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Caloroga Shark Media. Hi there, I’m Johnny back and if you listen to yesterday’s episode was a crossover episode with The Letterman Podcast. Mike Chisholm, who hosts The Letterman Podcast, made a list of the top ten late night hosts of all time, and we made it all the way through number seven. We got a little chatty in case you missed it, Number ten with Steve Allen, nine, Orsennil Hall eight, Craig ferguson number seven, the Worst Guy who Ever lived, Jay Leno, and we did twenty minutes on Jay Leno at the end of yesterday’s episode, which made the episode kind along, so I had to split it in two. So if you missed it, go back and listen to yesterday.
And here is the rest of the list. I’m glad we spend as much time on Jay as we as we did. We’re gonna move to number six now, and this is the first one where it comes with somebody sort of attached to it. There’s two of them here or three of them here maybe that have somebody attached to them. Number six is John Stewart.
I’m gonna just say this flat out. In the last five Stephen Colbert is not one of them. But with well, okay, so right there, that’s the result. But but but we’re sint Colbert off the air? What is wrong with you?
Mike there? Taking him off and right and a lot of show and he kept the late show franchise going and and whoa not on the list? Very see this is exactly why I don’t want to see your list. Great example. You should teach that to the what do you what do you teach?
By the way, In the fall, I teach introduction, Well, it was introduction of radio, and I went to the university. I’m like, you got me teaching introduction of horse and buggy. We got to rebrand this. Uh so now it’s radio podcast of streaming good And I teach a management course of that in the spring.
And then at the other university, I teach podcasting production, which isn’t …
I’ll do a lot of weeks about out. Here’s how we approach the content, here’s what we’re trying to do, here’s why we do these things, and how you approach the creative before we even try and hit record. Oh that’s great, you know it talks about the Testament to communication. It was intro to radio, and then it became intro to what’s the name of it now? I think it’s right now.
I think it’s radio, streaming and media, sorry, and podcasting, which it’s unofficially been for about five years. Don’t tell anybody. I’m like, you know, if you want me to teach you about how an AM transmitter works, I can. I don’t know what you’re gonna do with the information. I know how to edit with a razor blade.
I’ve done it. I was pretty good at it. But let me show you pro tools. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, just the name of the course though, you’re gonna get a lineup versus crickets on the other side like calling it streaming podcasting it like, that’s yeah, it’s a no brainer.
Alex Bennett and I talk about this all the time. I use the word broadcasting all the time, and it drives Alex up the wall because he’s just left broadcasting is this and it’s this? Is it? Just you know, has the line of what broadcast? This is not broadcasting, streaming is not broadcasting.
I’m like, yeah, but it’s the it’s the I I appreciate that. I appreciate that broadcasting does have, you know, some finite rules, you know, But at the end of the day, what are we doing here? I mean, it’s all it is all broadcasting for that, That’s what it’s for, right. It’s not the it’s not the tools that make it happen. It’s the fact that it’s happening at all.
That’s why we’re doing it right. Well, the podcasting industry right now, what is a podcast? Like, is this a podcast? Well, there’s cameras on so yes and no, and the video version might be. The audio version definitely is.
And if I put Bill Simmons on Netflix, is that a podcast? TikTok started live streaming things and using the word podcast. Now I’ll Alex Bennett that and be like, hey, live stream on TikTok is not a podcast. I’m sorry, yep. But then I’ll also come back to it and say it doesn’t matter whatever the audience thinks.
As a podcast, that’s what a podcast is. So if you call this thing the Letterman podcast and Sunset the audio version and Netflix, there’s your money and it’s there and people stare at this conversation, that’s a podcast because. You said it where you go, that’s you said what sense orright?
And also at that point you’ll have to come up with a different name, because …
Or so you got a Netflix deal, so you you’ll have to call it like d Lman. Pod Fantasies like that are really funny. Yeah, John Stewart is number six, So John Stewart, And to me, John Stewart gets the nod and and he comes with him a contingent of people. Cool Bear is one of them. But to me, there’s a guy who you talk about, a guy who changed Late Night and really at the end of the day, I mean, so many people would watch Saturday Night Live back in the day for Demis Miller or for Norm McDonald or for what we came up to.
