The Don Giller Compilation Celebration Part 2

hi my name is Don Giller you may know me as the voice of undercover narcotics agent Larry in the TV series Robert Blake Mysteries let me wish you and yours a happy and safe 100th Letterman podcast part two worldwide pants proudly presents The Late Show with David Letterman worldwide pants the most trusted name in pants and entertainment and pants Carter was great you know and Carter yeah I'll never forget the first time I met Carter he had just started with the New York Times and we were competing with arcenio Hall and it was a Monday night and in the Sunday Times arcenio took out a full it was when he first started yeah took out a full page ad in the Sunday Times in the Arts and Leisure section yep and in that same section Bill Carter wrote a very favorable review all right the next night I'm at a party at the Russian t- room for Billy chrisal had done a special called The Midnight Train to Moscow where he he he went to see his relatives in Russia yeah and so they had the premiere at the Russian t- room and somebody introduces me to Carter male and I was a little drunk on vodka and I just L Sy i l i go what kind of [ __ ] paper do you call that New York Times no kidding you have a review a favorable review for our H in is a full page ad what kind of [ __ ] rag are you running there blah blah blah and I just berak Carter I scre I'm screaming at him ask him about it and I'm screaming at him I get home that night and I realize what I've done so the next day I call Carter and I go bill I had a few too many drinks I love the New York Times you're you seem like a lovely guy I hope we have a long and fruitful relationship he goes I found it very entertaining don't worry about it and we became friends after that well here's the thing Johnny did not want to get involved he was an NBC guy he was very close to Bob Wright head of NBC at the time they traveled together they they were very close friends so he didn't not want to Elbow his way into this conversation he was clearly a supporter of Dave's people knew that but he didn't want to say it he'd had conflict with Leno over her his crazy manager all of that but he wanted to steer clear of it so I really needed him for a couple of things in this especially I needed him to confirm his conversation with Dave which was the ultimate conversation with Dave I needed that really badly yeah I needed his side of a conversation I had data side I needed his side so as a reporter right like like yes I'm doing a narrative I can I can write the story and say David Letterman says this happened I can do that but if both people tell me I can justo the conversation because now I have the evidence of both sides yes so I need both yes so how am I goingon to get Carson well I made an appeal to his lawyer um Ed hook Stratton the hook the hook and uh and hook Stratton seemed to want not necessarily help me but to kind of be a player in it like he he liked being involved and we had a couple of lunches at the grill in Beverly Hills which was Johnny's favorite restaurant just me and hook Stratton and uh and I basically you know was trying to see if he could and he said well I'll ask Johnny and it's going to be hard and he wasn't making any commitments and finally he said uh why don't you uh why don't you type up a list of questions and maybe I'll get them to Johnny and maybe he might respond to some of that if he knows what you want to ask and I said you know so he'll send me back written answers that's not really what I'd like but it's better than nothing absolutely so so I had this strategy because I thought I know one thing that may get Johnny's real interest and that was a story that Dave told me and Dave told me this story that about I don't know two three years into his at late late night show in NBC when it's when he's a phenomenon and he's on the cover Rolling Stone and all this is happening for him he uh he's in his office one day and his assistant says that uh Johnny's then lawyer bombastic bushkin Henry bush has come to see Dave and that was not unusual because the Carson Productions had a very small piece of Letterman's show like 5% something but and Johnny always paid I mean Dave played FY to Johnny always so his lawyer here okay I'll talk to him so bushkin comes in bushkin sits down and tells we are so impressed you're doing great it's fantastic all this tension blah blah blah but you know we think you know we'd like to line you up and sign you up to Carson Productions now we'll sign you up because then when Johnny does retire you'll be in line to get the show and Dave starts to wonder about this and he says something hinky going on yeah does does does Johnny know about this and bushing says well no I haven't discussed it with him yet but I think this is a great idea for both of us and immediately da was like this is a fire I do near yeah and he basically says well okay I'll I'll put you in touch with my manager Rollins Jack Rollins and uh and you know you guys can talk about it I I'm going to stay Ste clear of this but you know why why don't we set up and thing and then he leaves and D tells never let that gu in the office again basally basically