Fard Muhammad was at Conan’s First Tonight Show And The Energy Was Palpable

hi this is Chris Harris and you are watching the Letterman podcast welcome once again to the Letterman podcast my name is Mike Chisum all right today's guest is farod Muhammad now farad's a guy who I have uh we've been we've been down a little bit of an AFL alt. fan.

Letterman group uh Rabbit Hole as of late this is a guy who I I have seen him comment and and put really thoughtful really cool stuff out there uh create some content on YouTube and whatnot and I just he's one of us he's one of the people in this community who we just can't get enough of this stuff and he's got a really awesome voice and perspective on some of this stuff um so farad is our guest here today we talk about all sorts of different Letterman stuff lots of con stuff he was at the very first Conan Tonight Show um and and has uh some very very cool strong feelings about that uh we talk about um you know uh Carson and Letterman um we talk about uh SNL all sorts of stuff and and it's a it's a it's just a great conversation people who love this stuff will love this conversation um please enjoy uh this new episode of the Letterman podcast with our very special guest farad Muhammad okay farod um I'm I'm very excited this is you're one of those guys it's so funny in the in the show we talk about the community that is uh the Letterman Enthusiast community and I have seen you and your posts and whatnot for years I mean you've been a of AF on the Facebook for years you've been putting stuff out you've got your own YouTube channel I love connecting with people within this community who loves all these things late night the late night the Letterman adjacent stuff Letterman himself farad thank you so much for taking time to be on the Letterman podcast today I am absolutely honored to be here I've I've I've known about your podcast for quite a long time and I've seen like the the people that you've hi on there and uh it's just been F it's just been great so I'm glad to be a part of that lineup there well you know what it's funny the community is such a huge part we when Shey and I first you know kind of sort of conceived the show I thought it was going to be community members right from the very very beginning uh that would be the um you know the line share of of guests where all of us who just have loved this stuff for so long um could get together and we could talk about some of our favorite memories and things like that and every once in a while I might have a staffer on or something like that as a special treat it kind of went the other way where where we got really top heavy with staffers and I love it I love it so so much um but at the end of the day there are so many people in the community that I still want to have on the show you are one of them um you're okay show do you work in Show Business would you say you work in Show Business in broadcasting I mean how do we describe what you do I I I it's it's like it's like almost being in the mail room of broadcasting but yeah I am a I I am a senior uh uh computer programmer over at CNBC U I just got the job about almost a year ago actually like in the middle of May a little middle of March and so um yeah I was I was I've been wanting to work for a television network or a cable station for a very long time I mean most of my focus has just been on you know computers computers computers I've been working in like you know creative agencies and advertising agencies and for a while and right up until uh right up until last year I worked at a a fintech company that would be they put together like a website for their uh for their clients but nothing really in broadcasting I you know I've always had aspirations to work in broadcasting ever since I was like three years old well no I'm sorry starting when I was 3 years old but then kind of taper it off obviously I had like a pretend television station in my head that had like different Channel numbers throughout the years and later I I I stopped on channel 78 and so that's what that's like that's why the the uh my YouTube channel is called wtmg Channel 78 because it's it's it's like an old UHF station or something like that and so um yeah so I've just been fascinated with the concept of broadcasting and I've also been fascinated with the history of late night television and so uh the very idea that I was able to get job working in CNBC has just been absolutely fantastic and you know the people I work with are assulted the Earth and uh at one point I did manage to visit New York City and and angle Eclipse New Jersey in order to visit the CNBC headquarters as well as sturdy Rock so yeah I I'm I'm I'm pleas as punch so that that's fantastic um there are so many people uh you know gen xers who are in this I I feel the exact same way the television station in your head is such a good way of putting that like I thought about that like going back to like Mr Rogers and some of the broadcasting loves that I have and then of course being ushered over to to to Letterman early on you feel like you're part of this Clubhouse um you know that not everybody is and and and you know the knowing glances at school in the hallways that kind of thing I've we've talked about that a lot in the show uh let's talk about the 30 Rock um gosh I mean I don't even know uh you know we're not going to quite call it a a pilgrimage but but but man going to 30 Rock that that that must have been a very very cool feeling uh when you got to walk through some of those hallowed Halls oh absolutely yeah um no I remember C O'Brien called it the Mount Olympus of broadcasting and you know given the scale and the amount of history that the uh that that building has managed to house in terms of broadcasting that is a very apt description uh which is usually the case for Con in there and um yeah so uh one of the places I wanted to Vis visit uh right from the get-go was the hallway between Studio 6A and Studio 6B where a lot of where a lot of Conan and Letterman based Acts were or like a bits or something like that were were were were taking place like the guy that gets run over by a uh a floor waxer I think it's the panicky guy with a Chris Elliot a lot a lot of stuff happened in between those between those two hallways remember that con Conan uh um uh John Stewart and Stephen coar uh did a like a fight or something like that during the writer strike in that same hallway so yeah I was when I got there I wanted to see if I could be able to get there and when I visited the building after my work was over I went up I went over to the sixth floor to see if he could find it and I did but what I did not realized was that the Tonight Show was taping at that point so the place was crowded there was security all over the place there I had my NBC ID so I technically could be there but the security guards are still asking me hey are you lost or something like that so I just kept on walking um but then afterwards uh when the when the show was not taping and the hall was completely empty I was able to kind of like take in the fact that you know this was the hallway where Jimmy fan walked from his uh from late night his last episode of late night and go over to his tonight's show set and everything like that so you know it was just it it was just absolutely fantastic I was actually got to be in that space so yeah yeah I I was glad to have make that trip there also what took a quick trip over to the 17th floor and I happened upon Lord Michaels's office so that was really cool as well there but yeah so it was was an absolute fantastic uh trip that I I took over there yeah this show for the people who have found it and the people who haven't yet what you just described is exactly who this show is for those moments those places they're for AUD they're important aren't they like they're important they are yes yes I I think I posted somewhere on the uh on the Letterman Facebook group about the about the you know about the the different times in the studios went back and forth between 6A and 6B for letter for Letterman and then O'Brien and then Fallon went over to 6A and then he went over to 6B for a little bit in order to host his last few episodes of late night and went back to 6A blah blah blah blah so I I always found that sort of History exceedingly interesting so yeah I can definitely see why this podcast would be for people like me so exactly and we connect on that like like for the old school fans The Late Night with David Letterman fans this is the hallway between Letterman studio and live at 5 and and how they would they would they would monkey around with the live at five uh folks and and and and many times if there were guests you know you you had these Walk-Ons that would happen with both shows for that matter uh and and and hij Jinks that would happen in that hallway there I I completely understand why that's the place you would zero in on want to go see um um you're a Conan fan as well I mean I love I love Conan um yes before we get into some of the Letterman stuff I gotta ask this you were were you you were at is it the very first Conan Tonight Show yes so um I was unfortunately too young to go to the first late night withan because I was 13 at the time they only allow 16 and over but um in 2009 I did want to see uh a taping of The Tonight Show con O'Brien because after 17 years of Leno I was really looking forward to seeing you know uh the title The tonight's show with and have somebody else's name with it but anyway um but it was uh but I I so I sent out and this is before one iota was doing all the ticket management for every single television show in existence and instead um they uh I NBC had their own ticketing department and so they said all right send over your name and address and stuff and four dates you would like to attend y so not knowing that I only had to I only had like about the first four weeks to work with I said Okay I want to go for the first episode and one for my birthday in like January and the whole thing was taking place in June and so um I I did like a few few order ones there and they said all right congratulations you have a ticket for the uh for the June 1st 2009 episode of tonight's show with col O'Brien I thought okay well I got to figure out a way to get to Los Angeles because I was living in Chicago at the time and uh so we figured out a way in order for me to get over to Los Angeles the day before and um I knew this was going to be you know rather historical because this the fifth Tonight Show host the first time that you know first time do Tonight Show host has been named and announced and will be premiering in about 17 years and so I really wanted to make sure I had good seat so like the night before I went over into the line I went over to Universal Studios to get in line and it was over at gate two which is now we're pretty close to where I work now but um and so uh so uh and so it was around like 11:45 at night I got over there and I saw a line and it turns out that was a standby line but I got into line anyway so like the following morning the audience coordinator uh stepped out and says okay we're going to be handing out standby tickets anybody who already has ticket can stay but everybody else can leave you know take a bath take whatever you want there and then come back so uh so I was like the seventh person in line that in that in that standby line and out of um the I'm sorry it was the E person in line the seven people that ahead of me all seven of them were waiting for standby tickets so they grabbed them and left and I stayed in line so I became the first person in line and later the first seated audience member for the premier episode of The Tonight Show con O'Brien so yeah I was I was really pleased as punch about that there because there's only like about 600 people that oh sorry well no there there yeah so there's like like 500 people that could be able to say that there so um we're six yeah okay anyway and this is but you know it's funny because you know you think about Team Coco now and and and you know we've got history to look back on and how that all went and the documentary Conor Brian can't stop which I absolutely adore uh I'm actually I actually the audience where that last shot in the documentary I went over to his fourth episode on TBS uh in like November of 2010 I believe and so you could you can't really see me because I was dressed all in black kind of like I am right now and uh but I I I was wearing my Tonight Show coron Brian hat and you could see me sitting like between two different people um uh like a group