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Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 12, 1947, the middle child of three; he has an older sister, Janice and a younger sister, Gretchen. Letterman's father, Harry Joseph Letterman, was a florist who passed away in 1974; his mother Dorothy, a church secretary, is a regular personality on his talk show. He attended Ball State University, receiving a B.A. in telecommunications in 1969.
Letterman began work as a radioFor other uses see: radio (disambiguation Radio is a technology that allows the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light. Radio waves Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, and are talk show host and on television as an anchor and weatherman for what became WTHR in Indianapolis. He received recognition for his unpredictable on-air behavior, which included erasing state borders from the weather map and predicting hailHail is a type of graupel (a form of precipitation) composed of balls or irregular lumps of ice. It occurs when supercooled water droplets (remaining in a liquid state despite being below the freezing point, 0 °C/32 °F) in a storm cloud collide with some stones "the size of canned hams". One night he reportedly upset his bosses when he congratulated a tropical storm on being upgraded to a hurricane.
In 1975Events January January 1 Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up and are sentenced to 30 months to 8 years in jail on February 21 January 5 The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, i, Letterman moved to CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located in the western United States, bordering the Pacific Ocean. The most populous and third largest state in the U. California is both physically and demographically diverse. The state's official nickname is "The Golden State", wh with hopes of becoming a comedy writer and started writing material for sitcoms, such as Good TimesGood Times is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast from 1974 until 1979 on the CBS television network. The program was a spin-off of the sitcom Maude (itself a spin-off of All in the Family . Like the other two series, Good Times was developed. He also began performing stand-up comedy at The Comedy Store, a famed Los Angeles comedy club and proving ground for young comics.
Letterman had a stint as a cast member on Mary Tyler Moore's variety show Mary , a guest appearance on Mork & Mindy, and appearances on game shows such as The $20,000 Pyramid. His dry, sarcastic humor caught the attention of talent scouts for Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, and starting in 1978, Letterman became a regular guest host for the show.
Letterman was given his own morning comedy show on NBC, The David Letterman Show. The show was a critical success, winning two Emmy Awards and receiving five nominations, but ended up being a ratings disappointment, and was cancelled after a brief run during the summer of 1980. However, NBC kept Letterman under contract, and in 1982, his Late Night with David Letterman debuted on the network.
Letterman's show, which ran late on weeknights immediately following The Tonight Show, quickly established a reputation as being edgy and unpredictable, and soon developed a cult following. The show was markedly different than the soft-sell talk-show competition, and Letterman the interviewer could be sarcastic and antagonistic, to the point that a number of celebrities have even stated that they were afraid of appearing on the show. Letterman's reputation as a testy interviewer was born out of moments like his verbal sparring matches with Cher, Madonna, and Shirley MacLaine.
The show often included quirky, genre-mocking regular features, such as "Stupid Pet Tricks", Top 10 List, and a facetious letter-answering segment on Fridays. Other memorable moments included Letterman using a bullhorn to interrupt The Today Show TV program, which was on the air conducting a live interview at the time; announcing that he was not wearing any pants; interrupting the local news by walking into their studio; and the outrageous appearances by comedian Andy Kaufman and comic book writer, Harvey Pekar. In one highly publicized appearance, Kaufman appeared to be slapped and knocked to the ground by professional wrestler Jerry Lawler. (Lawler and Kaufman's friend Bob Zmuda later revealed that the event was staged). Letterman also made use of the Manhattan location of his NBC studio, often staging comedy bits on the streets and businesses surrounding the theater.
Letterman remained with NBC for eleven years. When Johnny Carson announced that he would retire in May 1992, a protracted, multi-lateral battle erupted over who would replace the long-time Tonight host. Eventually, executives at NBC announced Carson's frequent guest-host Jay Leno as Carson's replacement. Letterman, a protégé of Carson's and who had frequently credited Carson with boosting his career, was reportedly bitterly disappointed and angry at not having been given the Tonight Show job which he claimed to have been promised many years earlier. In 1993, after receiving advice from Carson, Letterman moved to CBS to host a new show, The Late Show with David Letterman. In 1996, HBO produced a made-for-television movie called The Late Shift , based on a book by Bill Carter , chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for the coveted Tonight Show hosting spot.
The Late Show competes in the same time slot as Leno's The Tonight Show. Letterman has garnered the critical and industry praise; his show has received 67 Emmy Award nominations, winning twelve times in his first twenty years in late night television. Leno consistently beats Letterman in the ratings, a lead that's grown over the years to two million viewers (5.8 vs. 3.8 million) as of 2003. Yet Letterman has consistently ranked higher than Leno in the annual Harris Poll of Nation’s Favorite TV Personality, where as of 2003 Letterman ranked third, behind Oprah Winfrey and Ray Romano, and Leno ranked ninth.
Letterman started his own production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated, which produces his show and several others, including Everybody Loves Raymond, The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, and several critically acclaimed, but short lived television series for Bonnie Hunt.
On September 17, 2001, David Letterman was the first major American comedy performer to return to the television airwaves after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In his opening monologue, a deadly serious and very emotional Letterman struggled with the reality of the attacks and the role of comedy in a post-9/11 world, saying, "We're told that they were zealots fueled by religious fervor... religious fervor... and if you live to be a thousand years old will that make any sense to you? Will that make any goddamn sense?"
In March 2002, as Letterman's contract with CBS was expiring, ABC expressed the intention to offer Letterman the time slot for long-running news program Nightline with Ted Koppel, citing more desirable viewer demographics. This caused a minor flap that ended when Letterman re-signed with CBS and offered public apologies to Koppel.
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