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I was never able to resign myself to it. But the ephemerality of a nightly talk show had always been an important premise of Letterman’s work. It was natural for the memory of early, surly Letterman to be overwritten by 150 hours a year of new television with familiar, avuncular Dave and his ever-fleshier supporting cast.

The ephemerality of a nightly talk show had always been an important premise of Letterman's work

One of the compelling things about Letterman was that he could never let ten seconds go by, on any version of his talk show, without reminding himself and the viewer that a TV talk show is basically stupid and contrived. Yet he always revered the professionalism of talk show colleagues and other broadcasters who hardly seemed to have an ironic bone in their bodies. He used Tom Snyder and Regis Philbin as punchlines for decades, but in person he treated Snyder with Confucian deference, and Philbin as a brother. He has referred to both men as master “communicators,” reminding us that he in fact does have a university credential in communications. (That said, the term seems to be his way of trying to trap an elusive mystery in a conceptual vessel. We all love Regis’ pep and stylishness, but what, if anything, has he ever “communicated”?)

Since Letterman retired from the talk-show grind, he has been seen on web series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Norm Macdonald, two other “communicators” he has undisguised admiration for. Anyone who was paying close attention to his interactions with Seinfeld and Macdonald was not surprised to hear that he will be making a series of his own. Letterman has interrogated both at some length about what they are doing, and why, and why they think it works.