Subject: alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (Part 3 of 3)
Date: 20 Apr 1996 03:01:14 -0500
Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and
.their answers) about the Late Show/Late Night with David Letterman.
.New readers of the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup should read this
.FAQ list before posting.

The alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list
Version: 9.11
Part 3 of 3

                                       *                             

Does Sid have a "running jones"?

.Yes indeed.  A full account is given in a _Runner's World_
.feature on the longtime Letterman guitarist, who joined Late
.Night in 1984.  "Nike, upon learning that its Sock Racers [running
.shoes] were showcased on Late Night ... supplied McGinnis with
.as many pairs as he needed."  Now that the shoe is out of stock,
."Nike has fashioned close facsimiles ... custom-made Air Sids.
.'There are five million pairs of Air Jordans,' McGinnis estimates,
.'and two Air Sids.'"  The story also reports that at age 40,
.Sid ran the 1989 New York Marathon in 3:14:44.

Has Sid *ever* missed a show? 

.Twice, says Donz5.  "On the March 3, 1989 show, Paul praises
.Sid for having missed only 2 shows. I checked, and, sure enough,
.Sid missed show #679 (March 13, 1986) and #683 (March 20, 1986),
.both shows subbed by Steve Kahn."  These were during the time
.Sid's wife was giving birth to their first child.

                                       *                             

Other than Paul, Anton, Will, and Sid, who were members of "the band,"
later titled "The World's Most Dangerous Band" on Late Night?

.Hiram Bullock was the original guitarist and Steve Jordan the
.original drummer.  Over the years there were also these occasional
.honorary members:

.Francisco Centano, bass 
.Neil Jason, bass
.Marcus Miller, bass
.Buzz Feiten, guitar
.Steven Khan, guitar
.Jeff Lee, guitar
.Elliott Randall, guitar
.John Tropea, guitar (it's true, Donz5 confirms it!)
.Waddy Wachtel, guitar
.Kenny Aronoff, drums
.Charlie Drayton, drums
.Steve Ferrone, drums
.Steve Gadd, drums
.Omar Hakim, drums
.Allan Schwartzberg, drums
.Rob Mounsey, keyboard
.Leon Pendarvis, keyboards
.Bette Sussman, keyboard

.And Donz5 reminded me not to overlook frequent Thursday (later
.Friday) guest band member David Sanborn on saxophone.

                                       *                             

What's "the GE corporate handshake"?

.In 1986, shortly after General Electric announced its acquisition
.of NBC, Dave went with a camera crew and a fruit basket and/or
.bottle of wine/champagne to the corporate headquarters in
.Manhattan as a gift to GE Chairman Jack Welch.  In one of the
.most-talked-about moments in Late Night history, Dave and his
.crew were met in the lobby by a security thug who told them to
.shut off the camera and get out of the building.  Being the
.polite Midwesterner he is, Dave extended his hand to the security
.guy, who in turn extended his hand ... then *retracted* it
.without consummating the grip and release.  This sleight of hand
.is what became known as the GE corporate handshake.  (The security
.guy repeated this handshake moments later with Hal Gurnee, who
.was accompanying Dave on the shoot.)  The event is now remembered
.as the turning point in Dave's relationship with the network
.and its GE-appointed brass, notably the weasels in Burbank who
.thought that Dave was too "mean" for the Johnny Carson slot.

                                       *                             

I can't believe NBC just let Dave go because they didn't like his
personality.

.As Bill Carter reports, one senior NBC executive was heard to
.say after the Letterman-Leno debacle, "It was amazing to have
.made that many mistakes in a row."  But perhaps the biggest
.mistake was the network's failure to chisel out a long-range
.strategy for late night, which ideally would have been to coax
.Johnny out of his job (a task eventually taken up by Helen
.Kushnick, Jay Leno's longtime handler), offer Dave the 11:35
.show, and tossed Leno, who might well have landed on his feet
.bringing new fame to CBS, where his current 4.4 rating would
.have realized millions in new revenue for the then-doormat of
.late night television.  Instead, Jay got a clause inserted in
.his contract that made him the next _Tonight_ host; Johnny got
.wind of it and quit; and Dave was left in the dust.  

