errors in transcription, and she says whoever's doing the captioning has a limited knowledge of popular music prior to 1964 (for instance, always referring to the theme from the Ed Sullivan Show as "peppy show biz music"). * Gosh, I'm young and stupid. Wouldn't it be great to intern at the Late Show? Currently there are about 15 internships at the show, including Dave's area, production, talent, research, music (Shaffer), sound (Michael DeLugg), mailroom, Rob's area, and writers. The important thing to bear in mind when contemplating an internship is that it's not enough to be a "fan" of a given show. General interest in broadcasting is essential. After all, this is a broadcast internship, not a Dave internship. And, oh yes, most of the time you can expect the work to be pure drudgery. One book which rated the old NBC show one of the top 100 internships to have reported this tidbit: "Several interns reported having to fetch lunch for Dave ('every day it was the same pasta primavera and vegetable soup') or whip up a snack ('Dave always had to have his fresh pineapple -- cut in strips, not squares')." Still, what makes Dave's show distinctive is the good chance that as an intern you will be used on camera at some point. Pea Boy was an intern on the show, as was the recent character "The Lethargic Fan." For all of the drudgery, you should remember that most of the present and past staff were interns, including Adam Resnick, Rob Burnett, Daniel Kellison, Mary Connelly, Spike Feresten, Donick Cary, Jennifer Crittendon, Holly Hester, and many more. There are dozens more in top positions in the industry. * Is there some way to find out in advance what reruns of Late Night are showing on the E! entertainment television network? Call (213) 954-2750. Press 1 to hear the Late Night schedule for the week (changes every Monday). The reruns are aired "five Daves a week" at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Or, check each week's issue of LATE SHOW NEWS (see the end of this FAQ). In fact, that's the course I recommend, because some weeks E! doesn't even bother to update the hotline -- and wouldn't you really rather learn that on someone else's nickel? * Let's say I want to be a guest on the show -- what should I do? Directly from Dave himself: "I don't care who you are, I don't care what you do. If you have four funny stories, you can be a guest on this show. That's what we're looking for." * * * Questions People Ask About _Late Night with David Letterman_ (NBC, Feb. 1, 1982-June 22, 1993) [Sorry, I'm no longer accepting submissions for this area.] * * * What are the different cities where Dave's "home office" was located during Late Night? o Lebanon, Pennsylvania o Lincoln, Nebraska o Milwaukee (the first Late Night home office) o Oklahoma City, Oklahoma o Omaha (home of Arnie Barnes, who called in his own Top Ten lists) o Oneonta, New York (the last Late Night home office) o Scottsdale, Arizona o Tahlequah, Oklahoma * What are the different types of "cams" that were used on Late Night? o Amphi-cam (8th anniversary show at Universal Amphitheatre) o Chair-cam o Cow-cam o Crash-cam o Fig-cam (worn by Anton) o Guest-cam (worn by Tom Hanks) o Host-cam (worn by Dave, of course) o Las Vegas Showgirl-Cam (from Dave's 1987 shows there) o Love-cam (Bill Murray) o Monkey-cam o Sewer-cam o Sky-cam o Thrill-cam o Thrill-cam 360 o Tiger-cam * What types of gifts did Dave give to audience members on his old show? o Bacon o Bagels o Baked ham o Beef o Bug Busters o Tom Brokaw stationery o Cartons of cigarettes (handed out by Larry during a remote) o Collapsible drinking cups o Composters o Edible plunger o Fajitas o French fries o Frozen turkeys o Gallon jars of mayonnaise o Goodwill Games medals (given to audience members who asked questions of Larry "Bud" Hussein) o Handfuls of nickels from a big bucket o Handfuls of watches from a fish bowl o Hot towels (by Larry during a remote) o Jumper cables o Kentucky Fried Millipedes (actually a bucket of fried clams) o Kielbasa o Large squares of sod o Late Night with David Letterman facial blotters (if you were an *especially* good little audience member, Dave would use it first) o One volume of an encyclopedia set o Packs of assorted GE light bulbs o Pounds of hair o Randomly selected prescription eyeglasses (by Larry) o Roll of garden hose o Selections of fluorescent lighting o Six dollars o Sponges o Tee-shirts (Larry: "Bob Rooney, please give that nice lady/gentleman two Late Night t-shirts") o Tires o Toast o Toast on a stick o _Today_ show coffee mugs o Waffles No, I will *not* attempt to list all the giveaways since Dave moved to CBS and transformed the Ed Sullivan Theater into "The Price is Right." * What were the films in LNWDL's Holiday Film Festivals? (1985) o "With My Own Eyes," by David Letterman o "But I'm Happy," by Michael Keaton (with Clint Howard) o A film on PMS, by Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin o "Dress Cool," music video by Paul and the band o "Why Bother?" by Bette Midler o Industrial video spoof, by Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean From the "2nd Annual Holiday Film Festival" (1986): o "Feelin' in Love," David Letterman o "The Iceman Hummeth," Michael J. Fox o "An Audience of My Own," Diane Sawyer o "My Day With the Stars," Jonathan Winters o "You Kill Me" (music video), Paul Shaffer w/Teri Garr o "Chris Elliott: A Television Miracle," w/George Takei (aka Mr. Sulu from "Star Trek") * What are the different types of "suits" Dave has worn? o Suit of Alka-Seltzer o Suit of Lard (worn by someone other than Dave) o Suit of Magnets o Suit of Marshmallows (they tried to light the marshmallows with propane torches but failed; eaten by audience) o Suit of Nachos (eaten by members of the audience after Dave was dunked in cheese) o Suit of Rice Krispies (milk poured on Dave) o Suit of Sponge (they weighed Dave, dunked him in water, then weighed him again, but it was off the scale) o Suit of Suet (Dave went into a cage of birds) o Suit of Teabags (no, wait, that was Steve Allen) o Suit of Vegemite (tm) o Suit of Vegetables o Suit of Velcro (Dave wore the soft part, then he jumped onto a wall covered with the other part, and stuck) * When Chris Elliott was still writing for Late Night, what were some of the characters he played? o Marlon Brando o The Guy Under the Seats o Marv Albert o Jay Leno (with large fake chin) o Letterman imitation-- "Late Night with Chris Elliott" o The Fugitive Guy o The Nervous Guy o The Regulator Guy o Chris Elliott, Jr. (Morton Downey, Jr. take-off w/ lots o' moles) o The Panicky Guy o The Conspiracy Guy o Gerard Mulligan's baby boy, "Kevin" (complete w/ diaper) o Jack Hanna of the Columbus Zoo o Walter Murphy, "the man with the miracle mind" who had memorized all the animals portrayed in that memorable NBC fantasy-adventure series, "Manimal" (as this was early in his career, Chris actually did a Harvey Korman trying to suppress the giggles) o Singularly unhelpful Radio City Music Hall custodian (Anniversary show; thanks to Jim Lyden) * What is Larry "Bud" Melman's real name? Calvert DeForest. And in fact, for intellectual property reasons, Dave is calling "Larry" Calvert on the new show. * Who all have been the means of delivery of Cokes, etc., from the vending machines? (Late Night) o The Rockettes (and now on the Late Show as well) o Members of the NYC area chapter of Mensa o Carl Lewis o Boy Scouts o Marching Band o Andy Grayson, trail bike rider, rode down the stairs and jumped up on Dave's desk (w/the bike) without touching a foot. * How has Dave paid tribute to his erstwhile telephone companion, the lovely auburn-haired book publicist Meg Parsont? o Sent the "Three Amigos" to serenade her with Mexican rest- aurant music o Sent Billy Dee Williams over with a bouquet of roses, a matching his-and-her set of his designer fragrances, and a six-pack of Colt 45 malt liquor o Closed off 49th Street so the Jamestown High School Red Raiders marching band could parade below her window playing "Happy Birthday" and spelling out M-E-G in formation * I know Bill Murray was the first scheduled guest on both Late Night in 1982 and the Late Show in 1993. Although recently, Dave told Tom Brokaw that *he* (Tom) was "the first guest on our new show" (when Tom came out to reclaim certain cue cards as "the intellectual property of NBC"). Right. But back to Bill Murray in '82 -- what was *that*? According to Dave, "Bill wanted to do something special, so he was coming down early to talk to the writers and see what they could come up with together. When he arrived, Merrill and I were out filming a segment, and Bill showed up with about six gallons of whatever tequila was on sale. When we got back, everybody was shitfaced, and it was dark, since Bill had decided the flourescent lights were leeching Vitamin E from them and he'd hidden all the lamps. Nothing was written, and the only explanation I could get from anyone was, 'Bill was here.' When we did get on the air, Bill decided not to do any of the stuff we'd written and got an urge to sing 'Let's Get Physical' and do aerobics. So he did." >>> As a tribute to that historical debut, Paul and the band played "Physical" for Bill's intro on the first Late Show. * The wife and I were up last night watching Dave, and we got to talking about the old show and that wild-eyed longhair freak who tried to kick Dave in the chops. Remember that? Yes, it's remembered for us about every three weeks, on average, on the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup. For that reason we have provided for the general public an annotated transcript of that episode, from July of 1987, featuring guest Crispin Glover, on