Archive-name: letterman/faq/part3
The alt.fan.letterman Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list
Last-modified: Fri Jul 5 00:10:33 CDT 1996
Version: 9.12
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.

                                       *                             

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.  >>> In 1994
	and 1995, German television aired _Nacht-Show_ starring
	Thomas Koschwitz, which one viewer described thus: "A
	shameless rip-off with almost identical intro, identical
	desk, (attempted) identical host behaviour, repartee
	with the band leader, top 10 lists, etc."  That was
	followed by _Die Harald Schmidt Show_ which is still on
	the air <http://www.haraldschmidtshow.de/>.  I reviewed
	it for the Village Voice (April 2, 1996; sorry, no
	electronic copies available).  >>> 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




                                   *   *   *                         

              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
	Richard Scheckman, Christine Schomer, and Jay Johnson 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) 1996 by Aaron Barnhart.  All rights reserved.



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                                  "......."
(courtesy Tim Veatch)


--
Aaron Barnhart
letterman@mcs.net
