“You know what I’m going to devote the rest of my life to?” David Letterman said on his last night as the host of the “Late Show” on CBS. “Social media.”
Mr. Letterman ended his 33-year career in late-night on Wednesday as he had started it — with the irreverence, self-mockery and mischief that made him such an iconoclastic talk-show host.
His farewell was much better than the usual mawkish television send-off: He mixed favorite segments like his Top 10 list with clips of classic skits and a few restrained fillips of sincerity and humility. His final show was not at all like the Pharaonic and mushy last bow Johnny Carson took when he left “The Tonight Show” in 1992. As could be expected, it was a bracing antidote to the weepy extravaganza that ushered his rival Jay Leno into retirement last year.
Mr. Letterman’s retirement has gotten an extraordinary amount of focus — a frenzied outpouring of fan devotion, celebrity tributes and nonstop media attention — perhaps because he was so important to the last generation of viewers who grew up watching shows on a television set, and not on a smartphone.
Mr. Letterman’s crack about younger performers who use Twitter and Facebook was a shout-out to the talk-show host’s core audience, the late-night viewers who decades ago defined themselves as the insurgents who preferred Mr. Letterman to Mr. Leno.
All Mr. Letterman had to say was the date, June 17, 1996, and the studio audience began laughing appreciatively. He then showed a clip of one of his more famous pranks when he posed as a server at a drive-through Taco Bell and tormented customers with terrible service.
The clips of his absurdist gags, riffs on conventional television comedy, were fun, but they were also a reminder of how inventive and seditious Mr. Letterman was in his heyday, and how much his successors in today’s late-night constellation owe him. One acolyte, Jimmy Kimmel, the host of his own late-night talk show on ABC, was so worshipful he ran a rerun on Wednesday so as to not pull focus from Mr. Letterman.
On his show, Mr. Letterman demanded a lighter touch. In the Top 10 list, “Things I’ve Always Wanted to Say to Dave,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a “Seinfeld” alumna, said, “Thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale.”
Mr. Letterman joined CBS in 1993, a year after HBO introduced “The Larry Sanders Show,” a behind-the-scenes parody of “The Tonight Show” that starred Garry Shandling as an insecure, self-absorbed talk-show host.
But Mr. Letterman’s onstage persona, as host of “Late Night” at NBC, and later at CBS, was a one-man sendup of the talk-show genre. Even after more than 30 years, Mr. Letterman never lost his arch, ironic self-awareness; he did not sink into the easy, quid pro quo conventions of late-night talk shows, but kept defying them.
Over the last few weeks, a parade of celebrity guests including Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and George Clooney have paid their respects to Mr. Letterman. On Wednesday, he described all the encomiums as “over-the-top” and said he found it “flattering, embarrassing and gratifying.”
Mixed feelings make sense in a comedian who was always paradoxical — a winning, witty and supremely confident performer who offstage was practically a hermit and riven by self-doubt.
Fans are devoted to Mr. Letterman in part because they know his psyche so well: He is an intensely private celebrity who kept processing his personal life in front of the camera. He helped the nation heal after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by movingly expressing his feelings of sadness and helplessness. He brought his medical team onto his show after his 2000 quintuple bypass, and he even described his affairs with women in his office as “creepy” in an unnerving mea culpa in 2009.
On Wednesday, Mr. Letterman said that one of the worst things about retiring was that, as he put it: “When I screw up now, and Lord knows I’ll be screwing up, I have to go on somebody else’s show to apologize.”
He mixed jokes about his future with serious references to pivotal moments in his past. He chose as his last musical guests the Foo Fighters because the band canceled a tour in South America to play on his first show after the heart surgery.
As he has on many a night, Mr. Letterman made a humorous reference to his son, Harry, imitating his voice in a squeaky falsetto. He also paid a solemn, quite personal tribute to his son and his wife, Regina, who were seated in the audience.
“Thank you for being my family,” he said. “I love you both and really, nothing else matters, does it?”
Mostly, though, he did what he did best: make fun of himself. “It’s beginning to look like I’m not going to get the ‘Tonight Show,’ ” Mr. Letterman joked.
Mr. Letterman defined himself as the loser in his long, bitter battle with Mr. Leno. His rival got “The Tonight Show” gig and higher ratings, but in the end, Mr. Letterman won the legacy.