.If there is a wildcard in this, it is possibly John Agoglia,
.the president of NBC Productions and its "no man" in matters
.relating to talent relations.  It is true that Letterman made
.life difficult for Agoglia, but the latter's weasely actions
.were inappropriate even for a grouchy talent like Dave.  After
.all, here is a man who (a) threatened to bring Maury Povich's
.show into Studio 6A every day if Dave didn't cooperate with the
.network's stupid "Sunday Best" program, (b) bragged that he had
.Dana Carvey locked in as Dave's 12:35 replacement, a flat lie,
.and (c) even when instructed by his boss Robert Wright to
.negotiate a plan to give _Tonight_ to Letterman, would not put
.anything in writing.  However mean Dave was to Agoglia on his
.show, the NBC man returned it with interest later on.  The
.oft-heard complaint that Dave was not cooperative with the suits
.reminds us of the mess the Reverend Martin Luther King got into
.because he wouldn't return the phone calls of an undercover FBI
.agent who was trying to reach him.  Infuriated, the G-man went
.to his boss Hoover and reported King as a troublemaker, and we
.know the rest.  Only thing is King, like Letterman, simply didn't
.return calls from anyone except his closest advisors.

                                       *                             

What's all this about an Australian version of Late Night?

.There used to be a self-admitted knockoff of Dave's show, "Tonight
.Live," hosted by Steve Vizard.  It was cancelled in late 1993
.and replaced by the first Australian broadcast of the Letterman
.show.  >>> Don Maple writes from Germany to report this
.Deutscheplunderwerk:  "Started a couple of months ago. The
.show is called _Nacht-Show_ hosted by a creature called
.Thomas Koschwitz. A shameless rip-off with almost identical
.intro, identical desk, (attempted) identical host behaviour,
.repartee with the band leader, top 10 lists, etc."  >>> Then
.there's the *Norwegian* version, a show called "RiksDan."
.Bjorn Brattland writes: "The host is called Dan Borge Akero, 
.and has his own top 10 list (actually, it's top 6, but this 
.is a small country), chats with the band leader, and his
.general behaviour is modeled after Dave."

                                       *                             

What was the translation of the Japanese on the kites in the Late Night
opening sequence (1992-93)?

.One said "Late Night," another, "G.E. sucks."  



                                   *   *   *                         

       Questions People Ask About this FAQ List, the A. F. of L. 
                       Archive, and LATE SHOW NEWS.

                                   *   *   *                         

Where can I find this FAQ when I need it (i.e., later)?

.The alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list
.is posted to news.answers and other newsgroups on the 6th
.and 20th of each month.  If for some reason you miss the
.posting, the list is available via anonymous FTP from
.ftp.mcs.net in the files
.    /mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman/faq/part1
.    /mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman/faq/part2
.    /mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman/faq/part3
.and is also available via anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu 
.as the files
            /pub/usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part1
            /pub/usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part2
            /pub/usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part3

.The FAQ is also via mail server.  Send mail to 
.        mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu 
.with the following lines in the body:
..send usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part1
..send usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part2
..send usenet/news.answers/letterman/faq/part3

                                       *                              

How can I contribute to the FAQ?

.Send your submissions, questions, and comments to:
..letterman@mcs.net

                                       *                             

Is the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup available as a mailing list?

.No.

                                       *                             

Does this newsgroup have an archive?

.The FTP directory ftp.mcs.net:/mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman
.is brimming with text files, images, sounds, and Top Ten Lists.
.Also, check out these World Wide Web clients if you've got
.WWW-compatible software:
..http://bingen.cs.csbsju.edu/letterman.html
..http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~jl8287/letterman.html

.If you want CBS Top Tens, the television network itself has
.a great archive that's searchable.  Point your Web browser
.at <http://www.cbs.com/>.  If you don't have Web access, send
.mail to listserv@listserv.clark.net with this message:
..get topten archive
.(Any Subject: line is okay.)  You'll get instructions on
.searching the TOPTEN mail server's archive of CBS Top Tens.

Jeez, it seems like I can never get into ftp.mcs.net by FTP.

.Sorry about that; it's the best we can do for now.

                                       *                             

I crave that late-breaking news about all the big stars, and what bigger
star is there than Dave Letterman?

