For those of you who are too young or too old to remember, the 1980s were a terrible time. We’ve touched on this before, but it might have been the one decade in which it was cool to be conservative. Smug assholes like Reagan, Alex P Keaton, and P. J. O’Rourke were everywhere. I mean, you think you see too much of Donald Trump now?
The late ’80s were particularly bad — Willie Horton ads, the pledge of allegiance, a thousand points of light. Most days, I couldn’t take it all anymore by about 5 or 6 pm (it would have been earlier had I not slept til noon), and I’d spend the remainder of the day just waiting for Dave to come on, so I could laugh bitterly at it all for a little while.
There was very little in 1980s popular culture that was weird or subversive. People talk about how much they love the “Breakfast Club” but it always seemed to me it was about a bunch of justifiably miserable misfits brainwashing each other into being shiny, happy citizens. The 12:30 Late Night show was weird, with Larry Bud Melman and watermelons being dropped off buildings. Once George Clinton was a guest and he told Dave that the show was an inspiration to him, that it was out there in the same way his own act was out there (what higher praise can there be?).
Before I read this excellent article about Dave, I had forgotten how great the beginning of the very first show was:
“Good evening. Certain NBC executives feel it would be a little unkind to present this show without a word of friendly warning,” Melman deadpanned. “We are about to unfold a show featuring David Letterman, a man of science who sought to create a show after his own image without reckoning upon God. It’s one of the strangest tales ever told. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So if any of you feel that you don’t care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now is your chance to . . . Well, we warned you.”
What was your favorite bit ever on Letterman? I think I’ll go with the recurring character Dwight The Troubled Teen or Chris Elliot as The Guy Under The Seats or maybe Father Biff.