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Late Night with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on NBC, the first iteration of the Late Night franchise. It premiered on February   1, 1982, and was produced by Letterman's production company, Space Age Meats, and Carson Productions. Letterman had previously hosted his own morning talk show on NBC from June to October 1980. The show's house band, The World's Most Dangerous Band, was led by music director Paul Shaffer. In 1993, Letterman announced that he would leave NBC to host the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. The final episode of Late Night was broadcast on June   25, 1993. The series has continued as Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

In 2013, this series and Late Show with David Letterman were ranked No. 41 on TV Guide's 60 Best Series of All Time. During its run, the show was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series 11 times. It was also nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series 14 times, winning 4, and won one Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series out of 7 nominations.

History
In the wake of his NBC morning show being cancelled in October 1980 after 18 weeks on the air, David Letterman was still held in high enough regard by the network brass, especially NBC president Fred Silverman, that upon hearing the 33-year-old comedian was being courted by a first-run syndication company, NBC gave him a US$20,000 per week ($1,000,000 for a year) deal to sit out a year and guest-host The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on multiple occasions. Earlier that year in May, after significant acrimony, NBC and Carson had reached an agreement on a new contract, which—among other concessions to Carson—granted the powerful and influential host the control over the time slot immediately following The Tonight Show.

From late fall 1980 until the end of 1981, in addition to guest-hosting 22 episodes of the Tonight Show, as outlined in his one-year holding deal with NBC, Letterman also appeared five times as Carson's guest on the highly rated program as the network groomed the 34-year-old for a new project.

Finally, on November   9, 1981, NBC and Carson's production company Carson Productions (as well as Letterman's own newly established production company Space Age Meats Productions, forerunner to today's Worldwide Pants Incorporated) announced the creation of Late Night with David Letterman, set to premiere in early 1982 in the 12:30 a.m. time slot Monday through Thursday, with occasional specials every few Fridays, all aimed at young men. The network wanted to capitalize on catering to young males, feeling that there was very little late-night programming for that demographic. The newly announced show thus displaced the Tomorrow Coast to Coast program hosted by Tom Snyder from the 12:30 slot. NBC initially offered Snyder to move his show back an hour, but Snyder, already unhappy with being forced to adopt changes to Tomorrow that he detested, refused and ended the show instead. The final first-run Tomorrow episode aired on December   17, 1981.

Debut
The staff responsible for preparing the launch of Late Night included Merrill Markoe in the head writing role, seasoned TV veteran Hal Gurnee as director, Letterman's manager Jack Rollins as executive producer, and a group of young writers—most of them in their early twenties, along with the somewhat more experienced 29-year-old Jim Downey, who had previously written for Saturday Night Live, and 27-year-old Steve O'Donnell. Markoe stepped down as head writer after a few months, and was succeeded by Downey who was in turn succeeded by O'Donnell in 1983. O'Donnell would serve as the head writer through most of the rest of the show's run while Downey went back to Saturday Night Live in 1984. Also on board, initially as a production assistant in charge of the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment, was 21-year-old Chris Elliott. Elliott would quickly be promoted to writer and a recurring featured player.

The plan from the start was to resurrect the spirit of Letterman's morning show for a late-night audience, one more likely to plug into his offbeat humor. The show also got a house band, hiring NBC staff musician Paul Shaffer to lead the group. They were informally dubbed "The World's Most Dangerous Band" in early episodes, but this was then dropped for several years; through much of the show's run, the band existed without a formal name. The moniker "The World's Most Dangerous Band" was reinstated in 1988, and continued through the rest of the show.

Realizing that NBC executives exhibited very little desire to micromanage various aspects of the show, the staff felt confident they would be allowed to push outside of the mainstream talk-show boundaries and thus set about putting together a quirky, absurdist, and odd program. Snyder's Tomorrow re-runs continued until Thursday, January   28, 1982, and four days later on Monday, February    1, 1982, Late Night premiered with a cold opening featuring Larry "Bud" Melman delivering lines as an homage to the prologue of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, followed by Letterman coming out on stage to Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1" behind a group of female dancers—the peacock girls who had also opened the finale of The David Letterman Show. After a brief monologue, the very first comedy segment was a sarcastic tour of the studio. The first guest, 31-year-old comedian and actor Bill Murray, came out in confrontational fashion, throwing jibes and accusations at the host as part of a knowing put-on. He remained for two more similarly sardonic segments in which he first presented footage of a Chinese zoo baby panda as a supposed home video of his recently adopted pet, before expressing newfound love for aerobics and pulling a crew member onstage, making her do jumping jacks along with him to Olivia Newton-John's "Physical". The second comedy piece was a remote titled "The Shame of the City"; taking a general format of a local news action segment, it featured Letterman touring several New York locations pointing out various civic problems with righteous indignation. The second guest was Don Herbert, TV's "Mr. Wizard", and the show ended with a young comic named Steve Fessler reciting aloud the script of the obscure Bela Lugosi film Bowery at Midnight.

The reviews were mixed —Los Angeles Times wrote: "Much of Letterman's first week did not jell"—but more importantly, the show drew 1.5 million viewers, 30% more than had tuned in for Snyder's Tomorrow.

On the third night, after baseball great Hank Aaron finished his interview segment with Letterman, a camera followed him backstage, where TV sportscaster Al Albert conducted a post-interview chat with Aaron about how it had gone. Eccentric and awkward, the show immediately established a sensibility that was clearly different from The Tonight Show.

The show was produced by Johnny Carson's production company, as a result of a clause in Carson's contract with NBC that gave him control of what immediately followed The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson, for his part, wanted Late Night to have as little overlap with his show as possible. In fact, most ground rules and restrictions on what Letterman could do came not from the network but from the production company itself. Letterman could not have a sidekick like Ed McMahon, and Paul Shaffer's band could not include a horn section like Doc Severinsen's. Letterman was told he could not book old-school showbiz guests such as James Stewart, George Burns, or Buddy Hackett, who were fixtures on Johnny's show (the fact that Tonight had long moved to Hollywood and Late Night was taped in New York helped minimize guest overlap). Letterman was also specifically instructed not to replicate any of the signature pieces of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson like "Stump the Band" or "Carnac the Magnificent". Carson also wanted Letterman to minimize the number of topical jokes in his opening monologue.

Production and scheduling
Late Night originated from NBC Studio 6A at the RCA (later GE) Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. The program ran four nights a week, Monday to Thursday, from the show's premiere on February   1, 1982, until June    4, 1987. Friday shows were added on June   12, 1987, although the show still only produced four new episodes a week. Monday's shows were re-runs. NBC previously aired Friday Night Videos in the 12:30 a.m. slot on Saturday morning, with occasional Late Night specials and reruns. Friday Night Videos was reduced to an hour's length and moved up an hour to 1:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Starting on September   2, 1991, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was pushed back from 11:30 p.m. to 11:35 p.m., with Letterman starting at 12:35 a.m., at the request of NBC affiliates who wanted more advertising time for their profitable late newscasts.

