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The Remote Island

Watch David Letterman's Morning Talk Show

Posted by Ben Kallen


In 1980, right before getting his first late-night program, David Letterman hosted an extremely short-lived morning talk show on NBC. It's no surprise that the show didn't succeed -- Dave's edgy, self-mocking humor was clearly not meant for morning TV, and the comedy bits made a poor match for such Today Show-style subjects as "the two-paycheck family." Instead of Paul Shaffer and the band, he had the low-key "Frank Owens and the Symphony Orchestra," and instead of jokes about the news, he had actual news updates from reporter Edwin Newman. 

But while it didn't work in its time, The David Letterman Show is fascinating to watch today. The program employed many of the same staffers who went on to create Dave's late-night shows on NBC and CBS, and you can see lots of similarities. If not for the outdated references, he might as well have delivered the monologues last week.

Some retro TV fans have just posted one of the episodes online, so check it out. You can watch the first segment above, and the rest here. 

 
Via TVTattle.com 

Previously:
Kiefer Sutherland's Jailhouse Education 
David Letterman and Gillian Anderson Relive Their Makeout Session 


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About Ben Kallen

Ben Kallen is an entertainment, health and humor writer who's been lectured to by Sidney Poitier, argued with by Lea Thompson and smiled at by Jennifer Connelly. He's the coauthor of The No S Diet and author of The Year in Weird, along with hundreds of magazine articles. He lives near the beach in Los Angeles, just like the gang from Three's Company.

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Lindy Parker has worked as a ghostwriter, editor, dance instructor and a purveyor of dreams, one beer at a time. She loves Charles Dickens and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and also, straight-to-video releases with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. It's possible she reads more teen fiction than she should. She hails from Los Angeles, her hometown and soul mate, but she lives in Brooklyn, the fling she'll never forget.

Olivia Purnell left Ohio for sunny Los Angeles; then found that she couldn’t ignore New York City’s call, and brought herself to Brooklyn where she has worked with GenArt, BlackBook, the School of American Ballet, and finished an M.A. in Creative Writing from N.Y.U. She loves one-liners with sting and hates the stench of the subway in the summer. That said, she can’t get enough of either.

Jake Kalish is a freelance journalist and humorist whose work has appeared in Details, Maxim, Stuff, New York Press, Spin, Blender, Men's Fitness, Poets and Writers, and Playboy, among other publications. He is also the author of Santa vs. Satan: The Official Compendium of Imaginary Fights.

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Ben Kallen is an entertainment, health and humor writer who's been lectured to by Sidney Poitier, argued with by Lea Thompson and smiled at by Jennifer Connelly. He's the coauthor of The No S Diet and author of The Year in Weird, along with hundreds of magazine articles. He lives near the beach in Los Angeles, just like the gang from Three's Company.

Nicole Ankowski has lived in Ohio, Oakland, and on the high plains of South Dakota, but is now proud to call Brooklyn home. She wrote for alternative weekly papers in the first two states, and tried to learn Lakota in the last. (The vowels can be tricky.) She just earned her MFA in Creative Writing and has been published in Beeswax literary journal. She is unable to resist good writing or bad TV.

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