title: Confucius

text: In the modern era Confucian movements, such as New Confucianism, still exist, but during the Cultural Revolution, Confucianism was frequently attacked by leading figures in the Chinese Communist Party. This was partially a continuation of the condemnations of Confucianism by intellectuals and activists in the early 20th century as a cause of the ethnocentric close-mindedness and refusal of the Qing Dynasty to modernize that led to the tragedies that befell China in the 19th century.


title: Confucius

text: Confucius's works are studied by scholars in many other Asian countries, particularly those in the Chinese cultural sphere, such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Many of those countries still hold the traditional memorial ceremony every year.


title: Confucius

text: Among Tibetans, Confucius is often worshipped as a holy king and master of magic, divination and astrology. Tibetan Buddhists see him as learning divination from the Buddha Manjushri (and that knowledge subsequently reaching Tibet through Princess Wencheng), while Bon practitioners see him as being a reincarnation of Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, the legendary founder of Bon.


title: Confucius

text: The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes Confucius was a Divine Prophet of God, as were Lao-Tzu and other eminent Chinese personages.


title: Confucius

text: Confucius began teaching after he turned 30, and taught more than 3,000 students in his life, about 70 of whom were considered outstanding. His disciples and the early Confucian community they formed became the most influential intellectual force in the Warring States period. The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian dedicated a chapter in his "Records of the Grand Historian" to the biographies of Confucius's disciples, accounting for the influence they exerted in their time and afterward. Sima Qian recorded the names of 77 disciples in his collective biography, while "Kongzi Jiayu", another early source, records 76, not completely overlapping. The two sources together yield the names of 96 disciples. Twenty-two of them are mentioned in the "Analects", while the "Mencius" records 24.


title: Confucius

text: Confucius did not charge any tuition, and only requested a symbolic gift of a bundle of dried meat from any prospective student. According to his disciple Zigong, his master treated students like doctors treated patients and did not turn anybody away. Most of them came from Lu, Confucius's home state, with 43 recorded, but he accepted students from all over China, with six from the state of Wey (such as Zigong), three from Qin, two each from Chen and Qi, and one each from Cai, Chu, and Song. Confucius considered his students' personal background irrelevant, and accepted noblemen, commoners, and even former criminals such as Yan Zhuoju and Gongye Chang. His disciples from richer families would pay a sum commensurate with their wealth which was considered a ritual donation.


title: Confucius

text: Confucius's favorite disciple was Yan Hui, most probably one of the most impoverished of them all. Sima Niu, in contrast to Yan Hui, was from a hereditary noble family hailing from the Song state. Under Confucius's teachings, the disciples became well learned in the principles and methods of government. He often engaged in discussion and debate with his students and gave high importance to their studies in history, poetry, and ritual. Confucius advocated loyalty to principle rather than to individual acumen, in which reform was to be achieved by persuasion rather than violence. Even though Confucius denounced them for their practices, the aristocracy was likely attracted to the idea of having trustworthy officials who were studied in morals as the circumstances of the time made it desirable. In fact, the disciple Zilu even died defending his ruler in Wey.


title: Confucius

text: Yang Hu, who was a subordinate of the Ji family, had dominated the Lu government from 505 to 502 and even attempted a coup, which narrowly failed. As a likely consequence, it was after this that the first disciples of Confucius were appointed to government positions. A few of Confucius's disciples went on to attain official positions of some importance, some of which were arranged by Confucius. By the time Confucius was 50 years old, the Ji family had consolidated their power in the Lu state over the ruling ducal house. Even though the Ji family had practices with which Confucius disagreed and disapproved, they nonetheless gave Confucius's disciples many opportunities for employment. Confucius continued to remind his disciples to stay true to their principles and renounced those who did not, all the while being openly critical of the Ji family.


title: Confucius

text: No contemporary painting or sculpture of Confucius survives, and it was only during the Han Dynasty that he was portrayed visually. Carvings often depict his legendary meeting with Laozi. Since that time there have been many portraits of Confucius as the ideal philosopher. An early verbal portrayal of Confucius is found in the chapter "External Things" () of the book "Zhuangzi" (), finished in about 3rd BCE, long after Confucius's death. The oldest known portrait of Confucius has been unearthed in the tomb of the Han dynasty ruler Marquis of Haihun (died ). The picture was painted on the wooden frame to a polished bronze mirror.


