So you have to understand, I modeled my entire junior high persona after David Letterman. Back then I had to record Late Night on our VCR and watch it after school. It came on way too late for a seventh grader. Channel 4, at that time the NBC affiliate in Kansas City, shoved in Wheel of Fortune in between The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman. So Letterman didn't come on until midnight.
Letterman back then was bizarre and weird and edgy. His humor was even more caustic in those days. Being snarky and sarcastic seemed the perfect defense for a seventh grader who wasn't the fastest, tallest or best looking kid in class. So I loved Late Night. Watching that show made you feel like you were part of some inside joke told by cool weirdos.
Then Letterman got shafted out of the Tonight Show gig and watching him on CBS was like thumbing your nose at Jay Leno and the establishment Leno represented. I always thought Leno personified the dumbing down of America. He was a corporate stooge in my eyes.
I was a junior in college when Letterman moved to the Late Show. Things were definitely different at the Ed Sullivan Theater. He tried to broaden his appeal and some of his edginess softened. The Late Show was great but it rarely reached the bizarreness of Late Night. After I got a real job and a kid we only watched the Late Show during the summers and then only sporadically. It seemed to have grown a bit repetitive to me.
But I will miss Letterman. He's a part of my early adolescence. I adopted his demeanor and style of humor for many difficult years in the jungle of junior high and early high school. It is truly the end of an era for many of us who grew up watching him. Bye Dave.
