Thats all Folks! David Letterman is Signing off

04 Apr, 2014

During a taping of Thursday’s edition of “Late Show,” Letterman startled his audience with the news that he will step down in 2015, when his current contract with CBS expires.

He specified no end date, saying he expects his exit will be in “at least a year or so, but sometime in the not too distant future – 2015, for the love of God, (band leader) Paul (Shaffer) and I will be wrapping things up.”

What he’ll be wrapping up is three decades on the air – the longest tenure of any late-night talk show host in U.S. television history – since he launched “Late Night” at NBC in 1982.

But more than that, he’ll be ending a lineage of late-night hosts who pioneered talk and humor in the wee hours – Johnny Carson, of course, and, before him, Jack Paar and especially Steve Allen.

Ironically, they were all on NBC, the network that denied Letterman the “Tonight Show” crown he sought and, after he lost out to Jay Leno, prompted him to pitch his tent at CBS as Leno’s rival.

Referring to CBS chairman Leslie Moonves as “the man who owns this network,” Letterman told viewers Thursday, “I phoned him just before the program, and I said, `Leslie, it’s been great, you’ve been great, and the network has been great, but I’m retiring.'”

Along with his network, Letterman thanked “all of the people who have worked here, all of the people in the theater, all the people on the staff, everybody at home – thank you very much.

“What this means now,” he cracked, “is that Paul and I can be married.”

Since premiering with “Late Show” in 1993, Letterman, who turns 67 next week, has reigned at Broadway’s Ed Sullivan Theater, a historic venue nearly a century old that was famously home to “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

“For 21 years, David Letterman has graced our network’s air in late night with wit, gravitas and brilliance unique in the history of our medium,” Moonves said. “It’s going to be tough to say goodbye.”

Letterman, who was a radio talk show host and local TV weatherman, moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s and, among his early gigs, was a writer and performer on a summer variety show and a member of the comedy troupe of a short-lived program starring Mary Tyler Moore.

In 1980, he hosted an NBC morning show, which lasted only five months – while winning two Emmy awards.

Two years after that, he was turned loose with “Late Night,” where he clicked.

AP

Image John Paul Filo

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