the Letterman archive at ftp.mcs.net (see the end of this FAQ for info). Thanks to Mark Schweingruber for the effort. * Whatever happened to Brother Theodore? I heard he had passed away. Otherwise Dave would surely have had him on the new show, no? Bro. Theo. is still around and thriving in the Village. According to Kevin R. Kraynick, he's performing Saturday nights at 9:30 p.m. at the 13th Street Theater. Admission is $12.50. Mark Evanier notes, "He seems to have joined the list of guests that Dave is no longer interested in having on." * I heard that one night, Dave bumped Cindy Crawford from a show just so he could talk with a guy named Herb Clumpy! Mm hmm. By the way, the name's spelled Klumpe, not "Clumpy," and he has become one of the regulars on the old A. F. of L. newsgroup. Herb, who hails from Oneonta, New York, site of the very last home office of _Late Night,_ was in the audience for one of Dave's last NBC broadcasts on June 17 '93, wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the letters ONEONTA. Dave was notified before the show that a guy from the home office with a delightful name was in the crowd, so upon entering the studio he opened that evening's show with the line, "Tonight's program is dedicated to Herb Klumpe III." Not only did the monologue go out the window, but Herb and Dave chatted on-air after the break and they exchanged sweatshirts as the alluring Miss Crawford looked on forlornly from the green room. It turns out that Herb and four of his enterprising friends also held tickets for the very last _Late Night_ so, to commemorate his good fortune, Herb's friends showed up wearing "Friend of Herb Klumpe III" T-shirts. NBC staff spotted Mr. Klumpe and escorted him to the green room, where he got to watch the final show with a gaggle of extree special guests that included Tom Hanks and his wife. He is living proof that Dave Letterman, much like _Late Night_'s revered final guest Bruce Springsteen, can both entertain the masses and brighten the lives of ordinary fans -- and in so doing touch the lives of each one of us who watches his show. [*dab corners of eyes with blue index card*] -- Aaron Barnhart letterman@mcs.net Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!eru.mt.luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!ddsw1!news.mcs.net!not-for-mail From: barnhart@MCS.COM (Aaron Barnhart) Newsgroups: alt.fan.letterman,rec.arts.tv,alt.tv.talkshows.late,news.answers,alt.answers,rec.answers Subject: alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (Part 3 of 3) Followup-To: alt.fan.letterman Date: 20 Oct 1996 03:01:18 -0500 Organization: MCSNet Services Lines: 305 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Message-ID: <54cm8e$ef7@Venus.mcs.com> Reply-To: letterman@mcs.net NNTP-Posting-Host: venus.mcs.com Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about the Late Show/Late Night with David Letterman. New readers of the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup should read this FAQ list before posting. Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.fan.letterman:83981 rec.arts.tv:229449 alt.tv.talkshows.late:4405 news.answers:84836 alt.answers:21288 rec.answers:24816 Archive-name: letterman/faq/part3 The alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list Last-modified: Fri Jul 5 00:10:33 CDT 1996 Version: 9.12 Part 3 of 3 * Does Sid have a "running jones"? Yes indeed. A full account is given in a _Runner's World_ feature on the longtime Letterman guitarist, who joined Late Night in 1984. "Nike, upon learning that its Sock Racers [running shoes] were showcased on Late Night ... supplied McGinnis with as many pairs as he needed." Now that the shoe is out of stock, "Nike has fashioned close facsimiles ... custom-made Air Sids. 'There are five million pairs of Air Jordans,' McGinnis estimates, 'and two Air Sids.'" The story also reports that at age 40, Sid ran the 1989 New York Marathon in 3:14:44. Has Sid *ever* missed a show? Twice, says Donz5. "On the March 3, 1989 show, Paul praises Sid for having missed only 2 shows. I checked, and, sure enough, Sid missed show #679 (March 13, 1986) and #683 (March 20, 1986), both shows subbed by Steve Kahn." These were during the time Sid's wife was giving birth to their first child. * Other than Paul, Anton, Will, and Sid, who were members of "the band," later titled "The World's Most Dangerous Band" on Late Night? Hiram Bullock was the original guitarist and Steve Jordan the original drummer. Over the years there were also these occasional honorary members: Francisco Centano, bass Neil Jason, bass Marcus Miller, bass Buzz Feiten, guitar Steven Khan, guitar Jeff Lee, guitar Elliott Randall, guitar John Tropea, guitar (it's true, Donz5 confirms it!) Waddy Wachtel, guitar Kenny Aronoff, drums Charlie Drayton, drums Steve Ferrone, drums Steve Gadd, drums