David Letterman on Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, November 8, 1995

[Music] good evening folks and welcome back everybody I'm Tom and this is the simulcast on the air now on CBS radio and television for Wednesday night were at midweek November the 8th 1995 our colleague in late night on CBS David Letterman is with us says he visits Southern California tonight and Richard Reeves on today's surprising to some announcement by Colin Powell that he will not seek the Republican or any other nomination for the presidency or vice presidency in 1996 you know there was a story about this on Reuters very early this morning before he made the announcement and the speculation beforehand was that he would not make the race because the assassination of Itzhak Rabine over this past weekend made him pause and take notice of the fact that he too might be a target for a gunman's bullet and if that was a part of his decision what a tragic day for civilization as we approach the end of the 20th century that a man who in so many ways is so qualified to be a leader of this country would make a decision partially based on the fact that he might face an assassin's bullet what a terrible way to ponder a decision in 1995-1996 anyway I had a letter today from a fellow who wants to be the coordinator for the studio audience of the Late Late Show we don't have a studio audience but he was very serious he said you know I noticed that you have a lot of producers and very few guests and I thought that since you didn't have a studio audience I could be the studio audience coordinator for The Late Late Show so I sent him back a letter tonight I said dear friend I said we have decided that you are in fact the studio audience coordinator for The Late Late Show but since there is none there's no salary but the benefit is you get to work at home don't ever have to come in here then another fella wrote in here I was interviewing suit and last week number the murder murder mystery novelist and I asked her if she had how can I put this now as I did then FY money I remember she said yes I have plenty of it and he said could you explain to me what is FY money and I send it back a note that was as non explicit as I could make it I said dear sir that is having enough cash in your pocket so if anybody gets in your way you can tell them FY and I said it's a wonderful feeling to have back with David Letterman who was the star of The Late Show here on CBS fire up the color t knees watch the pictures as they fly through the air and thanks for watching everybody [Music] I have the same thing yes we did you think your mother to the Beller don't do this to me don't do this to me no this is why you died out here the dear lovely will your person she gets a Hamburg here's a man who was Henry Victor in late-night television since 1982 David Letterman the star of The Late Show on CBS welcome to the provinces and thanks for coming you don't I'm just fine I see you buddy you know what I'm working on here don't you yes sir the first time I was on this show I was the worst guest you've had in 188 no sir you weren't I'm I want to fight that I want to lose that I want to beat it down let me let me ask me really really good tonight well let me ask you something that's really really I'm sure everybody only lonefire how surprised were you last week when you were quoted in the New York Daily News as saying at the end of your present contract you plan to retire knowing full well that that takes you to the year 2001 when in fact if you read The Daily News it would appear that Dave was leaving last weekend when she a little bit surprised no it was I wasn't surprised by the fact of it because this is something that I've said four or five times in my career when people come to interview you you know like you if we're on long enough tonight you'll get around to this question as well how much longer do you think you can do this and so I always try and give my best most thoughtful most considerate answer and you sort of look ahead and you think well is there a landmark coming up is there a signpost and I thought okay maybe at the end of my current contract not even knowing when the current contract comes to an end and it turns out is like five six years 2000 2001 or whatever so that's what I said and that's what I believed and I think it's fair enough and a reasonable enough thing to have said so and the fact that it was in the article didn't surprise me Holl all due respect Eric mink the man who wrote the article what are you doing with your leg for God I'm just putting it over the chair I'll be companies man and so but but I thought I think the reaction to it I just found silly frivolous and a waste of time it really that that part of it really annoyed me because the the inference that people seem to it was coming the day after tomorrow you were late that's right if he's quitting he's fed up and so well then I just I just thought no no no no no this is one of the few times in my adult life that I know for a fact right to be straight I am reasonable here and the reaction the response to this is unreasonable so I felt pretty good about that I said geez I wish it had money on this but you know how you make money bettin with yourself you have expressed you took your mother to the bel-air Country Club and bought her a hamburger that's correct but that's not why you're here let me ask you about your exasperation which you've expressed publicly and which you've joked about on your program about CBS and the fact that the network is underperforming expectations for the 1995-1996 season as it relates to your own rating well yeah but you know the truth of it is people get tired of hearing me whining about this and the only reason we bring it up at all is because people are always saying well what's the matter with the show why does it suck why do you suck why are the ratings not where you want them and so after a while you have to think oh it ain't my fault and you know that's just human nature so we blame it on somebody else I was talking to Maureen Dowd it was nice enough to waste some of her evening with me the other night on