so so I had this story right and I thought I wonder if Johnny knows that happened because Johnny had by then had a massive falling out with B bushkin who he said robbed him and all that yeah so in my questions I include so I heard from Dave that there was this thing where bushin showed up and offered him The Tonight Show to succeed you right and that was one of my questions and I had like you know I tried not do too many maybe I did 10 right that's not a question bill that's a trail of breadcrumbs right there that's genius on your part to do well I I was desperate I really wanted to talk to him so I so I send it off to uh Bush uh hook Strat and hook Stratton says uh okay I'll get these to Johnny do not expect him to come back quickly he may never respond right he may say to me uh you know tell him you know I I like what he's doing but I can't I just don't want to be a part of it just don't expect much okay and it it may even if he does it's it may take weeks before he decides on this I said okay lots of managing expectations you're basically describing my life with this show right now just so you know thanks but basically I say I thank him for helping and sure and uh in those days I used to work from home every Friday and uh the next day was a Friday and I was home and uh in the middle of the afternoon uh and my phone was not a cell phone my Lun phone uh rings and I pick it up uh this is Johnny Carson holy crap you got to tell me about this bushin story and I was like oh yeah oh yes so I I tell him that story and he says you you you know how that guy cheated me and all a sudden I'm like I understand that Johnny that's why I wanted to run this by you and everything and he I said can I've got you on the phone can I ask you some of these other things and he said well I'm really uncomfortable about it but so we talk a little and I'm pulling threads out of him in this conversation that he's and we're going back and forth about don't say I said that and I said okay whatever and we went back and forth but I said I really got to know about this conversation Dave says he called you and he says yes he called me and he repeats it word for word da I it was identical identical and I was like I I talked him for maybe 40 minutes let's say and uh I hang up the phone and I'm upstairs in the office my wife is in the kitchen making dinner or something and I just said and she came to the bottom of the St she said that was Carson on the phone right I said it sure was yeah so that's how I got Johnny Carson on the landline you could have been mowing the lawn you could have been getting groceries like like missed him that was the world back then but I'll tell you Johnny wanted to know about bushin he was GNA hear he was going to get to me somehow about that story oit made it fun because he was the rever he was a you know the Wizard of Oz He was the guy behind the curtain he was you know Michael Ovitz oh my God in hush tones we're gonna meet Michael Ovitz and we just abused him we just used to abuse the [ __ ] out of him and he loved it they would make fun of him I obviously I didn't do it it was all stemming from Letterman giving us license to do it and then we all followed suit we' make fun of him you know he would we'd have a meeting with him and we'd mention that so and so is not treating us too well and not giving us a lot of guests and he would pull out he had a single Buck slip in a leather like little binder that the corners went into the thing and he'd pull out this piece of leather and he'd write a note and put it back in his pocket and Letterman would go who are you going to kill you going to kill somebody is that a [ __ ] hit list are you going to murder some you can have somebody killed right and Ovitz would just laugh and you know giggle about it and we just used to do crazy [ __ ] with him and I stayed very good friends with Ovitz and and when Ovitz left CAA yeah was very upset because as letman used to say about Ovitz he goes he's not the smartest guy in the world necessarily he's this much smarter than every agent he's ever had this much and it was true there were agents all over the place it wasn't like this was oit over here he was this much smarter which is not to say that he wasn't a bright guy he was a very bright guy and very cultured and a lovely guy he loved us he just loved hanging out with us he loved fooling around with us and ordering pizzas and he it was the one opportunity I think he got to be a real guy yeah he just used to love coming to the show and I'll never forget so anyway when he left CAA and went to Disney Let was very upset he felt like he left he lost you know his most trusted advisor and guy that got him where he where he got um I I would tell you it's one of the great great times of my career if I if I had you know the top 10 moments it would be in the top two um getting letter was so exciting I give all credit to Howard Stringer um who was the president of CBS broadcasting at the time and a great um believer as as Mr py was who founded the network who who who founded started CBS and and ran it uh owned it um for for most of his life uh it's about Show Business and and Howard um heard the Rumblings that