# David Letterman's Last Stand **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 16, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203 "2015-05-16T23:47:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/81 "2015-05-25T13:42:43Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > He has been ill recently. [He was just spotted at a gas station, actually.](http://www.wdbj7.com/news/local/new-river-valley/former-president-jimmy-carter-spotted-in-hillsville/33181534) True story. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/82 "2015-05-25T16:24:59Z")
I thought we were going to get a bunch of _LSDL_ reruns until Colbert started. (NBC ran _LNDL_ reruns for a while until Conan started.) But instead they’re airing _Castle_/_Mentalist_ reruns. Crap. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/83 "2015-05-25T17:08:25Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [He was just spotted at a gas station, actually.](http://www.wdbj7.com/news/local/new-river-valley/former-president-jimmy-carter-spotted-in-hillsville/33181534) True story. Cool. Good to see him out and about. I knew he had to cut a trip short recently for medical reasons, but it looks like he’s doing better. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/84 "2015-05-25T17:52:45Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I remember he mentioned Hal at some point in the night (though I don’t remember the context). > > I didn’t hear him mention Merrill Markoe, though. (She had a lot to do with the show at the beginning of the NBC years; I think she was head writer, in addition to being Dave’s significant other at the time.) I think he mentioned Hal when he talked about the move from NBC to CBS. Hal’s picture also appeared in the closing credits, along with all of the other staffers. Somebody I don’t remember him mentioning: Bill Wendell, who was not only his announcer on NBC, but, IIRC, his first announcer at CBS (I remember the episode when Kalter took over). Trivia fact of the day: both of Letterman’s announcers were game show announcers in the 1970s (the ones I can think of off the top of my head: Wendell on the early-1970s _Sale of the Century_, and Kalter on _The Moneymaze_.) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/85 "2015-05-25T21:55:32Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Somebody I don’t remember him mentioning: Bill Wendell, who was not only his announcer on NBC, but, IIRC, his first announcer at CBS (I remember the episode when Kalter took over). Wendell was listed in the In Memoriam credits at the end of the next to last show. He was also shown several times in the finale montage. I always had the feeling that his departure wasn’t on good terms. Another odd one is cue card boy Tony Mendez. Suddenly replaced by Todd the Intern. Don’t recall seeing him in the montage. But there are a lot of folk that appeared on the show a few times that just had to be left out: Mrs. Marv Mendenhall, Flunky the Late Night Clown, Lyle the Intern, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/86 "2015-05-25T22:00:51Z")
I wondered about the omission of any mention of Tony Mendez, too. Dave had really seemed to like featuring another ‘older’ guy who was still in there doing his job; was there some sort of unpleasantness involved in his retirement? Also was puzzled to see no mention of “Lyle”–the Jimmi Simpson character who was featured prominently for quite a while. (The omission of mention of Monty/Smitty/Stephanie Birkitt, by contrast, was to be expected.) ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/87 "2015-05-25T22:57:21Z")
Tony Mendez got into an altercation with Bill Scheft and was fired last October. > **[Letterman’s cue-card guy fired after argument, assault on writer](https://nypost.com/2014/10/19/late-show-cue-card-man-fired-after-argument-assault-on-writer/)** > > Now this was a stupid ­human trick! Tony Mendez had one of the best jobs in all of show business — cue-card guy for the “Late Show with ­David Letterman” — but he saw his plum gig vanish last week … ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/88 "2015-05-26T02:02:16Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I thought we were going to get a bunch of _LSDL_ reruns until Colbert started. (NBC ran _LNDL_ reruns for a while until Conan started.) But instead they’re airing _Castle_/_Mentalist_ reruns. > > Crap. Dave owned his CBS show (he also used to own _The Late Late Show_ prior to Cordon). It makes sense that he wouldn’t allow any old shows rerun now. He certainly doesn’t need or care about the money, and he’d want a clean, definitive end to the show. Unfortunately this will mean you’ll probably never see reruns of Dave’s _Late Show_ anywhere ever. I remember when NBC sold reruns of _Late Night_ to A&E while Dave was still doing it and he complained on-air tremendously. So much so they stopped the deal and gave back the money! > [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Somebody I don’t remember him mentioning: Bill Wendell, who was not only his announcer on NBC, but, IIRC, his first announcer at CBS (I remember the episode when Kalter took over). > Trivia fact of the day: both of Letterman’s announcers were game show announcers in the 1970s (the ones I can think of off the top of my head: Wendell on the early-1970s _Sale of the Century_, and Kalter on _The Moneymaze_.) Yeah, I seem to remember Wendell wrote a tell-all autobiography after retiring in which he kinda trashed Letterman for some reason. Made me sad because he seemed like he ‘got’ the show and was always a great occasional bit player. If you ever see some episodes of _The Ernie Kovacs Show_ Wendell was on that and doing much of the same sort of bits (Kovacs was very much a forerunner of Letterman’s style). ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/89 "2015-05-26T07:10:00Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I thought we were going to get a bunch of _LSDL_ reruns until Colbert started. (NBC ran _LNDL_ reruns for a while until Conan started.) But instead they’re airing _Castle_/_Mentalist_ reruns. > > Crap. I checked the official LSDL YouTube channel on my Roku and was delighted to find a “Dave’s Monologues” playlist with 250 videos! I thought I’d start working my way through that list to soothe my Letterman withdrawal. Turns out that all but a handful of those videos are marked “private” and can’t be played. CRAP! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/90 "2015-05-26T08:47:03Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Unfortunately this will mean you’ll probably never see reruns of Dave’s _Late Show_ anywhere ever. That sours me a lot on the guy, actually. Sure, keep it away until Colbert takes over. But the shows are a part of television history and need to be available at some point. Of course, I was just now getting to the point where I appreciated him in the first place, by catching some of his older stuff before he seemed to just check out. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/91 "2015-05-26T20:58:16Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > Tony Mendez got into an altercation with Bill Scheft and was fired last October. > [Exclusive | Letterman’s cue-card guy fired after argument, assault on writer](http://nypost.com/2014/10/19/late-show-cue-card-man-fired-after-argument-assault-on-writer/) Thanks for that; I can see now why he was left out of the finale. A shame; it was clear over the years that Letterman enjoyed Mendez’ combative personality. That may have encouraged Mendez to do what he did. (Not that Letterman was responsible for the acts in question; Mendez was responsible.) ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/92 "2015-05-27T15:22:02Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That sours me a lot on the guy, actually. Sure, keep it away until Colbert takes over. But the shows are a part of television history and need to be available at some point. > > Of course, I was just now getting to the point where I appreciated him in the first place, by catching some of his older stuff before he seemed to just check out. There are still a lot of Dave’s old NBC show clips on YouTube (strangely it looked like this was the source for some that were shown on the final show\*!\*) Dave didn’t like any of his old stuff being rebroadcast partly because some of it is embarrassing, but in the case of the A&E reruns he felt it was diluting his comedy. It’s a struggle to come up with totally fresh stuff all the time so he didn’t want old bits being shown that may have had obvious similarities to ‘new’ stuff. Plus NBC was simply being greedy (Dave was getting nothing from the A&E deal). However, now that he’s actually retired he may eventually let his old CBS show be re-shown. As self-deprecating as he is he does know he has a significant place in late night TV history. > [@Sherrerd](#): > > Thanks for that; I can see now why he was left out of the finale. A shame; it was clear over the years that Letterman enjoyed Mendez’ combative personality. That may have encouraged Mendez to do what he did. (Not that Letterman was responsible for the acts in question; Mendez was responsible.) That whole thing was fucked up, and I firmly blame Scheft. He was being a petty, selfish sleeze-ball. He was jealous of Dave & Mendez’s long-time friendship and he deliberately goaded Mendez into an altercation that he knew would get him fired. Mendez was part of the Letterman family since NBC, like Biff Henderson and Chris Elliot. He was _“Inky the Cue-Card Boy”_, getting hepped-up on magic marker fumes\*!\* ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/93 "2015-05-27T20:40:59Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > That whole thing was fucked up, and I firmly blame Scheft. He was being a petty, selfish sleeze-ball. He was jealous of Dave & Mendez’s long-time friendship and he deliberately goaded Mendez into an altercation that he knew would get him fired. Mendez was part of the Letterman family since NBC, like Biff Henderson and Chris Elliot. He was _“Inky the Cue-Card Boy”_, getting hepped-up on magic marker fumes\*!