the telephone and we're chatting about this back and forth and back and forth and much the same about the retirement and all of that stuff and she says seriously what's going on with the network and I went through my song and dance about you know we got our problems we're working hard we're gonna fix this we're gonna do that yeah you know I'm gonna get different to have different hair color anything you want it's gonna be great but you know the network also has some problems right and then I said Maureen between you and me if CBS was an airplane I wouldn't fly at the Buffalo [Laughter] Creek do you take great delight and putting down CBS but certainly you don't want their fortunes to continue as they are everything more are saying for God's sake let's keep this Network failing so Letterman doesn't succeed take a deep breath and before you know it 50 60 years from now we'll be back on top mark my word but you forget NBC when you first arrived there in the late 1970s and 1980s I made fun of NBC I made fun of General Electric when I worked in local television I used to make fun of Africa broadcasting which owned it then and prior to that it was Crosley you did it's something you do it's a device and Lord knows nothing I can say or do on television 11:35 on CBS or what's left of it it wouldn't fly it to Buffalo can in any way injure or damage the interest pursuits of dreams visions of the Lawrence Tisch so it's it's all silliness and and you know I'm I'm getting tired of me talking about it and I know everybody else is so what the hell you just is it is it possible that people are tired of watching did you get her the jell-o salad as well is to get her outside of the jell-o salad time but it Sam burger is it possible that people are tired of watching David Letterman make fun of CBS I suppose I suppose but you know the truth of it is it's it's a device it's a you walk into a room what can we make fun of we make fun of the Ed Sullivan Theater we make fun of myself I make fun of Paul I make fun of bill Wendell oh wait a minute he's not there anymore I make fun of myself at you know you just go by your best instincts and and if your instincts are on the money then everybody loves you and if you're you know wide to the right so what take four and go to first I have no idea what that means you are on a roll in Los Angeles you've done well here for three nights we're enjoying ourselves in LA say I know your art shows on the is great fun it's it's nice to be back in a studio we're in this big theater in New York City which is altogether a different experience for a television show a good experience but a different experience but you know as all of us do we begin in studios and it's it's fun to have the comfort and confidence that that supplies there are stories in many papers this morning that the Late Show is considering moving to Los Angeles I think we would consider it I think we would consider it I don't know how soon or when but I think obviously we would consider it everything here there's no surprise as a little easier than life in New York City and not as many obstacles and fraught with a little less drama so we might consider it what about the availability of guests in Los Angeles well they're all here they're all here Tom it's the show business capital of the world my gosh they're all here now from Jamie Farr to Suzanne Somers they're all here not Marv Albert mayor Giuliani not mayor Giuliani but you get that equal Antonio mattock Mayor Reardon said who it is Reardon there is speculation in the press that there is in fact conversation now going on between worldwide pants your company and CBS to move the show to Los Angeles it's news to me it's news to me I better get to work early to read the newsletter because I and God bless him more power to him what is it like fries to be Rives to get mom fries mashed potatoes far hello man what is it like to be in the paper day after day after day ok I crave it jei wins Dave wins Dave getting clobbered Jay getting plugger I crave the attention I can't get enough no sir it's more ink after a while as with most things in life you become a nerd to it and but you learn from it if it's if it's an ongoing negative assessment of your work I think it provides overview and perspective that you don't have when you're you know in the trench doing it every day and then it's not a bad idea to stick your head up and let a bullet graze you so it's it doesn't bother me and in many respects I think it's constructive now in the beginning the first time it happens it really it knocks the wind out of you because you come to television you think okay get ready we got all the answers in two weeks later somebody takes you apart you realize how Wow excuse me and then it's hurtful it's painful but you know I've been doing this more or less for 20 years or so so you you try and use it as something constructive did you make a decision when the OJ Simpson trial began or when the matter first came up in the press that you would not do OJ jokes there was it wasn't I don't know if it was a decision I just felt that to me the whole thing was a matter of access where does this circumstance provide access for me and my sense of humor and I found it deeply confusing and troubling because at the core of it you had something grisly and obscene and so with that as the core again where is the access and and I stumbled and thumb Ferdinand felt like alright let's lay off of it but then it as it went on and on and on it seemed to lift to another level unfortunately sometimes I think people and still today have lost sight of what was at the core but and throughout the whole thing and even today I'm still not comfortable I have no confidence that my inroad to this to exploit it in a humorous fashion is right as accurate as true so me personally well either seems pitifully selfish and short-sighted in small-minded I I'm happy that that aspect of it at least has passed because I felt I felt uncomfortable and never really really confident how tough is it to go out and be funny what a tragedy has happened for example this Monday night you have to go on and be funny in the wake