of people were having like had the word Coco written under under t-shirts and they all gave us sing Elation I gave us sing loation and at the front and at my feet there is a copy of the war for late night by Bill Carter which is I was reading at the time so you know I was really just steeped into it there but I had no idea that they're going to using an audience shot for that last uh for that last shot of the documentary until I saw it in the theater I said wait I recognize that that's me and so so that was you know that was that was fantastic there but any that that's one of the best moments ever when you can actually recognize yourself in one of these one of these things um I love that i' I've experienced that feeling as well I love it it's such a great feeling um so so so the first Tonight Show team coko didn't really exist it was just this is Life as We Know It the fan base is excited that he's moving over it's one of those things where you kind of don't know what you got until you lose it um you know but that Tonight Show show I remember my golden age um in in in in late night for me personally from like a daily a daily exercise for the most part my DVR was active every single day and it was it was Letterman Conan and Ferguson and that was for me that was kind of my sweet spot and I I'm we're in the west coast uh I would watch Letterman usually early in the evening because I could watch the east coast feed of it and then I would I would watch either a Ferguson or a a Conan O'Brien kind of later into the night before that the the evening ended and I would remember watching Letterman and then The Tonight Show and then what would become the TBS show religiously religiously for years and and that first Tonight Show um I it had a very similar feel to when Conan hosted the emys when he was running across uh when he was running across the country they did such a good job with that I think they had flown him out for an event and they utilize that event to to to make that Montage happen him going to the different cities and having different experiences Affiliates and stuff yeah yeah yeah the the energy that you must have felt in that room for that first show uh it must have been absolutely pandemonium even though Team Coco didn't exist at that point it must have been pandemonium that was such an exciting show I loved it so much it it was yeah uh for one thing the studio the the the cameras were the cameras did an excellent job of capturing the show but the studio itself was God dang gorgeous and it's and the cameras did not doing Justice I mean it was just all different sorts of bright colors and you know there the stage had like these like LED lights that could be able to change in different colors uh the the the set around the desk was you know very very colorful and bright and everything and even the set for the band was like you know it was kind of more subdued but it had like these Rolling Hills everything and and like a couple of U I think it had like the Empire State Building and the chryler building like way off of the distance you know just little knots of their New York roots and everything but I will say this uh yeah the the the the the the sement of the audience was palpable during that time there and as you mentioned before Team Coco technically did not exist because the name Coco was not really used by Conan or his staff or anybody else until the day afterwards on June the 2nd 2009 when during a Twitter Twitter tracker segment and then during that se and then after that segment Tom Hanks went on and continued the name and then it just caught on like wildfire exctly yeah yeah U so it was uh so it's definitely it was definitely like the F the first and last prec ccoo episode that's show C o'ban that I attended and so yeah I mean I mean the air conditioning was like it was like you know very very crisp and everything like that there as well so no I was just really really excited to just be in the be a part of this you know historic television moment of uh you know of a brand new Tonight Show host because that it does not happen all that often or at least it shouldn't be but anyway um yeah so I was just I was just really excited about it and I and I will admit usually that's not really something I I will I will admit fly but when I saw the broadcast of it later on that evening you know bit teer me eye there you know tell you because I managed to finally achieve something or not I managed to finally attend something that was worthy of of of something that would be written in like a broadcasting history book or something like that I don't think it would be covered in any school but you know that something like that you know I tell you but uh no I it was really exciting to see the cold open on the monitors as soon as that cold open uh ended you just heard Max Weinberg on the on the drums there just go and it just it was just it was elect the crowd went absolutely wild and you know people were just screaming all over the place it was just absolutely fantastic it it was a great show to attend yeah uh I'm glad I could I'm glad I could kind of put you back into that moment again um you know you talk about the war the war for late night um you know Bill Carter's been on this the show a couple of times and and and and and you know he did the The Late Shift was phenomenal but the war for late night like he wrote the hell out of that book is what he he did and he he did it was a phenomenal phenomenal book um you know if if there was a university if he decided to go and teach at a university and and and base a couple of courses on that I would want to I'd want to attend and want to audit that stuff this is the stuff that's really really special it's in it's in our DNA these big moments that happen on these shows for you to be at that one it was one of those moments it was history it was the fact that you've got that in your memory banks farod is so is so cool it's so impressive um so when let's let's let's go back a little bit to your to your excitement about this we can get back to Conan a little bit later if we if we get there but um when did you become a fan of this stuff and what was it about the stuff that that that got you excited about it it's weird um there isn't really like a point that I did not know about the concept of the late night talk show because um what when I was like one year old my mom um did made an audio recording like holding up the microphone to the television and pressing record on a tape recorder of a segment from Johnny where uh this guest was talking about um uh spelling or something like that it was she wanted to do it in order to demonstrate you know different spelling techniques for when my brother and I would get older he was just he was born about 10 months ago 10 months beforehand and so um so you know we're pretty close anyway we uh so she would play that like every once in a while and so for the longest time I remember hearing the voice of Johnny Carson talking about you know call announ that in the US oh you read the book I mean SP WR for was I mean the C you Cal C something like that there you know so um so I was always cognizant about the notion that there was this person named Johnny Carson out there somewhere and so um and then this might be tful but my mom would tell this from time to time that while I wasn't interested in watching Carson uh after like you know starting in 1982 and going afterwards so I was been two years old uh I was interested in watching Letterman so would always be kind of more transfix of watching Letterman show which I I don't know if that's the case but I would not be surprised if it were because for I was too young to remember all of this but uh yeah so I was always fascinated with the concept of late night talk shows I mean granted when I after I got into school the the ability to watch late night in in any sh shape or form had been severely cut because I had to get to sleep and order to get up early and order to go to school but but for a long time I W I I did like you know watching like some of the Prime Time specials or I would sometimes wake stay up a little bit too late in order to watch Carson and Letterman and stuff so and it also held that I was in the central time zone at the time so you know Carson would would start at 10:30 at night instead of instead of like 11:30 at night for for the for the coasts so I was always I was always uh pleased about that um also I uh my my my mom would would definitely have have me and my brother watch Saturday Night Live at a relatively younger age that we probably should have but uh but if there were any sketches that were a little bit too you know uh runchy or something like that she would just have us she would just you know tell us to not watch or turn it off or something like that watch something else so yeah I mean so um so yeah I was always interested the whole concept of like you know television based comedy uh broadcasting and late night and so when the um when when when con when Carson was about to retire and and the ramp up was started to happen that's when I started to really you know fixate in the conccept late night television and the whole thing between Leno and lman had just been like a very it was a very uh fascinating sort of story for me and so I would follow it relentlessly and the stories from Bill Carter from the times and everything like that had been really in terms of you know digesting all of that um and then I also saw a lot of parallels between that and the 2010 Tonight Show scheduling conflict between Leno and O'Brien and so forth so you know I was that that's always been like a a major focal point in terms of my interest in broadcasting so yeah yeah mine too uh we had um I think you know Jason zinaman he wrote the the last giant of of of late night um I I asked him about when about the the idea of of Letterman being kind of the the cult talk show host you know and and uh as opposed to and I love Carter made this uh comparison in I think it was late shift he talked about that he talked about the idea that comparing Letterman and Leno to the idea of pop music like you know whoever pop is like Pink Floyd to the stuff where you know and I I have always kind of subscribed to that um and thought that might that might be you know why my interests kind of moved over and people who think like the way that we do uh you know why that might be the case but then Jason Zinman brought up an interesting idea I was right smack dab in high school when what the period you were talking about the original Late Shift happened and and when you're in your formative years it's just kind of like that Saturday Night Live people always say yeah the last 50 years of Saturday Night Live whoever your favorite cast is is probably the cast you that was there when you in high school I like that idea I think that is very similar for me although I had two of them I had Carvey uh Phil Hartman Jan Hooks Victoria Jackson John L Kevin nean Dennis Miller those guys oh yeah but then also in high school that second cast within that first cast kind of came in with Farley Spade Sandler uh Melanie hustle ER cayor Chris Rock um Siobhan Fallon and if I apologize if I miss any of they were kind of allal appearance by Jan Hooks yeah oh God I love Jan Hooks I love Jan Hooks so much he was just um I I just I I always I wish that I could have seen Jan Hooks and Tina Fay do a bunch of stuff together you know she was on 30 Rock but yeah I wish they I wish they have done a whole lot more yeah that's what I'm saying like like just little just like see SNL 50 Seeing Eddie Murphy working with Tracy Morgan seeing him actually doing some sketch stuff you know with with Keenan and and and and like that just to me like that's the the worlds that I would love to see Collide I would love to see like okay and I you know so anyway to go back to the the point about what you said and then I want to talk to you about some current events here too because I know you got excited about um about the SNL 50 hoop hoopla that happened Dave appearing on The Tonight Show for the first time and like I love I love how you brought out a certain point that I want to want to talk about that but back then um because we were in high school the formative years the cement still being wet and having this what we considered to be an epic event happening with the Leno Letterman thing and and and The peing Taking of sides and all that sort of stuff as our cement was hardening it was extra special kind of for us that it happened around that time during formative years times oh yeah and then when late shift to