Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS(NEW YORK) — David Letterman said goodbye to late-night TV and hello to retirement on Wednesday night, when his final episode of Late Show aired on CBS.
It was a star-studded finale for Letterman, who welcomed 10 favorite guests for one last Top Ten List: Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Peyton Manning, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Chris Rock, Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Martin, Barbara Walters and Alec Baldwin.
The topic was “Top Ten Things I’ve Always Wanted to Say to Dave.” Murray read the #1 item on the list: “Dave, I’ll never have the money I owe you.”
Here’s the complete list:
10. Alec Baldwin: “Of all the talk shows, yours was the most geographically convenient to my home.”
9. Barbara Walters: “Did you know you wear the same cologne as Moammar Gadhafi?”
8. Steve Martin: “Your extensive plastic surgery was a necessity and a mistake.”
7. Jerry Seinfeld: “I have no idea what I’ll do when you go off the air. You know, I just thought of something. I’ll be fine.”
6. Jim Carrey: “Honestly, Dave, I’ve always found you to be a bit of an over-actor.”
5. Chris Rock: “I’m just glad your show is being given to a white guy.”
4. Julia Louis-Dreyfus: “Thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale.”
3. Peyton Manning: “You are to comedy what I am to…comedy.”
2. Tina Fey: “Thanks for finally proving men can be funny.”
1. Bill Murray: “Dave, I’ll never have the money I owe you.”
The episode began with a taped introduction in which President Gerald Ford’s famous declaration following President Richard Nixon’s resignation, “Our long national nightmare is over,” was repeated byPresident Barack Obama and former Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Obama added, “Letterman is retiring.” Letterman then joined Obama and asked, “You’re just kidding, right?”
Letterman’s farewell, which extended beyond the Late Show‘s usual one-hour time slot, also featured a short animated bit from The Simpsons, clips of the host’s most memorable sketches, and a behind-the-scenes look at Letterman at work.
In a poignant moment, Letterman, 68, thanked his wife Regina and their son Harry, who were in the audience. He remarked, “Seriously, just thank you for being my family. I love you both and, really, nothing else matters, does it?”
He also thanked Paul Shaffer and the members of the CBS Orchestra; various Late Show staffers; and the viewers at home.
Letterman acknowledged his successor, Stephen Colbert, during the broadcast, saying, “I’m very excited. I think he’s going to do a wonderful job and I wish Stephen and his staff and crew nothing but the greatest success.”
Foo Fighters closed the show with a performance of one of their biggest hits, “Everlong” — a song the band previously performed on Late Show when Letterman returned following heart surgery in 2000. The performance was accompanied by highlights of Letterman’s 33 years in late night.
In introducing the Foo Fighters, Letterman said, “The only thing I have left to do, for the last time on a television program, thank you and good night.”
After a failed experiment in morning TV, Letterman launched his late-night TV career with NBC’s Late Night in 1982. Letterman moved on to CBS and Late Show after losing out on The Tonight Show hosting gig to Jay Leno in the wake of Johnny Carson’s retirement a decade later.
Letterman experienced a few bumps during his Late Show run. As previously mentioned, he missed time in 2000 after undergoing heart surgery. Upon his return, he brought onto the show many of the doctors and nurses who treated him.
He also missed a month in 2003 due to a bout with shingles.
In 2009, Letterman shocked viewers by admitting he’d had affairs with staff members that led to him being the target of an extortion plot by a CBS producer.
Letterman hosted more than six thousand broadcasts on late-night TV, including more than 42 hundred on CBS.
Following Letterman’s finale, The Late Late Show host James Corden saluted him both in his monologue and in a taped segment in which he and Sting performed “Every Breath You Take” in front of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, where Letterman taped his program.
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
