Best interviews from "Late Night with David Letterman"

NBC used to rerun the show on their cable channel Trio, but once that channel was shut down, they've been hard to find via official channels.

A lot of great ones have been uploaded by fans, so I thought I'd curate some notable ones.

10/15/80: Andy Kaufman's second appearance on the morning show. Joaquin Phoenix's fake meltdown was a poor emulation of this.


1982: Andy Kaufman's famous appearance with Jerry Lawler (this is from the uncensored master)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1f2_01URYQ

8/23/82: Elvis Costello's first appearance, in support of Imperial Bedroom. Two numbers plus a full interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMspWrht0BE

5/16/85: Johnny Carson's first appearance as guest. Very clear how much Carson likes Dave and sees him as his successor, and just three years into the show's run too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roJg0d_4CGw

1986: Jack Paar making a rare TV appearance, and vocally giving his approval of Dave as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZlzrkLDRM

7/28/87: Crispin Glover, nearly kicking Letterman's head. It didn't get him banned though, he came back several times:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCaxKq5KFQM

And here was the follow-up weeks later where Glover was going to apologize and explain he was doing a performance piece, which he does but almost couldn't for obvious reasons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX1HWWiJnnM

8/5/87: Oliver Reed, angry and presumably drunk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPXMHZ4XEs0

8/31/88: Harvey Pekar, the one that got him banned from the show (but he was brought back as a guest in 1994 on the CBS show): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBr4NxujLvw

10/4/88: Shirley MacLaine, who came off as an angry nut, almost ripping off Dave's hair. For years, he would reference this in his interviews. (see the Julia Roberts interview below…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOqHFgn0LqY

11/3/88: Julia Roberts' first appearance. By the end, when she hangs around for the top ten, it's clear that she and Dave do have a rapport, and her habit of taking Dave's note cards is there from the start. (split into two parts)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka4qvXvePQ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENlSLcQKR80

1988; Madonna's first appearance, an unscheduled appearance facilitated by Sandra Bernhard, then a frequent guest. Wild and unpredictable. (Broken up in two parts, Madonna appears in the second)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtC4hhd4ZoI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUOLRa5EQpw

3/28/89: Not an interview, but the time Dave really pissed off Joan Collins when he tried to get her on the show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VM7wEItbiM

Added bonus from 1995: Dave's surprise visit to Conan when he interviews Collins. It's at the very end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o0cZDsdLXE

5/23/91: Johnny Carson's second and last appearance as guest, soon after he announces his retirement at the affiliates' convention that same day. (The news apparently stunned NBC.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z08wNRavFGg

 

1984: The "custom made show" interview with Jane Pauley, where she refuses to talk when the audience demands that they all sound like they inhaled helium:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Z4dyVANA8

And here's the time Letterman disrupted the Today Show's Miami Vice interview with a bullhorn, but this is the first time anyone's edited it so that you can see it simultaneously with both the Today Show and Late Night broadcasts, using the Today Show's own audio…

 

Warren Zevon -October 30, 2002

Still one of Dave's finest interviews.
RIP Warren Zevon

 

Bryant Gumbel was so angry about this. For years!

 

I'm normally a big Howard Stern fan, but he was a total a-hole to Dave on his final appearance a week or so ago. Howard kept haranguing Dave as to whether Letterman was going to move his family to Montana and wouldn't let up, and it just got awkward and uncomfortable. Sometimes, Howard can be funny as hell with Dave and they have a good back-and-forth, but this was not one of those times.

I have it on very good authority from somebody I've known for years that Mr. Gumbel was not a nice man and was not liked very much by the crew. They do like Matt Lauer, who is said to be a decent guy (despite the rift with Ann Curry).

 

Thanks for the links compiled in Thread

 

Indeed. Even though he tried to explain it on his next appearance, it was a bit hard because of the lack of Dave being in on it in the first place.

This is the movie that he was 'promoting', and I use that term loosely.

 

I definitely agree about Howard's appearance last week. Very awkward. I'm sure he did not mean it to come out that way but he really did come off as a tool rather than as "Howard".

Rickles was great as always, but I would have preferred him as a one on one with Dave with Howard waving bye bye at the previous commercial break.

Just my opinion, but I always thought Gumbel had prima donna written all over his smug, condescending countenance .

His famous memo about Willard Scott was beyond crass and mean-spirited, IMO.

The Kanye of morning TV news shows....

I am happy to hear that Matt Lauer is a decent guy as I do like him.

I thought it was unfortunate that a man in such a high visibility profession is going bald so quickly and at such a young age. I am impressed that he just kept cutting it shorter (my solution as well) and did not opt for a hairpiece.

Has nothing to do with what we are talking about but I still respect him for it ....: )

 

Here's two more

10/6/83 R.E.M.'s network debut, two songs and a brief interview, preceded by Julia Child and Dave crashing in on Sophia Loren, who was doing an interview on another show on the same floor.


11/20/85 Due to the record breaking heat and humidity (and the fact that the air conditioning system couldn't be turned on), the staff is too worn down to do a "real" show so they send the audience home and do a show in their offices. Also known as the episode where Dave convinces Terri Garr to take a shower in his office. Supposedly the two had the most flirtatious chemistry of all of Dave's guests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybGVtPL8R8A

 

Thank you much for this. I enjoyed watching it again, especially uncensored. I saw this when it was first broadacst and was hoaxed as well...