happened in 2010 uh you know we're that much more and and seeing Dave like that's my favorite I I I love late night I loved Late Night with David Letterman everything about it that's the foundation the whole damn thing was built on I have ultimate respect for it but my favorite Letterman time period was in 2010 when late chift 2 was happening because it kind of throughout the entire thing yeah it kind of brought it all together and so many different ways um and and so yeah that that for us these moments are important they're hardwired into into into into the DNA of of of of our experience growing up like it's it's a big deal for those of us who are that age who are into that stuff that was a big deal yeah absolutely yeah and uh and to see you know Dave you know commenting on it from the sidelines because he said he had no dog in this fight but I'm pretty sure he didn't want Jay to come back to The Tonight Show but uh but um but no I I then then he would did like all different sorts of like jokes and bits about it uh you I think it was like uh like some sort of Law and Order spoof special letto unit or something like that so yeah it was um it was very it was it was very cool to see him you know just uh basically just you know giggling throughout the entire thing and just saying you know uh I I know that a lot of people don't want me to talk about it but the thing is I really enjoy talking about it you know it was just really it was really awesome that he was able to kind of like you know sit back and like you know point and everything like that you know oh this is just classic J please from the B from the bottom of my heart don't blame con sort of thing there it's just it's just fantastic so I gotta ask you this um yes we're recording this before the Oscars I mean to me I and I mean it's not going to happen but right now we live in a world where it could happen can you imagine you know whoever it is the uh the announcer you know welcome to the 2025 Academy Award you know and now your host Conan O'Brien imagine jayena walks out like I mean are you kidding me how like to me that is the biggest oh oh I I it's and it probably would be more appropo for the Emmys but but it's the Oscars and and the idea that with Carson the lineage of Carson hosting the Oscars and all of that stuff and and and and you know Kimmel's done it Letterman did it once and and and all of that stuff I to me that joke is the it's it's sitting there it's it's that Super Bowl commercial it's that good where you you you let all of it go because the joke is that good I just I I would love to see that so much uh not going to happen of course butar not going to happen for the next six days it could it still could happen U no that that that no that's actually hilarious I didn't even think about that because I the reason I did because I already saw like I I think I posted it on the lman group or at least on my Facebook that you know it was like a it was the image of uh Conan with like uh you know golden hair that was was the billboard for for his upcoming Oscars hosting gig and somebody replaced it with a picture of Leno with his like very very gray hair and so it's I rehar just saying how dare you it's just so on point so perfect um yeah I just uh it's it's one of those things that it's it's it's a it's a big part of our of our show bid Biz lineage it's it's it's it's one of those things where you know um you know when Carson retired he talked about how shiz you know wasn't the same anymore and and people are like well what are you talking about you just said Tom Cruz on you had all these people on and he's thinking about Jack Benny he's thinking about all these people you know um and I'm certain that there's a degree of that with all of them with Leno with Letterman with O'Brien all of them but to us they are that and anytime those guys monkey around and we can get to kind of The Tonight Show this week here anytime those guys monkey around the the the the Strike Force 5 podcast was absolutely Ely spectacular you know being Stuart being a guest another episode like so good watching these guys getting along monkeying around together it's not that good if the dust up with Letterman and and and and Leno and and Leno and O'Brien didn't have it's not as good if that stuff didn't happen it's part of the reason why it's so great when we see them yeah I mean it's it's like it's like you know um seeing like uh War factions you know getting together and collaborating on stuff during peace time afterwards you know it's uh it and it's and it's just like with the last episode of cordon's version of The Late Late Show where all the late night hosts got together including Letterman which I did not INSP Pate um you know just basically wishing him well but also you know diving up the different bits of his that they could be able to take and everything like that no it was it was it was really cool that they were able to get all them together or at least I know that they filmed lman separately because you just see him just just like in a chair laughing or something like that but anyway but no I do think that it was really that it's really interesting to see that especially after the all the uh all the acon took place during during both of the uh during both of the tonight's show uh conflicts uh and uh so yeah it's really it's really cool to see that you know becoming a little bit more of a these people understand what it takes to host a talk show and they're not going to you know lass each other about it or anything like that um now in the case of Conan you know kind of going after Leno during his during his last week of The Tonight Show that was a lot more um reasonable given the fact that you know he'd been working so hard to get to the tonight's show and now it's going to be taken away from him in a matter of months so you know that so was but he was able to have fun with it still have you know jokes about it and everything like that and still approach it from a very positive attitude to the point where he was able to you know grow his internet presence after after he left on Twitter and then uh do his you know do his uh his tour and everything like that so he was able to really you know kind of reach out and you know interact with the with the fans a whole lot more after the after that result there and I'm sure they you know $40 million didn't hurt either but you know I'll tell you story a little bit of breathing room that's breathing room right there that's try to to figure out uh but ironically that payment okay uh the breathing room okay but if you look at all of these these these people that we have admired um you know throughout the the years when we were born when we weren't born but the lineage we all feel this way about like all of us who think the way that Us in this community think um really at the end of the day Conan has pivoted post late night talk show uh has pivoted better than any of the other ones into something else that is like I would I would argue you know his deal with Sirius um and and and all the podcast and all the stuff that he is doing um especially in today's landscape bigger than a late night show in today's landscape anyway and and but also completely different you look at him as a podcast host I was just on a uh somebody else's I was guested on somebody else's show we were talking about this um you know really at the end of the day there are people out there just like people who watch the office and don't know that it was a long form television show they just know it from little videos on Tik Tok they think it's like an internet Series right there are people out there who know Conan O'Brien as a podcast host and and and not not primarily as that that that late night host name me uh another late night talk show host who has pivoted post career of that part of their career into something as successful as Conan nobody's done it Conan's the only one not really no no and then that that that really that really shows how media Savage Conan really is um and then that's one thing that I that I that I'm sure that a lot of people in a lot of networks have managed to I managed to find out is that you do not underestimate con O'Brien so yeah absolutely no and I see that with all due respect like I think Jay Leno doing Jay Leno's garage is the perfect place for him oh yeah but but does not have the the the the cultural relevancy uh even close to what Conan has I love my next guest with uh needs no introduction with David Letterman they're fantastic Dave doing the long form you know combining you know kind of Tom Snider and Barbara Walters together sort of and then adding their own little little uh sprinkles into it I I think it's wonderful I love Letterman doing long form but again it's very similar to kind of what he was doing before Conan's built something else entirely on the on on the side of that and I love that um did you uh it's interesting because in the last 12 months we've seen a couple people come back to The Tonight Show um that hadn't been there in a long time the first was Conan and and it struck me it was a few months ago um eight nine months ago whatever it was Conan shows back up on The Tonight Show and and and to me it was very relevant uh uh uh it was very obvious I should say that he was bigger than the show he seemed he seemed bigger when Letterman came back to co bear same thing and then Letterman this last week came back to The Tonight Show because of the SNL stuff that was going on he spent three days in 30 Rock um I thought you had a very interesting video talking about that and and and you brought out a really really interesting point so um let's talk about that let's let's throw the the little factoids that you uh you kind of threw out there yeah so um one of the things I noticed was that um and it's part of it was due to the fact that I read about it in late nighter and I and but but a lot of the um but a lot of the math I was able to I was able to do on my own and and it occurred to me that this was the first time that of this past Monday or last Monday almost that uh this is the first time that lman has appeared on The Tonight Show since 19 92 right before uh Carson was going to retire and so um I figured that was really that was a really cool idea I mean give it the fact that obviously he would not appear on Leno's version of the show he did not have a chance to appear on Conan's version of the show and I guess for the last 11 years he was just wasn't really interested or just the things just didn't connect in terms of him appearing on Fon version of the show until that evening um and fact way that I managed to manag to figure out is that the span of time between his last letter last tonight's show appearance uh in 1992 and his more recent one in 2025 is only some amount of months shorter that his entire 33e uh career in late night television all the way from 1982 to 2015 so yeah it was really interesting that it's it's been that long since it's appeared on the tonight's show so yeah yeah I was I found out to be a fascinating concept so I turned it into my first episode of the talk show show that's on YouTube right now so yeah I'm so glad you're doing this um again you you mentioned late nighter earlier before we get to your channel here and talk about that you mentioned late nighter I I'm Jed Rosen VI and his staff and all of everybody who's there Bill Carter of course Mark maloff love Mark Mark to death these are all people who I just admire I'm so grateful that there are people who are recognizing that oh wait there's a there's a there's a ground swell of Interest here there's a a community of people however big however small whatever it is who really appreciate this stuff and late nighter to me um I'm so grateful that that place exists uh yeah just like some of these podcasts that I've grown to love over the years you know you you kind of depend on them um for these commonality uh uh insights that that can show up and boy are they doing a good job at late nighter I we're brothers from another mother clearly on this you're very excited when late nighter showed up right yeah oh very much so yeah I I I I mean I haven't really been reading a lot of like online news sites as of recently so the idea that there is one specifically about late night television and not only current late night television but also its history y was really really uh it was it was a definite good sign that I would I would find a new place to you know U periodically look in order to find out latest news about you know what was going on as well as historical pieces and everything like that