Dave might be available and interested and then of course NB made the decision to go with Jay and that you know put it kind of a public then it was more of a public I wouldn't say auction but it was a showcase a presentation ABC was in it you know I think oh oit's one of the greatest setups in history with what Mike Ovitz did to have these cortis show up yeah Y and and the cortis did uh but uh uh and I was not uh in the in the negotiations you know that was Howard and the entertainment folks and the the business folks but you know Howard wanted Letterman and Howard knew the value of talent he had run the news division he knew the value of talent there uh behind and in front of the camera yeah and and he was determined and I'll never forget when he got the phone call uh we were in a phone booth there there were attention viewers and listeners there were something called phone booths and that's where you put they were public telephones and you put money in them to make a phone call uh we were at a press Tour event at the's it called the Lowe's Santa Monica Hotel which is a beach front Hotel owned by Lowe's which was the Lowe's corporation which was owned by Larry Tish who at that point owned CBS yep and Howard was the president of broadcast I was the marketing guy uh similar cast of characters and he was going to get or make the phone call uh or he was told that Mike goitz was calling him yeah but he was not reachable because he was about to give a presentation at this CBS press event at this hotel uh in Santa Monica and so we went to a phone booth and and made the he sat there making the call and I when some others were standing beside him and I don't I can't honestly tell you Mike what the signal was or what the thing I think he just hung up the phone and said we got him the smile probably said it all I mean and we just well it was exhilaration and exhaustion and I think we just couldn't believe it we just couldn't believe it it was so great it was game it was gamechanging getting Dave um is you know getting a franchise and I I I liken it to when Bill Paley stole Jack Benny from NBC Jack Benny was the Letterman Carson whatever it was not late night he was a prime time comedy Entertainer had a show the most popular show on radio at the time and py went out offered him you know a ton of money and and and a reason to come and he switched from NBC to CBS and in fact I studied the strategies there when we got Dave to see if there were any clues or little marketing gems we could pick up because I saw it as a similar situation that it was this same Jack Benny but going to a different home at a different time and it was just like that and I still have the Jack Benny is coming to CBS print ads yeah um you know um in in my collection of uh of TV ephemera so I great I looked at those ads I I looked it but it was it was a huge Talent G and with you know with thank you for your nice comments about you know what we did and what our team did but look David Letterman is a singular franchise player and he brings his own audience what we had to do was convince other audience members who may not have been as familiar with Dave to come you know the the the the marketing uh you target much exactly like a bullseye and the center of the bullseye is your you know use your us your the low hanging fruit I mean the people are gonna be there the people GNA be there are Dave fans right so they're all coming y so that his fans are coming they're the center then you go to the first ring the next ring um in the bullseye Target and that's you know people who watched Dave they wouldn't consider them you know loyal viewers every night but they're certainly familiar with Dave and his humor and are willing to give it a try and then you go to the next ring next ring and the farther you go from the center you know the more outliers you have they're often not worth chasing it's really you know getting it's really getting the uh the the center and a couple of rings there and then building the franchise and look we knew this was no secret Dave is a franchise this Monumental shift Johnny is gone Leno is on you know um letter is coming to CBS in an hour earlier this is going to be just um the focus of everything and it was you know it was August 30th as I remember of 93 and uh on a hot and steamy day and um you know we worked all summer uh putting it on but believe me it was no secret not just with what we did but you know you talked about Bill Carter did a fantastic job getting the whole story and you know and all of his all of his counterparts and colleagues that it was a Hu it was the Press story you talk about George schweer who I knew when I was a Paige he was a production manager when I was a Paige so I I go way back with George what a phenomenal marketing mind oh great great yeah but you know the problem when we got there you know promo writers are all frustrated writers they want to be comedy writers they they all want to be working on on the Letterman show they don't want to be writing promos for it so as a result when we first got there they started trying to write funny promos but they were never in our voice they were never in our sensibility they were