“From Maple Shade, New Jersey...”

It is Episode 6,003

April 15, 2015

“And now the goon in the room from Saskatoon . . . David Letterman.” When Dave arrives at center stage, the audience leaps to its feet. This is his first standing ovation of the final six weeks. “Thank you, that is very kind,” Dave says, as he keeps motioning with his hands for the audience to sit. “Please be seated . . . OK . . . all right.” They won’t stop, though, so Dave has to force them to. 

The monologue consists of jokes about taxes, the presidential campaign, and the California drought. The desk piece is the first best-of package of the final six weeks, a taped bit from April 8, 1997, “How Many Guys in Bunny Suits Can Get into an H&R Block?” The answer is two. 

The Top Ten List, delivered by ten accountants, is “Things You Don’t Want to Hear from Your Accountant.” Paul plays “Taxman” by The Beatles. 

The first guest is Michael J. Fox. Dave announces in his intro that Fox has raised over $450 million for his Parkinson’s foundation. The audience delivers the second standing ovation of the night as Fox makes his way to the guest chair.

“You’ve been on this show over forty times.” says Dave. Fox replies, “Forty-one times. I can’t believe this will be the last time I will be on the show. I just wanted to thank you for everything you have done for me and for television.” It is touching to see Fox pay tribute to Dave. “I will say you are better doing what you do than I am at what I do,” says Dave, deflecting. “You’re taller,” quips Fox.

A picture of Fox from October 23, 1985 is shown. It’s everything you want the eighties to be—big hair, big glasses, and a crazy suit jacket. They talk about parenting and Back to the Future. They move on to Parkinson’s awareness month (April) and the research that his foundation is working on.

They discuss Fox’s initial reaction to being diagnosed with Parkinson’s to advances in scientific research into the disease. Dave asks how the money is distributed, and Fox gives detailed answers. One of Dave’s questions is so in-depth that Fox loses his place and asks Dave to repeat it. This is where Dave really shines as an interviewer. Dave is not lobbing softballs about working with Christopher Lloyd or even perfunctory questions about Fox’s charitable endeavors. Rather, they are having a serious discussion about science. To put it another way, they are most certainly not playing board games out there. Dave is honestly curious about the techniques scientists are using to cure this disease. 

Eddie Valk: Dave is so curious and so wants to know a thing. It’s insatiable. He wants to know why. He has an ability to absorb everything, but keeps that low-key atmosphere. 

Sheryl Zelikson: Letterman is an anomaly. He’s a very curious, smart person that had a very distinctive viewpoint. I always think of him as quality.

Photo courtesy of @letterman, CBS publicity photo.

“I have great admiration for you,” says Dave. “Thank you, I do for you, too,” answers Michael. Dave finishes, “You’re the original tough guy. It was a great pleasure and an honor. I am happy to have known you.” 

This is an emotional, wonderful appearance. Viewers are witness to two television legends talking about substantial topics and having fun. You can feel the respect that each has for the other. For twelve minutes on network television, two respectable adults are sharing their mutual admiration. 

Kathy Mavrikakis: I do feel that people were coming on to take a victory lap with Dave. It wasn’t about selling a project. It was about acknowledging that they had a history with somebody who is a legend. The people that we chose for those appearances, in most instances, had long-term relationships with us. They are entitled to take a victory lap with him. I am very proud of those episodes.

Brian Teta: Michael J. Fox is another person whom I idolized as a kid. I was always excited to work with him. What struck me about Michael and Dave is the history there. Michael is somebody who was a star in the early NBC days. Back to the Future is 1985. They did the old Late Night film festival bit in 1986. Dave respected him a lot. He immediately made sense to me as a guest we should have in those final weeks.

Dave introduces his second guest as “one of the funniest people we know, Amy Sedaris.” Full disclosure from your author: Amy Sedaris is hands down my all-time favorite Late Show guest. She wastes no time with her final appearance. She leaps out to the chair and says, “I have seven minutes and I didn’t leave any wiggle room for you to say anything.” 

She is visibly nervous, grimacing and fidgeting (more than normal) as she first makes eye contact with Dave. The realization that this is her final appearance is weighing on her. Another true professional, she shakes it off and recalls how Dr. Phil once told her to make a list of the five most important men (or animals, she couldn’t remember). Either way, Dave is on her list. She admits she has thought about him every single day since 2001. She bursts into a short improvisational song, then admits she doesn’t know how to sing.