Omar Hakim, drums Allan Schwartzberg, drums Rob Mounsey, keyboard Leon Pendarvis, keyboards Bette Sussman, keyboard And Donz5 reminded me not to overlook frequent Thursday (later Friday) guest band member David Sanborn on saxophone. * What's "the GE corporate handshake"? In 1986, shortly after General Electric announced its acquisition of NBC, Dave went with a camera crew and a fruit basket and/or bottle of wine/champagne to the corporate headquarters in Manhattan as a gift to GE Chairman Jack Welch. In one of the most-talked-about moments in Late Night history, Dave and his crew were met in the lobby by a security thug who told them to shut off the camera and get out of the building. Being the polite Midwesterner he is, Dave extended his hand to the security guy, who in turn extended his hand ... then *retracted* it without consummating the grip and release. This sleight of hand is what became known as the GE corporate handshake. (The security guy repeated this handshake moments later with Hal Gurnee, who was accompanying Dave on the shoot.) The event is now remembered as the turning point in Dave's relationship with the network and its GE-appointed brass, notably the weasels in Burbank who thought that Dave was too "mean" for the Johnny Carson slot. * I can't believe NBC just let Dave go because they didn't like his personality. As Bill Carter reports, one senior NBC executive was heard to say after the Letterman-Leno debacle, "It was amazing to have made that many mistakes in a row." But perhaps the biggest mistake was the network's failure to chisel out a long-range strategy for late night, which ideally would have been to coax Johnny out of his job (a task eventually taken up by Helen Kushnick, Jay Leno's longtime handler), offer Dave the 11:35 show, and tossed Leno, who might well have landed on his feet bringing new fame to CBS, where his current 4.4 rating would have realized millions in new revenue for the then-doormat of late night television. Instead, Jay got a clause inserted in his contract that made him the next _Tonight_ host; Johnny got wind of it and quit; and Dave was left in the dust. If there is a wildcard in this, it is possibly John Agoglia, the president of NBC Productions and its "no man" in matters relating to talent relations. It is true that Letterman made life difficult for Agoglia, but the latter's weasely actions were inappropriate even for a grouchy talent like Dave. After all, here is a man who (a) threatened to bring Maury Povich's show into Studio 6A every day if Dave didn't cooperate with the network's stupid "Sunday Best" program, (b) bragged that he had Dana Carvey locked in as Dave's 12:35 replacement, a flat lie, and (c) even when instructed by his boss Robert Wright to negotiate a plan to give _Tonight_ to Letterman, would not put anything in writing. However mean Dave was to Agoglia on his show, the NBC man returned it with interest later on. * What's all this about an Australian version of Late Night? There used to be a self-admitted knockoff of Dave's show, "Tonight Live," hosted by Steve Vizard. It was cancelled in late 1993 and replaced by the first Australian broadcast of the Letterman show. >>> In 1994 and 1995, German television aired _Nacht-Show_ starring Thomas Koschwitz, which one viewer described thus: "A shameless rip-off with almost identical intro, identical desk, (attempted) identical host behaviour, repartee with the band leader, top 10 lists, etc." That was followed by _Die Harald Schmidt Show_ which is still on the air <http://www.haraldschmidtshow.de/>. I reviewed it for the Village Voice (April 2, 1996; sorry, no electronic copies available). >>> Then there's the *Norwegian* version, a show called "RiksDan." Bjorn Brattland writes: "The host is called Dan Borge Akero, and has his own top 10 list (actually, it's top 6, but this is a small country), chats with the band leader, and his general behaviour is modeled after Dave." * What was the translation of the Japanese on the kites in the Late Night opening sequence (1992-93)? One said "Late Night," another, "G.E. sucks." * * * Questions People Ask About this FAQ List, the A. F. of L. Archive, and LATE SHOW NEWS. * * * Where can I find this FAQ when I need it (i.e., later)? The alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list is posted to news.answers and other newsgroups on the 6th and 20th of each month. If for some reason you miss the posting, the list is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.mcs.net in the files /mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman/faq/part1 /mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman/faq/part2 /mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman/faq/part3 and is also available via anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as the files /pub/usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part1 /pub/usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part2 /pub/usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part3 The FAQ is also via mail server. Send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the following lines in the body: send usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part1 send usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part2 send usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part3 * How can I contribute to the FAQ? Send your submissions, questions, and comments to: letterman@mcs.net * Is the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup available as a mailing list? No. * Does this newsgroup have an archive? The FTP directory ftp.mcs.net:/mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman is brimming with text files, images, sounds, and Top Ten Lists. Also, check out these World Wide Web clients if you've got WWW-compatible software: http://bingen.cs.csbsju.edu/letterman.html http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~jl8287/letterman.html If you want CBS Top Tens, the television network itself has a great archive that's searchable. Point your Web browser at <http://www.cbs.com/>. If you don't have Web access, send mail to listserv@listserv.clark.net with this message: get topten archive (Any Subject: line is okay.) You'll get instructions on searching the TOPTEN mail server's archive of CBS Top Tens. Jeez, it seems like I can never get into ftp.mcs.net by FTP. Sorry about that; it's the best we can do for now. * I crave that late-breaking news about all the big stars, and what bigger star is there than Dave Letterman? Look no further, Sparky, because your FAQkeeper has taken that matter into his own hands. LATE SHOW NEWS supplies you with up-to-the-moment info from the late-night talk circuit generally, and especially Dave's show. It's posted to alt.fan.letterman, rec.arts.tv, alt.zines, and alt.tv.talkshows.late every Tuesday. You also may subscribe to the LATE-SHOW-NEWS mailing list to get each issue mailed directly to you. Write listserv@american.edu and send only the following as your message: subscribe late-show-news Your Name * * * Sources for this Frequently Asked Questions list. * * * Beautiful People. Well, of course, kudos to D. Keith Rice for maintaining the list since way back, I think 1956, '57, before giving it to me. Special mention should go out to Donz5@aol.com for his endless contributions to this list and the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup, as well as Scott Barvian, Sue Trowbridge and Richard Handal, who've supplied me with important research materials, and Richard Scheckman, Christine Schomer, and Jay Johnson for their contributions. For contributing to this list, Keith and I are indebted to Dean Adams, Fritz Anderson, Greg Anderson, Ken Anderson, Jason Bak, J.D. Baldwin, John Bartol, Scott Barvian, Laurence Bier, John Bonacci, Joel Chan, Crist Clark, John Clear, Brian Conn, Marc Conte, Todd Cooper, Lewis Coury, Richard Dawson, Matt Dittrich, Jef Dodd, Sean Donnelly, David Eccleston, Susan Fanelli, Kevin Fong, Eric Fritzius, bj gleason, Mark Goldberg, Robert Goldsborough, Norm Gregory, Chris Eliot Haroian, Mathew A. Hennessy, Rachel Hill, John Hritz, Ben Jackson, Bill Jones, Doug Krause, Ed Krauss, Lana Krotenko, Bob Kupiec, James Langdell, James LaPlaine, Don Leaman, Jason Lindquist, Gord Locke, Robert Lopez, Lon Lowen, Ian McCuaig, Ken McGlothlen, Bill McGonigle, Alan "Mr. Tucks" McKendree, Leigh Meydrech, Shamim Zvonko Mohamed, Ken Mohnker, "Noel" at microsoft.com, John Oram, Brian Peek, Marshal Perlman, Alan Perry, Tad Perry, Dave Platt, Michael Regoli, Tony Rice, Tom Sakoda, Steve Shauger, Bill Sherman, Jeff Shimbo, Jason Snell, Mike Southworth, Greg Sroka, Jeff Stephan, Ben Sterling, Christopher Taylor, David C. Tuttle, Wendy Tyrol, Rich Urena, Tim Veatch, Jeff Wilder, Mike Wittman, Eric Witmayer, and Eric Wood. Primary Print Sources. "Is This Man the New Johnny Carson?", _Chicago Tribune,_ 1/6/80. _Playboy_ magazine interviews, 1984 and 1994. _The Late Shift_ by Bill Carter, 1994. _The David Letterman Story_ by Caroline Latham, 1987. "Stay Up Late" by James Kaplan, _The New Yorker,_ 1/16/89. "Flying Feet & Fingers," by Peter Gambaccini, _Runner's World,_ 3/92. This article is Copyright (c) 1996 by Aaron Barnhart. All rights reserved. .o ____~~~~_____~. ..( ).... ( Remember ... )) .ooo. ( . ) / ))' \ ( it ain't ham, unless ) o. { , , } 'o ( ) ( "_" ) ..o' (... it's a BIG ASS HAM .) " .o. " .(. ) ) .---/\___//\----. .(.~~~ ___...) o ." .\ Y |. `. .o -------o. : .\ ^ |. `>. ." ". ; \ /^\ t. e\. >" " ; | /^\ \ " `.. " " : : /^\ | ./ "# B i g # ; h /^\ \./: ! A s s ! ________\ "~~~~...._\/_V__!---------!________________ c,,,...a~~~=~ ` H a m ' "......." (courtesy Tim Veatch) -- Aaron Barnhart letterman@mcs.net