I just keep watching this over and over. I think they’re really in the same room. AND it’s an ad for DAVE’s show!
David Letterman is my comedy hero. Did you know he and Jay started together as writers for Jimmy “Dynamite” Walker? Also, most don’t know that Dave was Johnny Carson’s FIRST EVER guest host on the Tonight Show. In Johnny’s eyes, he named his successor.
As writers together, Jay called Dave the “future of comedy,” and Dave said Jay was “the best at working audiences.” They fell apart over the Late Shift war in 92. Most late night fans, like myself, took sides.
For Dave fans, when Leno stole “Headlines” and “Jay Walking” which were Letterman bits, and made them his signatures, Jay Leno became dead to us. For Leno fans, Dave was the cranky guy.
Insert Oprah. She and Dave became friends when he begged her to forgive him, culminating in the 2007 Superbowl ad where they’re lovers watching the game together. That’s what tonight’s ad was a sequel to. Leno was recently on Oprah, where she scolded him for going after Dave’s personal life. I can’t help but believe she made tonight possible.
But what happened behind the scenes? I bet it was the first time the two men had been in a room in 2 decades, and worked together in 3 decades. I really hope more about this comes out.
UPDATE: CBS confirms (as does a tweet from Oprah) that it was shot Tuesday night in Dave’s studio. The bit was Dave’s idea, and Oprah and Jay were game. Does this mean that Dave and Jay spoke for the first time in 20 years?
UPDATED UPDATE: Here’s the story on how it came to happen, how Dave & Jay behaved, and how they snuck Jay Leno into the Ed Sullivan Theatre with NBC’s approval.
