Letterman

I haven't watched in a long, long time.

But there was a time when I couldn't miss it. It was the SNL of its day. It was our program. With our sensibilities and irreverence.

Yes, once upon a time the baby boomers were the younger generation, champing at the bit to replace our parents. But now we're fading off into the sunset, just like Dave.

It's hard getting old. You lose the drive. The need to prove yourself. To pull yourself up and demonstrate that you're worthwhile. Age and you start to accept who you are and where you are, the die has been cast, your fate has been determined.

Get old and you don't want to try new products, you believe efforts to change the world are futile, you know life is no longer about acquisitions but stories. Friendships and the tales that are told are everything. If you watch late night TV...you don't, because you're already asleep. And if you're up at that hour, you're watching Netflix, or your DVR, not the endless parade of celebrities selling stuff.

But at first, those celebrities wouldn't do Dave's show. He was on uber-late, when VCRs were just becoming ubiquitous, when the only people up were us.

So suddenly we knew who Larry "Bud" Melman was. Biff was one of our friends. The whole menagerie of people on the show...we knew them, long before we were familiar with Howard Stern's Wack Pack.

Yes, Letterman was the first person to put Howard on national television. And show business is all about loyalty, Howard's never forgotten it. And Howard's hitting his stride right now.

But Dave is getting out of the way.

You could see it coming. His talk of antidepressants. Going on Alec Baldwin's podcast and declaring that he just didn't have it in him to work that hard anymore, to come up with all those stunts.

Many of which were conceived by his then girlfriend Merrill Markoe, who has been forgotten to history. Ain't that always the case. The manager or the label may make all the money, but the act gets the fame, and fame is forever.

You watched to see what they'd come up with next. Not only Stupid Pet Tricks and the Alka-Seltzer suit, but the location shoots, how they made Sirajul and Mujibur stars. Unlike today, Letterman and company were poking fun at show business, as if to say I KNOW I'M A GAP-TOOTHED COMEDIAN, I KNOW I'M ONLY HERE TEMPORARILY!

If you don't drink the kool-aid, you can have fun with it.

And Dave did.

Until he moved to 11:35.

Then he put on a suit, got rid of the wrestling shoes and sport jacket, he got slick, but we didn't care, because suddenly Dave was God, back when whomever aired at 11:35 was so.

Those days are long gone.

But what killed Dave's reign at the top was hosting the Oscars. Because unlike phony actors, Dave's got an edge, he's not an air-kissing ass-kisser. As a result, the press turned on him and then the public and soon middle of the road Jay Leno held the crown, and mostly kept it in the ensuing decades.

Not that Dave was no longer good. It's just the era had passed. Kind of like Jimmy Page or Paul McCartney. They're still talented, they can still do good work, but it's not up to the standard of Zeppelin or the Beatles.

And one must mention acts, because Dave featured one every night, and although these performances could not mint instant stars, some were so powerful they could not be forgotten. Like Melissa Etheridge stamping her foot to "I'm The Only One." Or my personal favorite, Sinead O'Connor doing "You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart." I can still see them in my mind's eye. Back when music still ruled the culture, back when your performance was more important than your bank account.

And unlike Johnny, Dave didn't really do interviews, he wasn't so good at it. But hijinks would ensue.

And you never fast-forwarded past the monologue. Because the thrill was to watch Dave recover from the too often mediocre jokes that fell flat, twisting those lips, grimacing, tossing off a one liner.

And then there was the Top Ten list. Which triumphed because it was irrelevant.

And then there was Dave's mother, most memorably at the Olympics.

Dave may have revered Carson, but he made late night his own.

And now everybody does his show. It's comedy as opposed to interviews. But no one does it as well. And Jimmy Fallon's failing is he's nice, you can take him anywhere. Dave was not invited and stayed home anyway, knowing his job was TV host, not celebrity.

And he's still got it. You hear it on podcasts, you see it when he's got a favorite guest next to him, the sparks, the fun. It's not rehearsed, the key is to spar, top each other, get in a jab, it's not safe, at least it never was at 1:35.

But the truth is the format is antiquated. We don't all assemble in front of the set every night. An appearance barely moves the needle. And everybody's conscious of repurposing content for the web, where the eyeballs truly are.

But you have to wake up at some point and admit your time is done, that it's unseemly to compete with those far younger for eyeballs even younger than they are. You let it go.

But still, it's sad. It's the end of an era.

Derek Jeter did not invent baseball.

But David Letterman invented late night television. Or shall we say he changed the rules, modified the game. And we were drawn to him for just this reason. In a world where rules were everything, with so much money involved in network television, Dave was willing to throw out the book and go his own way.

So, so long Dave. You'll live on in our hearts. At least we baby boomers, whose lives were changed by you, you filled a niche we didn't know we had and your memory will be lost to the sands of time, but so will we.

And so long Jay Leno. You were the best comic of the era, Dave made you a star, but when you got your turn you believed ratings equaled quality and you kowtowed to your bosses, most of whom we don't remember the name of and are already gone.

And so long the era of the baby boomers. You were the largest segment of the population, you pushed and pulled and changed the world.

But now it's someone else's time.

And it won't be on late night television. It'll probably be online. But one thing we know for sure, the next star's luminance will be comprised of the same elements that made David Letterman king - irreverence, ingenuity and the ability to poke fun at yourself. Add to that a great team which Dave adored and respected and the belief that it was all about the show, hitting the note every night as opposed to embellishing his celebrity.

The Jimmys will keep talking. Conan will continue to labor in obscurity.

But now there will be a giant vacuum at the center. Because someone's got to lead. And the late night leader just hung up his gloves.

Melissa Etheridge "I'm The Only One": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARmH4FcDKHA

Sinead O'Connor "You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R759r_9-cs


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