“ I think a big part of the reason old-school Letterman is so hard to find these days is that talk shows are ephemeral by design. Hosts begin with a monologue referencing current events and celebrity happenings that are quickly lost to the ages, then interview stars of the moment plugging projects that, more often than not, will quickly be forgotten. Is the world really hungering to see, say, Bobcat Goldthwait (whom I happen to think is enormously talented) plug Hot To Trot on The Tonight Show 20 years after the fact? Or Donna Mills jabber on insipidly about whatever the hell it is Donna Mills was once mildly famous for? ”
from a recent edition of Ask The AV Club. I think the answer to that question is: no, the whole world is not hungering to see some has-been from 20 years ago talk about a new project on Letterman. But, someone in the world is. As my friend Kevin Donovan would say, there is a limitless amount of digital storage space and because the long tail exists, it can be productive and profitable.
I know I’d enjoy seeing clips of George Carlin in the early 1980s, of Barenaked Ladies’s first Letterman performance, and of the first joke about the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
