Viewer Mail Collection on Letterman, 1982: Part 1 of 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ม.ค. 2022
- To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Late Night with David Letterman's debut on February 1, 1982, I'm launching a compilation series of all of the Viewer Mails that aired on the show.
First up is 1982, which is in two parts. The first covers the first half of the year; the second covers the second. 1983 and on will follow in due time.
(Note: The April 1, 1982, video clip that Andy Kaufman airs has been deleted here due to copyright caution; it had been blocked in my Kaufman compilation.)
This is a video companion to my new blog post that offers a brief history of Viewer Mail. It also catalogues every letter writer and location on both Dave's morning show (1980) and Late Night (1982-93). It's a definitive reference for locating the name of any writer and matching it with the specific show that that person's letter was selected for air. Also included are some trivia details scattered within the data.
The blog post can be found here: donzblog.home.blog/2022/01/12...
My now-obligatory ask: I have a Patreon account that helps me pay the bills. It'd be wonderful if anyone is so inclined to donate.
www.patreon.com/user?u=26278592
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There's literally no way. Is this happening?? A viewer mail series? I couldn't be happier :)
That’s right. Back in the day when people actually hand wrote actual letters. What a world we’ve become.
If you think of how many people who were alone and disabled, that didn't have 1st alert (I've fallen, and can't get up), were saved by postal service carriers..
This 80s Late Night with David Letterman stuff brings such warm memories of my early childhood I can't help but wax nostalgic so every chance I get, I watch and Don Giller's work is among the best put together that I've seen on TH-cam.. Excellent work Don!!!.
Thanks!
Don Giller, you deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.
I’ll be content with just a MacArthur grant. :)
Or Knighted
I second that emotion
HOLY COW! This is amazing, and I will look forward to each and every entry. Thank you so much!
YES! Much appreciated, Don!
Thanks to you Don, I can now easily locate the exact viewer mail which featured my favorite all-time viewer mail name -- "Schnibby" Kupsh! 👍
You got the point of this project. Thank you. :)
Thanks Don, I can't wait to watch it tonight!
These compilations are gold! And i love watching how the band evolved and expanded over the years. Thanks, Don!
Viewers who got their letter read on the show belong to a special club. I can't believe while I was growing up watching these shows that it never occurred to me to actually send in a letter.
Now this is just beautiful.
I looooooove viewer mail !!
Thanks, for all you do. Oh, for the days when Andy Kaufman and Slim Whitman were just hanging out in the green room.
The Sid Jacobson call was the most wholesome thing.
Pulling out the big guns for 2022? Thanks Don!
Thank you for your channel. Honestly. Really helps me out.
The plane “crash” behind Dave is probably the first comedy bit done for viewer mail.
Thanks for the ad-free bliss
I believe the ads turn up when a content owner monetizes the video.
This is pure gold.
Todd Barry!
Is that the same Todd Barry who is a stand-up? He went to school in Florida.
@@randall-king The one and only.
Don, you are a visionary. These complications are gold! Thank you SO much. I live on your channel.
Thanks!!
I feel proud that the first of three Viewer Mails from a viewer in my town of Peoria is one of the all time greats (1:26:30), what with Bill Murray's involvement and that ending. Great stuff. This series of viewer mail is a dream come true. Thank you so much, Don.
Watching the slow development of the bit into its more familiar format is really eye-opening! Thanks as always, Don.
Thanks from a life long viewer - Victoria BC Canada
thank you Don! my fav segment!
Yes! Been hoping for this collection
Definitely one of the most valuable channels on TH-cam!
Love this and love the old Letterman shows. His show inspired me to study communications and video/television production in college.
I've binge watched big swathes of this channel's content, always fastidiously avoiding the first 1-2 years of the program, since in my memory it got so much better in the mid- to late 80s. I was completely wrong: These hyper-early shows are glorious. So earthy, so much raw humour, so much soul. I feel like I've been needlessly cheating myself out of some of the best recollections from the show's run.
This is amazing! Thank you, Don!
Awesome. Have been waiting on these collections, thanks Mr Giller
1982!! Woohoooooo!!!! Thank u sm Don
No other TV personality could touch Dave in the 80s for quick-witted repartee and anarchic fun!