Like The Tonight Show in the 1980s and early 1990s, Late Night aired annual anniversary specials. They aired on or about February   1, first in its own timeslot (albeit on a Friday, preempting SCTV). From 1984 to 1987, episodes of Saturday Night Live were preempted for the special. Finally, from 1988 to 1990 and in 1992, the special aired in prime time, after Cheers. There were no anniversary specials in 1991 and 1993. (Letterman would leave NBC later in 1993.) David Letterman's Holiday Film Festival also aired in Saturday Night Live's timeslot over Thanksgiving weekend in 1985, before a second and final installment aired in prime time the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1986. The festivals were a collection of shorts starring, directed and/or written by celebrities.

Syndication
On September   30, 1991, A&E, a U.S. cable channel partly owned by General Electric—then the parent company of NBC—began broadcasting  repeats of Late Night in an effort of monetizing the show's vast accumulation of old episodes. The repeats aired for less than a year, until July   24, 1992. The syndication deal had been brokered without Letterman's knowledge, and he frequently made his displeasure of the arrangement known on-air, feeling that having reruns broadcast five nights a week, earlier in the evening on cable, diluted the value of the nightly first-run shows on NBC—fearing people would not be willing to stay up late for the first-run if they could watch repeats of the program at an earlier time. Because of Letterman's opposition, the syndication run was ended early and not attempted again until after he had left NBC.

In November 1993, E! Entertainment Television purchased syndication rights to Late Night with David Letterman. The network broadcast repeats of complete shows from various years five days per week from 1993 until 1996. Then, Trio: Popular Arts Television (owned by NBC/Vivendi Universal Entertainment) picked up reruns and showed them from 2002 until the channel went off the air in 2005.

A number of programs were sold by GoodTimes Entertainment in 1992–93. These episodes were stripped of the series theme, open and close. No DVD release is currently scheduled (GoodTimes went bankrupt in 2005; the company's assets are now owned by Gaiam, which does not typically distribute general-interest programming). In February 2022, through a licensing agreement between NBC and Worldwide Pants and coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Late Night's premiere, Letterman opened his official YouTube channel, which contains clips of Letterman's Late Night and his previous morning and subsequent Late Show programs.

Letterman moves to CBS
Letterman, who had hoped to get the hosting job of The Tonight Show following Johnny Carson's retirement, moved to CBS in 1993 when the job was given to Jay Leno. This was done against the wishes of Carson, who had always seen Letterman as his rightful successor, according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally, a one-time producer for both men. Letterman announced the move on January   14, 1993. On April   25, 1993, Lorne Michaels chose Conan O'Brien, who was a writer for The Simpsons at the time and a former writer for Michaels at Saturday Night Live, to fill Letterman's old seat directly after The Tonight Show. O'Brien began hosting a new show in Letterman's old timeslot, taking over the Late Night name on September   13, 1993.

When Letterman left, NBC asserted their intellectual property rights to several of the most popular Late Night segments. Letterman easily adapted to these restrictions for his CBS show: The "Viewer Mail" segment was continued under the name "CBS Mailbag," and Late Night fixture Larry "Bud" Melman continued his antics under his real name, Calvert DeForest. Similarly, the in-house band (now free to add horns) was unable to use the name "The World's Most Dangerous Band," so the name was changed to "Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra". The name "CBS Orchestra", approved by CBS (who retained rights to the name after Letterman retired in 2015), was Shaffer's idea. Notably, however, "Stupid Pet Tricks" originated on Letterman's 1980 early morning show The David Letterman Show, to which Letterman, not NBC, owned the rights. This meant "Stupid Pet Tricks" was able to cross over to the CBS show with its name and concept unchanged. With Carson retired, Letterman was also granted free use of some of Carson's sketches, and in due time, "Stump the Band" and "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Shaffer as Carnac) entered the Late Show rotation.

Format
Like most other late-night talk shows, the show featured at least two or three guests each night, usually including a comedian or musical guest.

Letterman frequently used crew members in his comedy bits, so viewers got to know the writers and crew members of the show. Common contributors included bandleader Paul Shaffer, Chris Elliott, Calvert DeForest as "Larry 'Bud' Melman," announcer Bill Wendell, writer Adam Resnick, scenic designer Kathleen Ankers, stage manager Biff Henderson, producer Robert Morton, director Hal Gurnee, associate director Peter Fatovich, stage hand Al Maher, camera operator Baily Stortz, production manager Elmer Gorry as NBC President Grant Tinker, and the "production twins," Barbara Gaines and Jude Brennan. The cramped quarters of 30 Rockefeller Plaza also often played into the humor of the show.

Letterman's show established a reputation for being unpredictable. A number of celebrities had even stated that they were afraid of appearing on the show. This reputation was born out of moments like Letterman's verbal sparring matches with Cher, Shirley MacLaine and Harvey Pekar.

The show had its frequent favorite guests including Pee Wee Herman, Steve Martin, Charles Grodin, George Carlin and Jay Leno. Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Teri Garr and Sandra Bernhard were also frequently booked, with Garr appearing 32 times, Bernhard appearing 28 times and Westheimer, 15 times.

Because of the creativity of staff writers like Merrill Markoe, Letterman's NBC show, in its first few years especially, had innovative segments and theme shows that were new and different from other talk shows of the time. Some were visual gags that owed a debt to pioneers like Ernie Kovacs and Steve Allen. Among the highlights were:

 * One early episode showed everything from Dave's eye view with Markoe and others coming at Dave to pitch ideas as he walked onto the stage, and the audience was shown from Dave's view during the monologue and the opening segments.
 * In another show, the picture turned like a clock, eventually being seen upside down halfway through.
 * There were segments where Letterman was dressed in a suit of Velcro and stuck (thrown) to a Velcro wall, a suit of chips and dunked into a vat of chip dip, a suit of Rice Krispies and doused with gallons of milk while lying in a huge bowl, a suit of Alka Seltzer tablets and dunked in water, a suit of suet and placed in a cage with farm animals, etc.
 * Visual segments showing things being crushed by a hydraulic press, thrown through fluorescent lights or dropped off an office building to smash on the ground, were also common.
 * Letterman's desk featured a control panel where he could operate a bubble machine, a confetti cannon, "radioactive" steam, a belch of New York soot or strange lighting.
 * When he threw his pencils through the fake window scene behind him, a sound effect of breaking glass was always heard. Occasionally, if sound effects technician Howard Vinitisky was slow in triggering the appropriate breaking glass sound effect, Letterman would mockingly chide Vinitisky for the error (he would also occasionally congratulate Vinitisky when the sound effect was especially well-timed).
 * A robotic arm for a while delivered the Top Ten List, and for another week or so, a complicated series of tubes would produce swirling coffee to eventually land in his cup on the desk.
 * Cameras mounted on a chimpanzee's back (Late Night Monkey Cam) or on the roof (Roof Cam) would show odd viewpoints of the set and its participants.

Other show format innovations related to the way individual episodes or segments were presented:

 * The Custom Made Shows allowed the audience to vote on each part of the hour, what they wanted to see, and the resulting shows had guests talking in high-pitched voices like they had inhaled helium (Jane Pauley refused to say a word during this, and answered his questions by writing answers on cards and showing them), sitting in dentist chairs or lawn furniture, the theme music replaced by the theme from Gilligan's Island, and an opening montage of the director's vacation photos.
 * Reruns were often scoffed at by Letterman, telling the audience not to waste their time watching next Monday. Sometimes the entire rerun would be dubbed into a foreign language for rebroadcast, baffling viewers.
 * Letterman once had a member of the audience host the show and interview guests while he left the studio (ostensibly to search for a missing tooth).
 * Letterman hosted the show from his home while waiting for his cable TV to be installed; another episode was done from the production offices upstairs, as the cast claimed they were "too tired" to go downstairs to the studio.
 * Crispin Glover and Oliver Reed frightened Dave with their nearly violent, confrontational behaviour in their appearances.

