I was in the control room the phone rang can you come to Dave's dressing room that was a very rare
occurrence that all of us would be gathered prior to a show he said well I guess you you
want to know why you're all here I'm going to call Les moonves and tell him I'm retiring
and we all were like what what do you mean what do you mean he was like you
know I'm done I said what I had to say like get out it felt like some kind of strange
dream it was now it's going to happen oh God I need to find another job [Music]
my name is Barbara Gaines and I worked with Dave Letterman since his Morning Show in 1980 so that's
35 years 24 years 11 years 25 years 11 years 30 years 25 years I was just shy of the 30-year
Mark when we went off the air we all just got very used to this was the place we worked crazy
successful TV shows last maybe 10 years to be in a television job for 30 years or in my case 25 is
completely freakish I remember the last show at NBC and Paul said to me you know I'm a musician
you're not supposed to have a gig for 11 years you're not supposed to have a gig for 11 days you
get together you work on a show it's six months do you rap you get on and you get in a cycle
of freelancing and going from show to show as a writer you're usually writing for someone who's
just a haircut but you know Dave Letterman was a guy that you aspired to whether the days were
up or down there was always that oh I'm working actually for someone who's going to be considered
a legend I wanted to be completely immersed in something that was going to be seen by a lot
of people there was a sense of job security there that you have a job you know that tomorrow morning
you'll have a job and next week you'll have a job until Dave has another heart attack like so many
long-running projects you get to feel like it's a family and yes families are full of odd simmering
undercurrents of tension you definitely get on each other's nerves when you work together for
that long while you're here every day we're trying to claw your kidneys out but if you
ever need a kidney we're there for you I think that kind of sums up The Late Show experience
the excitement of the end of the show was drawing a very quick line to the fact that this was going
to leave my life and what am I going to be able to do that's going to compare with what
was really my dream job when you're so closely tied to a place the notion of what's to become
of of me it was a lot of our identity there are a lot of conversations you know writers
who kind of pull each other aside and say hey did you hear about this thing have you applied
for this thing we were all pulling for each other but we're also kind of worried about ourselves it
was it was a little stressful once I got over the terrifying notion of having to find another job I
got very excited about what the end would be it was a creative Peak I was pushing on adrenaline
for most of that final year you had the biggest stars in the world and they came ready to play
George Clooney wanted to be handcuffed to Dave Tina Fey came Julia Roberts nobody was
saying no to coming on all of us did Mark almost everything you know oh this is the last stupid pet
tricks we will ever do oh this is probably the last time so and so guessed will ever be here
the president of the United States he said to me uh how long have you been here and I said well
this would be 25 years he took a beat and he said Gee that's got to be strange I'm looking at Barack
Obama and I'm saying this is your definition of strange even he was taken by the fact that
it was all coming to an end there was a certain looseness like well we might as well just try to
have fun there were you know some staffers who had little parties in their offices and a lot of
alcohol was was uh involved we only have another two months to go pour me a drink we'd have like
a dozen different balls maybe throwing them each other and playing loud music and turning off the
lights it was called Murder ball it was mostly an excuse to just get out all of our aggression and
to physically attack each other I don't know if I should be talking about that on camera
we started talking about the the last show years before he retired one day I will stop working and
what will we do on that last show and he said we're gonna have to have a a big ending montage
and of course we'll do it to the Foo Fighters live and I thought live I said I don't know how
we're gonna do it live and he said well you have to do it live that first time it rolled
to the Montage fairly well and I ran on stage and David girl doesn't know me and I don't know David
Grohl I ran on stage and grabbed him and just said that was amazing and being the nice guy he is he
didn't say you know who are you he just stopped me we were doing the top 10 the big celebrity
top 10. Julia Louis Dreyfus came over and kind of said can I see something else uh for for me and
we found the joke about Jerry and I do remember that shot of Jerry getting a huge laugh yeah yeah
that's fun that's fun ten minutes before we were taping I got a call from Jay Leno you're wishing
Dave the best and it was lovely although what I remember was at one point I'm on the phone and I'm
looking at I go I'm gonna miss I'm gonna miss the last show unless I can get off off the phone now
it was an event I mean it felt like an event there were satellite trucks everywhere there was a huge
crowd on Broadway it was celebratory and I was interested in how the show was going to turn out a
lot of people are paying attention thank you very much this is uh I think maybe the most important
show of my life I heard that and all of a sudden it's like oh right it's the last show the guy
is saying goodbye to his entire professional existence so I felt an obligation that
you got to get this one right The World At Large didn't know I made that Montage but
I knew I made it and it was my life of course it was David Letterman's life but it was my life too
for so many people to describe that last show is perfect that was really gratifying the best thing
about the last show going so well was that you could leave with absolutely no regrets
oh 12 hours later and and you know you just see them just knocking things into the dumpsters there
goes the desk there goes Paul's Bandstand there goes the backdrop and the bridge and it's like
they're serious about this the show really is ending this wasn't a joke
it's life you know it's it's I think they had to get Colbert in there and they had no time
to waste I I don't begrudge them any of it it's you know it's the law of the show business jungle
I was leaving my office and I thought I I have nowhere to go tomorrow somebody said to me you
better know what you're gonna do the day after the show ends I have to pretend to be a grown-up
now and think about jobs and things this is as real as it gets you got to find something
else you gotta see if if your skills that you've built here are in any way transferable to anything
else in life because I don't I wasn't sure they were when I finally walked out of the building
it just felt like the right thing to do like now it's time for me to go
often would stress over whether or not I could succeed in another environment
with a different set of circumstances and a different group of people that was always in the
back of my head like well are you a one-trick pony well we're about to find out [Music]
it's not a surprise to me that that people that worked on The Late Show have gone on to success
because you're producing a show every day on the on the highest level I'm proud to have
been a part of television history I think the jury is still out as to whether Steve
Young will have a career that blah blah blah and then Letterman was an asterisk to it or really
is it just going to be Letterman writer Steve Young also tried briefly to do other things
20 years from now if you and I run into each other we will look at each other
and with an unspoken glance we will know yep we were there we know what that was
it was a formative moment in my life and very little of the uh craziness has has
withstood the test of time it's mostly just fond memories with a few key exceptions
I worked on a big ass broadcast with a really Dynamic group of people and a guy who will be in
the history books I brought a lot of my strength to that show but I gained a lot of knowledge and
strength from the show I know I'll do fine I'm never going to have the relationships that I
had with the people in that show because we have that that thing that shared experience so that's a
great gift it was it was a good 35 years certainly in retrospect I have no complaints [Music]
hi I'm Dave Letterman a lot of folks say hey Dave what have you been up to
man I'll tell you what bought myself a piece of real estate right here on 55th Street and
Manhattan I'm telling you I've never been happier place to be in if you're ever in the area
stop by love to see you take care hey is it my pie [Music]