David Letterman talks Trump, being wrong in 2016, and his late-night legacy.
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Tell me about Las Vegas, the late-night legend says, inquiring about the city where I grew up.
Twenty seven years later, and five years after his finalLate Showwas broadcast, Lettermans interest feels completely genuine.
The good thing about getting that much snow now: It puts an end to the fire season.
And I guess, sadly, the fire season in California is pretty much year-round now.
But in Montana, the snow signals the end of that.
Well, thats good.
I mean, people enjoy raking leaves, I know I do.
Turn me loose with a rake and a hundred-thousand acres of forest land and thats my weekend.
Well, thats a good transition to my first question.
No, it wasnt Thomas Friedman.
It was the guy on thePBS NewsHour, the Republican pundit, David Brooks.
He had said that he would win the primaries but be crushed in the general.
And I thought,Okay, David Brooks.
Thats good enough for me.
Well, that didnt happen.
It was sort of a coin flip because of the popular versus the electoral vote.
And if you were there Im sorry, but I did buy everyone earrings.
Well get them right out to you, Joe.
[Lettermans dog starts barking.]
Geez, now theres my dog.
It certainly will be a relief to me and my family, and I think generally the population.
Im more confident now than I was then, and I was pretty confident then.
I dont think Ill be wrong this time.
I thought,This is not right.
Even ill-informed people like myself know that this is not right.The press is not the enemy of the people.
The press educates the people.
The press informs the people.
Having said that, as we know, things have gotten worse.
But Im tired of criticizing the president.
Im tired of criticizing the administration.
Im tired of moaning and hand-wringing.
I think this man is a bully, and bullies frighten people.
But just by voting, I think thats going to be the end of it.
Youve talked before about howyou maybe regrettedyour fake apology to Trump for calling him a racist.
You said you did it because he made for great TV.
I had to do a nightly show, and I didnt know then what I know now.
I shouldve known more about what he was up to, but I just didnt.
I have always sort of felt that smart people were not racists.
I didnt know that it seemed to be genetic in his case.
Lets talk about the new season of the Netflix show.
You did stand-up when you went to interview Dave Chappelle in Ohio.
And [Chappelle] was the emcee.
If Dave Chappelle is the emcee, youre reluctant to get out of the car.
Then the next thing you know, Dave is introducing me.
I go out there, and he handled it remarkably well superbly, as a matter of fact.
He made the audience there feel like I belonged onstage with him.
He was so generous and so supportive that my little two or three minutes was just fine.
It was a nice respite, but all credit to Dave Chappelle.
Hes really a master.
Did it reawaken any sense of you wanting to do more stand-up?
Thank you, and I think were finished here.
I mean, theres your headline, come on.
And the answer is, no.
At the end of your episode with Chappelle, he talks a lot about how much you inspired him.
A lot of modern comedy figures talk about how much of an inspiration you were to them.
You occupy that Carson space for a different generation.
I believed in my heart I was not worthy of it.
Because when youre doing a television show, thats all youre looking at.
Youre looking at the TV show and the audience and the material and the guests, and thats all.
Now that I have essentially passed away, to see it and to hear … Youve never been onSaturday Night Live.
And I never did it.
I dont have that, but it was my own foolishness.
Betty White came on in her 90s.
If you were asked now, do you think youd say yes?Oh, God, no.
No, thats three.
You know what Im talking about, Joe.
Whats your pop-culture consumption like right now, especially during the pandemic?
Do you watch a lot of television or movies?
Is it all news?
But not working, you have to go and look for it.
So that was my latest entry into the world of social media and pop culture.
And if thats what it is, Ill take all of that I can get.
Do you know who Im talking about?
The one withIn the Air Tonight by Phil Collinswas amazing.Oh, my goodness.
And then like everything else, you keep watching and watching and watching.
Ive wondered whetherTom Snyderwas at all an inspiration for what youre trying to do with the Netflix series.
It wasHouse to HouseorPerson to Person, orYou Are ThereorAnswer the Door, or whatever the show was.
I was talking like him.
My phraseology was the same.
My eyebrow work was quite similar, and I took it very earnestly.
Because at one time, Tom subsumed my personality.
I think your interview style now is very much David Letterman, though …Yeah.
A friend of mine is also just coming toThe Mary Tyler Moore Shownow.
But I fell in love with that all over again.
I can remember Ted Baxter theyre all getting ready to go to lunch.
What are you guys doing?
Oh, were going to lunch, Ted.
Oh, where are you going to have lunch?
Well, were going to go to that new Mexican restaurant around the corner.
And Ted says, Oh, I havent had New Mexican food since I was in Albuquerque.
And I thought,Come on.
Honest to God, thats as good as youre going to get.
If you had to sell a show, you could sell it on that one line.
I dont think in the half-hour form, theres been anything maybe things as funny, certainly not funnier.
I couldnt have been happier, because that was like a big deal.
It was an hour with Mary Tyler Moore, legitimately Americas sweetheart.
We came on Sunday nights, right after60 Minutes.
Then my heart started to sink every Wednesday when the choreographer would come in.
A couple of times they found me unconscious in a rental car out in the parking lot.
Because when I left, I got to keep my wardrobe.
Variety shows were almost on their way out by 1978.
You also had asmall career in game shows, too.
I love watching you onPasswordandPyramid.
Your game-show work, David.Oh, my game-show work.
I just want to say, speaking of Betty White, then speaking of Allen Ludden:Liars Club.
Those people had me on there like once a month, and I loved that show.
And again, nobody ever knew who I was, which was fine.
That was great because I was just a dope from Indiana.
Still am, by the way.