Fortune smiled on me when my sister moved from Oregon to attend art school in Chicago leaving behind her glorious Sony color TV with remote (I say color because black & white was still an option in the early 80's ). This coincided with the premier of the Late Show with David Letterman which like so many others, immediately caught my attention and kept me up weeknights despite my being in 8th grade at the time. Like so many others have mentioned before me, tuning in felt like getting enter into a secret club . There was nothing else like it and it ideally suited the sense of humor of so many of us from GenX
Do you mean Late Show or Late Night? Many accidentally write “Show” when they mean “Night.”
Don Giller, THANK YOU! The letter at 1:24:09 from my friend Glenn Carson amazed us and our buddies the night it was read on the air 40 years ago, and having it is unbelievable. I sent this to him immediately and he’s thrilled. We appreciate you!
Thanks! I love stuff like this.
Thank-you, Don Giller; this is gold!(nice, to see Ms. Markoe!, @ 1:02:00).
You're the best, Don!
Nice to have something up that isn't related to someone dying.
God yes. I think we all look for that here nowadays. Comfort food.
Oh no, did Viewer Mail die???
@@bodyslamhimjeff haha yea
IKR ! DANG !!
This post is not coming from the Letterman channel.
Very impressive, Don!
ASTORIA is 14 strokes. Good job, Sol!
I had always wondered why they switched from the 60 Minutes-style typed letters to mounting the real letters on art cards. On the first night of the change at 59:22, Dave implies that it’s because people thought that the uniformly typed letters were not legitimate letters from viewers.
I think the little documentary of the "process" was the best!
This is the good stuff Don. You’re the GOAT
Letters I enjoyed or found interesting:
00:00 The Viewer Mail Story
16:10 Flashing lights
19:05 Meta
24:40 Stick-up
43:30 Viewer requests fewer visual jokes. Next letter is from Andy Kaufman
54:30 If Paul hosted the show (segment starts 53:17 for context)
56:47 episode of My Dog Bob
1:00:18 NBC commissary
1:05:21 Why are viewers always home when you call them
1:08:06 Ed Newman
1:14:18 what is in Dave’s mug
1:25:25 Why are lights on in background
1:26:30 Bill Murray
1:30:35 Handwriting
1:37:30 Todd Barry
1:40:00 Viewer missed a show
1:43:55 Theme played backwards
1:46:23 Dave rude at end of show
1:49:57 Air Blaster
1:51:44 Why circle viewer mail text in red
2:00:37 Why viewers never surprised when Dave calls them
This is big!!!
My fav segment of all LNwDL segments. Thank You Dan!
Don. :)
6:49 🤯The Greek term for lunch! I ve wondered what that woman was saying in the movie Golden Child. On the airplane she offers something to Eddie Murphy. .. after all these years. "Lunch".
The Todd Barry call! I think of it often
"All it takes is a lamp,
and a twenty cent stamp"
Dear Don,
Dave stopped wearing sweaters instead of the suits by April '82, the look did fit the show informal format and timeslot.
Have any insights to why this happened and who made it happen - Peter Lassally, Barry Sand, Jack Rollins, Dave or an NBC suit?
Waiting with bated breath for the answer (aka - no life)
- PJ ex-NBC'er undisclosed location...
PS - Never had 'theme' lunches at the commissary during the GE dayz.
I still can't believe Todd Barry and Robbie Fulks wrote letters that made it to air.
Do you know if that’s the same Todd Barry who’s a stand-up comedian? It seems like you’re implying that. I read that he went to college in Florida, and Dave mentions this letter writer being from Florida.
@@randall-king yes, one and the same. Todd bragged about it on Twitter around 2014.
Amazing. Thank you!
I found that Henry Mancini wrote the viewer mail theme. Source: Wikipedia. And of course the great Don Giller has a 2 hour+ video! (I really enjoy the internet sometimes.)
I'm so happy
Thank God for u Don.
This is busting peoples balls on a whole other level
.
April 22, 1982 (58:55 mark).......the FIRST appearance of the "Viewer Mail" format (with the ACTUAL letters being shown on-air for the first time) we ALL came to know and love !!
Anybody here ever had a letter of theirs on the air, and if so, when was it and what did you ask ??
.
This is a lot of funny stuff right here. Dave and Paul sound the same but look 50 years younger ... worlds most sarcastic band LOL
Is that Todd Barry the comedian imitating Paul at 1:39:00? Sure sounds like him.
Sounds like Todd Barry that is. I'll let the reader decide if he sounds like Paul.