there and they yeah as you mentioned before they've been doing an excellent job in terms of like you know connecting what's happening today to what has also happened you know years and years ago I mean there are stories about what what what's happening on after midnight and then right next to a story about like you know the anniversary of when Jack par left the tonight's show so you know it was just it's just absolutely fantastic they were doing uh that their making these sorts of stories along those lines yeah it's it's it's um and and I talked to you Bill Carter one of the things that he has has kind of pointed out there in the current um environment of Television you know I mean I still love television as much as I loved it when I was a kid but I'm I'm afraid that this medium that I love so much is about to jump off a cliff even though you know we've seen recently some of the best shows that have ever been produced that being said because of the fragmentation it's getting harder and harder for network television to uh to survive from a monetary uh point of view I mean I'm glad SNL was able to do it with the 50th season they've leveraged it and there's been some articles I read an article in variety today about how how they monetize it how they were able to make great money throughout this run here you know and and in inventive ways it wasn't just a matter of uh you know the adby uh for this block it was it was a lot more than that a lot more nuanced than that but but we're sitting here watching this thing that we love kind of fragment you know Seth Meers loses his band you know recently um like you said earlier you know Late Late Show which which Dave's company worldwide pants uh uh you know spearheaded um changed it it went from Late Late Show for the first time ever you know after it's uh you know four hosts I think it was four hosts um you know to to to after midnight right and and and so we're watching these changes happen but like bill says uh it's appointment television and there it's isn't a lot of appointment television left and that's the stuff that seems to be getting these ratings well we get it every single day with these late night shows um you know there the topical monologue you know the stars of the day yeah if they're plugging a movie or a book or whatever the political uh folks of the day uh you know take your pick whoever whatever we're talking about um it's still appointment television and I'm hoping that it doesn't shrink the you know the landscape doesn't shrink that much more because to me it's an extremely valuable part of television history that is only really in my opinion now starting to to get you know CNN did the story of late night and and and late nigh.

comom and all that I think we did take a lot of this stuff for granted for a long time that it was just always there and it was always going to be there yeah yeah um and we will definitely start to appreciate it more once more and more of it start to go away um and you know there there there's always been like you know uh you know rumors back and forth as to whether or not you know Seth Meers is going to be moved over to Peacock or something like that so you know once once those shows start to go away people start to realize how much of a part of the cultural landscape they are that's one of the major it's one of the major things that really irk me when people make joke people make the hacky joke of saying oh is SNL still on the air of course it's still on the air if you if it went if went off the air now you would know about it granted once once the 50th anniversary celebration was started happening those that amount of people really stopped saying that that's been helpful at least in that regard there but no it's it's a part it's a part of the popular culture part of the cultural osmosis of like not only just television but also just in pop culture in general and so um yeah so the the the whole and so I'm hoping that the concept of the late night talk show will be able to adapt to this new era of whatever this is because it's still it's still kind of like um it's still transmogrifying right now yeah in terms of what in terms of what will H what will survive and what won't and so um I'm hoping that that you know somebody will find a decent enough model and I'm hoping that that somebody will be me I've been W host of late night talk show as you could probably could tell for a while so it's excellent segue man it's like yeah it's like you'd be good at it too holy smokes great segue talk about your the YouTube channel and and some of the you've you've told me a couple of the uh premise that you premises that you have for upcoming topics things like that um by the way again brothers from another mother I'm a big I'm a big believer that all of us should link up together in some sort of a of a network um with each other a loose Network a kinship whatever you want to call it um where we we all kind of go back and forth with each other because every we're all listening to malov podcast you know I'm lucky enough to have had him on our show a bunch of time we're just going back and forth he wants to come on again which is I'm so grateful for um you know the idea that all of us I want to I want to Champion what you're doing because I love the premise I loved the video that you put out the other day talking about that and and so what are some of the can you talk about some of the other ones that you you have coming out well I already kind of like mentioned the the the the plot of the one I'm I'm hoping to write a little bit later on and that is the uh and and that's the one about the history of the name Coco uh on with con O'Brien y um because it does have a very interesting sort of uh transition between uh it used to be like this name that that Conan detested and then when people would either mention it in the audience or when guests mentioned it he would just get really really aggravated but then it became a rallying cry especially during the imw with Coco movement and now uh is pretty much just the name of his company or or whatever the company is at this point here because I'm pretty sure that team Co the the Team Coco uh digital company is now just sub a subsidiary of SiriusXM at this point but um yeah but I but I do find that the uh that the name has not only just been adopted by Conan but also has just been kind of embraced by him and the rest of and the rest of his staff um even to the to the point where end the very last episode of his TBS show when he made that appearance as a Simpsons character when answered his cell phone he went go for Coco which you would not imagine he would ever say when was first B the ball during The Tonight Show so I think he's managed to make piece of the name uh at this point here so that's one of them um and I kind of like describe the entire thing but the but I'll make I'll I'll be sure to you know do all sorts of like you know bells and whistles with graphics and stuff absolutely pretty frustrated but anyway um but the second one is regarding um and the one that I'm that I'm editing right now is about the uh is about that Super Bowl commercial that we that we kind of touched upon with with Leno in the uh along with along with Dave and Oprah and for that one I remember that I saw I think I even saw this one when it C when it came out uh on CBS where that audience member was asking uh about the about why why he he got Jay on that Tostitos commercial and my the point of that the point of my video is to ask why did he think it was for Tostitos and I have a few reasons as to why I won't go into I won't go into them in detail but I think I have a I think I have a couple of a couple of reasons as to why that particular audience thought that the uh that that particular commercial was for was for uh tosos so I'm looking forward to editing it together I did all the filming it's just now I have to collect all the clips put them on the screen hoping I get a copyright strike and then and then get it out into the world so yeah I'm so grateful you're doing this I and I love I love the moment you're talking about here because the Super Bowl commercial itself was Earth shattering you know again we we've talked about that on this show uh in Carter's book War for late night they certainly certainly go over it but you know Barack Obama apparently allegedly sitting there watching the game and seeing this happening going well I can't be real find find out how find out how this can you get somebody on this to find out and then the cool thing about it too is the following Late Show taping yes how do they mention this Super Bowl commercial that was got everybody talking oh my God was that real how did they do it and nobody was really giving up any answers and and how did Dave talk about it on the Monday night or whatever night it was it it was Monday night uh how did he talk about oh yeah it was a fan talking about how how did you get him into this Tostitos commercial totally deflecting all of this you know and making it about that what a perfect entry point and and again this is one of the reasons why you know the communal why we all love Dave so much is he doesn't look at necessarily the main the the fat pitch coming down the plate that you could just bang out and a Dinger but more so the the odd little observance of the thing happening over here of the person in the stands and you let the pitch go by let's talk about this person over here and and and and I just I adore that um and and again that psychology the idea that you would explore that idea is exactly my psychosis that's the stuff that I love the the you know I was always a comic book fan growing up and one of the my favorite one uh uh titles was what if the idea that what if this person did this to this person and and and and you know folks who lovingly referred to as nerd culture this is the type of stuff this is where we live and um what you're exploring there with that is these little dark Corners that our attitude our personality like like to to uh to discover and and play with again we're on topic here um no pre-interview but boy this is really cohesive isn't it uh idea that there was a fourth person invited to that to that uh commercial and that was Conan O'Brien and and of course he understandably declined but yeah because it was like within a few days after he just taped his last episode of the tonight's show so it was raw it was fresh in his mind he did not think it was funny at all whatsoever he didn't want to be in the same room as Leno let alone in the same commercial as Leno so no I completely understand that notion um and so because of that that's why they decided to get Oprah and one of the things I was going to mention was that if you rearrange the line so that Dave is the one in the Oprah uh in the Oprah role and Conan is the one in the Dave role the role the the the the commercial makes a little bit more sense as to why as to why Dave was so angry during that time but no it was supposed to I believe that was supposed to be Conan on the screen basically saying this is the worst one ever and then he's and and you know that sort of thing there so yeah um no I so I'm I'm looking forward to seeing how I could be able to kind of do that I'll probably have to put like you know Dave's face on top of Oprah's head I don't know but I won't use AI or anything like that but I'll probably just use like some sort of like um you know animation or something like that in order to get that through that might take a bit but anyway um now I'm just producing the show on the Fly good this is good no I'm excited to watch it so what's the YouTube channel again so people can subscribe and I will I'll share it out in our channels and stuff when it when it all comes out but what is the channel again well the channel itself is called wtfgo Googles itself into thinking that you're just you're just looking for WTF based uh YouTube videos oh I got you I got you but no but it but I'm sticking with the title right now so uh yeah it's but it's suppos it's like youtube.com wfg7 so yeah yeah okay and we we'll share it out and when you make the change you make the change and all that and and and uh yeah let's get you let's get you to monetization as soon as possible here it's kind of like leveling you up let's get to that next level so you can get to that place at least and and and and that gets you that much more out there um uh it's fun doing it isn't it like like I'm a financial trade but but boy uh I mean doing this show uh meeting folks like you and then of course you know folks who worked for the show I just had I