this is a guy who hates humiliation. the cbs producer pled guilty to attempted grand larceny and spent four months in jail. a week after the scandal, dave apologized to his wife on air. my wife regina has been horribly hurt by my behavior. and when something happens like that, if you hurt a person and it s yurs your responsibility, you try to fix it. so let me tell you, folks, i got my work cut out for me. dave called this the lowest point in his life. the couple did reconcile and they are still together. talk about electric television. it s just television like nothing else you ve ever seen. his ratings went up. his ratings went up after that. but you know his ratings have never recovered much from the early days because he s always been playing from behind. and at some point i think he stopped feeling like he could win. coming up, dave.
Think. it became an increasingly difficult struggle to counter all of that momentum at nbc. if you want to influence a congressman, you have to send him a full beer can. jay leno went on to win the ratings war for 15 years. gradual gradually, dave made peace with it. he is more comfortable as the hipper, slightly skewed show with a slightly skewed attitude and being at number one. it doesn t matter what the ratings are. it really doesn t matter. the fact of the matter is dave is the best there ever was. dave started something. dave dave dave dave dave dave dave! in 2000, dave showed a much softer side after emergency heart bypass surgery and five weeks of ott off the air, giving a touching tribute to the hospital staff that helped him. these men and women right here saved my life. and when dave shows his human side, it s a real treat. you re like, oh, what is going on here, who is this person we
conan o brien, then in high school. and it s very hard to explain that to people today. this guy was 180 degrees different from anything you had seen in that kind of format. would you like a tissue? thank you. the whole thing felt wrong/perfect. maybe perfect for conan but a poor fit for the time slot. after four months, david letterman was canceled. he thought his career was over. he was about as devastated as you could be. i think he remained for a lot of his career consumed with self-doubt. but nbc brass had other plans for dave. david letterman! dave letterman, come on, everybody up. in 1982 dave landed late night airing at 12:30 a.m., right after his hero johnny carson. so that s what they re doing. a dream job in a time slot so late you really could do anything he wanted on air.
Didn t know? the episode earned an emmy nomination. the year later, the september after the 11th, he couldn t hold back his emotion. i was in the makeup room with him. he was pacing and trying to figure out what he would say. if you live to be a thousand years old will that make any sense to you? will that make any goddamn sense? letterman was the first late night host back on air. he made it okay to start laughing again. fatherhood also changed him. in 2003, he and his girlfriend had a son harry named after dave s late father. it s been really sweet to get to see these big moments in his life, from his heart surgery to the birth of his son and then i think as he s getten older we got to know him a little bit. your life doesn t really begin in the important ways until you ve had a child. when we come back, a
And i had a shot of her. it got big, bill laughs. turn the volume down immediately! she can t be stopped. nonstop laughs. yet writer steve o donnell said dave never thought he was good enough. i think it could be painful for people close to him. i have saved dozens of little notes he wrote and they were like i hate myself and standby show. he would underline that. even as he worried about his own success on cbs, dave paid it forward just as carson had done for him. you better be as good as letterman! i ll give it a shot. he should maybe put him away. conan o brien was a virtual unknown when he replaced dave on nbc s late night. i was being pummelled to death on television every night. hey, hey. we d only been on the air just a couple of months, and dave came on as a guest.
This morning i wake up and next to me in bed is the head of a peacock. so i don t know. broadway s ed sullivan theater. it s a marvelous, wonderful edifice, and we couldn t be happier to be here. august 1993. the thing more than anything else, it was the double balcony, and it was enormous. ladies and gentlemen, we have a wonderful program tonight, bill murray, billy joel. dave s first night on a new network. welcome broadway, baby. in a new time slot. when the dust of the late night war settled, jay leno had the tonight show and dave had a multimillion-dollar deal with cbs. it was a risky move. cbs did not have anything in their history of late night. so letterman comes on, and his first few months on the air was absolute can t-miss television. it s a joke, okay? it is me, you jerk.
Night host in history. the one fixed point in the ever changing late night sky. he s had more than 18,000 guests. howard stern. many of them regulars. a little thing right in there. yeah. julia roberts [ applause ] you know, there was a time, dave, when i asked you on a date. turn off the cameras. clear the audience, turn off the cameras. after more than 30 years on air for letterman, his younger rivals are grabbing those coveted younger viewers. . i want to rock right now he s not surprising anyone at this point by being david letterman. and yet he s still doing things
Many of them, regulars. no! a little thing right in there. yeah! julia roberts! you know, there was a time, dave, when i asked you on a date. wait a minute, turn off the cameras! clear the audience. turn off the cameras! jerry seinfeld. i m not going to mexico. why would i? their food is already here. after more than 30 years on air for letterman, his younger rivals are grabbing those coveted viewers. i want to rock right now you know, he s not surprising anybody at this point by being david letterman. we all know what david letterman is. yet he s still doing things you absolutely have to see. it s too damned hot! there you go! late-night observer bill carter has been seeing signs that dave has been winding down. he really hasn t done any of the bits he used to do.
On air for letterman, his younger rivals are grabbing those coveted viewers. i want to rock right now you know, he s not surprising anybody at this point by being david letterman. we all know what david letterman is. yet he s still doing things you absolutely have to see. it s too damned hot! there you go! late-night observer bill carter has been seeing signs that dave has been winding down. he really hasn t done any of the bits he used to do. he doesn t really he doesn t even go to rehearsal. there are people who say he probably should have left when he was closer to the peak. but i think it s really been very hard for him. when this show stops being fun, i will retire ten years later. then, last april, letterman made a shocking reveal about a
Letterman s late show. it really hurt letterman and it became an extremely difficult struggle for him to count all that momentum at nbc. if you want to influence a congressman, you have to send him a full beer can. that s not jay leno went on to win the ratings wars for 15 years. gradually, dave made peace with it. he is more comfortable as the hipper, slightly skewed show with the slightly skewed attitude than being at number one. it doesn t matter what the ratings are. it really doesn t matter. the fact of the matter is, dave is the best there ever was. dave started something. in 2000, dave showed a much softer side after emergency heart bypass surgery and five weeks off the air, he returned, giving a touching tribute to the hospital staff who helped him. these men and women right here saved my life. and when dave shows his human