.Look no further, Sparky, because your FAQkeeper has taken
.that matter into his own hands.  LATE SHOW NEWS supplies
.you with up-to-the-moment info from the late-night talk
.circuit generally, and especially Dave's show.  It's posted
.to alt.fan.letterman, rec.arts.tv, alt.zines, and
.alt.tv.talkshows.late every Tuesday.  You also may subscribe
.to the LATE-SHOW-NEWS mailing list to get each issue mailed
.directly to you.  Write listserv@american.edu and send only
.the following as your message:
..subscribe late-show-news Your Name



                                   *   *   *                         

         Helpful Hints for Reading the alt.fan.letterman Newsgroup.

         This section was written by Stephen Pace (pace@shell.com)
                 who invites your comments and suggestions.

                                   *   *   *                         


This newsgroup is read by approximately 80,000 people a week (I've
seen estimates ranging from 46,000 - 100,000).  It works because
people contribute interesting information about Dave and the show,
and because we have a wide cross-section of people contributing
(from rabid fans to industry insiders to occasional _Late Show_
viewers).

Recently the newsgroup has been taken over by bands of unruly
subjects from the major online services because of a profile of
the newsgroup on the CBS News program "48 Hours."  Longtime a.f.l.
member Scott Barvian said it best in a response to a particularly
lame Compuserve user:

   I think this proves that "48 Hours" let us down by failing to
   point out that one should only post to a newsgroup if one has
   something relevant to say.

Perhaps the future of a.f.l is as a moderated newsgroup so we can
better weed out the chaff.  Personally, I hope it doesn't come to
that, but as Usenet grows and readership increases, who knows what
will happen.

Before you post to the group, think hard:  is this something that
80,000 Letterman fans would really want to read?  (If your e-mail
address ends in aol.com, compuserve,com, prodigy.com, or cml.com,
think doubly hard about this.)  This is not to say there aren't
valuable contributors from any of the commercial online services;
in fact, one of the most valuable a.f.l. contributors -- Donz5 --
hails from AOL.  It's just that MOST aren't, and I can say that
because ... well, I just can.  

New people should not take this to mean they should never post;
all I am really saying here is that you should consider the vast
number of people that will be reading your article and be a
considerate Usenet user, in a.f.l. or anywhere else.  If you feel
what you are writing is relevant and worthwhile, by all means post!

Things we like to see on this newsgroup:
---------------------------------------
o  Hearing from people who've been to the show.  What did you see?
   Did anything interesting happen behind the scenes?  Did something
   get left out in editing?  Some of the best posts (like Scott
   Nordgren's "Kill the Peanut Girl" account of going to the show
   for Stupid Human Tricks) come from "at the show" experiences.
   Recently, some great posts have come from a.f.l newcomer Chris
   Himes's story of his recent visit to the show (which he titled
   "The Ultimate Letterman Experience").  
o  Hearing about your interactions with Dave, Paul, and other 
   members of the staff.  Sit next to Paul on the plane yesterday?
   Let us know how it went. 
o  Tangential information about happenings on the Big Show.  So a 
   guest didn't come clean on their segment with Dave, but you know
   the full story because you read a newspaper?  Post.  
o  You know the off-beat reason why Paul picked the introduction 
   music for a guest?  Post.  
o  You saw Dave (or someone related to the show) on page (X) of 
   (Y) strange news source?  Let us know and summarize the article
   for us.  Maybe we'll go out and buy it (but read the group first
   to make sure we haven't already discussed it to death).

We especially like hearing from people in the business, and we are
indebted to Richard Scheckman (and in the past Christine
Schomer) for filling us in from the inside.  Mark Evanier also
drops by from time to time.  Mix these people in with Aaron Barnhart
and an unruly mix of other regulars and you know the reason why
David C. Lawrence describes alt.fan.letterman (in the monthly
Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies posting) as "one of the top 10
reasons to get the alt groups."

