He may be gone from the public eye but he is still in the realm of the public. He has his hands into a wide variety of things you would never thought he had. I grew up watching Letterman because that is what my dad watched - well okay slept through while the tv was on but you could never change the channel without waking him up. After Carson died and Letterman didn’t get the job it all went downhill from there. I can’t say I am a Leno fan mostly because I couldn’t stand his voice but he was definately better than Dave and refreshing. The fact Dave was unwilling to change his show showed unadaptable he was and the major factor in why they did not hire him to take over for Carson.
Actually, behind the scenes Leno was the conniver during the Carson debacle. Letterman was fairly normal then. Leno’s agent was a monster who according to some, pushed Carson out earlier than he wanted to go. All of Carson’s writers went with Letterman. None of them stayed with Leno. To this day, I hear bad reports about Leno.