Primetime Emmy Awards
The show was nominated as Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for 10 consecutive seasons, from its second full season in 1983–84 through its final season in 1992–93. Including the nominations for the CBS Late Show variant, the Letterman team was nominated 26 consecutive times in this category.
 * 1982–83 Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
 * 1983–84 Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
 * 1984–85 Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
 * 1985–86 Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program
 * 1989–90 Outstanding Directing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program

Peabody
In 1991, the show's three production companies—Carson Productions, Worldwide Pants, and NBC Productions—were awarded a Peabody Award, which cited the following: "Once a television wasteland, late night has become a daypart of increased interest to programmers, performers, and viewers. In the past ten years, one show has moved to the position of the leader in late night television in creativity, humor, and innovation. That program is Late Night With David Letterman. As one member of the Peabody Board remarked, 'David Letterman is a born broadcaster.' He is also a savvy co-executive producer. Along with co-executive producer Jack Rollins, producer Robert Morton, director Hal Gurnee, and musical director Paul Shaffer, Mr. Letterman has surrounded himself with exceptional talent and given them the go-ahead to experiment with the television medium. Particularly noteworthy is the work of head writer Steve O'Donnell and his talented staff. Together, the 'Late Night' team manages to take one of TV's most conventional and least inventive forms—the talk show—and infuse it with freshness and imagination. For television programming which, at its best, is evocative of the greats, from Your Show of Shows, to The Steve Allen Show, and The Ernie Kovacs Show, a Peabody to Late Night with David Letterman."

title: Late Night with David Letterman


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Late Show with David Letterman

The Late Show with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the Late Show franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, and CBS Television Studios. The show's music director and leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, was Paul Shaffer. The head writer was Matt Roberts and the announcer was originally Bill Wendell, then Alan Kalter. In most U.S. markets the show aired from 11:35 p.m. to 12:35 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, and recorded Monday to Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m., and Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The second Thursday episode usually aired on Friday of that week.

In 2002, Late Show with David Letterman was ranked No. 7 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. As host of both Late Night and Late Show for more than 30 years, Letterman surpassed Johnny Carson as the longest running late-night talk show host in 2013. That same year, Late Night and Late Show were ranked at No. 41 on TV Guide's 60 Best Series of All Time. The show was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series 16 times, winning 6. It was also nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series 15 times, and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series 16 times during its run. In 2014, Letterman announced his retirement and the final episode of Late Show aired on May 20, 2015. After Letterman's final Late Show, instead of airing reruns of the show or having guest host episodes of Late Show, CBS opted to air reruns of scripted dramas in the 11:35 pm time slot over the summer with the branding CBS Summer Showcase. The show was then succeeded by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015.

History
CBS had previously attempted late-night talk shows with The Merv Griffin Show (1969–1972) and The Pat Sajak Show (1989–1990), but Griffin clashed with network censors and moved to syndication while Sajak was unable to compete with NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and was canceled due to poor ratings. For most of the 20 years preceding Late Show, CBS's late night fare consisted of movies, reruns and specialty programming packaged under the name CBS Late Night and broadcast to middling ratings. When David Letterman became available following a conflict with NBC, CBS was eager to lure him and offered him a three-year, $14 million per year contract, doubling his Late Night salary. According to their agreement, the show would spend a month in Hollywood at least once a year.

CBS purchased the Ed Sullivan Theater for $4 million, spending "several million" to renovate it. The renovation was supervised by architect James Polshek. CBS' total cost for acquiring the show including renovations, negotiation rights paid to NBC, signing Letterman, announcer Bill Wendell, Shaffer, the writers and the band was over $140 million.

A significant issue regarding Letterman's move to CBS was the ownership of long-running comedy bits used on Late Night, as well as the name of the CBS show itself. NBC claimed that much of what he did on Late Night was intellectual property of the network. Letterman and his attorneys countered that some segments ("Stupid Pet Tricks", for example) pre-dated Late Night and had first aired on The David Letterman Show, which was owned by Letterman's production company rather than NBC, and others, such as the Top Ten List and Viewer Mail, were common property and not owned by either Letterman or NBC. Ultimately a compromise was reached in key areas: the "Viewer Mail" segment would be called the "CBS Mailbag"; the actor portraying Larry "Bud" Melman on Late Night would use his real name, Calvert DeForest, on the CBS show; and Paul Shaffer's "World's Most Dangerous Band" would become the "CBS Orchestra".

NBC gave Letterman the choice of at least two options to name his new show, Late Show with David Letterman or Nightly with David Letterman. On this matter CBS executives stepped in, rejecting Nightly in part because of potential confusion with Nightline on ABC, along with the NBC Nightly News. Thus, Late Show with David Letterman quickly became the official name.

After Letterman was introduced on Late Show's very first episode, NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw accompanied him on stage and wished him "reasonably well". As part of a pre-arranged act, Brokaw then proceeded to retrieve a pair of cue cards while stating that "These last two jokes are the intellectual property of NBC!" After he carried them off stage, Letterman responded, "Who would have thought you would ever hear the words 'intellectual property' and 'NBC' in the same sentence?" In his opening monologue, Letterman said "Legally, I can continue to call myself Dave" but joked that he woke up that morning and next to him in bed was the head of a peacock (while the orchestra played the theme from The Godfather).

In ratings, Letterman's Late Show dominated Jay Leno's Tonight Show for its first two years. Leno pulled ahead on July 10, 1995, starting with a Hugh Grant interview, after Grant's much-publicized arrest for picking up a Los Angeles prostitute. Leno also benefited from the lead-in provided by NBC's popular Must See TV prime time programs of the mid-to-late 1990s. Likewise, the CBS network was hindered by a weak prime time lineup, along with several large- and major-market network affiliation switches in late 1994 relating to Fox's acquisition of CBS's National Football League rights, stunting the Late Show just as it was beginning to gain traction.

Announcer Bill Wendell retired in 1995, with Alan Kalter taking his place.

At times Late Show even came in third in its time slot (behind Nightline, most recently in November 2008), once prompting Letterman to arrange for a Manhattan billboard proudly declaring himself and his show to be No. 3 in Late Night, aping an older, nearby billboard which promoted Leno and The Tonight Show as No. 1. Letterman attempted to respond by making his show more political, aping the approach taken by The Daily Show under Jon Stewart.

