At its height, Letterman's 'Late Show' was one of TV's most exciting

“Late Show With David Letterman” premiered on Aug. 30, 1993, the night before I began my freshman year at Wheeling High School. I can thank Dave, Paul, Biff and Co. for ensuring a life of insomnia that began with Johnny Carson and an old black-and-white TV in my bedroom.

In those early years on CBS, Letterman served up the subversion of his former NBC show to a wider audience with a devilish grin. He took jabs at his former employers, filled an entire car with food from Taco Bell, knocked on doors with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert and generally broke all the rules established by Carson and his wannabes. “Late Show” was among the most exciting shows on TV.

It's been a long time since we could say that, but Letterman's departure from the airwaves on Wednesday after 33 years in late-night is no less impactful. Letterman retained the basic construction of Carson's “Tonight Show” — monologue, comedy sketch, two interviews, musical guest — but took strange departures and created bite-sized skits that laid the groundwork for Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel and their YouTube-friendly brand of broadcasting.

Though he never got to host “The Tonight Show,” Letterman represents the bridge between Carson and Fallon, a comic genius ahead of his time. Can Fallon and his contemporaries build another bridge? Will new “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert find ways to further innovate the late-night format? Can anyone match the anything-can-happen immediacy of Craig Ferguson's insane, recently departed incarnation of the “Late Late Show”?

I hope so. I want “Late Show” to be appointment television once again, not something best digested in three-minute clips on YouTube.

But until then ... we can always watch classic Letterman bits on YouTube.

My favorite “Late Show” moments:

“Where the hell are the singing cats?”

Paul Newman showed up in the Ed Sullivan Theater audience on Dave's first night to deliver this line, then quickly hustled his way out, ostensibly to go see Andrew Lloyd Webber's notorious musical, “Cats.” This odd, out-of-nowhere moment set the tone for Letterman's show.

The heart surgery show.

On Feb. 21, 2000, Letterman returned to CBS after undergoing quintuple bypass surgery. He invited his entire team of doctors on stage, joked with a scrubs-clad Robin Williams and introduced a Foo Fighters performance of their 1997 rock staple “Everlong” by saying “my favorite band playing my favorite song.”

The Mary Hicks show.

In his first year at CBS, Letterman pulled a stand-up set from influential comic Bill Hicks between taping and airtime; Letterman thought the material would ruffle too many feathers. Five months later, Hicks died. In January 2009, Letterman invited Hicks' mother, Mary, on the show to apologize for cutting the segment, to tell stories about her son and to watch as the banned segment finally aired on CBS.

• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald copy editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.