“你曉得我將用我的余生拿來幹甚麽嗎?”大衛·萊特曼(David Letterman)在他末了一次主持哥倫比亞播送公司的《深夜秀》時自問自答道。“交際媒體。”
周三，萊特曼以他開端這個節目標方法停止了本身33年的深夜秀職業平生，恰是他不恭不敬、自我解嘲和開玩笑的特色，使他成為一名異常反傳統的脫口秀主持人。
他的離別節目比平日自作多情的電視送別好很多：他在節目中穿插了最受愛好的部門，比方他的10台甫單，包含經典小品片斷，和幾個有至心、謙虛的、有抑制的時候。他在末了的節目裏一點也不像約翰尼·卡森(Johnny Carson)1992年末了一次主持《徹夜秀》時那樣以法老自居、且多愁善感。正如所料想的，末了一集《深夜秀》是客歲送別他的敵手傑·雷諾(Jay Leno)退休時，那種傷感而又浪費華美演出的清爽宜人的解藥。
萊特曼的退休已獲得特殊大批的存眷，粉絲們的忠實、名流的獻禮辭，和不中斷的媒體報導猖狂地迸發，這大概是由於他對在電視機前、而不是在智妙手機上看著節目長大的末了一代觀眾如斯的主要。
萊特曼對年青演出者應用Twitter和Facebook的敲打，是這位脫口秀主持人向焦點觀眾發出的呼叫招呼，這些觀眾幾十年前用選取萊特曼、而不是萊諾把本身定位為反水者。
萊特曼只須要說出誰人日子，1996年6月17日，現場觀眾就開端會心地失笑。然後，他播放了一段本身比擬有名的開玩笑片斷之一，他偽裝塔可鐘(Taco Bell)的沒必要下車便可購置食品窗口的辦事員，用極其糟的辦事熬煎客人。
他的荒謬噱頭和對傳統電視笑劇即興模擬的片斷很逗樂，但它們也讓人記起萊特曼在其壯盛時代何等具備創意和鼓動性，也提示人們在現今深夜秀星空閃耀的他的後繼者們欠了他若幹器械。個中一名後繼者吉米·金梅爾(Jimmy Kimmel)在美國播送公司主持本身的深夜脫口秀節目，金梅爾是如斯地崇敬萊特曼，以致於他在周三夜間，為了避免把觀眾的留意力從萊特曼那邊吸引走，重播了一個舊集子。
在本身的節目中，萊特曼請求更輕的手段。在以“我一向想對大衛說的事兒”為題的10台甫單部門，曾擔負《宋飛正傳》演員的朱莉婭·路易斯-德雷福斯(Julia Louis-Dreyfus)說，“感謝你讓我加入又一個異常使人絕望的電視系列的終局。”
萊特曼於1993年加盟CBS，一年後，HBO推出了《拉裏·桑德斯秀》(The Larry Sanders Show)，那是對《 徹夜秀》幕後情節的幽默模擬劇，由加裏·贍德令(Garry Shandling)飾演缺少信念、又自我沉醉的脫口秀主持人。
然則，萊特曼作為NBC《深夜秀》、厥後是CBS節目主持人的舞台腳色，是脫口秀文體的單人幽默模擬。縱然在30多年後，萊特曼從未落空他獨有的、具備譏諷象征的自我意識;他並無墮入深夜脫口秀節目等價交流通例的得心應手，而是賡續地違背通例。
在曩昔的幾個周中，包含湯姆·漢克斯(Tom Hanks)、朱莉婭·羅伯茨(Julia Roberts)和喬治·克魯尼(George Clooney)在內的名流高朋紛紜對萊特曼表現敬意。周三，他把全部這些頌辭描寫為“過火了”，並說他認為那些話“使人幸運、為難、知足。”
龐雜的情感對這位笑劇演員來講言之有理，他老是充斥抵觸，他是一名勝利、機靈、具備超等自負的演出者，但在台下，他其實是一名山人，備受自我疑惑的熬煎。
粉絲們盡忠萊特曼，部門是由於他們熟悉他的心靈：他是一個極其秘密的名流，而他又賡續地在鏡頭前處置他的小我生存。他曾用悲痛和無助情緒的動聽表達贊助美國從2001年9月11日打擊所帶來的創傷中病愈。在2000年做了五道心臟旁路手術後，他把本身的醫療團隊帶到電視台上。在2009年的一個使人不安的自我認錯中，他乃至把本身與辦公室中女性的婚外情描寫為“使人不寒而栗”。
周三，萊特曼說了退休最糟的工作之一，用他的話來講是：“我往後做錯事時，得去他人的節目上表現歉意，老天曉得我是必定會做錯事的。”
他開著關於本身將來途徑的打趣，也同時會嚴正地提到本身曩昔的癥結時候。他選取Foo Fighters樂隊作為他末了的音樂顧客，由於該樂隊為了在貳心臟手術後的初次節目上演出，撤消了一次南美巡演。
與他以往許多夜晚同樣，萊特曼滑稽地提到他的兒子哈利(Harry)，用尖尖的假聲模擬兒子的聲音。他對坐在觀眾席中的兒子和老婆裏賈納(Regina)表達了穩重敬意。
“感謝你們，我的家人，”他說。“我愛你倆，真的，再沒有比你們主要的了，不是嗎?”
但是，大多半時刻，他做了他最會幹的事：用本身玩笑。“看起來愈來愈有大概我不會去主持《徹夜秀》了，”萊特曼開頑笑說。
萊特曼把本身在與萊諾的漫長、艱難的競爭中界說為失敗者。他的敵手得以主持《徹夜秀》，博得了更高的收視率，但終極是萊特曼在末了節目中勝出。
市場價：HK$ 110