On June 1, 2009, Conan O'Brien (who had succeeded Letterman as host of Late Night in 1993) took over as host of The Tonight Show—an event Letterman referenced in his own show's Top Ten List on that night—and Letterman's "feud" with Leno temporarily ceased. In 2008 Letterman told Rolling Stone that he would welcome Leno on his show once Leno's tenure ended. Letterman said on competing with O'Brien, "I still find it hard to believe that Jay won't be there." The interview was held prior to Leno announcing his return to NBC for The Jay Leno Show. In the second week after Letterman and O'Brien began their opposing broadcasts, viewer ratings for Tonight began to slip and Late Show was poised to beat Tonight for the first time in over ten years, a fact pointed out by Letterman's guests on air (Howard Stern and Julia Roberts). Letterman quickly tried to change the subject in the interviews and tried to avert a new rivalry. In fact, the June 9, 2009 episode of Late Show featuring Roberts rated better than Tonight with a 3.4 household rating nationally to O'Brien's 2.9. The Letterman/Leno feud was revived in the wake of the 2010 Tonight Show conflict, which saw Letterman side with O'Brien. Despite the rivalry, Leno appeared in a Late Show promo with Letterman and Oprah Winfrey which aired on CBS during Super Bowl XLIV; it was Leno and Letterman's first joint appearance since Leno took over the Tonight Show in 1992. The feud between the hosts ended for good on February 6, 2014, with Leno's second and final retirement and Late Night host Jimmy Fallon, who succeeded Conan O'Brien in 2009, becoming the current host of the Tonight Show on February 17, with its subsequent return to New York for the first time since 1972.

On April 3, 2012, CBS reached an agreement with Worldwide Pants and CBS Television Studios to continue the show through 2014. The parties reached another agreement in October 2013 to extend the show an additional year, continuing the series into 2015. Including his 11 years on NBC, Letterman is the longest tenured late-night talk show host, having surpassed Johnny Carson.

On April 10, 2014, one week after Letterman announced that he would retire as host of Late Show in 2015, CBS announced that his successor as the host of the program would be Stephen Colbert, then host of competing late-night series The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Letterman's last Late Show aired May 20, 2015. In February 2022, David Letterman's official YouTube channel opened, and contains clips from Letterman's Late Show and his previous morning and late night shows on NBC.

Staff
Announcer Bill Wendell retired and left the show on August 18, 1995. He was replaced by Alan Kalter on the show's next episode, September 5, 1995, which came after a two-week hiatus.

In 1996, long-time producer Robert Morton left, and head writer Rob Burnett was promoted to executive producer.

In 1997, Justin Stangel and Eric Stangel were hired as writers; by March 2000, the Stangel brothers became the show's head writers, taking over the job held by Rodney Rothman.

Director Hal Gurnee and producer Peter Lassally left the show soon after to pursue other interests. Gurnee was replaced by Jerry Foley. Burnett was absent from the day-to-day operations from 2000 to 2004, and was replaced by Barbara Gaines and Maria Pope, both of whom served as executive producers, with Gaines acting as on-air producer. In 2003, producer Jude Brennan was added to the team of executive producers.

Lassally, who had served as an executive producer for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, was invited back to Late Show in January 2005 as a guest to discuss the recent death of Carson. Lassally served as executive producer for Worldwide Pants' The Late Late Show from late 1994 to February 2015, encompassing the tenures of hosts Tom Snyder, Craig Kilborn and Craig Ferguson. Lassally also served as Executive Producer of the Tony Mendez Show, an online webcast featuring Late Shows "cue card boy", Tony Mendez (c.1945–July 29, 2021). Mendez served in that capacity until 2014, when after a long-running dispute with writer Bill Scheft over Scheft micromanaging Mendez's job, he attacked Scheft and was fired.

Matt Roberts, a long-time writer and producer for the show, became the show's head writer in January 2013, replacing brothers and co-head writers Justin Stangel and Eric Stangel.

Sheila Rogers, the producer responsible for booking guests on the show, worked for Letterman since his Late Night days.

Biff Henderson served as the show's stage manager, carrying over from Late Night. Henderson had a prominent on-camera role with the show.

Studio and set design
The show was taped at the Ed Sullivan Theater at the corner of Broadway and 53rd Street in midtown Manhattan during its entire run. Formerly called CBS Studio 50, it had been home to several TV programs over the years, most notably The Ed Sullivan Show. Letterman made use of the immediate neighborhood surrounding the theater for his show on occasion, closing off the portion of 53rd Street that goes past his studio for various stunts. Nearby merchants gained fame after making frequent appearances on the program, including Rupert Jee, owner of the Hello Deli at 213 W. 53rd St., and Mujibur and Sirajul, Bengali immigrants who worked at a souvenir shop close to the studio.

The stage layout followed the same basic structure Letterman employed on Late Night: the house band appeared on the far left, followed by the performance area and then the interview set.

In May 2015, days before Letterman retired, Seth Stevenson described what it was like to attend a taping of Late Show:

"It felt almost regal to enter the Ed Sullivan Theater beneath a lit marquee on 53rd and Broadway instead of through some unmarked, dented metal door on an industrial block of Hell's Kitchen. The theater for Late Show with David Letterman seats 450 people instead of 100, and its rococo balcony offers a glorious vista over the sprawling stage where the Beatles first performed in America. Instead of bathing us in washed-out, piped-in music, or a half-hearted pop quintet, Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra rocked us with a wall of sound, including a horn section that blasted riffs clear to the theater rafters ...

It was hard not to sit in that Late Show studio audience and feel—for the first time—indispensable. Letterman puts on a show. He presents fully-rounded entertainment, and he feeds off the energy in the room. This is a big, brassy venue with a live orchestra, instead of a cramped black-box studio with somebody's iPod plugged into ceiling speakers. And Letterman needed us there."

Pieces of the set were later acquired for use on The Chris Gethard Show.

Same-day tapings
When Letterman was not on vacation (which he took roughly ten weeks per year ), he and his crew worked four days per week, taping Friday's show earlier in the week. From October 2001 until May 2004, Friday's show was taped on Thursdays. From 2004 to 2010, Friday's show was taped on Mondays. During this time, the Friday's show's monologue topics, sketches, and other segments were chosen for their lack of topicality, with few if any references to current events or any subject which would run the risk of seeming dated. However, in late 2011 Late Show reverted to the practice of taping the Friday show on Thursdays, helping the Friday shows become more topical and relevant.

Episode structure
The show's opening credits featured a series of shots of New York City as the CBS Orchestra performed the Late Show theme (a livelier variation of the more jazzy Late Night theme). The announcer presented the names of that night's guests, as well as Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra, then introduced Letterman. On rare episodes, the show began with a cold open as Letterman, dressed casually, briefly interacted with a celebrity or performed a short sketch backstage before the traditional opening sequence began. As with his previous shows, the copy for the open included non sequiturs about New York and Letterman, though the former would change after the September 11 attacks to simply "the greatest city in the world".

In the last few years, Alan Kalter included himself in the introduction. In addition, Letterman took to dashing across the stage either just before, while, or just after Kalter introduced him. In years prior, Letterman would be greeted by two female models, sometimes in costume. For an extended stretch of episodes, one of the models would be performing with several hula hoops, while the other would be wearing a metal suit and operating a grinding machine against her abdomen, a carry-over from their first appearance on the sketch, "Is This Anything?"

Letterman would then walk out on the show stage to perform his stand-up monologue, which occasionally began with a reference to something an audience member said to him during the pre-show question-and-answer session. The jokes were based on pop culture, current events, and politics. He then introduced one or two video jokes such as a running gag or fake commercial/public service announcement. The monologue was followed by Letterman's introduction of Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra. Beginning in 2009, a commercial break replaced Letterman's trademark 'crossing to the desk', which he had done since the early years. Letterman then chatted with the audience and Shaffer, sometimes relating an anecdote from his personal life, sometimes discussing his anticipation of a particular guest; a running gag may have been featured.

