Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 26, 1993 TAG: 9306280270
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
David Letterman closed out a Top 11 list Friday night - or more precisely 11 1/2. The gap-toothed maestro of postmodern silliness ended his 11 1/2-year tenure as host of NBC's "Late Night" and welcomed as his surprise guest Bruce Springsteen.
He joked in his signature Top Letterman 10 list that among the things he had to do before leaving NBC were to "drop off hairpiece at security desk" and "get one more cheap laugh by saying the word `Buttafuoco."'
Before bringing on Springsteen 45 minutes into the show, Letterman said he had had every guest on his show that he'd wanted except one, and that was the singer. "Better late than never," Letterman said, moments before Springsteen performed "Glory Days."
Tom Hanks was the first guest Friday night, but Letterman had refused to divulge who else would be appearing on the show. All he would say was that it was someone who had never before been booked on "Late Night."
Letterman's Friday night finale and 1,809th outing from Studio 6A in Rockefeller Center concluded a boisterous few days that recalled a schoolboy's excitement at the end of the term.
Then, after summer vacation, Letterman graduates to CBS, a $14 million annual paycheck, and a new talk show. "Late Show with David Letterman," with a weeknight start time an hour earlier (11:35 p.m.), premieres Aug. 30.
"This is the kind of stuff CBS is just dying to get their hands on," a barely-able-to-contain-himself Letterman cackled during a zany week when:
A man in a green-pea costume raced through the studio, showering green peas from his basket onto the crowd;
Julia Child got Letterman up to his elbows in a cooking session;
Dave announced former "Late Night" writer-player Chris Elliott as a guest, then, at hour's end, wickedly explained that time had run out and Elliott had been rescheduled - for next Wednesday's show that will never come;
Stagehands pried a studio clock off its moorings for Dave to present to guest Garry Shandling.
"Let Conan O'Brien get his own clock," said Letterman, referring to NBC's replacement who launches a new "Late Night" from 6A in late August or early September.
In the meantime, NBC will air Letterman reruns at 12:35 a.m.
The network plans to turn the abandoned "Late Night" set into a theme park - or so the comedian cracked on Thursday night's show.
But if the network really did, fans would probably come.
In the looming art deco lobby of the GE Building that NBC calls home, eager "Late Night" ticket-holders were queuing up by 3 p.m. for the 5:30 taping.
\ DAVE'S LAST LIST\ `THE TOP 10 THINGS I HAVE TO DO I BEFORE LEAVE NBC'\ \ 10. Drop off hairpiece at security desk.\ 9. Vacuum out (announcer Bill) Wendell and write down his mileage.\ 8. One final "turn your head and cough" visit to NBC nurse.\ 7. Steal my weight in office supplies.\ 6. Let my plastic surgeon step out and take a bow - this has been his show\ as much as mine.\ 5. One last hot-oil rubdown from the knowing hands of Mr. John Chancellor.\ 4. Return artificial leg to props department.\ 3. Get one more cheap laugh by saying the word "Buttafuoco."\ 2. Send change-of-address forms to that woman who breaks into my house.\ 1. Untie Willard.
by CNB