[Kirkwood]

“His approach to humor was copied by almost ever new comedian for 15 years after his NBC show premiered.”

Oh please. Just because you know how to turn on a tv set doesn’t mean you know anything about the business. Letterman didn’t do anything that hadn’t been done decades earler. Steve Allen was the first on TV to do that kind of goofy shtick and Bob & Ray were doing it for many years on radio well before Allen.

[stravinskyrules]

Just because you know how to turn on a tv set doesn’t mean you know anything about the business.

What a ridiculous comment.

So George Carlin had no influence on his generation because Lenny Bruce had already done it, or Woody Allen at his best had no influence on his generation because Groucho Marx had already done it.

Letterman was heavily influenced by Allen but was in no way a clone. Letterman influenced a generation of comedians with his, sarcastic, biting and knowing edge....everyone copped it.

I guess Brahms had no standing because Beethoven had already been there and done that? lol.

[pawdoggie]

Oh please. Just because you know how to turn on a tv set doesn’t mean you know anything about the business. Letterman didn’t do anything that hadn’t been done decades earler. Steve Allen was the first on TV to do that kind of goofy shtick and Bob & Ray were doing it for many years on radio well before Allen.

Amen! It does help one's historical perspective to have lived a while, doen't it? Some of Letterman's schtick (e.g. "more fun than a human being should be allowed to have") is a direct lift from "Steverino".

[The Wizard]

indeed you speak the truth.....When we had the old show in Manhattan, "Off To 'C' The Wizard", 1974-76 we were the ones that changed TV and TV's approach to itself.....I blew the opportunity to do SNL, it wasn't called that at the time because it was just in development, but we were ruling Manhattan during those years, and the networks watched us and copied everything we did....the control room shots, comedy aimed at adult audiences, etc...everyone copied what was being done a bunch of us, and the networks, right up the street "liberated" every bit of it....then they got a "safe" guy like david to come on and do a cleaned up version of what we were doing in a very "unsafe" way......

The stories I could tell you....