While the initial reviews for The David Letterman Show were kind, the ratings, well...they weren't good. Affiliates, seeing a problem in the summer (one they wanted solved, one way or another by the fall) were nervous. Let Fred Silverman, the man who made the move, tell it (as he does in the e-book "And Now..." by Brian Abrams):
"The affiliates were very impatient with the morning show. The numbers, my God, when you got out of New York and in a couple other big cities, they were minuscule. That forced us to shorten the show to 60 minutes."
The changes in the first week of August to the show were more than just the show's length and NBC's daytime line-up (viewers could now enjoy
Wheel of Fortune,
Password Plus, and
Card Sharks after Dave.) It also meant new producer Barry Sand turned the focus of the show entirely to Dave, and less of the "family of characters" that had previously joined Dave each morning. With 30 fewer minutes to fill, this seems to make sense.
"...and so what I did was, and it was very painful, I had to ask a lot of very talented people to leave. And a lot of 'em didn't come back for Late Night."
-Producer Barry Sand in "And Now..."
NBC staff announcer Bill Wendell joined the show (a recognizable voice that lasted with Dave until early in the CBS run), and a new opening montage (but same theme) were all part of the face lift. While this wouldn't make much of a difference in terms of this show's performance, it did set the foundation for what would be much of the tone of Late Night with David Letterman.
Later this month - clips, pictures, and other artifacts begin to surface...
