The world of late-night TV will never be the same.
On the eve of David Letterman's retirement, Jimmy Fallon paid tribute on his own program, NBC's The Tonight Show. "I want to take a minute to talk about David Letterman, who I'm sure everyone here knows will be retiring after 33 years of innovation, fun and just plain weirdness?but mostly fun," he said. "I, like many of you, grew up watching Dave. Everybody did. I mean, if you saw somebody throw watermelons off a roof and you go, 'Oh my gosh. Adults get paid for doing that?' That type of stuff had never been done on TV before. This is at 12:30. This is after The Tonight Show. All you had was Johnny Carson, so this is kind of like unexplored space. This is like the Wild, Wild West. I think this show and what late-night has become is a result of him playing with the genre and experimenting and exploring and doing that stuff. I, like every kid who grew up watching him, will miss him."??