always off and we would always reject reject just do a straight promo yeah but Dave provide the the the joke and you just go coming soon on CBS 11:35 you know whatever and they never got it they just couldn't resist the temptation so we were getting frustrated with the the fact that they always wanted to do funny promos and they kept trying they kept trying so we had the idea of Hiring Our Own promo people and doing our own promos so that pissed off George and it pissed off CBS because they had only allowed it once before when Cosby did his show his new show at CBS let him have control of the promos and they brought in an outside agency so we started interviewing outside people and I'll never forget JJ Abrams who wasn't JJ Abrams no he came in with the guy from Grounded for Life the cab driver on MTV the redheaded guy uh okay I don't have it but Don will get it to us in a second Donal okay yeah he came he came in with Donal log and they pit who's a great great comic and they pitched an idea for a promo campaign that was great and we had to pitch it up to CBS and they that's no good and you know we had never ended up hiring an outside agency and CVS resented me they didn't like me because I I was the cowboy who wanted to do our own promos funny and now an important announcement from this network's new Lake show host I'm Dave and I want to be your TV friend same Dave better time New Station plenty of colorful puppets and pey musical numbers it oh no I'm I'm thinking of the CBS Evening News I'm sorry we walked across the street but CBS didn't have the full compliment of stations they did not have a full lineup of the of CBS Affiliates yes and we had to work we had to go I remember going with Letterman to Dallas to Nashville to Houston to Las Vegas to I mean Letterman and I and Peter came along to some of them you know we used to do these road trips and Letterman would get so pissed off at me because I was about to say those must have been happy trips oh they were horrible they were horrible we were in uh Houston and you know Letterman loves Aviation and is always interested in planes and we're taking the tour station and they go you want to go up on a roof and see the weather helicopter so I said yeah let's go let was [ __ ] you we don't want to see what we got to go and see the weather helicopter what we've never seen a helicopter before Jesus Morty why did you and we went to the weather the helicopter and you know they made him sit in the cockpit whatever one of the most depressing days of my life was we were in Nashville and Letterman and I had dinner together at the seafood you know it was like a theme restaurant for I don't know Fisherman's catch or something like that and when you walked into the restaurant there was this gigantic scale you know the kind with the big round readout and you know and they put the fish on it and you'd see how much the fish weighed it was a you know yeah the Letterman says to me goes get on a scale I go I'm not getting on a scale he goes Mor get on a scale I say all right it's the first time in my life that I weighed over 200 PBS I got on that scale and I saw it was like 204 or something and I was like I'm G to kill myself I weigh over 200 pounds I can't [ __ ] believe it you know it was something and he would of course you weigh over 200 pounds Morty what are you gonna do back then we were full-time into the Garment trade yeah and but you know it was it was always my dream because you know ever since I was a kid I love sandwiches I dreamed of sandwiches for you know and so one day you know I was just thinking wouldn't it be nice if I can just play around with a deli to me it's a dream come true and so I told may you know why don't we just look for something to just batter around with you know and so we picked up the times back then there was no internet so we picked up the New York Times and we found this one one shop that was for sale and so we we we drove over to have a look at it and I I fell in love with it immediately it was not very big it had a good Frontage to it and at that time I didn't even know was part of the it's Elan theater oh really yeah so but apparently this guy was going belly up anyway because he he was not running it properly and so I said you know may let's just give him give him an offer and and see what happens cuz I said I I think I could turn it around and so you know we we literally B got it from him for 30 grand so so you know I thought it's going to be a part you know just a part-time gig you know and I would fix it up and flip it so the you know I I it was to me it was a dream come true for the first two years I ran it on you know with a crew and by myself and um who would have known two years later that they would move into the neighborhood and that just changed the whole you know outcome of me running Deli it became a full-time Endeavor well and it turned into a blessing it's been 30 years 30 years um when okay so you're there you're getting your feet under you you know in 91 that kind of a thing when do you start to hear Rumblings that they're might be doing something with the theater oh yeah well uh within a few weeks of the show and and um I Remember by