It has always been such a powerful you know, not necessarily the news, all of these different well, the idea that Madeline Smithberg those people could come up and and and and put the the rocket onto John Stewart and created a version of the Daily Show that would become iconic. And and and not only that he is a king, but he’s also a king maker in Colbert and and other people of course, John Oliver, and and and and and the idea that John Stuart you know, he I don’t, I don’t. I think he’s getting the reverence that he deserves. The comeback this year has really shown that he does have a reverence out there, and he is one of those guys he’s kind of transcending. Conan’s transcending as well.
You’re seeing it start to happen with Jimmy where they were were where where they become more than just a late night talk show host, but that becomes something else. Dave of course did it years ago. John Stewart’s at that place right now. Colbert is gonna be at that place after he retires, and probably if we did this list next year as a result of when he does retire and all the the the the the Gaga and the Bally Whu that’s gonna surround that. But right now he’s gonna John’s it’s going to be the guy at number six on the top ten late night hosts of all time.
John Stewart, New York guy. You’re a New York guy. You cross paths with him very often in your career. No, I’ve never run into John either. So I’m struggling with this one, much like what is a podcast?
When you say to me late night, my brain goes to the Steve Allen template. There there’s a desk in a city scape behind it. It kind of looks like you were set up there, and we do a monologue and some guests come out and we go home, and John Stewart’s not doing that. Is he in the hall of fame of whatever hall of fame we’re making? Absolutely?
Is he a king maker? Absolutely? Is he hilarious? Absolutely? Is he influential on culture?
Absolutely? What else can I say about him? Is awesome? Does he walk the talk? Yeah, you know the stuff he’s done for veterans.
Wow, what an awesome dude. And yes, yes, yes, yes yes. But in my small brain he’s in a different filing cabinet than Jay Leno and Steve Allen that he’s doing something else. He’s over here with John Oliver. And you mentioned not necessarily the News, which is not a late night show, But why is the Daily Show a late night show?
And not necessarily News isn’t And I don’t know, and I don’t care, So I’m not gonna like throw tomatoes at my screen and be like, this list is outrageous. I just you know, let’s make some other list and put him at number one. He’s awesome. I just feel like it’s for me something in a different category. Yeah.
Well, okay, so I used to feel the same way that you did. So this is just a testament to way that when we zone in on this stuff, those of us who are nerds for this stuff, that’s the way that our brain kind of works. I was actually convinced the other way. And I listened to it, and I’ll name drop her for sure. Madeline Suithberg and I we we chat, you know, I would say frequently, Yeah, frequently, moderate, moderately, frequently, Madeline Suthberg and I will chat, and she’s gonna come on the show here at some point.
But I asked that question. I asked her that question. I said, okay, well, is the Daily Show a late night show? And she convinced me of it. It was?
It was? It was what because the desk comes out early, it’s not a late night show? What because? And I mean that’s not something that she said. She was far more elo eloquent in what she said.
But but I am now back on board where Yeah, no, I believe Daily Show is a late night show. It’s it’s you know, it’s nightly. They have guests, they you know. To me, I think the Daily Show actually changed late night. I was having this conversation with Scott Ryan, who wrote Last Days of Letterman.
We were talking about this. We were wondering when the first time, Like, I don’t think Dave ever did a monologue where a screen showed up beside him and there was like, you know, graphics that were enhancing the jokes. But he did definitely throw to video packages within the monologue, like like famously the very last Late Show. One of the things that he said in the middle of the monologue, okay now it’s on for a new segment comedy we would have done tomorrow. There are a bunch of jokes that were still topic.
It’s just very good, very very yeah nice. When did Dave add that to the monologue? Well, it was certainly after the Daily Show showed up. Never mind the fact that you had, you know, other hosts at other desks who had the graphic and was being helped. Well, now they’re really merging into two like and so anyway, I’m convinced that The Daily Show is a late night show, and that’s why John’s on the list.
But yeah, powerful powerful force in nature in late night nature. There’s no question about that. Absolutely. Number five, we’re going to the imitator, the guy who wants to be David Letterman, and that is Jimmy Kimmel. I think if September this of twenty twenty five hadn’t happened, he would have been further up the list.
He might not have made the list. But I said earlier that I think that Jimmy is transcending and he’s going past this place of into the next zone, whatever that is. Who knows how long he’s gonna do it for, but he has certainly, you know, got all. He deserves to be on this list because ABC never had a late night show for the same reason that that that Letterman gets all the accolades for giving CBS their late night show. Jimmy Kimmel did it for ABC.
