David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of the Late Show with David Letterman, a late-night talk show broadcast on CBS. Letterman's ironic, often absurd comedy is heavily influenced by former Tonight Show hosts Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, and Jack Paar. Letterman has been a fixture of United States late night television since his 1982 debut on Late Night with David Letterman; only Johnny Carson, one of Letterman's idols, Dave at Peace, a September 2008 interview with Rolling Stone magazine has had a longer late-night hosting career.
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David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of the Late Show with David Letterman, a late-night talk show broadcast on CBS. Letterman's ironic, often absurd comedy is heavily influenced by former Tonight Show hosts Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, and Jack Paar. Letterman has been a fixture of United States late night television since his 1982 debut on Late Night with David Letterman; only Johnny Carson, one of Letterman's idols, Dave at Peace, a September 2008 interview with Rolling Stone magazine has had a longer late-night hosting career.
Letterman is also a television and film producer; his company Worldwide Pants produces his late-night show and the show that follows his on CBS, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. Worldwide Pants has also produced several prime-time comedies, the most successful of which was Everybody Loves Raymond, currently in syndication.
Early career
Letterman credits Paul Dixon, host of the Paul Dixon Show, a Cincinnati-based talk show also shown in Indianapolis while Letterman was growing up, for inspiring his choice of career:
- "I was just out of college 1969, and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And then all the sudden I saw him doing it TV. And I thought: That's really what I want to do!"
Weatherman
Letterman began his career as a radio talk show host on WXLW (AM), and on Indianapolis television station WLWI (now called WTHR) as a local anchor and weatherman. He received some recognition for his unpredictable on-air behavior, which included jokingly calling attention to state borders missing from the weather map, and predicting sizable hail stones "the size of canned hams." (Because this upset his bosses, to this day he occasionally still does also give out canned hams on his show.) One night he reportedly upset his bosses when he congratulated a tropical storm for being upgraded to a hurricane. He also hosted a talk show which aired early on Saturday mornings called "Clover Power," in which he interviewed 4-H members about their projects. He would also occasionally report the day's very high and low temps for fictitious cities.
Move to Los Angeles
In 1975, encouraged by his then-wife Michelle and several of his fraternity brothers, Letterman moved to Los Angeles, California, with hope of becoming a comedy writer. He started off by writing material for the TV sitcom, Good Times. He also began performing stand-up comedy at The Comedy Store, a famed Los Angeles comedy club and proving ground for young comics.
Letterman appeared in the summer of 1977 on the short-lived Starland Vocal Band Show. He has since joked about how fortunate he was that nobody would ever see his performance on the program (because of its low ratings).