then I got to know a lot of the writers right including robertet and but when I when I first heard that they were visiting you know taking turns visiting the neighborhood yeah that freaked me out because I again as you know I I just did not feel comfortable being on television I did not like being in front of an audience and it I was really getting very nervous and so I told the writers you know you guys can just go visit the other neighbors you don't have to visit me because I'm definitely afraid of being on and and of course Robin net said okay yeah don't worry don't worry but anyway you know it was inevitable it happened that night I I I I I heard that they were GNA visit the copy machine center right and and so when I heard that I breathed the sigh of relief because I said oh they're not coming over but then when this is the meet the neighbor segment right yeah and what happened was instead of just sticking with the coping Center Dave said let's go around the corner and then I almost freaked out I almost fainted when we first moved in the the building was in such bad shape I mean you believe it rats in the basement um it was just horrible yep and um yeah it was just a wreck and of course you know the and it was a big undertaking because it it was a landmark and so they had to make sure that the original fixtures were were there and they couldn't yeah and they couldn't do do a lot of changes they just had to restore what was there and so I mean yeah business business literally tripled from breakfast to lunch it was just non-stop I I'll never forget when we designed the set at the Ed svent theater you know he was he was concerned because he was the greatest Studio performer ever uhuh a studio floor where it's and the audience is above yep you know you look right at that audience you don't have to look down on them he was never a big prum performer he was never a big stage perform and here we are on a stage looking down yep didn't have the studio across the hall didn't have you know so I think he was kind of concerned we were all concerned about what the show would would morph into and look how to Hal's credit Hal had the foresight to say this is going to be great doing it from a theater it's going to change everything yeah we all didn't want to do it from a theater and did you want to go to Burbank no none of us want to go to California you want to stay in New York but you couldn't do that black rock you couldn't do it like you know do it at the broadcast Center but it's on 10th Avenue there was no presen there's no magic to it like there is 30 R exactly yeah exactly so you know we we when they brought up the theater we went and we said yeah let's try it you know and let him we was smart enough to use the outside and to use Broadway and to use Mir sirul and mujar and and and our boy rert of course Deli yep Kudos go out to the CBS um construction uh Department I mean those guys came in and and wired and rewired and wired and rewired over the years but the transition coming into the the the the um uh it elen theater in '93 there wasn't a control room in the basement the the control room was up in the theater um you know the seats were a mess they really was old wiring so um those guys are pretty amazing construction shop and nothing would have gotten done there without those guys there was the Carson Show already yep there was the doc severon band which was the greatest absolutely Paul Paul not wanting to do that even though Dave had asked okay we're going into more prime time when we go to CBS can we have horns I really want horns yep Paul you know being the hip guy that he is went as far as he could go by by talking Dave uh into letting him have more Rhythm Section people right yeah I don't if you remember the beginning of the CBS thing we we added Felicia so there's one more there one more guitar there then now we have two of those Y and can I can I bring in Bernie warell as a second keyboard player the great Bernie warell who was most known uh visibly probably for being part of Parliament Funkadelic right and being like great synthesizer genius wizard that he was yep and you know lots of other things too you know he was was involved with TomTom Club I think and like things that Tina woth was doing whatever that project was I guess talking has itself I think he was part of even at some point yeah so Paul you know Dave trusting Paul acquiesced and said yes go ahead and fatten up the Rhythm Section and I'll see if I like it so so these these extra musicians that he added to our regular four-piece core band um he gave like a a 13-week contract to as in let's just see how it goes you know right uh no guarantees but let's try it you know and sure enough it's some some semi didn't work out with the second keyboard scenario but we all loved Felicia because she brought a lot to the party uh on on a number of levels you know like her vocal stuff y she's a genius with like 70s 80s R&B stuff I mean she brought in material that we never even heard of and and it really changed it really helped shape the band A Lot yep and he's just so hip in in StreetWise and um you know and then that that was the end of that little era and then