I think I'm one of the very few people - maybe not even David Letterman himself - who remembers the very first David Letterman Show with a real fondness. No, not NBC's Late Night with David Letterman, I'm talking about his morning show, which ran on NBC for a very short time in 1980. I'm not quite sure how I watched this show. I would have been in high school in 1980, so I don't know if I skipped school to see some episodes or what (it was way before I had a VCR). Anyway, I thought it was quite good and had some real style, fun regulars (Edie McClurg!) and great guests (Steve Allen, Andy Kaufman). It's interesting to see how much this show resembles later Letterman. I wish he'd bring back some of these segments (like viewer mail and videotaped humor) on his current show.

After the jump is the first part of the September 12, 1980 episode (with original commercials!). After you watch that check out the other three parts here (on the right). If you've never seen this particular show it's quite intriguing.