You talk about it network. That gave a guy time to find his voice and become something. My gosh, remember the original It’s called Jimmy Kimmel Live because they were live. They were all live at first, and he couldn’t get guests and the audience could drink, and there was all sorts of crazy stuff that this play started with and what it’s evolved into, it’s evolved into David Letterman light. But at the same time, he is the combination of Jay Leno and David Letterman, because you’ve got this guy who works for ABC.
Well, he happens to be a Star Wars fan, he happens to be a Marvel Comics fan, he happens to be a fan of of of the network that owns him and all of their properties, and so every time one of these new projects comes out, he can do a collab with them, and he can do well. This is the stuff that len I loved about the Tonight Show and the stuff that Dave. Dave hated, He didn’t like doing that stuff at all. You know, Jimmy has embraced that and has done a phenomenal job at that. Then you’ve got the fact that he’s hosted the Oscars and done all sorts of things that Johnny Carson did back in the day and did very very well at it.
To me, Jimmy Kimmel is absolutely worthy of being number five on the top ten late night hosts of all time. What do you think about that? I feel you have him too high. I am favorable towards Jimmy Kimmel. I think if we think in terms of two things, skin of mind.
In terms of baseball, for my beloved eighty six Mets, he had Twin Good and doctor k with the incredible not just the fastball and striking people out, he had this incredible curve ball. He’s David Letterman.
And then behind him you had Ron Darling quily going about his business winnin…
And I feel like Kimmel on his walk to the Hall of Fame. And we’ll see what this final act is, however long it is, whether it is another year and a half for longer. Is accumulating innings and they’re nice, solid innings. But he’s definitely not making Mount Rushmore right, which doesn’t mean bad. Not everyone makes Mount Rushmore Yep.
I just feel like it’s high. I have to look at the final list and and does he make it? Why is it? Why is he making it? Over?
Stephen Colbert, can we have that discussion or is that for later? Absolute? No, you know the discussion right now? Absolutely? Yeah, Colbert didn’t make the list because as far as he’s in the he’s in that Stuart category and and and so he gets that’s where his that’s where his sort of honorable mention comes in.
So I cheated a little bit, okay, you know, because uh, he was the he was the king that that that Stuart made. But again this time next year, when we see how he leaves Late Show or the Late Show and what happens, you know, we might be a different list next year. But yeah, Kimmel, to me, this was this was a debate that I had in my head, and I’m like, well, it’s not that I’m not going to mention him, but but Kimmel, the fact that he got brought back the way that he did, and thank goodness, you don’t have to boycott this stuff anymore. I’m so grateful for that, the fact that he got brought back the way that he did and whatnot. Just this year here, it just showed that he is He’s one of those guys and I just feel like he is transcending out of and he’s becoming bigger than what it is that he does.
I just feel like Kimmel’s making that transformation right now. So while we’re touching on Colbert, how do you how do you walk off? Is the right move? Just hey, let’s book every a level star. Like.
I don’t feel like that’s the right move for Colbert. I feel like his walk off needs to be more thoughtful and say something. So I don’t need Tom Cruise coming by to promote Mission Impossible ten. I need him to do something with some weight and speak to the nation and speak to the moment. And I don’t know what that is, but it’s not just Sebastian Maniscalko coming on doing his stand.
Yeah, you know, I feel like when Dave, like again, I’ve said that the greatest six weeks of entertainment in my entire life was the last six weeks of Late Show with David Letterman. They threw the kitchen sink at it. But the kitchen sink that they threw was a version of Johnny Carson’s kitchen sink. Yeah, you know, it was laid out very similarly. There would be lots of clips of things that happened over the years, and when you have a wits and breadth of body of work, you can do that.
Well. Colbert doesn’t have that Colbert’s got ten years unless you start bringing in the Comedy Central stuff. And if you start bringing in the Comedy Central stuff from the rapport, okay, you can do that, and there might be a unique version of that kitchen sink that can be done. And like you said earlier, they combine it with bringing back a bringing a list stars, but of course bringing back friends of the show. If there’s an ingredient that needs to be included with Colbert’s exit, I firmly believe that whoever are considered friends of his show need to be deeply involved in it.
