Articles by Jeff Pfeiffer

Although David Letterman’s final Late Show broadcast went over its normal length by about 20 minutes, it felt like it flew by. It was a very well-produced and presented swan song, filled primarily with laughs and memories, but also a few more serious and emotional moments (though Dave never fully broke down, and he didn’t appear to tear up, but that did not diminish his clear emotion at all). The evening led off, surprisingly, with an old clip of President Gerald Ford speaking his famous phrase, “Our long national nightmare is over.” That was followed by Presidents Clinton, Bush, W. Bush […]

In David Letterman’s penultimate episode of Late Show last night, it was only fitting that Bill Murray would be the final guest of a “normal” show (tonight’s series finale is going to be more of a retrospective and send-off). Murray was Dave’s first guest on both his NBC Late Night gig, and Late Show, and he showed up in his typically memorable fashion to say farewell to Letterman’s late-night career. After an appearance by another longtime Letterman guest and frequent butt of good-natured humor, Regis Philbin, and before a performance of “The Night We Called It a Day” by Bob Dylan later in the show, […]

In a year of momentous shifts and departures in the late-night scene, none was as big as David Letterman announcing last April that he would be retiring this year (Stephen Colbert will be taking over as host of Late Show in September). The last holdover of the old-school late-night hosts, Letterman has been keeping people up since 1982, first on NBC’s Late Night, and then on CBS’ Late Show since 1993, in the wake of him being passed over by NBC as host of The Tonight Show upon the departure of Letterman’s idol, Johnny Carson. Over the years, it may […]

CBS announced the final guests for David Letterman’s final week of shows, which the network says will be a “three-night event” May 18-20. Not surprisingly, Bill Murray — who was Letterman’s first guest ever on both Late Night and Late Show — will make an appearance on the penultimate episode. Tom Hanks and musician Eddie Vedder will also appear during the final week, with the May 20 final episode being described by CBS as “an hour filled with surprises, memorable highlights, the show’s final Top Ten List and more.” David Letterman has spent 33 years in late-night television, encompassing 6,028 broadcasts, nearly 20,000 […]