just had one of the interns on it's so funny they were talking about security um and and I mean I've talked to Pat farmer I talked to a few people about the commercial that that that day um and they were talking about the security and how they all prided themselves on they prided themselves on on on how secretive it was and they did a great job getting those two there they filmed it in the in the in the spot of the L that they film um yeah you know many the writers will go and film different uh remotes and segments or whatever you want to call them extras and and they filmed it there they did a great job very small crew one of the former interns was on the other day and they they had an intern bar the interns didn't go to the same bar everyone went to McGee which is the bar that How I Met Your Mother was based on and all that uh uh uh but the interns didn't go there they went to the cheap bar Barcelona because it was cheap beers and they didn't get paid very much money or whatever the end that was on he was talking about how oh yeah yeah we knew Leno was there we we saw them sneak him in and we all went to the bar and said hey Jay Leno got snuck in with a beard and all that sort of stuff like everyone was talking about the here these interns are knowing this talking about it and sure enough a few days later the Super Bowl commercial airs or whatever it was a couple weeks later I just find that Charming um yeah yeah but that's an aside to go back are you having like it's it's it's so much fun to get this out of your system isn't it it is yes uh because if there's anything if there's anything uh my wife and a lot of my close friends know is that I like to talk about late night talk shows a lot and so the idea that I could be able to uh put it out there onto a video so that it so that I don't have to be you know uh you know make all different sort of like Conan Letterman and SNL references and regular conversation might be helpful in a lot of cases in terms of social interactions so yeah uh yeah I get the same thing man I got a very happy white since I started this show other than the fact that the memorability keeps piling up because like and I'm very grateful I get start getting start to get sent things and and and things like that other than that part she is extremely happy I'm doing this I'm a lot I'm in a much better mood because I'm getting something out of me that needs to come out which is great but also yeah she doesn't have to hear it anymore she doesn't have to you know unless I'm walking with her in the mall and somebody asks me about the pant jacket then she's like oh no and she I'm going to Sephora I'll be back um yeah I mean if there if there's a way I could be I could incorporate my Don Paro impression in in my videos and that'll also help out in terms of like you know kind of minimizing that at home so we'll see how that goes uh don Paro impression um yeah actually speak go ahead please please I actually used I actually did a bill Wendell impression of uh back during the beginning portions of the pandemic uh there uh there shortly after um uh the original host of HQ tribia scabber gski left in order to do his baseball show on a on a on a on a pay Channel um he during the pandemic there wasn't any baseball so he so he decided to do this like live stream show on Instagram and then later on other uh platforms called ISO Late Night with Scott rowski and so it was basically this huge Late Night with David Letterman homage that he was doing from his house because he couldn't go anywhere because it was the pandemic and so um and so I contacted him because I kind of got to know him a little bit uh when he was do when he was when he was on tour uh shortly before he left HQ tribia and I asked him if he would be interested in having me to do a bill wendle impression in order to kind of like you know solidify the whole thing and so he said yeah send me over a tape and so I sent him over a tape and he used it on the show and then after that for about I can't remember how many episodes he did but was like from like March until around May at 2020 I was doing like daily announcements saying from New York uh you know now it's wi scen format it's isol night with Scott Meli you know sort of thing there so and I could and I remembered uh this is during the I was uh I think I was on break for lunch whenever I would do this and and uh I think it was during a time when uh my wife was was kind of like uh was kind of resting in another room but but every single time she would hear me from the other room going Scott run go you know so it was that sort of uh it was that sort of deal there but no it was really awesome that I was able to really you know work with somebody who was such a fan of the original late night that I and you know and putting and putting out something that would uh you know pay homage to that so no I was really pleased about that sort of thing there so yeah yeah yeah absolutely I I love I love Wendell uh I loved alen calter um I I I'm supposed to have Randy I gotta have Randy West on the show he's one of those guys who I've been meaning to have on for a long time talking about yeah I've seen his Facebook post and he's always talking about like you know the behind the scenes stuff on television I still need to get his book too but no he's he's you should definitely get you should definitely get him on the show Absolutely AB absolutely it's just a matter of making it happen just kind of like having you on here too like people like you guys have wanted to have on for so long and I've even gone down the path with some of these people but but talking about these announcers um you know I I I'm grateful to hear you say that this is the type of stuff that we all think about we talk about but we do it in our different you know our different ways what you just said about Don par your Don parto impression how and I mean you know again no no no pre- interiew here but SNL 50 watching um you know uh uh Bobby come back and do drunk uncle and that little that little thing musical guest Timothy charlam and the drunk uncle but Don parto drunk uncle doing Don parto that made me laugh that was one of my top moments in the whole show which again shows the way that we think about this stuff these announcers are just as important to us as the hosts of of the show or or or part of it huge importance to us oh yeah um I uh I remember I saw a uh a talk over at this was at the Chicago Museum of broadcast Communications and Robert Smigel the the SNL writer the voice of trying the insult comic dog made an appearance there and was answering questions and everything like that and I and I and I wanted to ask him a question I and I thought of one thankfully I was able to ask him how he felt when he first heard his name being announced by Don Paro and Ro and and Mr schichel just said yeah it was awesome and he went a little bit more into detail and everything like that but he's such an SNL fan especially when he when he first started watching during the earlier days and so the idea that you know he that he was able to hear a cartoon by Robert Smigel it was just it it was just it just absolutely surreal for him to hear but so absolutely awesome that it would that that that sort of thing was happening while he was on the show while was on the show you know was on the show um because it's so close whatnot I just question what was your impression of SNL 50 what did you think about it what did you think about the docks around it uh any anything you want to kind of go into there no I was I was absolutely amazed about how much they were able to to um do with the with the with the anniversary because remember during the 40th anniversary there weren't any documentaries there wasn't a homecoming concert it was just that special and then it kept on doing more episodes yep so I thought I thought that the the the that the uh homecoming ConEd was absolutely phenomenal uh The Roots were absolutely brilliant in terms of being the backup band for a lot of the Bands yes uh I I thought that the that the sketches during it were were hilarious uh Jimmy Fallon was Jimmy Fallon thing all over the that he had a big week that week that was a big week he definitely had a big week yeah yeah and uh you know and i' I've I've seen some uh I've seen some footage of uh Fallon you know talking about the upcoming anniversary just being all excited about it so yeah absolutely um I thought that the documentaries on peacock were fantastic uh the one about the the one about more cowbell was a lot more in depth I thought it was going to be because I thought it was just going to be some sort of like you know joke documentary in the St of documentary now but no they they went into a lot of detail you know they found the original Bruce Dickenson they found all members of the Blue Oyster Cult and everything and you know they talked about like the the making of that sketch the writing of it the how it was going to be a wood block first and then a cowbell how it was going to be uh how it was going to be a cast M I think they were gonna have nor McDonald to play him at first but then when they brought Christopher Walkin and saying I got a more cowbell and it was just the whole thing just took off like like lightning and everything like that so yeah it was absolutely fantastic uh the one about the 11th season of Estel was also really great the weird year yep yeah the weird year it's unfortunate that Miller couldn't participate in that but something tells me he's not really focusing on you know looking back and stuff which is absolutely understandable um and uh I'm forget what the fourth one was so there was the the the five minutes oh the writers yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah the writers five and then the monologue stuff yeah right right right right right so yeah both of those were absolutely great insight into the looking uh into the making of SNL currently as well as uh I'm sure there was like I believe there were also stuff about you know how how it went down in previous years as well I think they interviewed like you know other writers from previous yeah they did so yeah um and I'm also in the middle of reading the Lauren book or reading as well as doing a the audio book Because you know I'm I'm all over the place but anyway but noit a second the audio book yeah there's an audio book yeah Lauren didn't read it did he no no no no can you imagine take all my money have a thousand copies of it for $10,000 I'll take one that can you imagine that that would have been great but no it's like the intro and the outro are written by the author and then the the and the middle is read by like a professional like book reader and yeah no it's it's absolutely fascinating to listen to and also fascinating to read so I I'm really glad I purchased both of them anyway um but yeah and then so the actual special itself though I thought it was it I I know a lot of people were saying oh there's a lot of this opportunities you got to remember the the the original not for Prime Time Players are in their 70s at the very at the very at the very least so there might some and you know I'm sure that some of the people just didn't want to do a sketch or something like that and the fact that they manag to get three members of the of of the not ready for Prime Time Players Bill Murray uh lorine Newman and gar Morris yep that's like half of the remaining people that are still alive from that cast so that's pretty good um and it's also great that you know they did the tribut to John balushi and then then Gilda's picture was raised up at the at the end during the good nights and everything so yeah I'm I I I I I think that the writers worked with whomever was available and whomever really wanted to write a sketch or write a sketch or be a part of a sketch um which was really exemplified when David Spade left in the middle of the musical sketch so great i' se but no I think that I I think that they worked with the best with what they were able to get and and there were a lot of people that couldn't make it there were a lot of people that didn't want to go there a lot of people who you know had other things that were going on in their lives so you know I think that they I think that they did their best with whatever with the with the people that were available the people that that were willing to go up on stage and I do think that it was hilarious and I do think that it was a very apt celebration of the 50 years that the show has been on the year and you got to remember there's like about 150 cast members that are still around so you