We don't care if:
----------------
o  You hate Conan O'Brien.  So what?  I hate squash, but you don't 
   see me bringing it up every friggin' day.  If I see one more
   "Conan sucks, Dave rules" post without so much as a reason why
   you feel that way, I'm going to personally drive to your home
   and unleash an entire arsenal of Nerf weaponry on you.
o  You hate Jay Leno.  Jay does his best; he has his fans and he 
   has his detractors.  If you like him, hang out in alt.fan.jay-leno.
   If you don't, don't let me know about it unless you post some
   valid reasons.  Dave himself has said that Jay puts on a
   professional show night in and night out.  Let's leave it at
   that, shall we?
o  You hate Canadians and/or Australians.  Can't we all just get 
   along?  Every country has its losers; unfortunately, most of
   them seem to gravitate towards this thread.
o  You want to get on the show, and you want us to help you.  First, 
   we're nobody.  It's not like Dave pops by the group and asks if
   Elle MacPherson should be on the show next week.  Secondly, if
   you want to get on the show, do it the way everyone else does
   it.  Send your videotape to Stupid Human Tricks or Stupid Pet
   Tricks.  Or get four funny stories together (or one interesting
   one that gets picked up by the AP newswire).  Or just get famous
   and star in a few movies.  Simple.  Personally, as a fan of the
   show, I don't want you on unless you're reasonably funny.

alt.FAN.letterman
-----------------
We take the fan part seriously.  There are people in this group
who regularly watch or tape everything Dave.  We've read every
interview he's done.  Some have watched him back on his morning
show days.  Even curmudgeons like Funt!  have been fans of his old,
if not his new, stuff.  Some have video tape libraries that would
amaze, delight, and scare you.

We recognize that there are non-Dave fans out there.  More power
to you.  You probably like stuff that I don't like.  Don't let the
door hit you on the way out.  Or, if you want to stay, at least
post reasons why you don't like him instead of saying, "he's just
not funny."  Obviously, a majority of late night television viewers
DO find him funny, and it quite possibly might be YOU who is hooked
up wrong.

All things Dave
---------------
Feel free to mention Dave sightings (either in person or on TV),
but first scan the group and make sure there already aren't some
threads on the subject.  Also, scan the various Web and FTP sites
where a lot of the important past material has been archived:

http://bingen.cs.csbsju.edu/letterman.html
http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~jl8287/letterman.html
http://www.cbs.com
ftp.mcs.net:/mcsnet.users/barnhart/letterman

And for the love of God, read the alt.fan.letterman FAQ file before
you make a fool of yourself.

Donz5
-----
Part human, part database; Donz5 is one of the most valuable members
of the group.  Why?  Because he backs up his posts with cold hard
facts.  If you want to find out when something or someone appeared
on the show, Donz5 can more than likely help you out.

But when you get your detailed answer (including dates and episode
numbers), don't flame him and tell him to get a life.  We each have
our interests; we're lucky that Don's interests correspond with
ours and that he shares his information with us.

Also, despite what you may have heard, Donz5 is not David Letterman.

Dean Adams
----------
Three words:  Human Tape Library.

Funt!
-----
What's up with Funt!?  He's a disgruntled old-time fan of _Late
Night with David Letterman_.  He feels that Dave has sold out to
the mainstream with his new show.  Personally, I feel that Funt!
is refusing to look for any of the "old Dave" on the show.  I see
flashes of him all the time.

Papa Budge
----------
I'm the first to admit I hated Papa Budge with a passion when he
first arrived on the scene back in 1994.  He started out by writing
bullshit responses to posts on the group; most knew they were fake,
but more often than not a huge worthless thread would start because
of it.  Then he left for a while.  When he returned, he returned
with a distinctive posting style that has endeared him to us ever
since (most of us, anyway).

Watch what you type here -- you may get "Budged."

Who Uses A.F.L?
---------------
Despite what Chris said on his _48 Hours_ segment, a.f.l is a little
older than a lot of the newsgroups.  Chris posted that he used the
following for his reference on the _48 Hours_ segment:

   A recent WWW survey cited in the Washington Post listed Internet 
   users as:
   1- 90% male
   2- 60% between the ages of 18-34

alt.fan.letterman is part of Usenet, which isn't exactly the
Internet.  I've been reading this group for years, and I can
(unscientifically) tell you that the majority of people CONTRIBUTING
to this group are older than your average college student.  Ruth
Spinks just completed an informal demographics survey of the group,
and her findings meshed with my view of a.f.l:  64% of the survey
respondents were between 19 and 42, the youngest was 14, and the
oldest was 62.  The median was 28.  (You can get the full results
from Ruth if you are interested:  ras24@po.cwru.edu.)  There also
seems to be an above average number of woman here, especially for
Usenet.  (Ruth's survey showed about a 60%/40% split for the survey
respondents.)

Thus, I feel the correct answer to the correspondent's question to
Chris would have been, "there is a wide cross-section of participants,
probably owing to Dave's wide cross-section of popularity."