of a weekend in which the world mourns the passing of the president of his right right that was a little less problematic for us in that it happened during the weekend I think the the the big example for us was when the Challenger exploded okay because that was I think a Thursday Thursday I don't know forgive me if I don't have the day weekday morning right and we saw that saw the videotape of the debris raining from the sky for two minutes and we saw it and ingested it and digested it and let it sink and suffocate us as did everybody who was around and aware at the time and then we had to go on and do our little nickel and dime a dog and pony show at 12:30 and that was really difficult for me because we knew everybody had seen what we had seen in yet you know hey how you doing and it's just like you just don't know so that particular night and I regret that I couldn't have done it more gracefully I just said look we've seen it we know it we're sorry we're only doing our job we don't mean to offend but here we go and then that was pretty much the extent of that and and I don't know where with David Letterman the toll-free is up and running at eight hundred nine five two two seven eight eight your chance to ask Dave whatever's on your mind he's dying to answer your questions oh please no phone calls I'm begging you I'm begging you Tom no phone calls like them don't beg me we'll be right back with David after these messages [Music] we're back with David Letterman and all the years that you've done late night television interviewing people yes sir who's been memorable for you you know this is one of those questions and good lord I've been through this so many times by now I ought to have a list because it's one of those things that for which I don't have them no I know what you mean they tend to disappear in a way they run hard to remember as you're driving home who were the guests on that night show so memorable I you know I just just the obvious I guess Madonna in in many ways was memorable and about drew Barrymore dancing on your desk well you know this was just to me an absolute delight because I'm 48 years old and I didn't have a lot of dates in high school didn't didn't have a lot of dates in college and and about now that don't have a lot of dates now don't have don't I'm not don't have a lot of luck with women generally I'm just not I don't seem to be the kind of guy that you know women are but you know I know they're out there I know there's a whole strata perhaps substrata perhaps not of men and women who are always naked having sex I know there are maybe you're one of those guys I don't happen to be one of those guys so and nothing like this has ever fallen in my lap so to speak got you in my entire life I used to work with guys I'm sorry I'm a little late I was driving in on i-65 and some woman pulled me over and we went on the ditch any of what you just saw she honked and well this has never happened I understand what you mean yeah so so now when the drew Barrymore comes and gets on my desk and I'm on my birthday and I'm 48 years old and she takes her shirt off I thought oh god just as a lovely little thing and I know people oh she's got some scene and he came out of the hood but I was there you know I just was touched I was tickled like you know I just thought how sweet and and I think is she's a dear woman I think she's a wonderful person and a heart of gold and and perhaps several other things but I I thought it was great and you know forgive me if people don't think it was great I'm sorry it was you know one of the perks of the job it's it's a hard ugly dirty work and when something like this comes along you got a season Tom damnit Letterman I'm just trying to have fun with you out here you don't talk much about your car collection your car collection in Los Angeles yeah you have cars yes I do how many I don't know what kind of cars I have a very small highly polished nicely painted collection of German British and Italian junk tell me more about this junk it's just you know I show it off a little bit now there's no point in other because it's it's it's it's it's it comes with being able to to have a lot of money you can indulge yourself in things like this and if I didn't have a lot of money I'd probably have just one car that I like really really well but since show business pays way more I mean the federal government ought to look into this talk about a cell yeah somebody ought to come in and take a look at this Janet Reno the nation's top cop that's right so I've been lucky enough and what I try to do is cars that meant something to me when I was a kid now that I'm an adult I think oh geez maybe it would be fun to have one of those cars and and the first car when I was a kid that got my attention when I was a kid there was this guy who was our gym teacher Chuck Bolton Chuck Bolton was just what his name sounds like you must bolt a guy and he'd come to work and have his sweater tied over his shoulder and he he went to Butler University and was on the football team there and he was like you know the big man on campus and now he's got his first gig out in the always exciting world of elementary education and Chuck would come to work in an austin-healey 3000 and I'm telling you what they would hop down and this thing just and it made a real impression on me and and I you know was lucky enough years later to acquire one of those you house the collection or the small gathering of cars in Southern California yes I do as opposed to the East Coast yes I do you come out to visit them occasionally untilled keep them in good repair run them occasionally enjoy them yeah they're wonderful toys yes you know yeah I Drive them I don't I don't care what kind of money you spend in them if you're not gonna drive them you're fooling you're so I understand I mean it's nice to go in and look at them but if you're not driving them but here is and I'm coming back to this idea of the Late Show moving to Los Angeles here is another reason for David Letterman to consider it living in Los Angeles he's near something that he and this would be way down on the Landers there are