Late Show Top Ten List
The Top Ten List was a regular segment of the television programs Late Night with David Letterman and the Late Show with David Letterman. Each night, host David Letterman would present a list of ten items, compiled by his writing staff, that circulated around a common theme.
The lists were usually given humorous topics such as Top Ten Signs Your Kid Had A Bad First Day At School or Top Ten Rejected James Bond Gadgets. Some were based on current events. Many guests like Adam Sandler or Bill Murray would come into the show to fulfill the answers. Letterman would also occasionally give an intentionally absurd and mundane category, such as Top Ten Numbers Between One and Ten, drawing humor from the silliness of ranking such mundane items.[1]
Origin[edit]
Letterman's top ten skit was thought of when Steve O'Donnell was head writer of the Late Night with David Letterman show.[1][2] According to O'Donnell, the Top Ten List was an "almost simultaneous inspiration arriving from staffers Jim Downey, Randy Cohen and Robert “Morty” Morton — largely prompted by the ridiculous 'eligible bachelor' lists in a local New York paper that included the 84-year-old Bill Paley. 'Why, we can put such nonsense together ourselves!' we exclaimed. And we did."[3]
On September 18, 1985, the very first list, "The Top Ten Words That Almost Rhyme With 'Peas'" was broadcast.[4]
The switch from NBC to CBS[edit]
Before Letterman's departure for CBS, NBC had insisted that the "Top Ten List" was the intellectual property of the network and demanded that it not be used on his new show; Letterman rebutted that the list was not NBC's property or even his own, since he had stolen the concept from elsewhere. A loose compromise was reached where it would be renamed the "Late Show Top Ten," although Letterman would soon simply refer to it once again as the "Top Ten List", with no repercussions.
The only significant modifications in the Late Show years have been the elimination of mentioning a "home office" (such as Wahoo, Nebraska), and the addition of a computer-animated introduction and closing as well as background graphics.
Cities that were the supposed source of the Top 10 lists:
Other home offices:
Author
David Letterman and the writers of the Late Show with David Letterman
1995
165
818/.540208 20
PN6162 .L377 1995
David Letterman and the Late Show writers have released four volumes of Top Ten Lists through CBS book publisher, Pocket Books. The first two volumes were originally released in hardcover and later mass-market paperback editions while the latter two editions only had hardcover releases.
Radio usage[edit]
For nearly two decades each Top Ten list was packaged into a nationally syndicated radio feature, distributed by Westwood One for use the following morning.[20] Following shows from which the list was omitted, or if Letterman was on vacation, the feature would utilize a list from the archives. The feature was often edited for time, and occasionally edited for content which may have been appropriate for late-night TV, but not morning radio.
In late 2013 Westwood One informed "Top 10" affiliates that it was ceasing distribution of the feature. The last Top 10 list for radio aired Friday, January 3, 2014. No other radio network picked up the feature for the rest of the TV show's run.
Allusions[edit]
Letterman's presentation of the 67th Academy Awards in 1995 included the "Top Ten Signs the Movie You're Watching Will Not Win an Academy Award."
The television cartoon Garfield & Friends referenced the feature with an episode entitled Top Ten, where Garfield presents Top Ten lists on various topics ranging from "How to Tell When Garfield is Full," and "Why Jon Arbuckle Will Never Have a Date," to "Why the House will Never Get Robbed." The Buddy Bears provide the accompanying music.[21]