With the last call to the most gullible telephone operator in the first segment, you can hear that the audio technician skips over the first line of the planned conversation and substitutes in the second line ('yes?') which results in the aborted call after the third line is announced too early. You can actually hear this missing first line earlier in the segment at 3:05 (saying 'may I help you?' instead of the really mean guy).
I totally remember listening to a ball game on the radio when I was a kid before falling asleep. Wow, nice at 26:07 "Hang up and don't bother the operator". Oh, the days before cell phones. When Dave destroyed the last phone and threw it threw it behind him, that reminded me I always wondered how they synced the breaking glass noise whenever Dave threw something. Maybe Don knows this one?
Fox Rivers They don’t. Every second aired is live to tape. I’ll be putting up a collection of snippets I tweeted last month that’ll illustrate this. When mistakes occur, they stay in.
@@dongiller OK, then it's tape delay so they can at least bleep something out if needed. That's broadcast standard for live air. So the sound effects person must always be watching to see when Dave throws something. I do remember times when it wasn't always in sync. At one point I remember they were experimenting with some strange sound effects but the glass crashing was trademark.
Fox Rivers Live to tape doesn’t mean that it’s broadcast live. It means live to tape. After the taping, censors will then determine if anything needs to be muted. That includes cursing, telephone numbers, names that might result in lawsuits. One can’t “tape delay” a recorded program. Again, stay tuned for a forthcoming upload.
I'm looking for a clip where Dave gets an answering machine and leaves a message in his dumb guy voice. Says something to the effect of ""Uh yeah, we'll be over to start diggin in the mornin"". Only seen it one time, when I was 11 or 12, and I still quote it.
Aren't you perhaps thinking of the message he left for Terri Garr? "This is David Letterman just wanting to let you know that Tri State Sprinkler is coming tomorrow to dig up your yard. They'll be starting around six, hope that's okay." Starts at 25:06.
He’s done that call a few times, all in the 80’s I believe, but also does a few similar on his call-ins to Tom Snyder (which are posted on yt-courtesy of Don Giller, of course ~ 5 years ago).
All of these are just so damn entertaining! Mr. Giller! I have a selfish question. Do you have anything with Dave and his relationship to AOL? I remember as a kid laughing hysterically whenever Dave would go off on AOL. (I recall that was a thing?)
There were several periods on Late Show where Dave was feuding with AOL -- late March-early April 2001, and mid-October and early December 2004. No idea when I'll get to them.
Don, what was your favorite period for Letterman himself on tv? For me, now, its '81 - 91. I'm glad im getting to see all the really early stuff that at times resembled weird cable access. There's nothing like it before or since. 8:15 I see Dave giving a wry smile about musician/actor Branford Marsalis but chose to bite his tongue. Model/actor/musician/comedian etc. You dont see that as much anymore. I found that pretty funny but what I found even funnier was the Indian burial ground comment @ 15:14 comparing the phone problems to the old haunting story trope. The audience barely giggles.
Don Giller Well my explanation, ( if it means anything to anyone ) is that going into the nineties, while still plenty good, he shot up too high, went into a driven, manic mode, it affected his health in the early 2000's and then he came down slowly for 12 years afterwards. This Dave on the slow rise is, to me, the best Dave there was. I also preferred the chemical makeup of the Late Night show.
Didn't Johnny Carson do something similar back in the day at the Tonight Show? I think it was around mid June ,1983 during STS-7, when Johnny try to call the Space Shuttle Challenger from a land line phone and wanted to talk to the first American female astronaut Sally Ride. Johnny call the Bell Operator-assisted call and specifically asked to be connected to the Space Shuttle. The operator kept connecting Johnny to the wrong numbers like " Taxi shuttle service" or "The space shuttle massage parlour" After several attempts, Johnny got hold of her in the end and he asked, "What are you doing at the moment, Sally replayed, "I'm shaving my legs" That cracked me up. It was a faked but darn funny. Would love to see that clip again.
What I would very much like to know is, what is Don Giller's all-time favorite sketch or segment in the entire Letterman pantheon? And is it one of the Don Giller uploads?
You are a minor hero of mine for doing this, I hope that's okay. And not that you'd care, but my three personal favorite Letterman moments are, The Pinata Filled With Baked Beans, "Don't Over-handle the Meat!," and the Cybill Shepherd interview.
"This won't bother you if it's not hooked up, will it." I wonder why he unplugged the receiver and threw it on the floor but I guess he explained it. I looked more authentic that way though. The first calls were just not that funny. That's hilarious it takes 7 people to make a phone call and he just ends up smashing the phone. Didn't we used to have to lease phones from AT&T since Dave destroyed so many? I still have our old rotary dial phone from 1970. I guess we didn't have to give it back.
Always been fascinated with Dave’s inability to use the phone.
24:07 " A little dialing music Paul"......Paul plays "Telephone Line" from ELO
Specifically remember watching the night he called the parking garage. I thought I was going to have a stroke when he axed the phone.
I've come to realize the 7:39 bit maybe one of his greatest works. everything comes together so well and still goes wrong.
14:10 was even better.
I remember these and wondered if anyone was allowed to keep any of those phones? That's what I use at my home.
Yes, looks nice
Thank you so much for upload all of these... These are awesome... :)
Great collection!!! Damn it would have been great to get one of those souvenir phones from Dave.
Thanks Don
Fantastic!!
I wonder how that first joke got out of rehearsal.