title: Confucius

text: In former times, it was customary to have a portrait in Confucius Temples; however, during the reign of Hongwu Emperor (Taizu) of the Ming dynasty, it was decided that the only proper portrait of Confucius should be in the temple in his home town, Qufu in Shandong. In other temples, Confucius is represented by a memorial tablet. In 2006, the China Confucius Foundation commissioned a standard portrait of Confucius based on the Tang dynasty portrait by Wu Daozi.


title: Confucius

text: The South Wall Frieze in the courtroom of the Supreme Court of the United States depicts Confucius as a teacher of harmony, learning, and virtue.


title: Confucius

text: There have been two film adaptations of Confucius' life: the 1940 film "Confucius" starring Tang Huaiqiu, and the 2010 film "Confucius" starring Chow Yun-fat.


title: Confucius

text: Soon after Confucius's death, Qufu, his home town, became a place of devotion and remembrance. The Han dynasty "Records of the Grand Historian" records that it had already become a place of pilgrimage for ministers. It is still a major destination for cultural tourism, and many people visit his grave and the surrounding temples. In Sinic cultures, there are many temples where representations of the Buddha, Laozi, and Confucius are found together. There are also many temples dedicated to him, which have been used for Confucian ceremonies.


title: Confucius

text: Followers of Confucianism have a tradition of holding spectacular memorial ceremonies of Confucius () every year, using ceremonies that supposedly derived from Zhou Li () as recorded by Confucius, on the date of Confucius's birth. In the 20th century, this tradition was interrupted for several decades in mainland China, where the official stance of the Communist Party and the State was that Confucius and Confucianism represented reactionary feudalist beliefs which held that the subservience of the people to the aristocracy is a part of the natural order. All such ceremonies and rites were therefore banned. Only after the 1990s did the ceremony resume. As it is now considered a veneration of Chinese history and tradition, even Communist Party members may be found in attendance.


title: Confucius

text: In Taiwan, where the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) strongly promoted Confucian beliefs in ethics and behavior, the tradition of the memorial ceremony of Confucius () is supported by the government and has continued without interruption. While not a national holiday, it does appear on all printed calendars, much as Father's Day or Christmas Day do in the Western world.


title: Confucius

text: In South Korea, a grand-scale memorial ceremony called Seokjeon Daeje is held twice a year on Confucius's birthday and the anniversary of his death, at Confucian academies across the country and Sungkyunkwan in Seoul.


title: Confucius

text: Confucius's descendants were repeatedly identified and honored by successive imperial governments with titles of nobility and official posts. They were honored with the rank of a marquis 35 times since Gaozu of the Han dynasty, and they were promoted to the rank of duke 42 times from the Tang dynasty to the Qing dynasty. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang first bestowed the title of "Duke Wenxuan" on Kong Suizhi of the 35th generation. In 1055, Emperor Renzong of Song first bestowed the title of "Duke Yansheng" on Kong Zongyuan of the 46th generation.


title: Confucius

text: During the Southern Song dynasty, the Duke Yansheng Kong Duanyou fled south with the Song Emperor to Quzhou in Zhejiang, while the newly established Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in the north appointed Kong Duanyou's brother Kong Duancao who remained in Qufu as Duke Yansheng. From that time up until the Yuan dynasty, there were two Duke Yanshengs, one in the north in Qufu and the other in the south at Quzhou. An invitation to come back to Qufu was extended to the southern Duke Yansheng Kong Zhu by the Yuan-dynasty Emperor Kublai Khan. The title was taken away from the southern branch after Kong Zhu rejected the invitation, so the northern branch of the family kept the title of Duke Yansheng. The southern branch remained in Quzhou where they live to this day. Confucius's descendants in Quzhou alone number 30,000. The Hanlin Academy rank of Wujing boshi 五經博士 was awarded to the southern branch at Quzhou by a Ming Emperor while the northern branch at Qufu held the title Duke Yansheng. The leader of the southern branch is 孔祥楷 Kong Xiangkai.


title: Confucius

text: In 1351, during the reign of Emperor Toghon Temür of the Yuan dynasty, 53rd-generation descendant Kong Huan ()'s second son Kong Shao () moved from China to Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty, and was received courteously by Princess Noguk (the Mongolian-born wife of the future king Gongmin). After being naturalized as a Korean citizen, he changed the hanja of his name from "昭" to "紹" (both pronounced "so" in Korean), married a Korean woman and bore a son (Gong Yeo (), 1329–1397), therefore establishing the Changwon Gong clan (), whose ancestral seat was located in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. The clan then received an aristocratic rank during the succeeding Joseon dynasty. In 1794, during the reign of King Jeongjo, the clan then changed its name to Gokbu Gong clan () in honor of Confucius's birthplace Qufu ().


