When We Was Fab

For all you kids out there, some footage of Jay Leno on Late Night with David Letterman way back in the Orwell days of 1984.

Note that Late Night debuted in 1982. I love how low-key the audience is. All talk show audiences these days are so overenthusiastic: laughter and applause keyed up way too high. The audience in this footage sounds more organic. There's laughter but it doesn't sound so terribly canned.

For a little ominous foreshadowing, notice how Letterman's trying to conduct an interview with Leno but Leno is just trying to run through his own prepared material.

Finally, Letterman says, "I don't really need to be out here, do I?"

Leno responds, "I've been telling the network that for 18 months!"



OOOO, WE HATES YOU, JAY LENO!!

Of course, back in the day Leno and Letterman were friends. You can see their rapport. Leno was just all too ready to turn to the dark side.

Jeff Zucker's the Emperor of NBC. The man who orchestrated this fiasco.


Star Wars metaphors and Photoshop: the internet's gift to the world.

(This image took a lot longer to create than I'd like to admit... but it's worth it for the 20 people who'll read this!)