Amy says, “This is my thirty-fourth time on your show since 2001. You have the best audience, best crew, lighting, band, Paul, you guys are the best. When you get off set everyone is cheering you on. No one has ever said a bad thing about you.” Dave replies, “You’ve always been very generous to come and be on the show. Sometimes we call you—” Amy explodes, “Last minute! I get that call, ‘Hi it’s Sheila Rogers from the Late Show.’ And I panic. I always have a dress hanging up in case you call.”

Sheila Rogers: Amy was always an amazing guest. She would say to me, “Tell me when and I will be there.” She was a given as a final guest and not a “Hollywood” interview. 

Brian Teta: She, Regis, and a couple of the sports guys would fill in for guests that dropped out. Amy was so funny, original, and different. Their conversations were different from Amy’s appearances on other talk shows.  She became one of the most quintessential Late Show guests. There was something special about the two of them together.

Amy starts to realize her time is almost up. She digs into her bag of compliments and comes up with maybe one of the best descriptions of Dave: “You are like scaffolding.” It is perfectly Amy. Funny, crazy, and spot on. Dave is just as big a part of New York City as scaffolding.

“Is this really gonna be it? I’ll never see you again . . . Well, I’ll see you at home,” she jokes, but starts to get emotional. “I’m in love with you. You’ve just been the best. Seriously, this is really hard.” She kisses him on the cheek, then announces that she is wearing Spanx backward. 

Jerry Foley: If Amy Sedaris was an older man, she’d have the same beard as Dave has now. There are willful eccentrics and then there are eccentrics. Amy is truly an eccentric in the most playful, creative, offbeat way. 

Bill Scheft: I have often said this about Amy Sedaris: If she wasn’t Amy Sedaris, she’d be in a state hospital. But she has two qualities I admire. One, she never stops moving, she never stops trying to make you look. Which, for television, is kind of important. Second, she really loves Dave. Now, a lot of guests love Dave and it makes him uncomfortable. But Amy Sedaris is so uncomfortable to begin with, he gets to settle right down. What a blessed relief. 

Barbara Gaines: Amy is almost like having a human-interest guest even though she is an actress, because she talked about her fake boyfriend, her rabbit, or a craft she is doing. But she really is doing crafts, and she really does have a rabbit. 

Jerry Foley: When Amy talks about her bunny, she spins something exaggerated, but she has a relationship with rabbits. Her home decorating and arts and crafts and skills with a glue gun, that is all real. That is what she does.

Rick Scheckman: Amy was one of those actresses that came to play. She was on our 4 a.m. show. Dave loved her and her brother, David Sedaris. 

Brian Teta: Amy was a lot of people’s favorite guest. When someone would tell you they were a fan of the show, and they would start rattling off the guests they like, when they said Amy Sedaris, you knew, “Oh yeah, you get it. You are one of us.” She was fantastic. I only worked with her a couple of times. That was a name that came up immediately: “We have to make sure we have Amy in the final weeks,” because she is one of the classic Late Show guests in the later run of Dave’s history.

Lee Ellenberg: I always got the sense as a viewer, Dave wasn’t impressed by people who just act. He still wanted to be engaged by the person. I think he was a hard person to entertain. I think it became harder the more celebrities he spoke to. 

Jerry Foley: You sit and do a couple thousand shows and your laugh nerve gets a little deactivated. You find yourself appreciating a joke more than laughing at it. But when Amy came out, you laughed out loud. She was perfectly ridiculous. She is truly thinking differently from the rest of us. 

Barbara Gaines: I think that is enormously appealing to Dave, that she is this quirky woman. He loves people who are naturally interesting, odd, and funny who talk to him, who aren’t just sitting down and saying, “I want to talk to you about my movie and nothing else.” Which Amy doesn’t do.

Jerry Foley: People like Amy and Dave are truly different from the rest of us. When you get two truly different people in the same room together, they elevate each other. Amy was always very appreciative that Dave could give her a platform to be weird and entertaining. It goes beyond an act or publicity opportunity. Those two people would be acting the same way if they were riding in a car together going to Boston. There just happened to be cameras there.

 Musical Guest

The musical guests are Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell. They perform “No Way Out of Here.” 

Sheryl Zelikson: They sang a song out from their new album. I can’t remember if Ben also made his debut on the show. A lot of the artists were invited back during those final weeks. It was like a trip down memory lane.

Worldwide Pants Tag: “Mmm . . . mmm . . . mmm.”