And of course the top of that list is of course John Stewart, right, So I think there are ways that you could customize, you know, what the ending is going to look like, but it’s gonna have to do with the friends of the show. He’s got a lot more political friends than Letterman or Carson ever did, so, so that that’s gonna be an interesting element to it as well, because his show is very political. It’s a political show, so I think it does need to be different though, because it is such a different show than what Letterman and Carson did. Boy, weird shit, it’s time to get some business in here. We’ll take a break, we’ll come back.
We’ll talk a little bit more with Mike Chisholm about the top ten late night hosts of all time. Mike Chisholm hosts The Letterman Podcast. He is today’s guest, and we’re discussing his list of the top ten late night hosts of all time? And how many do we have left? I’m playing along.
I don’t want to spoil the show. I have five head that you could throw out, you know, so there’s very obvious there’s four left, and I have four life names. Like exactly, and I think I know what I want to do. Okay, I don’t want to throw names out and ruin it for the audience, but I would imagine people can guess it at least three of them. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Number four is our boy, Conan O’Brien, And you know that’s one of the names for sure. There’s no question Conan. How do you follow David Letterman? You know? And Conan not only did it, but did it right.
He did a phenomenal job taking over the mantle of late night. He was so resilient as late night became similar to the Letterman Carson thing, you know, when Letterman was on at twelve thirty, there was a point where his show was the hip Show and the Tonight Show was the anchor that the Hip Show was kind of, you know, attached to the same thing happened with Conan and Leno. You know, there was a point where where Conan was the hip guy. He was the guy that was they were getting to host the Emmy’s just like Dave. He was the guy that was knocking the ball out of the park, creating new types of of the way to present the show, his travel shows, you know, and then of course the resilience of weathering the storms, and he had a lot of them at the beginning, of course, during the Late Night years.
You know, of course, how do you react to having the Tonight Show taken from you after it was promised to you for five years? You know. And and Conan, you know, leaving Late Night. The deal that he signed was serious, the podcast, all the relevance that Conan has in life, and right now, at this time, I just want to throw a shout out to he and his family and all the stuff that they’re going through right now. They are just Oh what a way that they’re in it right now.
You know, the most unpredictable kind of thing. You know, we just have so much love for Conan and respect for him, and of course he’s going to be on this list, and he’s going to be really high up on this list. So that’s why he’s at number four, you. Know, not to bring the showdown, but one of the things as a producer, I try and look ahead to the stories of the next six months or the next year. I fear we’re going to have a major celebrity trial where lawyers are going to want to ask Conan O’Brien what happened at that party?
And I could see a defense attorney saying, well, why didn’t you call nine one one? When people said, like, I fear Conan’s going to be in the news for reasons no one deserves to be in the news. What a horrible tragedy, obviously, but I just want to, you know, put that out there into the universe that I think we’re going to see Conan’s name in the news in twenty twenty six. Yeah, I I absolutely, absolutely, and and and I just but you know that stuff is going to work itself out, you know, you know that stuff is you know, hindsight is twenty twenty. Could I have done something different?
Okay, there’s there, there’s that, But then there’s also the the heart part. And I mean, I know that they’re all I’ve heard a couple of grape vine things, and there’s a lot of people that are really sad right now, and and and and really just hurt, and and and and and and devastated in fact, and and and I just feel so bad for that part of it as well. That the course, you’re right, it’s gonna be if this trial is public, it’s going to be, in my opinion, it’s going to be like the OJ trial. It’s going to be. It’ll be a circus.
Hopefully that can be circumvented somehow. I don’t know if there’s what the laws are and if there’s special circumstances if if that then seals things, I don’t know if that would happen. But yeah, I think you’re I think you’re right. I think it’s going to become a circus. But at the end of the day, when a circus is happening and people are genuinely hurt and there’s all this stuff going on around them, like that’s the part where I’m just like just just everybody who’s involved in that situation know that there are people out there in public who are just pulling for you and we’re thinking about yeah, yeah, you know.
I say none of this flippantly, just as someone who analyzes things. This makes Conan’s bio it oh bit. It might be one sentence in the seventh paragraph, but it’s going to make his obituary and again a horrible situation. I don’t mean to be the least bit flippant about this situation, and I hope I’m not coming across that way, but just just just factually, Conan’s going to be in the news as there are some other famous people. Absolutely, now that being said, the reason that he is in the news the way he is, the giant he has become.