In 2005, after the death of Johnny Carson, it was revealed that Carson had made a habit of sometimes sending jokes to Letterman which Letterman would then incorporate into his monologues. The January 31, 2005, episode of the Late Show, which featured a tribute to Carson, began with a monologue made up entirely of jokes written by Carson since his retirement.

Letterman read the Top Ten List at this point before turning to guest interviews with a celebrity, politician, or other public figure. On most episodes, the first guest stayed on through the commercial break and continued the interview.

Following the first guest was a short segment to bridge two commercial breaks sequentially. In earlier episodes, Letterman would return to his running gag during this break, or retry a failed stunt from earlier in the show. Later episodes included a brief comedy announcement from announcer Alan Kalter while showing the audience cheering.

The final segment consisted of a live musical performance, a comedian performing a stand-up routine, or another guest interview. Musical guests included artists from David Bowie, U2, Neil Young, Coldplay to indie bands like Grizzly Bear, Gorillaz, MENEW, and Animal Collective. The CBS Orchestra frequently accompanied musical guests in performing their songs. Episodes occasionally concluded with Letterman recommending viewers stay tuned for Tom Snyder, Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson (James Corden in 2015), but usually he simply waved to the camera, saying, "Good night everybody!" In the latter part of the run, the admonishment to watch Craig Ferguson and James Corden was delivered by Alan Kalter, via voiceover.

Regular sketches
Late Show had various repeated absurdist segments, including those involving cast members' and audience participation. The show will also take a camera crew into the Hello Deli to show games such as "What's on the iPod?" and "Beat the Clock", or onto 53rd Street or the roof to record various stunts there.

High-definition broadcasts
The show began broadcasting in high-definition television (HDTV) on August 29, 2005. About two weeks later, Tim Kennedy, the show's Technical Director, commented on the transition in the show's official newsletter:

"The biggest challenge in the HD conversion was to renovate and upgrade our old control room, audio room, videotape room, and edit room while still doing five shows a week. ... This entailed putting a remote production truck on 53rd Street running somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 feet of video and audio cable just to tie the truck to the existing technical plant ...

The coolest piece of equipment is our new control room Virtual Wall. We have done away with the conventional monitor for every video source and replaced it with four 70-inch rear projection screens and within those screens we can 'virtually' place as many video images as we want, anywhere we want them, and when we want it."

Kennedy and his crew won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video for a Series" during the nearly four-month-long transition to HDTV.

Notable episodes
The guests with the most appearances were Regis Philbin (150 appearances), Marv Albert (126 appearances, 73 from Late Night ), and Jack Hanna (102).

Among the show's highlights:
 * The premiere on August 30, 1993, which attracted 23 million viewers; Bill Murray was the show's first guest, and Billy Joel was the show's first musical act;
 * In a September 7, 1993, interview, Rosie Perez mentioned that she had attended a DJ party called Funkmaster Flex Night to which Letterman jokingly displayed his ignorance by pretending to know with the response “Funk. Master. Flex night… Hard to get a ticket to Funkmaster Flex Night.” This was later sampled by the DJ himself and it became a famous needle drop in the hip hop community. Letterman was made aware of this cultural moment 26 years later by Desus and Mero when he appeared on their show.
 * The episode featuring Madonna on March 31, 1994;
 * A visit from Drew Barrymore on April 12, 1995, during which she "jump[ed] on his desk and flash[ed] her breasts" in a "birthday gift he'll never forget";
 * The episode on December 31, 1999, airing in prime-time.
 * The episodes airing the week of February 21, 2000, which began with Letterman's return to the air after his quintuple bypass surgery, with Bill Cosby hosting the show of February 22, as the show's first ever substitute host, and Regis Philbin hosting on February 24.
 * His return to the airwaves on September 17, 2001, following the September 11 attacks in a show that featured Dan Rather, Regis Philbin, The Boys' Choir of Harlem, and Odetta—it was "hailed by the New York Daily News as 'one of the purest, most honest and important moments in TV history'."
 * The October 30, 2002, episode in which the sole guest was frequent guest and substitute bandleader Warren Zevon, devoted to discussing Zevon's terminal cancer diagnosis.
 * January 31, 2005, was Letterman's first show after his long-time friend and mentor Johnny Carson had died. His monologue that night consisted entirely of jokes written by Carson. Carson had died on January 23, but Letterman's show was in reruns at the time.
 * January 2, 2008, was the first night the Late Show returned to air after the 2007 WGA strike began. Due to a compromise worked out between Worldwide Pants and WGA, Late Show was allowed to continue with writers on the job until the strike ended in February 2008.
 * In 2008, John McCain was originally scheduled to be the guest on the show but cancelled at the last minute, supposedly to deal with the economic crisis. However, it was revealed during the show that while the show was being taped, McCain was actually doing an interview with Katie Couric for CBS News. McCain's last-minute replacement was Keith Olbermann.
 * Paul McCartney appeared as a guest on July 15, 2009, in the same theater where the Beatles made their U.S. television debut in 1964. McCartney later performed "Get Back" on top of the theater's marquee, emulating the Beatles' rooftop concert of 1969.
 * On October 1, 2009, Letterman revealed that he had been the target of an extortion attempt.
 * On October 29, 2012, the show was taped without an audience due to Hurricane Sandy, which prompted the Late Show staff to send the audience home for safety reasons.
 * On April 3, 2014, Letterman announced his retirement from the Late Show.
 * On April 22, 2014, Stephen Colbert made his first appearance on the Late Show since being unveiled as Letterman's successor.
 * On August 18, 2014, in his first new show since the death of Robin Williams, Letterman paid tribute to the comedian, whom he had known dating back to their days at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. "I had no idea that the man was in pain, that the man was suffering," Letterman said of Williams, who committed suicide. A montage of clips aired featuring Williams' multiple appearances on the Late Show, as well as an episode of Mork & Mindy in which Letterman was a guest star. The tribute was the week's most watched late night talk show video, receiving over 3.3 million views online.
 * On December 18, 2014, singer Darlene Love performed “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” for the final time on the show after performing it every year since the show began.
 * The series finale on May 20, 2015, which ran 17 minutes over time and had 13.7 million viewers, was introduced by archival footage of President Gerald Ford and pre-recorded cameos of former Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and incumbent Barack Obama all saying, "our long national nightmare is over". Ten celebrities participated in the Top Ten List of "Things I've Always Wanted to say to Dave", namely, in order of appearance, Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and Bill Murray. Letterman thanked his wife Regina and son Harry, both of whom were in the audience, his mother, viewers, the show's staff, and Paul Shaffer and the band, and also wished good luck to his successor, Stephen Colbert. The show included highlights from The David Letterman Show and Late Night with David Letterman as well as the Late Show, featured clips of Letterman's bits with children, a performance by the Foo Fighters playing Letterman's favorite song, "Everlong", and ended with a shot of his son, Harry, skiing.

Most Late Show appearances
The person who appeared the most on the Late Show was media personality Regis Philbin, with 150 total appearances over the show's 22-season run. Jack Hanna was in second place with 103 appearances, followed by Tony Randall with 70, Marv Albert with 52, and Tom Brokaw with 49.

