Good Morning, Dave

It's not much fun living in this Dave-less world.  There are forever memories, and plenty o clips, but if the final Late Show montage with the Foo Fighters hit you like it did me, it was as final as anything else: all these comedy moments of your life, and now we're done.

Wait, who's "we?"  Dave might be done, but I'm not.  Why not use this space to explore that early oddity that rarely gets a mention, The David Letterman Show.

Footage of these episodes is relatively rare, but myself and other video collectors did our best then and now to preserve these gems until Dave wants to leave some extra cash behind and calls Shout Factory to put episodes on DVD.  

The 60 minute episodes are easier to find (perhaps due to impending cancellation) but the 90 minute episodes at the start are impossible.  Or are they?

Last year, the 2014 calendar matched 1980, so I watched what episodes were available as they happened.  For the 35th anniversary, I want to do the same...maybe not on the exact dates, but enough for you to get a feel of what was happening.

June 23rd, 1980: Gary Will might not have a VHS or Betamax available, but he has an audio cassette recorder.  And here we go:

Bob Sarlatte announces.  Notice that the audience is live for the voice over: probably a mistake.  Also notice that Edwin Newman reads the news in front of the audience.  That goes exactly as you'd think.  Even cooler to hear Gary himself laugh in the background.

Rough as it might be, enjoy.  As the Summer turns to Fall, I'll post more content to see how the show survives.