can only fit so many people into three and a half hours so you know I'm I'm just I'm just glad that they were able to they were able to play around and stuff and people were saying oh it's very uneven well first of all SNL is just uneven to begin with that's the whole point of the show and second of all it's less of an actual SNL episode and more of a party more of a celebration or something it's it's a special so yeah if people are giggling through some of the sketches that's fine yeah I mean some of the best sketches that are most that are most well remembered are the ones where people started cracking up bber and buad de Debbie Downer and a few other ones there so yeah I I I'm I'm going to give them a pass for the 50th Anniversary this is a victory lab so yeah I thought it I thought it was a very I I thought it was a great way to celebrate the 50th anniversary just all around yes I very very very well put uh so many so many rabbit hole no I mean you and I could go down and do a podcast on four of the rabbit holes that you just kind of presented like I mean there's so so much um the the only thing to go back to the docs for a second the only thing I was wishing for and I mean this is a huge compliment um because it really it's the only thing I would have wished for was I wish there was more Paul Schaefer uh in a couple of them I wish there was more Paul Schaefer I think that would have been really really cool that being said the fact that we got to see him and G Smith together on on the like to me that was beautiful never mind Dave being in the audience and that being a I think a connection that we've always wanted to make is there's always been the connections between Letterman and SNL all the way back to when Downey came over and was writing for Letterman back you know all the way up to the end you know nor McDonald gets fired from we update where is he he's at Late Show one of my favorite moments in television history there's all of these connections but you have never seen Dave in that damn Studio that's true yeah there he is You' seen him being impersonated in that studio but never actually in studio yeah absolutely yeah and so so seeing him and Paul together Paul being mentioned loved that loved all of those things here's what and also and also yeah Paul was was the guest band for the four for that four for those four days in which uh uh right before the 15th that Fallon was doing his show so they they were taking over for the root for those four shows there and it was great to hear the Letterman theme at the end of each of those episodes so you know it was it was that that was just fantastic there yeah Absolut it was it was great and apparently Dave's there three days you know his walk on he's there for Seth and then he goes for the to the 50th so seeing him there and Steve Martin it's interesting thing Steve Martin calls him out during the monologue Steve Martin also calls out Dave on the back of the Lauren book if you read the back of the Lauren book there's a quote that Steve Mar says about Lauren Michaels and he references David Letterman inside that quote substance he compares the two he literally compares the two so I thought that was amazing um the the the SNL anniversary shows I have a lot of in my hardwired you know core memories um SNL 15 I remember vividly like vividly I can I can I can recite four or five things um you know including Donald Trump being in the audience uh and being made fun of dumped up by popcorn yeah popcorn and then also I I think it was I think it was Tom Hanks going around you know you're the only person I know that can look around the cityscape of New York and go need it need it got it got it got it got it got I remember that joke that was being said about him back then he was he was the butt of a joke even all the way back in 1990 uh but I I have core memories of that anniversary special and to me they all seem like sequels to each other and so yes the the they're not ready for Prime Time Players they have been really really focused on in like SNL 15 and then 25 and then subsequently in 40 they were featured more than they were here Jane curtain was uh uh doing a weekend update segment which I thought was fantastic because you got your Tina Fay and your Amy poer and all that well this time here they were celebrating Chay and Jo and they brought on Seth Meyers to do it and and and they had a top 10 going over that was their version of it this time you didn't need to have Chevy doing that you know having Bill Murray come out like like like like that was that's its own moment but to me it's a sequel to having Jane curtain anchoring 10 years ago in that anniversary special um so so to me I think that they evolve that being said like when there wasn't a Wayne's World I was tweeting I was um I was spending the show watching in the uh the daily podcast at the daily comedy podcasts Facebook group they all get together when there's Live Events and stuff and they just comment real time and I was I was I was doing that um and and and watching that show uh there were a couple of things I was surprised about um uh but but it's The Echoes to the old shows and The Echoes to uh so the digital short that was done 10 years ago was uh breaking up breaking breaking up and laughing it was a song around that this one here the idea of anxiety with a current cast member I loved Andy Samberg I love the digital short to me they they're they're like sequels to each other um but one of the musical moments and I don't know if you caught this or not see this show was made with love and that's I love when something is made with thoughtfulness and I want to ask you about this um to see if you had a thought about it one of the musical performances was M Miley Cyrus doing nothing compares to you okay so and and and and to me Miley friend of the show of course makes sense picking that song chenade I don't think performed that song on SNL but chenade of course has a huge uh tie to Saturday Night Live because of that moment MH who we didn't have for 5050 we had him for 40 he was there for SNL 15 performed on SNL 15 all you listen to the after accounts of him performing at the Afterparty for snl40 like you know I Fallon talks about con talks about people talk about this it's an amazing moment the arrangement they choose for nothing compares to you is the prince version of that the original that chenade made famous to me that is so much thoughtfulness that they added to this thing and the other piece of thoughtfulness was mashing up sketches is having Linda Richmond from Coffee Talk be on you know T Amy show having drunk uncle and the girl you wish you hadn't started talking to at a party interact with each other the idea of mashing up these characters was also very very very cool so that was that was my kind of The Echoes of so I think they're sequels I think it makes sense that they don't have as many N Ready Prime Time Players because they were featured in the last one and correct moving forward yes yes exactly and you know there are so many other cast members that joined the show between the 40th and the 50th that you that that they would want to uh feature exactly yeah um and yeah I do think when I when I when I found when I realized that that uh Miley was singing Nobody no one compar no nothing compares nothing compares to you there you go um sorry that but uh yeah I I realized that yeah that was probably uh a uh a way in order for them to pay homage to Prince but also a slight apology to sheno Conor I mean one of the things I forgot to mention was the fact that there was also that 50 years of music documentary that that Quest love put together which was phenomenal uh the first seven minutes I mean everybody's been talking about the first seven minutes the match oh of all the different like musical guests it's it's it's absolutely God dang brilliant but the fact that they talked about uh Shen's um stunt is a very tough word to say her protest yeah her protest very her hijacking of the show and the protest yep yeah I I think that I think that the fact that they talked about it and that that I think they even had Lauren to say yeah I don't know if Lauren was was the one who said it but they were just saying yeah she was right uh I mean I mean it it was it it was a way for them to talk about it you know it with words everything like that during the during the special and I'm sorry during the uh during the 50 years ofl music and then perform it in the actual 50th Anniversary Special or SNL 50 the anniversary special as it's but yeah um no I think that it was a very apt choice of music and so um and the fact that neither uh chenade nor Prince were able were available were were no longer with us in order to perform it uh it was great that they managed to find somebody to you know to give the song justice so I'm glad that they found a uh a a friend of the show as it were to to do to do that performance there absolutely yeah yeah couldn't agree more um and and seeing 10 years ago okay at SNL 40 Chris Rock comes out and gives this amazing um for lack of a better ter on monologue yes I have not seen more overrated people yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah and then Eddie Murphy walks out after this amazing kind of tribute by Chris um and and sorry I think a reference to 25th anniversary special but please go on go on no no no no no no no no all good all good but the idea that that we see him um come out there and you see Eddie Murphy come out and does you know the happy sort of a couple little jokes here and there but more so just just Eddie Murphy's here and that's kind of it and 10 years later we see Eddie perform in two sketches one as Tracy organ which is genus like genius to see that and and I mean yeah to me that was just it was spectacular booking it was just so good yeah I mean I mean from what I understand um Eddie was supposed to be in the 40th uh during the city Jeopardy sketch but he did not but they wanted him to play Bill Cosby and he didn't want and he didn't want to knock down Cosby at that point and so you know so that kind of so that kind of like derailed the reason for him being there and so he ended up just being there just on stage and he kind of and as you mention before he didn't really say a lot but he did but but the fact that he was the fact he was there was a big moment given the fact that he did not appear in the 25th or the 15th anniversary because of the fact that it was not Lauren's version of the show and so a lot of people from the Eola dominian eras did not really make it onto those anniversary specials but the fact that he did make it to the 40th anniversary for the first time since he since I think he hosted the show or since the last time he was a cast member then yeah that that that alone was great because I remember that he was even mentioned in like the TV funh House cartoon about where Lauren was going to seat everybody uh during the 25th Anniversary Special so the fact that Ed he was actually going to be there was huge um I do think that the way that they handled his actual appearance was kind of but the fact he was able to kind of make up for that with the with the two sketches during the 50th was absolutely fantastic yeah yeah oh it was so yeah and and seeing him with Tracy being uh just yeah it was so so so smartly booked uh how bad do you want to see Eddie Murphy do standup again like I mean he Seinfeld's been teasing people have been teasing it for years that Eddie Murphy's going to come back and do some standup and go and and maybe come up with a special I want to see that so badly I mean he's got such a great point of view on things I I would love to see that no no I mean uh I mean obviously he's not going to be you know like the way he was when he was in his 20s doing raw or or delirious but I do think that he would still bring a very unique perspective in standup that uh that you know that a lot of people probably wouldn't have given the fact given the fact of his longevity and everything like that so no I would love to see uh a stand up special for Med and and and see how that see how that all goes about there absolutely by the way for those who want to watch this is a Shameless plug for our show but more so uh a Shameless plug for the clip I'm about to mention dick cavitt um who's been on this show and and and uh you know he told me his we we talked about it on camera too I think actually um it was really cool he hadn't seen the clip in a long time I don't know I don't know exactly why cuz I I found it fairly easily but I sent him this clip because he said it's his wife had