And you talk about Smigel and I think about them, and I think about, you know, the camaraderie that they had back in the SNL days, and if they either of them, could have ever, ever, ever fathomed that this would happen to them and they would become the cultural icons that they are. Conan of course being the public one, Smigel, you know, being the genius, the creative genius behind the scenes, but you think about Conan and do you think even in his wildest dreams he takes over for David Letterman, that he would end up becoming who he has become. No, I can’t, right, because if you just go back, it’s wait, Lauren says, I can host twelve thirty, Okay, And. How long are you think? Are you thinking you’re going to do that for fourteen years?
Are you hoping it lasts a year? Three years?
And then you go do what?
And then and then hey, do you want to host the Tonight Show? Well, of course everyone wants to host the Tonight Show? Who doesn’t want to host the Tonight Show?
And then that rug gets pulled out of you?
And then I know we have different opinions on the TBS years, you know, a little I mean less visible, Right, it’s not this Tonight Show, It’s TBS. But then this more recent act of both the podcast and then the great appearance as an Oscar host, the more Chwin Awards, he’ll be back as the Oscars host. Now the Oscars itself is interesting because is it two years of Conan?
And then because the Oscar’s destiny is YouTube, and YouTube will want to put…
And have he it’s the whatever one hundred and second Oscars with your host, mister beast. You know. So Conan’s not about to host the Oscars for the next ten years. He might do two or three. Do they go back to Kimmel one last time in ABC?
And this gets me back to the if Jimmy Kimmel retires, you’re my age, what are you gonna do for the next fifteen twenty years? I know you have money, but you need something to do. You have to have a project, even if it’s hosting Strike Force five. But like I don’t see Jimmy Kimmel at you know, fifty five ish, just going home and doing nothing for twenty years. He needs something to do.
Even David Letterman apparently needs something to do. Right, Hey, there’s there’s there’s the name for the next the next Netflix show. David Letterman needs something to do. It would be not far off the mark. Yeah, I mean Conan is a giant.
Him hosting the Oscars was again, yeah, cherry on top and in so many ways, and it’s gonna be great to see him do it again. I look forward to everything that he’s doing. We got three left, and you got four names I think three is going to combine two of those names. Okay, Now I’m a little biased with this one here, I fully admit it, but I still stand by it. The number three, uh you know, talk show host, the top ten talk show host of all time.
Number three for me is Dick Cabot. Oh yes, yes, yes. Now with me. Dick Cabot comes with somebody and it comes, he comes with his mentor, he comes with Jack Parr and I and and I want to talk about them at the same time because I believe again this list here has a whole bunch of people who are you know, kings or king makers whatnot. The last two are both combined.
But but when you look at when you look at what Dick did, you know, he did compete against Johnny Carson number one, so he was an outstanding talk show host in his own his own you know respect. But he also was such a part of Jack Parr’s show and was influenced so much by Jack Parr. And and and when you look at you know, his his reverence for Jack is just second to none. And I look at what Dick did and the combination of broadcaster intelligence stand up as well, he is absolutely a phenomenal player and carries on the spirit of Jack Parr. That’s why I put Dick Cabot at number three.
I know that there might be some people who want to start throwing stones at me with that one, but that’s that’s that’s this is my list. It has nothing to do with the fact that Dick told me he liked me, nothing to do with that at all. But yeah, he’s my number three. No, not absurd at all. Those were the two names.
I was wondering which one you’re going to lead leave off. Those were the two that were out there. Cavot, you know, in many ways a podcaster, right, the same conversation that we’ve had. I can’t argue with it. It is Cavit show whacky.
No, not at all, not at all. Nope, No, it had no wackiness to it. It was it was intelligent humor to be sure. Oh wait, I just realized, unless you’ve totally lost your mind, with two slots left, you have left Tom Snyder off your list. I did.
Tom Snader is one of the honorable mentions. He’s he’s he just it was him, you know, And I mean I look at I look at him, I look at Charlie and it’s the long form late night that I love that Dave does right now, but yet it is it is awful list. And Tom’s one of those guys who who who? I just he was one of Dave’s influences, and I think it’s very obvious that he’s one of Dave’s influences. But yeah, he uh, Hey, there’s only there’s only ten slots, and you can’t have everybody.