\* I had the opposite reaction; Mendez sounds like a psycho to me. I’ve never bought his claim that Scheft, a successful writer, was jealous of the cue-card guy. Why people think Mendez is some kind of hero is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/94 "2015-05-28T13:00:18Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > I had the opposite reaction; Mendez sounds like a psycho to me. I’ve never bought his claim that Scheft, a successful writer, was jealous of the cue-card guy. Why people think Mendez is some kind of hero is beyond me. Mendez was not a psycho at all. He was a really nice guy who was a part of Dave’s show for 20 years. And unlike stagehands like Biff, Mendez and Dave had to always be very much ‘in sync’. Sometimes Dave would want to skip a joke or line, or shift their order around and Mendez had to respond immediately. They’d built up an incredible rapport over the years. Scheft joined the show in the last few CBS years and as an outsider (but with more authority than Mendez) tried to suck-up to Dave by constantly interrupting Dave & Mendez’s monologue rehearsals. Dave doesn’t like confrontation and so never did anything, so Scheft kept doing it again and again until it was obvious he was just being an asshole, and Mendez finally lost his temper. What’s really sad is Mendez didn’t ‘attack’ the guy at all, he just yelled and pushed him a little, which in the old days wouldn’t have amounted to anything. But nowadays everything is a big deal so Scheft ran to HR like a little bitch and had him fired. Mendez immediately admitted that he was wrong and shouldn’t have done it, but he should not have been fired for it. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/95 "2015-05-28T14:15:51Z")
What’s your source for all this info about the Scheft/Menendez spat, **Hail Ants**? Not doubting you, just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/96 "2015-05-29T01:09:13Z")
Being a long time fan I knew who Tony Mendez was (he was frequently shown on camera holding the cue cards and in occasional bits). So when the story came out I read a number of different accounts. I’ll admit that most were interviews with Mendez himself, but others on the show did comment about it and this was the gist I got. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/97 "2015-05-29T16:44:52Z")
Okay. I read about it at the time, too, but I guess not quite as much as you did. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/98 "2015-05-29T21:48:30Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Mendez was not a psycho at all. He was a really nice guy who was a part of Dave’s show for 20 years. And unlike stagehands like Biff, Mendez and Dave had to always be very much ‘in sync’. Sometimes Dave would want to skip a joke or line, or shift their order around and Mendez had to respond immediately. They’d built up an incredible rapport over the years. Scheft joined the show in the last few CBS years and as an outsider (but with more authority than Mendez) tried to suck-up to Dave by constantly interrupting Dave & Mendez’s monologue rehearsals. Dave doesn’t like confrontation and so never did anything, so Scheft kept doing it again and again until it was obvious he was just being an asshole, and Mendez finally lost his temper. > > What’s really sad is Mendez didn’t ‘attack’ the guy at all, he just yelled and pushed him a little, which in the old days wouldn’t have amounted to anything. But nowadays everything is a big deal so Scheft ran to HR like a little bitch and had him fired. Mendez immediately admitted that he was wrong and shouldn’t have done it, but he should not have been fired for it. In every workplace I’ve ever been a part of, assaulting a coworker is a serious offense that will generally get you fired, regardless of what the attacker’s motivation was. If this had happened to me, you better believe I would have reported it to HR. I’ve supervised some fairly large departments in my career, and if I found out that someone under me had assaulted a coworker, I’d have come down on that person like a ton of bricks. This is the norm in _any_ sort of white-collar workplace in the USA. I don’t know what you mean by “the old days,” but I’m almost 60 and I can’t ever remember a time when you could throw a coworker against a wall without any consequences. Scheft has said very little about the incident and Letterman has said nothing. Most of what we know about it comes from Mendez’s own self-serving account, in which he comes off as an arrogant hothead who is still in denial about why he was fired. He actually believes CBS _forced_ Letterman to fire him, which is patently absurd. Letterman owned his show, and it’s inconceivable that Mendez was fired without his approval. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203/99 "2015-05-30T01:39:09Z")
I’ve never read any comments from Scheft either, but I do remember reading a blurb from Dave to the effect of, ‘Tony knows that’s not acceptable behavior’ or something similar. CBS didn’t force Dave to fire him, but Dave could have intervened and prevented it and he didn’t. To Mendez this probably seems like the same thing. The key issue for me is other coworkers backed up his account of Scheft constantly interfering in their routine for no reason other than to provoke Mendez. No other head writer had ever done this because there was no reason to, and every reason not to. Scheft knew Mendez would only have two choices: One- Continue to be humiliated in front of his coworkers (what could he do? who could he complain to?) or Two- Stand up for himself and maybe get fired. It was a no-win situation for him, and Scheft knew it. And he deliberately made it happen. And while I agree that pushing somebody physically in the workplace is not acceptable, that in and of itself **IS NOT** an ‘assault’. He wasn’t trying to hurt him. And the mitigating circumstances of Scheft’s repeated provocations more than makes up for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lettermans-last-stand/720203.md?page=4)