While watching this on YouTube I found a fascinating phone interview with Jerry Lawler where he discusses the entire "feud" from start to finish. You may be surprised to find that Lawler is a very sharp, articulate guy ...and a great story teller.

This clip is 36 minutes long, but I gotta tell ya....

I enjoyed every minute of it ...: )

 

Awful.

 

Some rarities from the CBS Late Show, apparently they aired Madonna's notorious March 31, 1994 appearance uncensored on Sky TV:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt_dprX_AcM

Plus the next night with Charles Grodin, which milks the previous night for a lot of material (Grodin is especially good):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDrBbreIpLU

 

I always liked the Ted Nugent interview in the early 80s. They gave Ted a guitar and he jammed from his seat. I remember it like it was yesterday.

 

I can't stand Ted, but I always loved that I had this clip in my collection:

 

Ah, so great to look back at the old Christmas sing-alongs. Ted does a nice take with Dave, did Dave have a bit of a cold that night?

 

Some more classics.

Howard Stern
June 19, 1984 (full show): Howard Stern's second appearance on the show. (The farewell shows identified this as the first, but broadcast guides list one previous appearance - haven't seen any clips from that show though.):


October 18, 1984, Stern's third appearance, where he came out with a phone in his pants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxodeMBU1PQ
(full show's also available on YouTube - Stern was the third guest after Tony Danza and Carl Lewis)

July 7, 1992, when Stern may have been at his peak, right around the time he was dubbed King of All Media. He goes off on Jay Leno and a behind-the-scenes incident with Sharon Stone that happened on Late Night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8xyHdjpHtA

Sharon Stone
April 10, 1992, more for context, this is the show Stern was referencing. Sharon Stone's second appearance, but the first as an A-list star. Basic Instinct had just opened, sending her career through the stratosphere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYCTd3enfnc

May 13, 1993, Stone's next appearance became memorable for its strange tension. (From the looks of it, Stone's mood completely changed when Letterman opens with a few questions about her previous marriage.) Stone would reference this a few years later when she was on The Late Show, telling Letterman he was nicer this time around, leading him to joke that he had switched to decaf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHfEgC2_T8Y

Pee Wee Herman
Always memorable on Letterman's shows, these shows were from the early years pre-dating his Saturday morning television show and Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

First appearance, September 22, 1982: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pLvkCJsgbA
Many appearances later, January 1984, with his stand-up bit "the boy who rang the bell in the church": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTzTKHEjW4Y

Harvey Pekar

October 15, 1986 (Full Show): For my money, Pekar, Herman and especially Andy Kaufman were strong contenders for Letterman's three best recurring guests, and they pretty much exemplify why the NBC show was better and more unique than the CBS show. Here's Pekar's first appearance, which was shown in its entirety in American Splendor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-AQXpWdVf0

Probably March 24, 1987, another memorable appearance and (if it is indeed the one from March) the last one before the two had a falling out. Again despite the ribbing, Letterman really liked Pekar (who ends the interview with one of his best lines).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9XzqnLLiqs

July 31, 1987: In American Splendor, this was the only Pekar appearance that was re-enacted rather than shown with archival clips, mainly because the original archival materials didn't play well in the context of the film. In fact, the film actually streamlined their falling out, compressing Pekar's last two Late Night appearances into one. The last one I put in the original post, but this is the second to last one, which was the visual model for the re-enactment in American Splendor (mainly for Pekar's shirt).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0akXKxbflM

Again, after their falling out, Letterman did patch things up with Pekar years later, having him on the CBS show for one, last appearance, where they briefly talked about Pekar's involvement in the movie that eventually became American Splendor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4-mVAqjawg (unfortunately watermarked - this is the only version on YouTube)

Teri Garr
November 15, 1983: A lot of her appearances are on YouTube. Already posted the one where she got in the shower, I think this is her second appearance, which I believe is also their first "custom made show" (where the audience picked Dr. Ruth over her as the first guest). When Garr later comes out, she tells Letterman that everyone has been telling her not to do his show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn2AYZg0elM

 

Jack Paar on Late Night in 1984, he gives Dave a quick tour of where his offices were when he hosted The Tonight Show before showing him a surprise left by Jim Henson & the Muppets when they made their TV debut on Paar's Tonight Show.

 

A Letterman Family Christmas, with Pat Boone and Brother Theodore

Just the intro to this show is hilarious

 

JPJ is unusually talkative here.

 

Surprised that someone still had a copy tape copy of Letterman's "holiday film festivals." These aired in primetime in the mid-80s (around the same season Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Harry Shearer et al revitalized SNL primarily through filmed bits, so maybe that influenced NBC to do this?)

A playlist for every short in the first special:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL94E432C06CF21A2F

The second special wasn't nearly as good but FWIW, the best one was Chris Elliot's bit:

 

For the Cub fans…

 

I saw this when it was first broadcast. It brought me back to those actual summer shows in the late 60s this was fondly recalling and making fun of at the same time. I remember when John Hartford did his song, I found myself tearing up a little. I thought it was beautiful and spot on. I was 21-22 at the time and was already nostalgic for that era....