Uh, you can’t have everybody represented. Tom’s one of the people that did not make the list. Now I’m hoping you’re going for the clicks here and one of the last two slots is going to Magic Johnson or Cheffy Chase or and the Pat Say Jack and you know, the two left of Letterman and Pat say Jack, and then we can all hate on your list. Huh that’s right, say Jack. I just uh, it’s just the best punch line of all times.
Pat Say Jack. I just love it. That show wasn’t that bad. It just wasn’t reason to exist. But it wasn’t awful.
Oh he was fine, but he you know, you talk about a guy who didn’t connect. He didn’t feel like he was connecting with it the way that that that that the hosts that we love connect with us so much like look at God. At Craig Ferguson, I felt a genuine connection with him. I felt that he was genuinely connecting with his guests. He had a genuine connection with the robot skeleton on the other side of the room.
You look at Pat, say Jack, and I didn’t feel that connection at all. The other honorable mention, by the way, of course, is mister Allan Thick, Canadian hero, mister Allen Thick for Thick of the Night. You know, he gets he gets an honorable mention. But yeah, No. Number two is Johnny number two, Johnny Carson yep.
On the Letterman Podcast. Johnny Carson is only number two. That’s wow, that’s shocking. Most people who are who are who are enthusiasts of David Letterman, they say Johnny’s number one. I I don’t.
But it’s the same way that uh, you know again, I’ve used this example so many times the Godfather. You know, some people like Veto, some people like Michael Well, Michael took the thing and he carried it down the field farther and and and and was even more successful, you know, and and to me, Johnny Carson, he did that, and then the guy who makes number one went and did that, so so so Johnny took the ball, Johnny Carson. I mean, oh, by the way, let’s uh, let’s give a little love to my boy, Mark Malcoff. I’m seeing stories every day online where like the Daily Mirror or US Weekly or whatever, Will will will tell an old Johnny Carson story. It’s happening every day on the news, right.
I love I love seeing this and it’s all as a result of Mark’s book being released, and they’re seeing a newly released book, but our Mark Malcoff and telling a Johnny Carson Joonan River story or something like that. I could not be happier that we are in twenty twenty five and Johnny Carson is still getting buzz. It is such a beautiful, beautiful thing. Did you love Johnny growing up? So?
Johnny was the thing I stared at killing time until twelve thirty. Right, So I come into Johnny backward because my godmother hasn’t gotten me the VCR yet and I don’t have cable TV, so what am I gonna do? So you start watching this Johnny Carson guy, and over time, you come to appreciate it, and I was really in on the end. Then as time goes on and you become older and more mature, and you go back and you just study the work because you’re into these things, and you see the clips.
And then when the metvs of the world were airing the older shows and you read…
Obviously I love Dave where we wouldn’t even be friends. But for me, you know, there’s a nuclear emergency and we got to wake somebody up at three fifteen in the morning and go, dude, sorry to wake you. There’s a set and you got to interview Mary Lou Henter and band, and I wrote a monologue for you, and just you got to execute a late night show. Right now, I would hand the ball to Johnny and know that I’m going to get a funny hour, whereas Dave I’d be on roller skates the entire time. Oh, that’s a great analogy.
That’s a great analogy. Yes, yeah, that’s a Yeah. You could set your watch to Johnny. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you really could, and he’s just yeah, it’s it’s cool reading the book actually because it came out, it’s so weird that a book in twenty twenty five would be the perfect time to come out about Johnny Carson. But it really really is when you look at the perspective of what’s happening in late night right now, and you read some of the stuff that Johnny went through, and late night is a show, but late night, late night is a genre.
When you look at it, you know, there’s these crazy quotes that come out of him, Johnny Carson that are in this book that are prophetic, you know, talking about how it’s gonna expand and it’s gonna have to contract and and and and Yeah. It’s really I mean, Johnny Carson is the he is I want to say he’s the goat, but he’s the goat that that that that created the goat. Number one, of course, it’s the Letterman podcast. I did. I did want to look at maybe looking at someone else, but there was just nobody other than Johnny who could have could have ever taken this spot.
He is the number one, uh, in my opinion, broadcaster of all time. It’s not even just a talk show host. In my opinion, David Letterman is the number one broadcaster of all time. And uh, you can go from every genre from the most ridiculous of the ridiculous, throwing stuff off the tower, to having phenomenal short and long form conversations with heads of state of the world and and everything in between. Uh.