actually said to me it's one of his favorite clips of anything that he's ever done and it was when he was on Late Night with David Letterman and Eddie Murphy walked on and they had this segment where it was Dick C because Dick Cav and Eddie Murphy were friends and even back then all the way back then and you think about that's that's that's Delirious Eddie Murphy that's not even raw Eddie Murphy yet Delirious Eddie Murphy and and and and Dick C sitting there going back and forth and and it was so funny effortlessly funny listening to to the the two of them bounce off each other while Dave was just you know being there it was such a good clip um so kin I think he talked about it when he was on the show here but if you want to see a great clip that involves uh you know Eddie Murphy and David Letterman and and talk show leg Legend dick cett go back and check that moment out um one of the best moments ever I want to ask you that FR AUD um you know we we we have talked about Letterman here we've talked about the love that we have and and what not but we haven't gotten too specific what are some of if you had two two or three top top two or three moments of of Letterman um memories that you have that that that kind of tickled you in the right way what would they be well um for I mean I gotta admit for as mentioned before a lot of a lot of my during my school year days I wasn't able to see them live so a lot of the memories that I have of the original Late Night have been through John Gill's Channel as through the official Letterman Channel all hail Don Giller by the way absolutely yes uh the dawn the dawn doing the Lord's work since however long 2015 whatever's work yes indeed but um one of the things that I remember just getting chills about um was uh was during it was the intro sequence to his uh I think 8th anniversary special in Los Angeles and there's a point where it's like where they do like the the intro starts out with with a scene from cheers and everybody's leaving because the announce because they're saying La law is on tonight so we're going to bring you L's 8th annivers special all right bye Sam and they all started leaving and stuff all of a sudden the um the intro the the intro to the actual special begins as it starts to form on the television then it goes out from the television the music starts to play of the of the of the Letterman theme and there is this cheer that is just absolutely it it's it's basically and remember I think Adam need talked about this and he said like uh that this was like this is this was a show at its peak at its absolute Zeitgeist where basically as soon as that begins the entire audience is just ready and RAR to go and that is an excellent excellent moment there I mean that's not really a Dave moment that's more of an audience moment but it's still moment of his show this is the show this is exactly right it wasn't it wasn't the cheers cold open no no no it was the moment in between the cheers cold open when it went to the to the to the live audience and you and how big it was that was the moment and this like this is it that's yes yes give me another sir sure okay so uh this one I definitely saw on in on on CBS and that was when he again when was in Los Angeles and Johnny Carson made his final appearance on television and so absolutely that I remember seeing that I'm pretty sure I saw the other episodes before that so I knew that it was Larry Bud Melman coming out and saying hey here's your here's your top 10 let seea suckets then walk away but the fact that they managed to hide and like uh that that entire running joke throughout the entire week all the way up until he says uh wait this is not the list Johnny could you bring over the top 10 list one two three for and then Johnny steps out and the entire audience just gives him like this 90 second Standing Ovation Y and I it was just I it was just absolutely mesmerizing to know that for one um as soon as as soon as Johnny sat in uh let himman seat and you know just it was just behind his desk we saw that image of Johnny behind the behind a desk on a talk show something that has just become more and more of a distant memory because it was like about 3 years after he retired something that we were that we were just used to seeing on television for the past 30 years all the way up until or 29 years and a little bit um that that um it was just absolutely fantastic to we were able to see that again for a brief moment uh and we probably would and we knew that we probably would never see something like that again and then Letterman went over and sat down at the guest chair and it was just like an episode of The Tonight Show all over again yep and it was something that I'm sure that a lot of people really missed seeing on television I'm sure it was something that the audience was just absolutely honored to see in terms of television history um if if they're anything like me anyway um if they were just there for a free show I know what to tell you but anyway um but no but but the fact of the matter is that that was such a pivotal moment and also a a brilliant passing of the Baton that um that Leno never got yep when it came to Carson but um but no I think it was just a um I think it was just a seminal moment in in the history of late night television and so that moment was definitely among among those I'll try to go through some of these other ones really hold on I want I got I'm so glad you nailed that one because um it was all the things that you just said there and and and and that Ovation um you know it's funny I've talked to the the consensus seems to be that Johnny didn't have a voice that week okay that's the consensus that Johnny didn't have a voice that week he was going to read the top 10 and and didn't have a voice and so he went no no hand it back to Dave and Dave perfect reaction oh who and everyone gets you know and it's and he leaves okay so the the the the official story is is that Johnny didn't have a voice or or his voice was really greatly impacted yeah and you could definitely hear it was he was kind of hor he like good night everybody and then left yeah right so okay there are a few in a minority who I'm not going to say who they are have suggested the idea that that Ovation moved Johnny to tears he was emotional really emotional and that's the reason he didn't have the voice and everybody has just been he's Johnny Carson we're gonna we're gonna cover that for him for years now I don't know which is the official which actually happened but I like to think it's the lad I like to think the Ovation that moment you're talking about was so big it actually got to it was that connection between host and audience that where where but then that connection happens sometimes and there's an emotional thing to me that moment I love that you mentioned that moment too CU to me that's what it was was and and it certainly was for me it was a dash of 2010 you know it was just that little bit of the Baton passing like you talked about but it wasn't all about that unlike when Conan showed up in in in 2012 I think it was when he showed up for the first time um on on Late Show show you know that was all of that but there was a teeny tiny sprinkle of it in the Carson appearance and that was that baton passing you were talking about so absolutely yeah and I could imagine that cuz I do remember reading somewhere that Johnny thought that you know people would for have completely forgotten about him or something like that and so the idea that you know that he got like this outpouring of love from from from this audience you know a few years after he stepped down CU he always he always approached it kind of like Letterman that you know oh this just some sort of you know even when he was approached about I think I remember hearing about this on one of uh Mark bov's podcasts that you know somebody was interested in buying a set he was saying the my set that that that rty old set that I was doing people he didn't really not comprehend but he didn't really you know appreciate the gravity of the fact that yeah this is a historical set people will want to buy a lot of money for this set you know so the idea that you know people still loved him and the people that that still loved his show and everything like that years after it was over yeah I could definitely see that could be that that could definitely be a reason as for him to getting emotional um so yeah absolutely yeah yeah it's sure a beautiful thought anyway um yes and and and uh again for those who are I I it's out there I don't know if it's on I think it is it is on Don's Channel um it's actually nestled within a compilation uh the other show so so there's a a talk show uh comp it's it's probably my most watched Don Giller series that I will I will watch over and over and over again it's seven Parts in they're 90 minutes each part and it's all the talk show hosts that ever appeared on let in chronological order for them and so they You Know Jack here's Jack pars collection beginning to end here's Johnny Carson beginning to end here's con BR beginning to end and so um but the the the Johnny Carson that moment and then the other thing is the tribute show and I think the tribute show is in its entirety when Carson passed um that clip is actually I believe dled within that show and that show all of the monologue jokes are are jokes that that Johnny had faxed into Dave and and I mean this is that lineage that I just we we love so much I'm grateful that you brought up that moment too see again 10 out of 10 it just I just love it do you have another one any other ones that popped into your head sure I think I mean I think that the most watched uh don Giller videos that i' that I've seen are pretty much like the ones with uh Chris Elliott's different um uh uh characters there so uh The Fugitive guy the panicky guy a bit uh the guy under the seats I just absolutely adore because it is such a because when I first heard about the sketch because I didn't really see it that much when I was when I when it was on NBC but when I saw but uh I oh it's just a guy under the seats you know I mean then I would hear about how um uh like Gilbert godfried was guy in the like guy in the rafters for uh for Ellen Thick's uh uh late night show which was definitely a if not an omage then definitely a direct stealing but uh but the fact of the matter is that the the guy under the seat sketch is such a is is a whole lot more than just oh I'm just a guy to the seat I'm complaining about your show and everything no it's it's like a it's it's it's it's a it's like a it's it's an offering of a critique of like artistic value that just goes back and forth and then and then the and then uh Chris Elliott character just gets more and more defensive and everything like that it's it's an interesting formula that does that lends itself well to a lot of different situations there um you know something Mr you know that sort of thing but um but no I really do but uh so yeah so those those compilation videos of Chris Elliott's different characters and Marlon Brando for goodness sakes oh oh yep how he was able to just you know just go all different sorts of like wild directions with that character is just absolutely astounding and something tells you that Marlin knew about that character which is why he did that like weird looking face uh thing that he did uh when he was talking about let with Connie Chong but uh yeah you know what I oh frod I gotta say thank you I had forgotten about the Connie Chong thing yes I had forgotten about that and that is such a fascinating uh little clip of of of you know and because Connie had connections to Letterman back in the day like I loved that I remembered loving all of that because Connie was so connected to Dave um at at at that time as well I'm glad you mentioned that that's a great clip worth looking at I don't even know if that's on Don's Channel I could be wrong it' be it be I'm trying to remember I don't think it was it wasn't on the it wasn't on the collection of videos of brandle character Sometimes He he'll throw in a news like as an extra like at the very end of the video he'll throw in like a piece of news or something like that of of of something that was relevant within but yeah I don't think so but I had forgot Pro I probably forgotten about it because it's not in there um that's a great great pull oh my gosh yeah I mean that's that's one thing I was hoping that the Letterman channel would do some sort of like you know have like a secondary Channel called like Letterman deep Dives where it's just like five hours of different