title: Confucius

text: Famous descendants include actors such as Gong Yoo (real name Gong Ji-cheol (공지철)) and Gong Hyo-jin (공효진); and artists such as male idol group B1A4 member Gongchan (real name Gong Chan-sik (공찬식)), singer-songwriter Minzy (real name Gong Min-ji (공민지)), as well as her great aunt, traditional folk dancer (공옥진).


title: Confucius

text: Despite repeated dynastic change in China, the title of Duke Yansheng was bestowed upon successive generations of descendants until it was abolished by the Nationalist government in 1935. The last holder of the title, Kung Te-cheng of the 77th generation, was appointed Sacrificial Official to Confucius. Kung Te-cheng died in October 2008, and his son, Kung Wei-yi, the 78th lineal descendant, died in 1989. Kung Te-cheng's grandson, Kung Tsui-chang, the 79th lineal descendant, was born in 1975; his great-grandson, Kung Yu-jen, the 80th lineal descendant, was born in Taipei on January 1, 2006. Te-cheng's sister, Kong Demao, lives in mainland China and has written a book about her experiences growing up at the family estate in Qufu. Another sister, Kong Deqi, died as a young woman. Many descendants of Confucius still live in Qufu today.


title: Confucius

text: A descendant of Confucius, H. H. Kung, was the Premier of the Republic of China. One of his sons, (孔令傑), married Debra Paget who gave birth to Gregory Kung ().


title: Confucius

text: Confucius's family, the Kongs, have the longest recorded extant pedigree in the world today. The father-to-son family tree, now in its 83rd generation, has been recorded since the death of Confucius. According to the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee (CGCC), he has two million known and registered descendants, and there are an estimated three million in all. Of these, several tens of thousands live outside of China. In the 14th century, a Kong descendant went to Korea, where an estimated 34,000 descendants of Confucius live today. One of the main lineages fled from the Kong ancestral home in Qufu during the Chinese Civil War in the 1940s and eventually settled in Taiwan. There are also branches of the Kong family who have converted to Islam after marrying Muslim women, in Dachuan in Gansu province in the 1800s, and in 1715 in Xuanwei in Yunnan province. Many of the Muslim Confucius descendants are descended from the marriage of Ma Jiaga (), a Muslim woman, and Kong Yanrong (), 59th generation descendant of Confucius in the year 1480, and are found among the Hui and Dongxiang peoples. The new genealogy includes the Muslims. Kong Dejun () is a prominent Islamic scholar and Arabist from Qinghai province and a 77th generation descendant of Confucius.


title: Confucius

text: Because of the huge interest in the Confucius family tree, there was a project in China to test the DNA of known family members of the collateral branches in mainland China. Among other things, this would allow scientists to identify a common Y chromosome in male descendants of Confucius. If the descent were truly unbroken, father-to-son, since Confucius's lifetime, the males in the family would all have the same Y chromosome as their direct male ancestor, with slight mutations due to the passage of time. The aim of the genetic test was to help members of collateral branches in China who lost their genealogical records to prove their descent. However, in 2009, many of the collateral branches decided not to agree to DNA testing. Bryan Sykes, professor of genetics at Oxford University, understands this decision: "The Confucius family tree has an enormous cultural significance ... It's not just a scientific question." The DNA testing was originally proposed to add new members, many of whose family record books were lost during 20th century upheavals, to the Confucian family tree. The main branch of the family which fled to Taiwan was never involved in the proposed DNA test at all.


title: Confucius

text: In 2013 a DNA test performed on multiple different families who claimed descent from Confucius found that they shared the same Y chromosome as reported by Fudan University.


title: Confucius

text: The fifth and most recent edition of the Confucius genealogy was printed by the CGCC. It was unveiled in a ceremony at Qufu on September 24, 2009. Women are now included for the first time.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: Akkineni Nagarjuna Rao (born 29 August 1959), known mononymously as Nagarjuna, is an Indian actor, film producer, television presenter, and entrepreneur. Nagarjuna has acted predominantly in Telugu, along with a few Hindi and Tamil language films. He has received nine state Nandi Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and two National Film Awards namely, for "Ninne Pelladata" (1996), which he produced won the Best Feature Film in Telugu and a Special Mention as actor for "Annamayya" (1997).


