Flash From The '80s

Over the last couple days I have been watching some of David Letterman's iteration of "Late Night". Naturally it is not available in its entirety, there being far too many episodes, but there are some bits and pieces that can be found on one video website or another. Individual interviews are there, such as ones with Harvey Pekar and Sandra Bernhardt, and there are some whole episodes out there as well, such as the two I watched yesterday whose guests included Dr. Ruth and Ron Silver.

It's a hell of a thing to think of what Letterman was doing at the time. It's true enough, I suppose, that he was building on what Steve Allen had done before him, but Letterman's brand of talk show (as it was then) feels revolutionary and subversive even today, and perhaps especially today. He was doing things that felt daring not because (or not solely because) they ran the risk of crossing a line, but because it felt crazy to devote real money, time and energy on things so silly or, at times, insubstantial.

He did a segment wherein he repeatedly passed through the same tollbooth, incrementally interviewing the booth attendant. He ran a fire extinguisher-powered chair sled race through the halls of his studio, with Bob Costas on hand to grant the proceedings undue gravitas. He had a radio-controlled caveman skull on wheels, and there were so many more things that were in a similar vein. To think that there was someone who did an entire episode of a talk show with the picture rotating on the viewer's television is still incredible.

Today Letterman does not do those things. He still was through the 90s and perhaps beyond, but his  show is a lower-key affair, sometimes very amiable but still prone to being stirred into high spirits by such a thing as another late night host triangle centering on Jay Leno. That's my perception anyway, though I am not the loyal viewer I once was. Even now though, I can tune in and see flashes of what was years ago.