It is indeed! Todd posted the same clip on his TH-cam channel back in 2015. (Google told me all this stuff - I couldn't have remembered it had I seen it last week)
@@cerealheroes "Yeah that's how it works" 😂
48:55 probably at the time this guy was just concidered an average comic industry shlub... no doubt he is considered a legend now.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Jacobson
as someone who loves the old school comics, and is saddened that the glory days of comics are over, this is fascinating to me.
Interestingly I found out Syd is still alive.
Also, a bloodied and battered Jim Downey at 3:00
I used to sneak in the living room and stay up late to watch this garbage :). Thank you for the video.
had this video been posted before.
This compilation? No. Most of these Viewer Mail segments have never been seen since they first aired nearly 39-40 years ago.
@@dongiller YOU'RE A HERO!
These horribly penned letters were a precursor to internet comments.
I'm looking for the viewer mail skit where someone sends a letter with a photo of a bowl of cereal with the cereal bits spelling out "contact dave". Ring any bells?
May 4, 1990.
1:26:28
This one is the very best.
1:37:42 - that's now famous comedian Todd Barry!
I thought it sounded like him.
Hello, I'm trying to find a viewer mail segment that probably aired in the mid-1980s. The letter writer taped a bug to the letter and then Dave says the bug is still alive. The paper starts floating around and Larry "bud" Melman chases it with a can of bug spray. Does anyone remember that? Thanks!
I’ve searched a number of databases but have come up short so far.
@@dongiller Thanks for checking!
"Helluva man. Helluva black guy."lolol
40 years later these letters are tweets
Isn’t that the same desk that’s on the Craig Ferguson show?
Is the "very sick man" with the mattress after the last letter someone we should know? His voice is really familiar, in addition to being distinctive and terrific!
That’s Ed Subitzky. His collection here - th-cam.com/video/O_Z7vYARF_4/w-d-xo.html
@@dongiller Thanks, Don!
Paul gets the effword on the broadcast at 56:45ish. Go Canada, Go!
Yes he did. It seemed like Dave picked up on it. Good call !
Viewer Mail!
18:05: March 4, 1982, the night before John Belushi died....
I'm wondering if something interesting happened every time Dave's birthday was on a weekday. Would there be enough material to make a collection of "Dave's birthdays"?
There would, but I’m no longer able to share them.
Was that Todd Barry the comic on the phone?
Time?
@@dongiller 1:38:30 kind of sounds like him. :)
@@PixelNotesMusic Thanks. Yes, it does appear to be him. He posted it on his own YT channel.
@@dongiller Oh, that's cool!
Bet Kevin Wildes spends a ton of time watching this video.
31:48 They last but this is the type of guy that later would be writing all Lizzie where are they now and Wikipedia articles about TV shows when the Internet is infected and he would be making all the big dollars
Doesn't sound like this is the first. Will you be uploading that/those ?
It begins with a prelude from 1983. Perhaps that’s all you bothered to watch.
@@dongiller oh so it'd on here then ?
@@otisdriftwood1697 Have you bothered to watch beyond the prelude? Or read the description?
Don: do you have any viewer mail from his morning show?
I do. You can read about them here - donzblog.home.blog/2022/01/12/viewer-mail/
@@dongiller I remember I was in 7th grade and he read one of my letters. It pertained to a segment where dogs played the piano on the show. Trying to locate the video.
@@larryboyle2786 Did you go to that blog link? It included spreadsheets for every name read on Viewer Mail from both the morning show and Late Night.
9/12/80. I remember there was a misspelling on my last name. What a great moment for a 7th grader. Thank you, Don. Hopefully there’s a clip somewhere.
@@larryboyle2786 Which one is you? I see a Stefan Miakich, Diana (no last name), L.J. & Associates Nelson, A. Jeffery, and Mrs. J. Harbin. Are you the “L.” In “L.J.?
17:42 well that didn’t age well 😂
OG reaction video.
4:00 SWEATER DAVE!!!
4:30 Maple Leaf jersey Paul!!
@@maskof Celebrating the 15th anniversary of their final Stanley Cup.
@@plaws0 😅
That joke at 17 minutes didn’t age well.
Omg I think I was meant to be twiggy
Pound for pound, a joke fest worth watching
It's kind of nice to see people were idiots even back then. They just didn't have internet.😁
The deal with your hair is some stupid person is trying to relax Dave's naturally unrelaxed hair...ugh keep it natural