I watched David Letterman religiously when he was on late at night on NBC. After he moved to CBS, I rarely watched him. The reason I didn’t watch him was a combination of him adopting a less quirky style to suite the 11 o’clock time slot and me just growing up and not being as interested in watching talk shows on television. So, for over twenty years, Dave did his thing on CBS and I barely noticed. I tuned in every once in a while, like when high school friends Blues Traveler made an appearance, but his show was not a significant part of my life. Still, I feel like I know exactly who Dave Letterman is because I got to know him so well when I was a teenager and he was just starting out as a host.
I wasn’t interested in watching his show, but I did find it interesting on the few occasions that I actually watched it. I like his style of humor. I can’t say the same thing about Jay Leno. I liked it when Jay Leno would ask random people on the street questions about current events and they would fail miserably. But his monologues were cheap and his interviews were fawning. I almost resented it on the few occasions when Leno actually made me laugh. I felt cheap about it.
I think there two kinds of people. The people who want the entertainer to do all their work for them preferred Leno. The people who wanted to listen to someone who was in on the joke preferred Letterman.
Sometime next year, Letterman will retire, and the best late night host in history will be gone.
It won’t change my life, but it will still create a void.