Dave’s the guy. You know, the fact that he inspired some Canadian uh you know, to out of his basement, Uh, you know, create a show in his name, who has no business in doing something like that. That’s the inspiration. That’s the kind of reach that Dave has. And it’s still doing it.
And he didn’t he didn’t stop. Johnny stopped and he and he kind of left the limelight. Dave hasn’t done that. In fact, he has introduced so many people to so many different things because of who he is and where he is in this time and place in history. So David Letterman is, of course number one.
He’s clearly my favorite. You can’t argue with it. You’re putting a thought in my head about the walk Off by Johnny Carson, that we don’t have the Johnny Carson Netflix series where he interviewed Andie Dickinson. You know, we don’t have that, whereas we do have elder statesman Letterman. Now I’m really digging the openly political David Letterman.
I think that’s really really interesting. And again, oh, late night shows, late night knows, can’t people go? Sure they can, absolutely they can, and they should be. I get the playing down the middle, I get it, but I also like to know what somebody is thinking. Not that you want to lose half the audience.
I understand that argument. But this version of David Letterman where I don’t care, I’ll walk away from the table and leave my chips there, don’t need him, don’t care, and he can speak his mind to the current states of things. I absolutely love it. But back to the walk off, you just did a mental exercise for me. If I don’t know, Dave goes, well, I’m not getting the Tonight show.
That’s it. Eddie just becomes a total recluse. And all I have in my mind are eleven seasons of a guy throwing watermelons off the tower. It would probably be like Eddie Murphy’s comedy career that if you told me like, hey, Letterman’s coming back and he’s hosting on Netflix, I’d be like, oh my god, that’s going to be the most amazing thing ever.
And then a guy with a white beer shows up and does a serious interview with A…
It would be like, if Eddie Murphy ever returns to the stand up, it cannot possibly live up to what my mind needs the Beatles reunion to be. So maybe if Dave does do eleven and done, I’d be like, oh my god, did you see this show? It’s the most amazing thing that ever happened.
And then he walked away.
Mm hmm. Yeah. I think it’s funny. As you said that, I think about when Craig Ferguson left and it’s almost similar to, okay, yeah, Craig Ferguson decides he doesn’t you know, he left late night. It’s it’s very similar to that, and uh oh yeah that’s got me thinking too that, Yeah, that’s that’s a fantastic analogy.
That’s exactly right. If Dave would have done that, it’s funny, like like I’m trying to remember who oh. Senator Al Franken in the last month, the last six weeks, else El Franken was on and he was a senator at the time, and he said to Dave, he said, he said, before you go off and become an eccentric recluse. And I think a lot of people thought that that’s exactly what Dave was gonna do, and and and it’s funny like I I’m into Billie Eilish. The reason I’m into Billy Eilish is because she was on Dave’s My Next Guest show.
You know, But people ask me what my favorite next guest uh is of all time? And until I saw Bateman, I had an answer, and then Bateman kind of Bateman might be my number one of all time. But then I went and saw Dave Chapelle’s special, and the guy who Bateman replaced went back up, and Dave Chappelle is my favorite letterman of all time, and and and and uh my next guest, I should say, of all time. And part of it, I think is because when Dave does start talking to people with opinions about things he we start to get glimpses of what Dave’s opinion on the same subject are. And we always liked that.
We always liked when a guest back in the day would say something to Dave and make him answer a personal question, and we the audience loved that right because it didn’t happen very often because of how private he is. And in this way, I think my next guest does it as well. It brings out some of those political things. To me, Dave is always a common sense guy. His barometer for make making fun of a politician or something like that didn’t go off until the common sense part.
As soon as the common sense part went into the red now it’s like, okay, we’re just gonna open it up. But yeah, that’s a good point that you made about that. I really love that now. And there’s something too walking off. I think when Howard Stern’s career is said and done, there’s gonna be a strong argument for whatever Day already lang and needed to leave the show should have been the last episode of the Howard Stern Show.
I’m not sure that this this late period Howard stuff is doing justice to the Howard Stern legacy. I know, man like, like he just signed up for is it three years? Another three years? Yeah? Yeah, so he’s not retiring essentially.