With the last call to the most gullible telephone operator in the first segment, you can hear that the audio technician skips over the first line of the planned conversation and substitutes in the second line ('yes?') which results in the aborted call after the third line is announced too early. You can actually hear this missing first line earlier in the segment at 3:05 (saying 'may I help you?' instead of the really mean guy).
Lol “here at CBS”
just you wait 5 years, dave
Foreshadowing.
The last clip makes me want to watch a compilation of Joe Grossman bits.
In the mix.
Don Giller hooray!
I totally remember listening to a ball game on the radio when I was a kid before falling asleep. Wow, nice at 26:07 "Hang up and don't bother the operator". Oh, the days before cell phones. When Dave destroyed the last phone and threw it threw it behind him, that reminded me I always wondered how they synced the breaking glass noise whenever Dave threw something. Maybe Don knows this one?
There’s an audio booth with carts of sound effects at the ready.
@@dongiller Oh, crap I forgot the show is taped. Of course, they can dub them in later.
Fox Rivers They don’t. Every second aired is live to tape. I’ll be putting up a collection of snippets I tweeted last month that’ll illustrate this. When mistakes occur, they stay in.
@@dongiller OK, then it's tape delay so they can at least bleep something out if needed. That's broadcast standard for live air. So the sound effects person must always be watching to see when Dave throws something. I do remember times when it wasn't always in sync. At one point I remember they were experimenting with some strange sound effects but the glass crashing was trademark.
Fox Rivers Live to tape doesn’t mean that it’s broadcast live. It means live to tape. After the taping, censors will then determine if anything needs to be muted. That includes cursing, telephone numbers, names that might result in lawsuits.
One can’t “tape delay” a recorded program.
Again, stay tuned for a forthcoming upload.
I'm looking for a clip where Dave gets an answering machine and leaves a message in his dumb guy voice. Says something to the effect of ""Uh yeah, we'll be over to start diggin in the mornin"". Only seen it one time, when I was 11 or 12, and I still quote it.
What years were you 11 or 12?
Aren't you perhaps thinking of the message he left for Terri Garr? "This is David Letterman just wanting to let you know that Tri State Sprinkler is coming tomorrow to dig up your yard. They'll be starting around six, hope that's okay."
Starts at 25:06.
He’s done that call a few times, all in the 80’s I believe, but also does a few similar on his call-ins to Tom Snyder (which are posted on yt-courtesy of Don Giller, of course ~ 5 years ago).
That was great!
All of these are just so damn entertaining!
Mr. Giller! I have a selfish question. Do you have anything with Dave and his relationship to AOL? I remember as a kid laughing hysterically whenever Dave would go off on AOL. (I recall that was a thing?)
There were several periods on Late Show where Dave was feuding with AOL -- late March-early April 2001, and mid-October and early December 2004.
No idea when I'll get to them.
Thank you so much! These are terrific!
Dave, are you watching these 2nd home, home movies with us too? P. S. The backup voices are quite clear and nice.
Don, what was your favorite period for Letterman himself on tv? For me, now, its '81 - 91. I'm glad im getting to see all the really early stuff that at times resembled weird cable access. There's nothing like it before or since.
8:15 I see Dave giving a wry smile about musician/actor Branford Marsalis but chose to bite his tongue. Model/actor/musician/comedian etc. You dont see that as much anymore. I found that pretty funny but what I found even funnier was the Indian burial ground comment @ 15:14 comparing the phone problems to the old haunting story trope. The audience barely giggles.
Impossible to answer without writing a book explaining why, a focus I lack.
Don Giller Well my explanation, ( if it means anything to anyone ) is that going into the nineties, while still plenty good, he shot up too high, went into a driven, manic mode, it affected his health in the early 2000's and then he came down slowly for 12 years afterwards. This Dave on the slow rise is, to me, the best Dave there was. I also preferred the chemical makeup of the Late Night show.
Didn't Johnny Carson do something similar back in the day at the Tonight Show? I think it was around mid June ,1983 during STS-7, when Johnny try to call the Space Shuttle Challenger from a land line phone and wanted to talk to the first American female astronaut Sally Ride. Johnny call the Bell Operator-assisted call and specifically asked to be connected to the Space Shuttle. The operator kept connecting Johnny to the wrong numbers like " Taxi shuttle service" or "The space shuttle massage parlour" After several attempts, Johnny got hold of her in the end and he asked, "What are you doing at the moment, Sally replayed, "I'm shaving my legs" That cracked me up. It was a faked but darn funny. Would love to see that clip again.
What I would very much like to know is, what is Don Giller's all-time favorite sketch or segment in the entire Letterman pantheon? And is it one of the Don Giller uploads?
Impossible to choose. It was the show's very existence.
You are a minor hero of mine for doing this, I hope that's okay. And not that you'd care, but my three personal favorite Letterman moments are, The Pinata Filled With Baked Beans, "Don't Over-handle the Meat!," and the Cybill Shepherd interview.
Make sure that's very, very minor hero. :)
@@dongiller The moment when the call goes bad despite everyone helping, and Dave borrows the ax, is *way* up there. (Just watched it again.)
"This won't bother you if it's not hooked up, will it." I wonder why he unplugged the receiver and threw it on the floor but I guess he explained it. I looked more authentic that way though. The first calls were just not that funny. That's hilarious it takes 7 people to make a phone call and he just ends up smashing the phone. Didn't we used to have to lease phones from AT&T since Dave destroyed so many? I still have our old rotary dial phone from 1970. I guess we didn't have to give it back.
Who has real, genuine Letterman Show artifacts/memorabilia? My family would love anything that's actually from the show.
Theater of the absurd again.