Viewer Mail on Letterman, October 13, 1983

This clip begins with Dave's Opening Remarks, followed by Viewer Mail, which includes cameos by Gerard Mulligan as Julia Child, Biff Henderson as the slave-master whip-cracker, Tommy Casabona trying to fix the mic cable, the voices of Edd Hall and Chris Elliott, the backstage voices of Barbara Gaines and Jude Brennan, and the first appearance of actor Paul Andor in a soon-to-be recurring bit as Old Henry.
In this episode of Late Night, the studio audience has a peanut-gallery edge to it.

[@Anthony-hu3rj]

'"A gag is only as good as how well it fails," my dear old grandpa always used to say.

[@freeadrian1144]

The Remote Segment Write/Producer credit went to Merrill "Sudsy" Markoe. I wonder what the "Sudsy" nickname implies. I guess we would have to see the remote segment to understand.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Yes, the doors are operated by gerbils on as treadmill. It used to be four hamsters, but now they sleep on Dave's head.

[@JKerr-iy2jr]

Love the girls yelling from backstage. Wonder it that was the great Merrill Markoe’s idea?

[@robertdavis4192]

That microphone bit was great

[@jimmyguitar2933]

Gotta love it when a gag utterly fails!

[@namelessjedi2242]

I would have felt disappointed if it had worked flawlessly.

[@nylesglynn8727]

'80's Letterman shows are the best. It feels so fresh and so genuinely late night. Something insurrectionist about it. When Dave moved to CBS and the Ed Sullivan Theatre, that was lost.

[@biznz2638]

The NBC Letterman had that New York City/Ed Koch edge. The CBS move came with money and Giuliani 's changes.

[@mactheknife7049]

That's an impressive coil of XLR cable.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

That was also Chris Elliott's voice, I think

[@thegrimyeaper]

Now this is comedy writing.

[@padraig29]

Chris Elliott @ 10.02

[@Tom-yd1ur]

Another Henry firing, LOL. They really spent big $ on that set piece too.

[@dongiller]

Here are all of the Henry firings: czcams.com/video/LiBwzSsBIBM/video.html

[@FerdinandCesarano]

If this show is from October 13, then how could the letter-writer have been watching the October 15 episode?

[@dongiller]

That was a mistake by the letter writer. The event occurred on October 5, not 15. Also, October 15 fell on a Saturday in 1983. There was no show taped or broadcast on Saturday.

[@FerdinandCesarano]

@@dongiller - Ah! Very good. Thank you for the explanation.

[@jimmyguitar2933]

Wow this show was loose!

[@jimmyguitar2933]

Dude in a dress playing Julia Child. 😂

[@dongiller]

The great Gerard Mulligan.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

To the tune of "Everybody's Got Something to Hide 'Cept for Me and My Monkey"