horn started to trickle in and they finally got his way I was worried about getting horns because certainly at that time and it may not be true but but if you wanted to get guys who were excellent players in all ways La ches were awfully good that they were going to be older guys who did not dig rock and roll who were condescending to play it I had a big problem finding the right guys and number two there isn't going to be time to write everything out and the you know these excellent players that I knew in the studio they're just used to there's an arranger and they you know things going now well I was had time in in many cases like a feature and almost always Tom Malone who would write out a beautiful arrangement for me but you know if it's just going to be uh you know uh alen degenerous and I'm a girl watcher a G minor you know you got to just be able to play it and so it was uh I felt a little bit compromising of the freedom that I used to have but nonetheless you want to have that big sound I tried to accomplish it with the great Bernie warell on the synthesizer yep and that's when I added Felicia um and um so I added those two people but it wasn't giving uh the pizzazz that you know an oldfashioned the other thing was confusing me was Dave was really asking me if I could kind of update my repertoire not something of the classic R&B but let's you know can we not hear some stuff that's on the radio now well I didn't hear any horn sections here in the early 90s so speak up so again I was confused about which way to go but ultimately you know Bernie warell was just an artist who who moved on and continued to create no longer with us but what he was a genius uh but I kept Felicia after he moved on and yeah and I just broke down got a horn section I could only afford two yep initi uh which is weird when you only have two you know because so many cards cords so often three three part uh eventually we got to the point where we could have three and there's a brief history I didn't know that it was going to be you know exactly what I wanted I just you made P sweat for a couple days right well I not intentionally I just didn't know like what it was you know I just I mean TV was foreign to me I I was a musician that would I had been on tour a couple c times already with um uh Alo and Cindy loer and as a matter of fact it was the last day of the Cindy loer tour I was in LA we had just come back from doing Leno because uh he was the host of The Tonight Show at the time when I came in there was a note that I had gotten a call you know call your mother important so I called you know the hotel had left that note for me that message for me so I called her and uh she said please should Paul schaer called me I said Paul schaer called you I was like Paul schaer from TV Paul schaer and she said well it sounded like that voice of his I'm pretty sure it was him he said he got got your number from Nile Rogers I said yeah that sounds about right said what did he want he said well he wanted me to uh give you he he wanted your number to get in touch with you but I told him I would take his number and uh give it to you so you could call him and I just said that is so typical of my mother she would never give my mother out my number out not even to Jesus Christ she would say you know what Lord I appreciate you're looking for my daughter but let me take your number and I'll have her call you and so I called Paul and that's when he told me that um he says I'm sure you've heard about all this going on with Letterman getting a new show and I was like well yeah I'd have to be on a different planet not to know it it was like the biggest news ever M and he said 'well I'm um I want to talk to you about joining the band I said' really I said what happened to Sid and he said I still got S I want to expand the band and that's when he told me he wanted to add me and Bernie Mor or Bernie warell yep on keyboard as well I was I was just I mean it was excited to be in a band with those cats but I didn't know how to do a TV I was like I don't know what to do on a TV show is that the kind of thing I know how to do I'm it just seemed so foreign to me I really didn't think it was something that I was that I belonged to you know so right I I had to think about it because I sure didn't know at the time of that phone call what what I thought about it so I asked him if I could get back to it and he says sure he says like how long I says I don't know give me I don't know about five days he says okay he says but let's not push it too much further than that because we we got to get moving on rehearsals and lock it down I said okay I'll call you in five days so I remember going out to lunch with some friends of mine out in LA and uh and I asked Al about it too so we're we're sitting there at in the restaurant I had Al on one side my friend Jackie from high school on the other side yeah and uh I was telling him I said listen I said I want to stay in town because I'm going to make myself meet Janet Jackson she's getting ready to go out on her on tour and I know if I you know I can make myself Meer I just know I can Vibe it into existence manifest it yes yes so Al was like Felicia