On the Day of His Last Show, Here’s David Letterman’s First Top Ten List

Seeing as tonight is David Letterman's last night hosting 'The Late Show', here's a look back to nearly 30 years ago, when Letterman, then hosting his 'Late Night' show on NBC, first debuted his own Top Ten List.

As you'll see on the clip, the whole top ten list as a comedy bit was inspired by a top ten list that Woman's Day magazine had published. I'm guessing that as they aired that first list back in the fall of 1985, neither Dave nor any of this writers might have guessed that it would go on to become one of the defining comedy segments of Letterman's long career, right up there with Stupid Pet Tricks, Viewer Mail, and other classic bits.

Bits like the Top Ten List and others Letterman pioneered really did break the conventional 'TV talk show rules' that existed at that time. In fact, pretty much every other late night show looks they way they do now, thanks to his Late Night show on NBC. (Which, I read, was because producers of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show didn't want Dave's new show, which followed Johnny's each night, to resemble Carson's format too closely. So Dave and his staff were forced into doing other bits, which developed into his now-signature type comedy. This, of course, would go on to inspire our current generation of late night hosts, like Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Falon.) Check it out...