many many other more reasonable more legitimate reasons to consider moving them just because the reason that I ask this is that those of us who heard these rumors today that work on this side I don't know where this is coming from what wonder that if your show were to come here could we go back and use the Ed Sullivan actually be my guest in fact you know we're not there this week if there had been a little foresight a little planning if somebody was running this organization you guys could have had it this week you know it's funny because we asked for that we were told there was no money for it in the company well again you don't know in a meeting I was not I know you're only the team owner how would you know how Modell's how about that Art Modell even what hell is going on there world cup exactly yeah you're a big fan of the races you go to Indianapolis that one most every year to the 500 car race yes a lot of people wonder what you get out of car racing you know watching cars going round and round and oval what what excites David Letterman about going to Indianapolis or watching car races on television well Indianapolis is it's a it's an event in and of itself unto itself and it means something to me because when I was a kid as you know in the Midwest the the winters are long Harv bitter and brutal and when the month of May rolls around suddenly the loveliest of all springs presents itself when you think it's just never going to happen again and then you know things turn color and bloom and you get a little breeze that has just a touch of balminess in it and it's it's hypnotic now that coupled with the fact that in Indianapolis every May the Indianapolis 500 the entire month it takes place out there at the speedway and for that one month especially in those days when I was a kid in the early 60s late 50s early 60s the attention certainly of the city certainly of the state and the impression is of the world is on Indianapolis so it's a it's a very heady experience for a kid and me and my buddies me and my Uncle Earl used to go out to the Speedway and we'd go to time trials we've got a practice we'd watch and it was just terribly a girl's name was funny when you were a kid too [Laughter] so that's that's where it was born and and we did not have a major league baseball team my team was the Cincinnati red legs which was you know down the road of a couple hours and and as I grew older I realized I had the same connection to the Indianapolis 500 as most kids do to their local baseball Brooklyn Dodgers the Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates didn't should be Paul Newman there one year after you'd but not tell Paul Newman at a race in Phoenix years and years ago that was the first time I met him through Bobby Ray Hall who was a race driver through his wife Debbie was kind enough to introduce me to Paul and and just you know if they if this guy is not the real deal the sun's not coming up tomorrow he's just solid gold he's money in the bank and you know he's just I mean would that it were he's one of these guys you know in your life you might learn something about being alive from excuse the preposition and I I just think if there's no dents no chinks you didn't know you know and was that the beginning of a long friendship with Paul Newman I have been lucky enough over the years to kind of have a little relationship I wouldn't say it's friendship I think that would be imposing myself on Paul but he's always been very nice to me very sweet very decent and I get a big kick out of the fact that on any given day I might get a fax from Paul regarding some automotive matter or or a phone call and he's I'm telling you need you talked to this guy about cars it's like talking to a 14 year old it's just like you know it's a hall and mother you know but these are expressions law using it really excuse me Paul I'm sorry it's a hall and mother Joanne won't go near it so Hollyn mother okay thank you but he's you know he's been very sweet to me we're with David Letterman back with David for a few more comments and questions right after these messages [Music] when it was an when it was announced that Whoopi Goldberg would host the Oscars next year was that a disappointment to you bi I believe you were quoted as saying you might have liked to have one more chance to come back and do that no I wasn't a disappointment but I thought it wasn't great fun to go back and do it again because you know the show did pretty well last year a lot of folks watch yes they did I can't take any credit for that but I'm telling you Sam I guarantee ax for as many people watched last year many more would have been watching next year if I was hosting like watching a sleepy guy defuse a bomb you know everybody wants a look at that he's gonna cut the yellow wire look out so from that standpoint I think they made a mistake because it would have just been great and old Dave come on exactly bring out the dip Linda he's gonna do it I would you know and I've had a while to think about this was I was prepared and full ready to just shove it right back up their nose and and I think that they missed the blow I love you for it Dave you know now this thing with Whoopi you know god bless her she's done it before she'll do a great job but was it a personal disappointment no I know you know I'll do it again one year and you can get what's coming to you like after the show how quickly were you at the airport Oh within mmm I don't know a couple hours no no like two or three minutes you know I'm out detector and we were airborne John we were stopped we were climbing out we were at 7,000 going up the last time that you were here you said to me that once you learn the two or three great lessons of broadcasting you never forget them that's right and Symphony fans since that time I've been wondering what the two or three great lessons of broadcasting might be regardless of what other things are going on in the studio when the red light comes on just start talking that's that's number one don't try to get in your car while you're still wearing your microphones that's number two number two yeah and number three