sorts of like a collections of videos I me they're doing that now with like the best of Jin Cary the best of will FAL and the best of other sorts of guests but I would to see like a more completionist sort of deal there like you know the complete works of the of the uh of the of the fugitive guy or something like that uh basically Don's video up until that what you just said is like it's profound but it's so obvious like they have the guy under their employment now Don's in the pants umbrella they could do that they should do that as far as I'm concerned like I I I understand music rights I get that yeah I also get the hesitation although it does feel like the pendulum is starting to swing back a little bit the pendulum of sensitivity like I do know that there are moments that don't necessarily age well even though they were perfectly fine or or or you know like the case of Sarah Palin or something like that uh a little bit controversial in that moment but it was shielded to that moment in that time in that place and it was something that was moved on upon the completionist thing the one thing I love about Don's channel is there isn't any that he just it you see it for what it was at the time and if it causes us to think about that great but either way if it causes somebody to be outraged that's the hesitation I think that they have I think they have the hesitation that somebody could say oh that didn't age well by the way how funny was that sketch on SNL things that didn't age well oh my God anyway um but but I think that might be the I don't know if that's a hesitation or not I know he's got a fast channel on Samsung where you could do both that's true yeah you could add a second one that does exactly what you're talking about and essentially clone what Don Giller did you know I love that's the Simplicity of what he did was awesome you know a black screen with a date here's what happened and then every once in a while in parenthesis or or below a little bit of context but other than that that talk show one that I was talking about you see Dave age so well like when he gets to the Merv Griffin section and you see him on the morning show and then you see their Dynamic you know slap aino boy and all that sort of stuff you see all that at late show what a what a what a transformation what a journey to see these things all at once and I yeah that's a but they've got him they've got Don like like he do whatever they really should they really should utilize Don a lot more yes right right I mean so but anyway that's what we're do but so we can do it unofficially we can talk about these things we can go down these rabbit holes um gosh I I'm I'm really grateful that you exist man what were you going to say yeah thank you I just want say one last one last moment and that is last episode of of the C of the CBS era and dur that that that uh that um that Montage at the end with with everyong playing overhead I I I listen to that I listen to that every uh a lot when I'm in the car or something like that you know I have it on YouTube and just just put it out the way so I looking at it but no I mean I really love the fact that that that the music is so you know hard driving and stuff and it's basic it's it's definitely an excellent um example of you know Letterman's like sensibilities in terms of music and in terms of Comedy all wrapped up into one little package through showcases the 33 years of work that has been put into both late night and and the late show and so um and and you know there are a lot of times where I do watch that that Montage over and over again I've complimented that to barbar games of quite a few times but um one but and then at the very end though you have like this performance of the of the ending theme song and it's just it's just like the it's like the crispest version of that theme song with the audience applauding in the background and everything think you see the pictures of the people that worked on the show unfortunately Tony Mendes was not one of them because he got fired beforehand but um but no I was I was just it was just really great it was a great tribute to the people that worked in the show and uh and uh thanks to the people that worked in the show uh the the the worst part is that the network cut it off right at the very end of the last chord of the song but they do that all the time but no I was really I was really jazzed about the whole idea that they that they that that that version of the that version of the theme is out there and so I'm glad that was able to you know listen that from here to there so yeah absolutely so grateful you mentioned that moment too because um by the way I've also complimented Barbara I've actually asked her a bunch of times to do on the shows we can just do a show dedicated to the Montage so far polite decline uh you said you've gotten a chance to compliment Barbara on that well I mean I not not not to her face but you know there are times where she would talk about it and I and I responded to it on social media and then she would like it and that's about it but that that's perfect for that's perfect for me right there yeah her Randy graic and you know for the conception of of that thing unbelievable um do you know the story okay have you read last days of Letterman Scott Ryan's book I think I have the book but I haven't gotten to read it just yet uh that's one of the books I need to read there yeah yeah you're you're you're in for a treat it's it's it's uh it's a my favorite period in any show broadcast history is the last six weeks of of Late Show um you know unbelievable and and and so it's an oral history and Scott Ryan uh friend of our show he's fantastic he's a guy that we got to connect you with cuz you and he will connect very very very well um you know he he did an entire chapter about the Montage basically it's an oral history talking to all the people who are involved of course shecky but but the the Montage itself there's a you know a lot of stuff in there um about that um the day of the show and I mean it came off seamlessly in the in the um rehearsal but the day of the show uh or the actual Showtime it didn't sink perfectly and it Was a Race to the finish in the editing Bay to to get it to get it done and get it done right they literally were taking the tape across town it was like 11:00 11:10 in the show ARS at 11:35 or something like that and it was to do with that Montage because it didn't go the way it went at rehearsal at rehearsal it went perfectly and Barbara gains charged the stage and jumped into Dave gr's arms because it was so perfect doing a montage to live music is next to Impossible it's trying to hit yeah it's not trying to hit the target it's trying to hit the Bull's Eye and that is a that yeah so that that Montage was awesome we're gonna be doing um if even if Barbara doesn't come on the show we're GNA be doing a tribute to that Montage on the Letterman podcast Adam neiff and I are already talking about I figured he needed to be involved oh yeah because broke down every single clip there yeah yeah yeah yeah and it was in Rolling Stone and all that stuff he broke the entire Montage down and did uh you know so so he's got to be involved in it for sure so we're we're we're planning on uh uh doing the 10year anniversary of that montage a lot of love here over the next few months cuz you know we're till May 20th to to get that figured out but that's a yeah again another iconic moment that's I love that have you thought of any others uh no those are like the major ones as I could think of there if if if I am if if I if I am if there is if if try let me try this again if if if I am asked to come back on I could definitely think of some more uh oh dude you're a friend of the show you're a friend of the show like no no no any way that we can cross promote cross pollinate cross whatever you know when it makes yeah no we're doing that like this is uh this is great that you're finally here as far as I'm concerned like this is I've wanted to assemble all of this community from the very very beginning like like and I think we all just sharpen each other and are better and like I say I think there's a I think there's a network to be had so yeah you yeah you'll be asked to come back on thank you so much um this is this is this is great uh when are you uh I mean we both got you know our jobs I'm a financial planner by trade you you you're you're you're doing your computer stuff um when are you uh are you planning on releasing weekly are you planning on any regularity so far or is it just I'll work on them and when they're right I'll release them and just going from there yeah yeah I'm approaching this like Kubrick but I I don't have his talent but uh yes no I mean I'm I'm hoping that you know for like hopefully it's The Shining kubric not Eyes Wide Shut kubric exactly yeah sorry goad no um but no I'm hoping that you know if something like if something minor happens or something that I could probably cover in like a short or something like that I could probably be able to Belt that out in a week but if anything else I think that the longer topics especially given the fact I have to like track down all different sorts of footage and stuff I think that it'll probably be better for me to just release it whenever I think that they're ready I mean that's that's pretty much how I approached a couple of videos that I did about one about Ghostbusters the other one about the movie The Walk um that I that that's also on my channel out there somewhere but no I think that uh I'm hoping I could be able to make it into a little bit more of a schedule once I get the hang of it but right now I just want to I just want to release them when I think that they're done so yeah good for you man well uh you know you got a friend in us and anytime uh please um throw them in the in the fa Letterman Facebook group please Letterman podcast Facebook group I should say please throw them in there and and uh and I mean like yeah this dialogue I I got to tell you one of my favorite things about this whole thing um in the from the community standpoint the new friends and whatnot but watching the friends make connections and and can build and do projects with each other like like like I love that element of this um so please please you are I'm I'm really grateful that we're finally doing this and and and uh yeah anytime the channels are wide open if ever you feel a need um we just had Johnny Mack who hosts the daily comedy podcast new or daily comedy uh podcast news uh podcast on I mean friend of the show Dave he was only on six weeks ago whatever it was Dave appears on The Tonight Show hey we need to do an episode yeah let's do it so anytime that happens with you twoo like let's do it and uh if ever there's anything seriously frod if there's anything I can do to help you uh in any way shape or form please please please let me know and I'm really excited for you that we're all linking arms and and putting out some of this stuff this is stuff I like to watch so um thank you man I appreciate it thank you so much for coming on oh oh we got to do a plug for rert sorry um oh yes yeah we got to do a plug for rert so so we have one sponsor one sponsor only for the Letterman podcast and it is hello- deli.com so Rupert may not own the rest the uh the deli anymore but hellodd deli.com you can't you got to pry that from his cold dead hands that that that's uh for until uh recently with the worldwide Pants Store uh coming online the only official place to buy Late Show with David Letterman merchandise is hello.com that was a gift Dave give to rert when he retired so mugs shirts hats all that stuff go to hello deli.com and uh find your Letterman think go to the official because the official store is selling different stuff than what rert is selling which is really cool so uh go to both stores um yeah I mean you're wearing your Late Show with David Letterman shirt did you get that from hellodd deli.com I don't think they have it in my size I got this from the official uh World worldwide Pants Store oh there you go there you go uh frod I thank you so much again for coming on the show brother I really really appreciate it it's fantastic having you here man so great to be here thank you and I I look forward to uh hearing this episode and all the rest of your episodes and uh and also I look forward to being on this again thank you so much it's gonna be great it's gonna be great um this has been another episode of the Letterman podcast with Mike Chisum coincidentally I am Mike Chisum thank you and good night overcoat and Underpants