Darlene Love appeared with a musical number 21 times, most notably for a 19-year-long annual tradition of her performing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" (18 live plus one video clip) on the show's last episode before Christmas. This continued a tradition that started in 1986 on Letterman's NBC show Late Night with David Letterman, performing the song as Letterman's Christmas finale 28 times across his Late Show and Late Night run. Love's final Christmas appearance was on December 19, 2014, nine days after the announcement that the show's finale would be in May 2015. Letterman has stated that the annual performance is his favorite part of Christmas. Due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, Love was unable to perform on the Letterman show in 2007; instead, a repeat of her 2006 performance was shown. Love was also the musical guest on May 7, 2007, performing "River Deep – Mountain High", while also appearing as a background choral singer on October 15, 2008. Love had a 22nd appearance, appearing as an interview guest on June 12, 2013, to talk about the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom.

Blues Traveler holds the record for most appearances on the show by a band.

Guest hosts
In 2000, after Letterman had quintuple bypass surgery, the Late Show Backstage was aired. This featured many celebrities reminiscing about their experiences as guests on his show. Charles Grodin (February 7), Regis Philbin (February 8 and 10), Bandleader Paul Shaffer (February 9 and 11), Drew Barrymore (February 14), David Brenner (February 15), Tom Snyder (February 16 and 17) (Snyder hosted The Late Late Show from 1995 to 1999), and Tom Arnold (February 18) were among those who hosted. These interviews were interspersed with past footage. Previously, only reruns without any special introductions had been aired since Letterman's temporary leave from the show began on January 15.

Letterman returned on a limited basis on February 18, in a show which premiered three days later. To ease his transition back to air, temporary guest hosts carried the show. Bill Cosby (February 22), Kathie Lee Gifford (February 24), David Brenner (February 29), Nathan Lane (March 2), Janeane Garofalo (March 7). filled in on the first week.

In February and March 2003, Letterman missed 14 shows due to shingles. Letterman had various guest hosts during his illness-inflicted absence: Bruce Willis (February 26), John McEnroe (February 27), Regis Philbin (February 28), Whoopi Goldberg (March 10), Vince Vaughn (March 11), Elvis Costello (March 12), Will Ferrell (March 13), Megan Mullally (March 14), Brad Garrett (March 17), Tom Dreesen (March 18), Bonnie Hunt (March 19), Paul Shaffer (March 24), Bill Cosby (March 25), and Luke Wilson (March 26).

In June 2003, Letterman had guest hosts on Fridays. They included Tom Arnold (June 6), Tom Green (June 13), Kelsey Grammer (June 20), and Jimmy Fallon (June 27). Letterman's weekly absence caused the ratings deficit between his show and Leno's to increase, so Letterman ended this experiment a month after it began.

Paul Shaffer hosted January 19, 2005, when Letterman went to receive an award for his racing team's victory in the 2004 Indianapolis 500.

On March 20, 2007, Letterman fell ill less than an hour before the show started, and scheduled guest Adam Sandler took his place as host. Actor Don Cheadle, Sandler's co-star in the film Reign Over Me, appeared as a guest on a moment's notice.

Primetime Emmy
Late Show with David Letterman was nominated as Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for 16 seasons in a row, from the 1993–94 season through the 2008–09 season. Including the nominations for its NBC Late Night predecessor, the Letterman cast and crew had been nominated 26 consecutive times in this category.

Late Show with David Letterman won the award six times:
 * 1993–94 winner Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
 * 1997–98 winner Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
 * 1998–99 winner Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
 * 1999–00 winner Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
 * 2000–01 winner Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
 * 2001–02 winner Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series

Ratings and revenue
The show's highest rated episode was on February 23, 1994, after the 1994 Winter Olympics (78.8 million) with 15 million viewers. Its second-highest-rated show aired two days later with 11.1 million viewers. Both were preceded by the ladies' figure skating competition which had high interest due to the attack on Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 United States Figure Skating Championships by Tonya Harding's ex-husband and due to both women competing in the event.

In February 2013, TV by the Numbers reported that Late Show averaged about 3.1 million per show in season-to-date live-plus-seven-day ratings (i.e., from February 4). A year later, average viewership was down to 2.8 million.

In 2009, the show led other late night shows in ad revenue with $271 million. In February 2014, Advertising Age cited Kantar Media and Nielsen in reporting that for January to October 2013, Late Show attracted $179.6 million in advertising for CBS, higher than its seven late-night competitors on NBC, ABC, Comedy Central, and E!. Late Show also had the oldest median audience among those same peer broadcasts, at 58.9.

The final episode of Late Show with David Letterman on May 20, 2015, was watched by 13.76 million viewers with an audience share of 9.3/24, earning the show its second-highest ratings (following the 1994 Olympics on February 25, 1994); further, it saw the show's highest demo numbers (4.1 in adults 25-54 and 3.1 in adults 18–49) since Oprah Winfrey's first Late Show appearance following the ending of her feud with Letterman on December 1, 2005. In a rarity for a late-night show, it was also the highest-rated program across all network television that night, beating out all shows. In Canada, the final episode was watched by 784,000 viewers, representing 516,000 more viewers than the show's closest competitor.

International broadcast
In the UK the show was aired on Sky One, The Paramount Comedy Channel, ITV2, ITV4 and Diva TV. In Australia the show aired on Network 10 only hours after US broadcast. It was also shown for a week on BBC2 during Letterman's London shows in 1995.

In Italy the show aired on Rai5, in English with Italian subtitles.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Late Show with David Letterman


text:
Talk:Naturalism (theater)

Old talk
Need a seperate page for naturalist

Naturalist is also a magazine. Naturalist is also a book by Edward O. Wilson.

 * Great, please make one! Click on Naturalist; you'll be redirected here, but note the handy note that you've been redirected, with a link back to the redirect page "Naturalist". Click the link, hit edit, and write away. Make sure links are appropriately directed, and be sure to include a link to Naturalism. --Brion 06:07 Oct 6, 2002 (UTC)

It might be worth moving this material under the heading of "Literary naturalism", to distinguish ot from scientific and philosophical naturalism, naturalism in the other arts (where applicable), and the various other possible confusions listed at the bottom of the page. This page might then best be a list of links to those other pages.

Isn't "naturalist" also another word for nudist? Or are there more suffixes in that term I'm forgetting? -- John Owens 23:18 Apr 17, 2003 (UTC)

 * Please don't help any naturists with their travel plans..... :) -- Someone else 23:21 Apr 17, 2003 (UTC)

 * Oh yes, that's it. Glad I didn't edit too boldly, given my uncertainty. ;) -- John Owens 23:27 Apr 17, 2003 (UTC)

I am the one that needs to be tarred-and-feathered if that is the appropriate sentence for the crime of moving the material on literature to "Naturalism (literature)" and making this into a disambiguation page. Now we need to figure out which links to this page should link to which articles. Michael Hardy 23:34 Apr 17, 2003 (UTC)

 * Did you move the non-literature naturalism bits that were on this page to their respective pages too?

Disambig
I believe this page should became a disambig. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 18:27, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

If someone is going to revert my edit then they should explain why. It only makes them look stupid.