don't do your own makeup cut your own hair that's right there columbia school of broadcasting on teach you half of that name in the last year what is the book you've read that's brought you the greatest pleasure or the movie that you've seen that you've enjoyed the most well the movie I think that I enjoyed the most would be pulp fiction I hear you got a big kick out of that really oh man it was just like going to an amusement park yes it was it was and a lot of people say well violent it was just ugly it was nasty and of course it was all of those things but I I don't know if I looked at it as in the context of this film it was all kind of so hyperbolic so exaggerated that you kind of had to just tell yourself it's an amusement park where nobody's really getting hurt exact was it was just a roller coaster yeah it was ups and it was downs and it was you know I found that very exciting a nice piece of film making I thought and how how personally devastated were you 1 : Paul announced today that he would not be running for the Presidency well I think professionally speaking it would have been too bad because I think we had a lot of material there a lot of jokes to be made a lot of laughs to be had at his expense the poor man but I think he was probably wise not to do it for heaven's sakes you know I mean I I you know I don't know the man I don't know much about him politically I know that he sold a great deal of books and I know that he is a general but beyond that I just felt like oh yeah y-you know who wants to go yeah who wants to get beat up and you know when I used to come on your show when you were in New York and we would talk when I was doing the the talk radio for ABC we talked about radio right you mentioned radio in the break you still listen to talk radio don't you I listened to yeah a lot of radio because in New York City I spent a lot of time in my car and I went crazy and had a radio installed in the car really call it full bore when I signed the new daily same but AM n FM and but but I tell you what bridge yeah yeah I used to listen to rush when I had a different commuting schedule found him endlessly entertaining and you know and I know and he must know that many times he gets up in the morning and just as boy am i full of gas re with the guy or not and we know that he can very neatly shave the corner off facts to make a point you know he just round those edges right off and it fits right there in whatever his a diatribe might be for the day and I got a kick out of him you know politically I don't know enough about politics just to say whether yes he's right yes he's wrong I just don't know but I found him as a communicator very effective but what I really get a kick out of is the BBC like shortwave radio it's just unbelievable I and I know this sounds stupid because shortwave radio has been around you know since the Phoenicians I don't know and it one night I was able to listen to the BBC which I'm telling you on the half-hour when they take you to Westminster tower for the chiming of Big Ben it's just like animal it's very it's magical to me and you actually get to hear it live there and you think wait this is coming from Busch House in London all the way shortwave and I think it's picked up on a relay station in the Caribbean to my little house in Connecticut is it's just it's an incurable romantic and how can you not be a sucker thank you how can you not be not someone I listen to radio Liz bough Lisbon Portugal BBC in London radio Lisbon and Portugal a Taiwan which is the Republic of China English brush it's just amazing because they have like a 20 minute radio learn to speak Chinese on this it it's just will drive you insane but you're into it actually it's sort of like you know and they're going through this hey you know don't forget your umbrella okay so I'm there all right I'm gonna learn this in Chinese and then you know like a year later I said jeez I got a head full of bees what hell are we talking about but they do this night after night after night and I think are there people anywhere in the world learning don't forget your umbrella in China on the shortwave and so that from then now you can go down to on one of the bands that's 66 0.00 and you get radio Havana and that is endlessly entertaining because it sounds like it's a guy an english-speaking guy at a shopping mall and all you hear is how great things are in Cuba how great things are everything's fine and and the the news is all about we got a deal with the Russia for cement we got a deal where we're making sandals for people in West in Germany and on and on we're absolutely blowing me away because while most people late at night our home on a computer online somewhere all right David Letterman is at a shortwave radio dialing up the world tuning in the world that's like a young Edison isn't it Tom no but it's listen the broadcasts are still in you well it's to me it's fascinating I mean you know forget television and everything else and then Bill Gates and his multibillion-dollar Empire where you get cartoon characters on your toaster or whatever the hell they're doing I'm a Dave I'm just trying to have fun with you here the fact that via this very very primitive form of radio short way of communication you you you can access the world world it's just stunning to me we think the world of you here sir for a lot of reasons and we thank you for coming on during a very very busy week enjoy your time here in Southern California and god dammit Dave I'm just trying to thank you very much nice to see you okay Merle we'll be watching this now here Richard Reeves around the corner what does it all mean get off me please thank you [Music] tomorrow night Fox Butterfield of the New York Times and Park overall is here drive safely on the way home back tomorrow night same time same station stay with Elliott Forrest on The Late Late radio show good night everybody [Music]

Channel: Don Giller

Views: 110,499

Keywords: David Letterman, Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, Tom Snyder

Id: ROCy8T0CnBY

Length: 30min 41sec (1841 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2017