Scott Ryan - The Last Days Of Letterman

Table of Contents

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Xii.

Xiii.

Fayetteville Mafia Press

2018

This book is dedicated to that poor monkey on a rock.

The Last Days of Letterman

2018 Scott Ryan Productions

All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without the authors permission is strictly forbidden. This book is not affiliated with Worldwide Pants, Incorporated or CBS Corporation. All photos and/or copyrighted material appearing in this book remains the work of its owners.

Hard copy of the book, Cover designed by Mark Karis

Edited by David Bushman

Published in the USA by Fayetteville Mafia Press

in association with Scott Ryan Productions

Columbus, Ohio

Contact Information

Email: fayettevillemafiapress@gmail.com

Website: fayettevillemafiapress.com

ISBN: 978-1-949024-00-5

eBook ISBN: 978-1-949024-01-2

All pictures are used for editorial use only. The Last Days of Letterman is a scholarly work of review and commentary only, and no attempt is made or should be inferred to infringe upon the copyrights or trademarks of any corporation. All photos from the the Late Show are courtesy of the @Letterman Twitter, Facebook account, or CBS publicity. Personal photos were donated by Barbara Gaines, Brian Teta, Jill Goodwin, Jerry Foley, Lee Ellenberg, Janice Penino, Joe Grossman, Jeremy Weiner, Vincent Favale, Steve Young, Bill Scheft, Wayne Barnes, Randi Grossack, Rick Scheckman, and Scott Ryan.

(Spontaneous exchange just before reading Top Ten Memorable Moments in Comic Strip History, July 15, 2014. The list had been inspired by an item that the beloved Archie Comics series would end in the next issue with the accidental murder of Archie.)

DAVE: So, thats it. Archies dead. Gone. Adios. Whats going to happen to Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie? Theyre all unemployed.

PAUL: Archie made specific instructions that his staff would continue to be paid after he was killed.

In ten years of all-boys boarding schools, I had two headmasters. Both had catchphrases they were fond of. One, David Pynchon of Deerfield Academy, would constantly use a line he copped from his predecessor, Frank Boyden: Finish up strong. The other, Robert P.T. Coffin, Jr., of the Fessenden School, frequently trotted out one that was all his: Twenty minutes to pack and leave. (If I find a pack of cigarettes in a boys desk, Ill give him twenty minutes to pack and leave.... If I hear a boy talk back to one of the kitchen staff, twenty minutes to pack and leave.... If I see a boy wearing underpants on his head without a note from the school nurse, twenty minutes to pack and leave....)

Both turns of phrase lovingly apply to whatever it was that transpired in the last six weeks of the late-night life of David Letterman. Not the underwear on the head, but the rest of it.

We really did finish up strong. Ask anyone. Ask all the not-yet-fake media people who called the last show perfect and all those viewers who met Dave for the first time on his way out and all the prodigal devotees who flocked back to the dock where they might not have trod since half-past NBC to see him off.

But dont ask any of us. We were in the middle of it. Carried by a momentum that built on itself, rather than the lurching adrenaline-based urgency of getting a strip (nightly) show on the air and in the ether five times a week.

I am living these shows, executive producer Barbara Gaines said to me on more than a few occasions. We all were. We all knew it, and we didnt. We knew it because we knew it was unavoidable and finite. We didnt because when it was over, we got twenty minutes to pack and leave. Like it never happened.

So, I dont know about the rest of you, but I would love to know what happened. If only there was a book....

The irony that it takes an outsider to aptly chronicle the last twenty-eight installments of the Late Show is not lost on me, or any of us who alternately skipped and trudged that surreal road of destiny. I say surreal because I remember almost none of it now, just what I am without. Which was the all-oars-pulling pursuit of a glorious finish, but not thinking about the, you know, end.

You dont see this scene on TV anymore, but you used to all the time. Its the scene where the guy has finally left his wife and moved in with the girlfriend. And theyre all set up in the new apartment and its about a month in and one night after dinner the girlfriend walks into the kitchen and finds the guy sobbing over the sink. She thinks hes broken a glass and says, Hey, dont worry about it. But theres no broken glass. He just looks at her, blubbering, and says, I miss my family.

You dont see this scene anymore because television has decided its not realistic or relevant. And its not, unless instead of a month, its three years later and its you blubbering over the sink. And theres no broken glass. And no girlfriend. And no wife to go back to anymore. But you still miss your family.

You are going to see a lot of names here. Names you may have known. Names you didnt know, and frankly, should have. Names who humbly give credit to other names. Names worth fifty points in Scrabble (Mike Buczkiewicz). Pay attention, I am begging you.

Bill Scheft (Late Night 1991-1993, Late Show 1993-2015)

Manhattan

March 2018

Barbara Gaines and Bill Scheft. Photo courtesy of Bill Scheft.

Listed here are the people who were interviewed for this book, their job title at the end of the series, and the day they were interviewed.

Barbara Gaines - Executive Producer - August 4 & December 5, 2017

Sheila Rogers - Supervising Producer/Talent Executive - August 10, 2017

Randi Grossack - Associate Director - August 17, 2017

Kathy Mavrikakis - Supervising Producer - August 22, 2017

Rick Scheckman - Associate Producer - August 25, 2017

Brian Teta - Supervising Producer/Segment Producer - August 31, 2017

Sheryl Zelikson - Music Producer - September 7, 2017

Jay Johnson - Creative Director, Digital Media - September 18, 2017

Jerry Foley - Director - September 19, 2017

Michael Barrie - Writer- September 21, 2017

Lee Ellenberg - Writer - September 25, 2017

Jim Mulholland - Writer - September 26, 2017

Joe Grossman - Writer - September 27, 2017

Jeremy Weiner - Writer - September 28, 2017

Steve Young - Writer - October 3, 2017

Vincent Favale - East Coast Executive, Late Night Programing, CBS - October 11, 2017

Eddie Valk - Stage Manager - October 26, 2017

Bill Scheft - Writer - November 14, 2017, & quotes from his blog

Janice Penino - Vice President, Human Resources Worldwide Pants - November 16, 2017