Naturalized epistemology should be linked to on this page.

title: Talk:Naturalism (theater)


text:
Talk:Battlefield Earth

various discussions
I thought I saw this film listed on the IMDb's bottom 100 films list, but revisiting it, I see that the highest ranked film there has a 2.1, and this film is ranked 2.8. --KQ

 * Well, I found this, but I'll sub in an Ebert quote instead, since the ranking was in July 2001 and is slightly higher now. --KQ

Hey, I watched this movie on my VCR a year ago, & I wouldn't say it was that bad of a movie. Then again, I finished off a six-pack of beer watching it, so somewhere in the middle of my viewing I found all of the implausible parts simply funny. And I have to admit it had amazing special effects -- but special effects didn't save the Disney failure The Black Hole either. -- llywrch 02:06 Nov 23, 2002 (UTC), who drinks a lot less now.

Do we want to have the movie critic style reviews on an encyclopedic article? Dori 00:30, Oct 25, 2003 (UTC)

Sorry, I maybe went too far... feel free to bring it towards NPOV. --Pakaran 00:33, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I gave it a shot at NPOV. I don't think the movie critic lines belong in there. If someone can find some links to reviews that will probably be fine, though we should find at least one good review (if it exists :). Also Scientology was linked many times unnecessarily. I hated the movie too (never read the novel), but there is no need for an encyclopedic article to make value judgements like that. That's my opinion. Dori 17:03, Oct 25, 2003 (UTC)

 * the book is VERY different than the movie. Gringo300 02:35, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

This movie was never going to win an academy award, but the way it was attacked was not really justified. Was Escape From New York really any better? What about that "Soldier" movie Kurt Russell made? What about all the crap movies Sylvester Stallone made? If it hadn't been written by Hubbard, and starred a scientologist, I doubt the movie would have been ridiculed the way it was. -- -- Commking 24 Apr 2005

 * Well, if movies that weren't written by Hubbard or starring Scientologists never got ridiculed, or only got ridiculed very rarely, that'd be support for that theory. However, I can name at least ten movies that have been widely panned without even breaking a sweat -- Gigli, Glitter, From Justin To Kelly, Santa With Muscles, Catwoman, just off the top of my head -- and I bet you can too.  There seem to be two factors that cause the ridicule-meter to peg into the red, and Battlefield:Earth met both of them:  first, it was highly hyped, with big prime-time TV ads telling us what an incredibly great movie B:E was.  Even when a movie is merely mediocre, hyping it as really great is almost certain to get it ridiculed.

 * Second... well, it isn't just mediocre, in the mode of Stallone's crap movie Cobra (haven't seen Escape from New York or Soldier, sorry...)  It is really bad.  I say this as a student of bad movies -- even as I'm typing this I'm watching Double Agent 73.  What makes it so bad?  There's the use of silly vocabulary like "picto-cameras" (cameras) and "man-animal" (man) to make it more 'science-fictiony.'  There's the laughably bad plot holes -- skipping over the question of whether cavemen could learn to pilot Harrier jets so fast, the plausibility that unscrambled Harrier jets would be in perfect flying condition after a thousand years without maintenance is ridiculous.  So is the idea that Terl would notice that the cavemen who were supposed to be mining gold from the ground for him apparently managed, without any smelting equipment, to smelt it into perfect gold bars -- and would fail to investigate this impossibility just because he's told "well, we know a Psychlo of your refinement wouldn't have it any other way!"  Then there's the quality of the direction -- why did Roger Christian think it was necessarily to film 30-50% of the film's scenes with a tilted camera?  Why?  And didn't anyone realize that by making the Psychlos so over-the-top evil, they were making them laughable, not frightening?  I still can't think of the "cow legs" scene without laughing.

 * Is Battlefield:Earth the worst movie of all time? No.  But in terms of how much money and talent was wasted to make such a bad movie, it's very impressive. -- Antaeus Feldspar 15:14, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I guess that is where we disagree. Why should a movie critique, take into account the preceding hype, and budget? Why not just review the movie as presented? If not, does that therefore mean a good movie suddenly becomes a great movie because it has a lot of hype and big budget? What garbage. The critique should focus on the movie itself, and the hollywood hoopla is not relevant. It was definitely a bad movie. A silly movie. Like many others before and after, it was bad. This one didn't really stand out as a glaring example against all the other films you mentioned. Then why was it attacked with such venom when the others were not? That I hadn't seen before.

 * For the record, I don't like Scientology. But here, I can only only assume Scientology or some sort of politics had somehow become an influencing factor to the critics, who then saw that as somehow relating to the quality (or lack of it) of this movie. Whether you like Scientology or not should not influence a film review. Until now I just thought film critics were out of touch, and didn't really relate to the man in the street. But now, they show themselves in a different light. Battlefield Earth is an important film, because it showed us what film reviewers are REALLY capable of. Commking 25 Apr 2005

 * Yeah, I think we need to agree to disagree here. Knowing now that you're talking about film critics in particular puts the matter in a different context -- but I don't see why it should be out of bounds or "garbage" to see a particular movie in the context of its advertising and its budget.  And again, to return to your first point -- plenty of movies have come in for extra knocks because the advertising designed to sell the movie as a product was deceptive or excessive, or because the movie had a budget that would have allowed it to do wonderful things and did crappy things instead.  A majority of these films have had no Scientologists prominently involved, so your theory that it only happens because of Scientology connections doesn't seem to hold up. -- Antaeus Feldspar 23:15, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Psychlo & Catrist
Someone wrote that the species name "Psychlo" 'may be' derived from "psychiatrist". I think it's just about irrefutable. "Psychlo" and "Catrist" from a writer with a famous bee in his bonnet about psychiatrists? not exactly hard to figure out. =)

Second, the description confuses me, because it seems to use "Psychlos" and "Catrists" as synonyms for the same thing. I was under the impression that the "Psychlos" are the alien race, and later in the story than the movie gets to, it's discovered that the Psychlos are being manipulated by a medical cult called the "Catrists". Can anyone confirm this? -- Antaeus Feldspar 23:34, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * In the book Carists are an elite group of Psychlo's who are essentially a hidden hand or secret government. -- Commking 24 Apr 2005

 * Irrefutable? What about the theory that "Psychlo" is derived from "psychrometrist"?  Knowing the relative humidity more precisely than the average joe is a pretty easy way to take over the world, after all.  Eh?  What do you think of that?  :P --Joel 00:22, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

 * ooooh! What a great theory!  I'm sure that's exactly what R. Lon Hubbald must have had in mind! -- Antaeus Feldspar 01:28, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

 * in the book, ORIGINALLY the species wasn't called "psychos", nor was their planet, and "psyclo" and "catrist" were pretty much synonymous, but then they named the whole species and the planet after themselves, and then the catrists started pretty much using that name (catrists) for themselves, rather than "psyclos". Gringo300 02:32, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Actually, the book states that the species was originally named after whomever happened to be emperor at the time (and so the name changed each reign). -- Pakaran 19:52, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Synopsis
Is there any poor bastard who's actually read the thing all the way through without sporking their eyes out who could do a plot summary? - David Gerard 17:15, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

 * Yes, I have read the whole book. But judging from the date on your comment, it's taken more than a year to find someone. 194.66.157.42 12:13, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Attempts to place on bestseller list
The last paragraph under heading "The Book" suggests that copies sold at retail might have made their way back onto store shelves, thus inflating sales numbers. Is the statement as-is a little too subtle in its insinuation? Basically, I'm not sure that readers should have to connect the dots, as some might not get it.