That’s what that tells me is that he’s just not gonna retire. He’s just gonna keep going and doing it because it’s what he knows, what he loves. I think he still loves it. I don’t know. I’ve I haven’t listened to a ton of the current stuff.
It seems like he enjoy having thoughtful conversations with people. But when you think back to what brought him to the dance and how you know, I’ll you know, oh, I see these two girls, you know, I want to bang them both. Like that was that was That was the stuff he used to say every single day, and that’s what brought him to it, And his evolution is very interesting. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know, Like, like, is it comforting?
Is it comfort food? Da’ve talked about Johnny, how Johnny would tuck people in every night and it was just one of those things. Is Howard stirned comfort food to a lot of people? Is that that part of it? I don’t think so, because I think those of us that grew up on Howard that Howard’s gone, Johnny was still Johnny.
You know, you could swap out an episode from nineteen eighty six with one from nineteen seventy four. Yep, and maybe it was a half hour shorter, but it was the same show. Yeah, that looked a little newer, that was it. It was the same show, whereas what Howard’s doing now has you know, Robin and Fred are there, but other than that, it’s not really the same show from you know, pick a Day in nineteen ninety three. Yeah.
I love when Dave and Howard have conversations, like, I love there’s an episode of I would love to hear hear Dave and Howard have another conversation, a current one. I don’t think they’ve talked in a while, in a year anyway, something like that. I love. I love when they talk. One of the things that those two both have in common is they have the ability to get people to start talking about things that they don’t want to talk about.
Both of them have that ability. What do you think that is? Like you’ve been in radio for a long time, Like when you have a host, Alex Bena, I can do the same thing. Actually, when you have a host who has the ability to start eliciting stuff that the person that they’re talking to didn’t necessarily intend on talking about. What is that causes that.
So it’s a combination of charisma, prep, doing the prep and taking the time to get the guest in a place where they’re comfortable. So if I have you on to come out Gangbusters and go my host the Letterman podcast, you have Johnny Carson at number two, that’s ridiculous. You know, I’ve started off from an antagonistic point of view, whereas if I hang out with you for forty minutes, and especially if I can talk to you about the thing you’re very passionate about, that’s not this. So hey, Mikeaul’s on your Facebook page yesterday I saw you out with your granddaughter. Yeah, you know, you know, what were you guys up to?
What was that like? And you know I could just tell from your Facebook posts, you know this is something that’s This is someone who is tremendously important to you. And so I could talk to you about her for twenty minutes and get you to open up.
And now our body language has gone from this to kind of leaning back in the c…
But but it’s not my opener. And that’s what Howard’s good at. And this is why he has guests on for an hour and you sit in the comfy sofa and you get a little comfortable with the gang and it’s not a threatening thing. And you know, but that plus charisma, plus the repuds of the show, and he is a very good interviewer. It’s just not the reason those of us who bought Howard stern stock in nineteen eighty five bought it.
Right now, that makes a lot of sense. So that’s the list. That’s the list list, not too not too controversial, right, a good list. Zone Rivers gets an honorable mention, So DOA’s Tom he gets an honorable mention of course as well. Yeah, but anyway, that was it.
Yeah, it was hard not to get. The hardest part was was shoe warning. How can I talk about Colbert and how can I talk about Parr? But like having both Alan and Parr on and Carson on and Jay on, you know, that was just it was it was just it was it was a bridge that was just it was too it was too heavy on the bridge. So one of them, one of them had to But three Tonight Show lists on the top ten list, there’s three who goes to the Tonight Show?
So but yeah, I uh, I can’t wait till you watch the Sandler episode. There’s four four, who’s a I want to know Brian host? How dare you? Sir? How dare you?
You? Unbelievable? I said that too. It was like something felt weird when I said it. Oh my god, that’s the.
Jay Leno of podcasters. That’s who you are cutting it there. Mike laughed at that line there at the end, and we moved on to some other topics. But I’m I’m saving that part of the conversation for a completely different episode on one of these January weekends. I hope you’re enjoying these conversations with Mike.
We’re hoping to do a bunch of these. Enjoy talking to him, and we can talk forever. This raw session was two and a half hours. Anytime we’re together, we just go and go and go. So he’s Mike Chisseingy hosts a Letterman podcast.
Mike you, Mike, thank you for your time, and I’ll meet everybody back here tomorrow.