David Letterman Sets Sail Into Retirement, Millions Sad, Some Miffed.

Just read a story over on the New York post site that this morning they were already ripping apart the Letterman set and dropping most of it into the dumpster. Time moves fast. Apparently the only part of the set they're saving is the bridge you always saw behind Dave. Urrrgh, sad.

In all honesty, I'd stopped really watching Dave in recent years. His move to CBS eventually softened alot of the off kilter wry weirdness that made him a must watch from his start on NBC late nite back in '82, when I was but a wee freshman in high school. Grumpy, post heart surgery Dave. Rarely left the studio Dave. That really wasn't for me. You checked in with that Dave on big events, post-9-11, the Leno/Conan thing, stuff like that. Then you moved on. Conan and Ferguson, each had a bit or a lot of the old Letterman in them, and that was what I DVR-ed.

Oh, but those formative Letterman years, good golly and yes please, that was my jam, yo. It was what I videotaped when we got a machine in 1984. It was what I recorded onto cassette off the radio after I had fallen asleep to Johnny Carson.

Whether he was throwing watermelons off a building, picking a fight with a tubby baseball player, or striking up a show relationship with Meg, the girl in the office building directly across from his office in Thirty Rock, or Arnie from Omaha Steaks, Dave was secretly doing morning radio on late nite t.v.

That early Dave was at his best, freed from the standard monolouge/interview/band format, when he was unleashed on the real world:

The top ten lists, the desk bound CBS years, they paled in comparison to moments like the time they replaced the set with dentist chairs, rotated the screen 180 for no reason, Dave grabbing a bullhorn and disrupting the Today show from a fourth floor window ("I'm not wearing pants!"), the time they did the show from their office and Terri Garr took a shower, or the bit with Larry Bud Melman at the bus station handing out hot towels, or the show where they did a bit re-enacting their show from the beds of pick up trucks zooming down the highway, Dave behind his desk in one truck, Paul and The entire band in another.

And yes, McDonalds:

Dave changed the game, and influenced everybody just by being himself, the wry showbiz outsider who couldn't believe he had a show and did everything he could to color outside the lines.

Happy retirement, Dave. Thanks for 33 years of service. Proud of ya. Write if you get work.