Guests
Valri Bromfield, Edie McClurg, Rich Hall, Gerard Mulligan, Merrill Markoe and Paul Raley all appeared on the show and served as writers. Edd Hall (later the announcer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno) and current Late Show producer Barbara Gaines were both production assistants, while stage manager Biff Henderson and director Hal Gurnee would follow Dave to his next two shows. Announcer/comedian Bob Sarlatte was replaced partway through the run by Bill Wendell, who would also announce on Dave's next two shows. The music director was Frank Owens. Longtime NBC newsman Edwin Newman provided live news updates in the studio during each broadcast; studio audience members would often interrupt his reporting with laughter or groans, as if Newman were an anchor on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update.
Among guests who appeared were Steve Allen, Andy Kaufman, Wil Shriner, Richard Lewis, Dinah Shore, Judy Collins, photojournalists Jon & Keiko Alpert, keyboardist Suzanne Ciani, and Jeff Greenfield, who reviewed the first show on the air and as it happened was rather apathetic toward the whole thing.
The show's musical guests included Tony-winner Nell Carter, Irene Cara, Tom Rush and Harve Mann.
Bill Maher can be seen in the audience of the first episode (though he was not an official guest), and Conan O'Brien claims he hitchhiked to New York just to see a broadcast in Studio 6A (which has also been home to some of Jack Paar's NBC programs, later Late Night with David Letterman and finally Late Night with Conan O'Brien).
Read more about this topic: The David Letterman Show
Famous quotes containing the word guests:
“Women’s eyes are wanderers, and too often bring home guests that are very troublesome to them, and whom, once introduced, they cannot get out of the house.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“Few enjoy noisy overcrowded functions. But they are a gesture of goodwill on the part of host or hostess, and also on the part of guests who submit to them.”
—Fannie Hurst (1889–1968)