The Finale of "Late Night With David Letterman"

Photo courtesy of Broadway Tour's Flickr Page - The Late Show with David Letterman @ Ed Sullivan Theatre:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/broadwaytour/6285402536

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Well, watching "Late Night with David Letterman," something that I did on and off during the course of the last two plus decades (mostly, I did not watch it, admittedly) is now a thing of the past.

The legendary comedian and talk show host announced his impending retirement last year and, ever since, there has been considerable speculation on the final shows, and particularly the final show.

This past Wednesday night, it finally aired, with a star-studded top ten list, a musical performance by the Foo Fighters, and a lot of revisiting of the past few decades, with tons of video clips and pictures to take away as memories from this great show.

I was blessed to actually have gone to one show in person. Julie Roberts was the main guest, and there was also an old Irish guy. Roberts was asked if she played a musical instrument, and she said that she had played the oboe. A man in the audience shouted out that he has an oboe, and Letterman, without missing a beat, answered, 'That's not an oboe, sir."

There was a roar of laughter. In fact, all night long, it seemed that the crowd was very responsive to the jokes, and that included us. I think there is a reason for that, because we were all so very excited to be there in attendance. It is one thing to see the show on television, quite another to be there in person.

The old Irish guy (trying to rake my memory for his name, but it just is not coming to me), and I just remember him responding to Letterman's comment that Dublin was a young city by agreeing and saying that he was the oldest thing in it.

Foo Fighters were the special, final musical guests for the show with David Letterman as host. He picked them for a very special reason, and they played one particular song for that same reason: it meant everything to Letterman. He shared a story that when he had open heart surgery many years ago, he had requested for them to perform the one song that he wanted them to play. They were on tour in Latin America at that point, but they cancelled the tour in order to appear on the show.

So, they they were again, performing for Letterman one last time. His introducing them was his exit, essentially, as he told the viewing world goodnight, and the Foo Fighters played their song. Everlong.

And just like that, they wrapped up over thirty years of David Letterman hosting a major talk show, after a show that largely reflected on the past decades.

I know that my own personal memories of attending that one Letterman show are probably only interesting to a very few people. There is little to nothing that made that particular episode stand out in any real meaningful way, other than I attended it, and thus remember it. Had I only viewed it on television, like most, I surely would not remember it to the present day, truth be told, unlike, say, the Madonna interview from many years ago.

After writing this, I did some research, and actually found some information on the Dsvid Letterman program that I attended. It came on the same day that another program was filmed and aired, and I remember it, because Third Eye Blind had gotten in some kind of altercation among band members during the actual program. But that was not the show that I saw. This was:


The Late Show with David Letterman: Julia Roberts, David Kelly

Season 6, Episode 70
Aired: Dec 18, 1998 - Show #1135
Plot: During Mailbag, Alan gives the audience an unusual egg nog recipe, while Dave answers the question, ""Where did Hanukkah come from?"" by stating it that was named after a nice man named Steve Hanukkah.


Episode number: 6x70 Airdate: Friday December 18th, 1998








This one was not from the night that I went, although it seems that the final clip (with Julia Roberts) was taken during her visit on the night that we saw her. Cool memories, although I hardly remembered any of it at all, surprisingly (except for the oboe thing - yes, I guess that makes me a pervert).




Did not find any video clips with David Kelly in it, although here is a link to find out more about him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_%28actor%29

david-letterman-signs-off-after-33-years-and-6-028-shows

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/david-letterman-signs-off-after-33-years-and-6-028-shows-1432171593-slideshow/