Late Night with David Letterman: The Book

by Merrill Markoe (Editor)

210 page paperback measuring eight and a half by eleven inches and almnost three-quarters of an inch thick. Lots of pictures from the older Late Night Show.

Genres: Humor, Tv, Comedy, Nonfiction, Reference

206 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 1985

About the author

An author, a television writer and a sometime standup comedienne.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say enough about this seminal manifesto in American culture: "Dog Poetry."

[Todd N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent find in the bargain bin at Lee’s Comics in Mountain View.

It would be fair to say that in college I minored in Late Night With David Letterman. I watched and studied the show almost every night. (I also usually watched Later with Costas and/or Late Nite with David Sanborn after that.)

And back in those days you couldn’t just go to YouTube or tv.gawker the next morning and quickly get the funny bits. If you wanted to watch Chris Elliott’s hilarious “Bananas” dance as Marlon Brando, you had to sit through more than a few dopey interviews. However, it’s possible to relive some of the magic memories with the Late Night book.

Reading through it (in about 1/2 hour over lunch) all these years later makes me realize how tame but influential the humor is. I’d have no problem letting my 10-year-old son read through this one. Right now he’s going through a Mad phase, so maybe I should wait for that to abate somewhat first.

It’s not the book’s fault, but it suffers somewhat from what I call “The Sly And The Family Stone” effect. This occurs when something has influenced so many stuff that when you go back to check it out it seems somewhat tame and obvious. As far as I can tell, only The Beatles have managed to escape this.

Definitely worth snagging a copy if you can find it. This is the David Letterman that I want to remember — goofy, gap-toothed, and still somewhat in disbelief that he somehow got control of 60 minutes of late night television. And before he dumped the awesome Merrill Markoe -- what was he thinking??

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of stupid, absurd, dated jokes from David Letterman and his pack of writers, it's about as reliably funny as his actual show.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I debated only four stars for how cheezy I can tell it all is now... but I give it five stars for how amazing I thought it was when I first got it back in the 80's rather than for how it "holds up" all these years later. I just can't separate how excited I was to have a David Letterman book, from the shortcomings of said book.
I didn't even think at the time that there was anything shoddy or low budget about the book, (the poor quality of the book I have since read really upset Mr Letterman at the time) because I was in high school and this show was the most amazing thing on the planet to me back then, and therefore that made this book amazing. Even the jokes I didn't get were obviously hilarious, y'know, because Dave and awesomeness.

I put my birthday of the year it came out as the read date because I think that is indeed when I got it.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone knows that Merrill Markoe just wrote a book called Cool, Calm & Contentious. But did you know she also did a first book? It’s true, because that is how ordinal numbers work, and for the purposes of this, it is Late Night with David Letterman: The Book.

Read the rest of the review on Splitsider.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

No, seriously. This book is awesome. An odd book version of the odd show that was Late Night in its early years. When I found a copy of this book on the shelf of an acquaintance in NYC, we became best friends for life.

[Michelle (missbananafish)]

My friend's dad had this book when it first came out (1984) and I remember thinking it was the funniest thing in the world. I never saw it anywhere after that. Until a few years ago, that is. I found it on ebay and bought it immediately. Best $10 ever.