Late Night with David Letterman
Season 1
1 listed hours · 1982–1993 · NBC
From the desk
How this season is filed
The birth certificate of modern ironic late night — before everyone copied the shrug. Stupid Pet Tricks, Viewer Mail, Top Ten lists, Paul Shaffer as foil: NBC's 12:30 laboratory that invented post-Carson cool. Essential if you care how talk shows learned to mock themselves. The CBS years are the empire; these NBC hours are the cult scripture.
TV Flash files Season 1 of Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1993) on NBC as the first listed season of 9 — 1 listed hour, 1982-02-01 opening on “Bill Murray and Don Herbert” (S01E01). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Desk essentials in this season
- S01E01 Bill Murray and Don Herbert
Bill Murray and Don Herbert on night one: the birth certificate of ironic late night, already teaching talk how to mock itself.
More from the 1980s.