The section stating that Scientologists were told or ordered to buy the book so that it would be a bestseller is ridiculous. Enemies of the Church have been spouting lies like this for decades. Notice that the only link of any evidence for this claim is a small-circulation rag that reads like a frothing-mouth lunatic wrote it. --unsigned comment by

 * While someone posting from a Delphian school might not want to believe it, it's fairly common knowledge in the publishing industry and I've heard two first hand accounts of people at book stores who received "recycled" shipments of books. That's original research on my part, of course, but I'll keep a look out for other published accounts. AndroidCat 04:54, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I didn't mean to "vandalize." I honestly believe that the sections on Scientology in this article are not NPOV. They seem pretty biased to me.

Soundtrack?
I have a copy of this book which is printed by 'New Era Publications International' - not a publisher included in the list. That's probably a minor issue I guess it is a scientology publisher as those other ones are listed?

Anyway, the real point, part way through the book is an advert for a 'BattleField Earth Soundtrack' - composed by Hubbard himself. It would be nice to add details of that. Sadly my google-fu is weak and I can find nothing authorative about it online. Anybody have any details to add? user:skx

 * New Era Publications is the european counterpart to Bridge Publications. With the split of the publishing of Hubbard's fiction and Scientology writings, Galaxy Press's web site is probably the place to look for it. AndroidCat 05:06, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

 * I held the soundtrack you mentioned in my hands just a few weeks ago in an used records store, but the 40 euro price tag won over my love for totally obscure relics of crap pop culture items.
 * what i do remember about though is that it was advertised as featuring "state of the art use of the moog synthesizer" on the sleeve an allegedly used samples of classical pieces which I can't remember...

disputed paragraph
The following paragraph has been repeatedly added to the article:

"While this book had been released many years before Hubbard founded Scientology (earlier in the piece someone wrote that the book was first published in 1980--this time line does not jibe), the storyline of Battlefield Earth and the Story of how the Thetans came to be on Earth are almost identical. It was once rumoured that Hubbard started the Scientology cult as an attempt to raise revenue for his book."

The first claim, that the book had been released many years before Hubbard founded Scientology, is completely untrue. The book was written and first published in 1980. This makes the last claim, that Scientology was started to raise revenue for the book, even more ludicrous than it is on the face of it (since when did one need to raise revenue to write a book??) The remaining claim, that the storyline of Battlefield Earth and the story of how thetans came to be on Earth are "almost identical", is also quite obviously false to anyone who is reasonably familiar with both; one can stretch for similarities but they cannot in any reasonable analysis be considered "almost identical". There is no true content in the entire paragraph; do not re-add it. -- Antaeus Feldspar 17:09, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Scientology
There may be, unfounded, links between this MOVIE and scientology. However, whether these links are true or not, dose not determine this movie's inclusion in the Scientology Series.

This is a movie. It is not a significant part of scientology.

This article is part of the movie series of wikipedia articles. Not part of the scientology series.

AS such, since the scientology claims to this movie are disputed, the scientology series template CANNOT be used. However, hypothesised links between this movie and scientology can be written about within the article, as long as the spirit of the article is on the movie itself and is not lost in a debate of scientology.

As an anology:

The article on The Passion of the Christ, does not include the "Chirsitanity Series" wiki template. Even though its connections to christianty were much more evident then this movies connections to scientology.

The debate here is not whether this movie was influenced by scientology. The important fact is, this article IS NOT suitable for inclusion in the scientology series wiki template.

Please do no place a Wikipedia scientology series template on this movie article. Bmgoau 13:13, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Please sign your comments. Personally, I'm not sure that the Scientology template belongs on this book article. (It's primarily a book after all, and probably part of a few book series as well.) There are connections between BE and Scientology and these are well founded, justifying links in the article. I just think that the full template is overkill. AndroidCat 04:36, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

 * This is pretty much my conclusion as well. Bmgoau does seem to be forgetting that there was a book as well as a movie, and the fact that the book lays a very thin veil over its Scientology content does not make that content only "hypothesized".  But with that being said, this simply isn't a "core" article on Scientology; if we place the template on every single article with some connection to Scientology it simply duplicates what the category system is already doing.  So I support removing the template. -- Antaeus Feldspar 16:48, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Thankyou for your considerations, i did indeed forget the importance of the book, though my conclusion remains the same. Thankyou for the comment. I appreciate that we can now conclude that although this movie is related to the cult of scientology, it is not an article directly needing the scientology template. Bmgoau 13:13, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

A whole lot of POV
There a a LOT of POV in this article. I'm no scientologist but I think there is a HUGE anti-Hubbard slant to this. In keeping with wikipedia's standards, this article should have a major overhaul or else get a NPOV tag. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.234.42.200 (talk • contribs).

 * I'd be interested in knowing why you think that, by Wikipedia's standards, there is a "HUGE" anti-Hubbard slant to this. What do you think is missing? -- Antaeus Feldspar 19:55, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't know about anything missing but I agree that there is a large slant to this article. I am going to put a cite needed tag on everything that should either be removed or cited. --User:98percenthuman

I actually like the book, meandering pulp fiction nonsense as it may be. The complete lack of a plot section is rather worrisome. POV tag it is. Chris Cunningham 23:09, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree. I came across the article a few days ago and have been filling out the infoboxes, but it certainly needs more work. -- ChrisO 23:16, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Breakup?
Does anyone support 's undiscussed decision to split this article off into two separate articles? I don't, frankly. Since the film is an adaptation of the novel and a fairly faithful one it makes more sense to discuss the two together. If the novel and the film had had less connection, or if the article had been an unwieldy size, a breakup might have made sense, but neither of those was the case. Unless someone has some really good reasoning to present, I'll be recombining the articles soon. -- Antaeus Feldspar 17:46, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Actually this does seem to be standard practice for films-of-books. Compare e.g. Atonement (novel)/Atonement (film). I don't think it's an unreasonable split, and it does stop the individual articles from getting too long - shorter is better. -- ChrisO 18:12, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

 * The fact that the film is so loosely based on the film as to feel like it was written first and then rebranded is also a consideration. That said, a split is a bit premature right now. Chris Cunningham 20:38, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

 * I am a split artist. When I find pages that get so freaking long about unrelated material, I split them up. That said, I firmly believe in be bold policy. Yeah, I could have posted a do you want me to break this up? But by the time the votes were in I'd quit caring. I felt that the book and film though sharing the same story are completely unrelated the film dives into its production, poor box office, bad critic reception, and worst film ever status while book covers the plot, its relation to scientology, and its literary aspects. I just didn't feel they have alot of overlap. If you disagree, be bold and switch it back. --vossman 21:32, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

 * I think the length of each article, combined with the fact that the movie is actually quite divergent from the book in significant ways, combined with precedent (In Cold Blood gets separate articles for book and for film, for example), all point to Vossman's edit as doing the right thing. wikipediatrix 00:13, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

 * In that case I'd definitely like to see more added to the account of the novel explaining what was actually different, rather than just skipped for time. Obviously even covering only the first half of the book they were still going to have to gloss over stuff (especially stuff that's already mentioned in the article, like Johnny teaming with the lamas and highlanders) but if there's any truth to the claim that the two are so different it  feels like the movie was "written first and then rebranded" then we really need much more about the book.  I'd always heard that it was a very faithful adaptation considering that they could only turn about two hours' worth of book into a movie. -- Antaeus Feldspar 01:38, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Battlefield Earth (novel) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 16:45, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Battlefield Earth