who's in Janet's band I was like I don't know he said exactly he said more people will know who you are on one night that first night of taping David Lan yeah then if you did 10 tours with J Jack and so um I said okay but like what but what is the gig I'm not sure what the gig is and then my friend Jackie from high school goes Felicia you know what the gig is the gig is every day and steady how about that huh that gig expanded my taste so broadly because when I started I was straight up with the funk I was a funk girl I was a funkete teer yes I was and um you know and I I grew up you know I when I was going out started going out at 1415 that was at the height of disco yep and um you know anything with a Groove you know black music quote unquote Funk dance rhythm and blues that was my thing there wasn't a lot of rock and roll there was certain songs like top 40 radio that that just infiltrated into me just from hearing it growing up and stuff but as far as just you know what came out my heart to play not so much rock and heavy metal and uhuh but when I got into this uh Paul's band the world's most dangerous band you know I was just so excited and open to to play whatever was being dished out for me to learn that it I was I wasn't hearing it as someone on the you know tuning in the radio to see what I wanted to listen to because a lot of those songs I would have just dialed it right past it you know right but to be sitting there learning it for to play you know in this new experience it I heard it in a whole new way whole new way like for instance one story that Paul still cracks up till this day is our first rehearsal you know we had run a few songs we did some P Funk and this and that and the other and so then we took a little break and he put on the tape for what we were G after the break what we were going to start on next and it was uh the kids were all right by the hood and he had it blasted he turned it on and it blasted and I remember like I I shook like oh my God I literally had to walk out of the room I was like oh Lord I mean I'm ashamed to say it today but you know at that moment I was like oh my God like you know I had to go out of the room and Paul and will thought that [ __ ] was hilarious but now I love it you know I'm like I got my guitar swung low I'm I had to acquire The Taste and then eventually you know like I said I was so open to you know you hear it in a whole another way and there's a whole different appreciation for it when you actually learn the song yourself I got on and interning and it was for Chris Alber who was working with Paul at that point so Chris had been trying to get some writing opportunities going uh both at late night and ultimately late show but got a job then in October so they premere in August of 30 I get there a week before we're doing Shakedown shows I I sort of know New York but I'm still about as green as it can possibly be right off the central Nebraska proverbial Farm I didn't grow up on a farm but uh felt I mean I had that sort of naive look about me uh with everything in the city and um so Chris gets a job at what at that point was the John Stewart MTV show wow John hosted the show on MTV Howard and Y absolutely yeah and so I don't know if it was just sort of matter of hey who's got a pulse and I'm sitting there in the office but somehow I sort of take over that role and so it's technically assistant to the musical director or assistant to Paul Schaefer is the title for that and um get in there quick I am incredibly unprepared for the job I'm incredibly I mean Not only was it my first full-time job after college it was basically one of my first full-time jobs and I had worked in local television stations in Nebraska so my office etiquette and just knowledge of some professional sort of level standards was not where it really should be and so you will hear me say this all the time God bless Paul schaer for his kindness his patience um I'm sure there were times where he was like this kid I you know and it was at a very stressful time that first fall you know the neelen ratings were coming out every day it was that battle there was some pressure Dave was feeling pressure all the entire show was feeling pressure that this had to be successful and for me to sort of be bumbling around that first fall uh and Paul letting me survive through that is was just an act of Grace like no other you have probably gotten the drift and maybe this is only from Super oldtimers like myself it's now 40 years since I took the job yeah um that that as the show got bigger and bigger and bigger and more successful and more successful of course it it grew a little less personal on the on the office Front you know everything was it's too simple to say it grew more corporate and more gigantic but it definitely was a much larger uh organization that had its own uh you know inertias and and and and bureaucracies and so on it was a little in the beginning and and for some reason we could be a little lighter on our feet in that smaller studio with a smaller staff but of course a an Entertainer wants to reach their the most people they can and Letterman certainly succeeded in that way and many others as