                                   *   *   *                         

              Sources for this Frequently Asked Questions list.

                                   *   *   *                         

Beautiful People.

.Well, of course, kudos to D. Keith Rice for maintaining the list
.since way back, I think 1956, '57, before giving it to me.  
.Special mention should go out to Donz5@aol.com for his endless
.contributions to this list and the alt.fan.letterman newsgroup,
.as well as Scott Barvian, Sue Trowbridge and Richard Handal,
.who've supplied me with important research materials, and
.Letterman staffers Richard Scheckman and Christine Schomer
.for their contributions.

.For contributing to this list, Keith and I are indebted to
.Dean Adams, Fritz Anderson, Greg Anderson, Ken Anderson,
.Jason Bak, J.D. Baldwin, John Bartol, Scott Barvian, Laurence
.Bier, John Bonacci, Joel Chan, Crist Clark, John Clear,
.Brian Conn, Marc Conte, Todd Cooper, Lewis Coury, Richard
.Dawson, Matt Dittrich, Jef Dodd, Sean Donnelly, David
.Eccleston, Susan Fanelli, Kevin Fong, Eric Fritzius, bj
.gleason, Mark Goldberg, Robert Goldsborough, Norm Gregory,
.Chris Eliot Haroian, Mathew A.  Hennessy, Rachel Hill, John
.Hritz, Ben Jackson, Bill Jones, Doug Krause, Ed Krauss,
.Lana Krotenko, Bob Kupiec, James Langdell, James LaPlaine,
.Don Leaman, Jason Lindquist, Gord Locke, Robert Lopez, Lon
.Lowen, Ian McCuaig, Ken McGlothlen, Bill McGonigle, Alan
."Mr. Tucks" McKendree, Leigh Meydrech, Shamim Zvonko Mohamed,
.Ken Mohnker, "Noel" at microsoft.com, John Oram, Brian
.Peek, Marshal Perlman, Alan Perry, Tad Perry, Dave Platt,
.Michael Regoli, Tony Rice, Tom Sakoda, Steve Shauger, Bill
.Sherman, Jeff Shimbo, Jason Snell, Mike Southworth, Greg
.Sroka, Jeff Stephan, Ben Sterling, Christopher Taylor,
.David C. Tuttle, Wendy Tyrol, Rich Urena, Tim Veatch, Jeff
.Wilder, Mike Wittman, Eric Witmayer, and Eric Wood.

Primary Print Sources.

."Is This Man the New Johnny Carson?", _Chicago Tribune,_ 1/6/80.
._Playboy_ magazine interviews, 1984 and 1994.
._The Late Shift_ by Bill Carter, 1994.
._The David Letterman Story_ by Caroline Latham, 1987.
."Stay Up Late" by James Kaplan, _The New Yorker,_ 1/16/89.
."Flying Feet & Fingers," by Peter Gambaccini, _Runner's World,_ 3/92.

This article is Copyright (c) 1995 by Aaron Barnhart.  It may be freely
redistributed so long as the author's name, and this notice, remain
intact.  It may be distributed as long as no fee is charged for
distribution.  If it is made available for downloading on a bulletin
board system (BBS) that charges a fee for downloading privileges, it
must be in a directory that is available to all BBS users, including
those that have not paid.  If the BBS does not have any file directories
available for all paid and non-paid users, this FAQ must not be made
available for download.

                                      .o ____~~~~_____~.
                                   ..(                  )....
                                  (      Remember ...        ))
                  .ooo.          (                           .  )
                 / ))' \         (    it ain't ham, unless     )  o.
                 { , , }       'o (                             )
                (  "_"  )   ..o'   (...   it's a BIG ASS HAM     .)
                 " .o. "            .(.                       ) )
             .---/\___//\----.         .(.~~~        ___...) o
            ."  .\  Y  |.     `.           .o -------o.
            :    .\ ^  |.      `>.  ." ".
            ;   \  /^\ t.   e\.   >"     "
            ;   |  /^\  \   " `.. "       "
            :   :  /^\   | ./   "#  B i g  #
            ;   h  /^\    \./:   !  A s s  !
     ________\   "~~~~...._\/_V__!---------!________________
              c,,,...a~~~=~      `  H a m  '
                                  "......."
(courtesy Tim Veatch)


--
Aaron Barnhart
letterman@mcs.net
