Many claim that the standard late night talk show, once a staple of an evening in the typical American household, is a dying race. Slowly loosing its footing in a modern-day television landscape that is fueled by scripted reality shows, and the mindless banter of demigogs on the validation news station of your choice.

Watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was a religious ritual for many familes across the United States, with an audience that tuned in regulary at 11:35 for three decades. Though Johnny Carson’s legacy speaks for itself, his greatest achievement may have been shining the spotlight on a gap toothed, messy haired, comedian/weatherman from Indiana.

Go back in time to 1982. College students (The audience up at 12:30) tuned in to the premier of the Late Night with David Letterman. The most memorable scene of the whole episode was an exchange between him and his first guest Bill Murry. It was not an exchange of words…

Bill Murry pulled out a Swiss Army knife and reccomended the two slice eachothers fingers open and exchange blood, officially becoming, “Blood Brothers.” Seeing as Bill Murry is still a regular on the his show today, you could say that the exchange held some weight.

The epitome of the anti-talk show best describes Late Night with David Letterman. Characterized by what he called “Rarefied Sarcasm,” Letterman lampooned the NBC and GE executives, mocked his own programs, and showcased the freaks and intellectuals who were anything but destined for television. He broke down the barrier between television and reality.

From the elevator races at 30 Rock, delivering fruit baskets to the GE executives, the Late Night thrill cams, working the McDonald’s drive thru, and the iconic Top Ten Lists, Letterman forever changed the face of comedy and television.

“The War for Late Night” triggered a move to CBS after loosing the battle for the coveted Tonight Show to Jay Leno. At the time it, it was a huge hit to Letterman’s ego. In retrospect, it only enhanced his legacy.

As his eventful thirty year career comes to a close, we are not met with the end of a talk show host, but the end of an era. Letterman told an anecdote when he announced his retirement of his son and him trying to identify a picture of an eagle. After telling his wife that evening they identified the bird, she asked him who he interviewed on the show that day. He couldn’t remember. The moral of the story not being that Letterman lost interest in his show, but discovered more in life then his show. His son.