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: In 1989, he starred in the Mani Ratnam-directed romantic drama film "Geetanjali", which won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. In the same year, he appeared in the blockbuster "Siva", an action film directed by Ram Gopal Varma; featured at the 13th IFFI' 90. Nagarjuna made his Bollywood debut with the 1990 Hindi remake of "Shiva". Known by his works in biographical films, he played 15th-century composer Annamacharya in "Annamayya" (1997), Yavakri (the son of the ascetic Bharadvaja) in "Agni Varsha" (2002), Major Padmapani Acharya in the war film "" (2003), 17th-century composer Kancherla Gopanna in "Sri Ramadasu" (2006), Suddala Hanmanthu in "Rajanna" (2011), Sai Baba of Shirdi in "Shirdi Sai" (2012), Chandaludu in "Jagadguru Adi Shankara" (2013), and Hathiram Bhavaji in "Om Namo Venkatesaya" (2017).


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: Nagarjuna has largely starred in action films, establishing himself as an action star with works such as "Aakhari Poratam" (1988), "Siva" (1989), "Chaitanya" (1991), "Nirnayam" (1991), "Antham" (1992), "Killer" (1992), "Rakshana" (1993), "Hello Brother" (1994), "Govinda Govinda" (1994), "Criminal" (1994), "Ratchagan" (1997), "Azad" (2000), "Sivamani" (2003), "Mass" (2004), "Super" (2005), "Don" (2007), "Gaganam" (2011), "Wild Dog" (2021), and "The Ghost" (2022).


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: In 2013, he represented the Cinema of South India at the Delhi Film Festival's 100 Years of Indian Cinema's celebration, alongside Ramesh Sippy and Vishal Bhardwaj from Bollywood. In 1995, he ventured into film production, with a production unit operating in Seychelles, and was a co-director of an Emmy Award-winning film animation company called Heart Animation. Nagarjuna is the co-owner of the production company Annapurna Studios. He is also the president of the non-profit film school Annapurna International School of Film and Media based in Hyderabad.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: Akkineni Nagarjuna was born on 29 August 1959 in Madras (present-day Chennai) in a Telugu family to the veteran actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao and his wife Annapurna. His family hails from Ramapuram in Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh. His father moved to Madras seeking career as an actor.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: The family later moved to Hyderabad, where he did his schooling in Hyderabad Public School and intermediate education from Little Flower Junior College, Hyderabad. He completed one year of his Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University in Madras, former Indian cricketer Krishnamachari Srikanth was his college mate during his Engineering days, and earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: In February 1984, he married Lakshmi Daggubati, the daughter of D. Ramanaidu, a prominent film-maker, and sister of the actor Venkatesh and producer Suresh Babu. Lakshmi and Nagarjuna have one son, actor Naga Chaitanya born on 23 November 1986. However, the couple got divorced in 1990. Nagarjuna then married actress Amala on 11 June 1992, and the couple have one son, actor Akhil, born on 8 April 1994.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: Nagarjuna began acting as a child artist in the 1967 Telugu film "Sudigundalu" directed by Adurthi Subba Rao. He appeared as an infant in movie Velugu Needalu penned by Sri Sri. Both movies starred his father Akkineni Nageswara Rao in the lead role. Years later he made his debut as a lead actor through the 1986 Telugu film "Vikram", directed by V. Madhusudhana Rao, with Shobana as the female lead. It is the remake of the 1983 Hindi film "Hero". The film was a success, giving Nagarjuna a good start. Later, he starred in films like "Majnu", directed by Dasari Narayana Rao, which was well received. Nagarjuna got positive reviews for his portrayal of a heartbroken man. He then starred in "Sankeertana", a below average grosser directed by debutant Geetha Krishna with music by Ilaiyaraaja. The film was appreciated for its content and music.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: In 1988, he starred in the blockbuster "Aakhari Poratam", scripted by Yandamuri Veerendranath, and directed by K. Raghavendra Rao where he was paired opposite Sridevi and Suhasini. In 1988 he starred in "Janaki Ramudu" alongside Vijayashanti. This film, directed again by Raghavendra Rao, was also a hit. In 1989, he starred in the Mani Ratnam-directed romantic drama "Geetanjali". The film won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment in 1990. Immediately, he saw another success, "Siva". This film marked the debut of director Ram Gopal Varma. This film is considered a trendsetter in Telugu cinema, and made Nagarjuna a superstar. In 1990, he subsequently made his Bollywood debut with the Hindi remake of the same film titled "Shiva". Even the Hindi version saw huge box-office success. He then starred in "Jaitra Yatra", for which he received critical acclaim. He followed it up with sub fare like "Prema Yuddham" and "Iddaru Iddare". "Nirnayam" where he acted again with Amala however was a hit.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: He followed it up with box office hits like "Killer", "Neti Siddhartha", and "Nirnayam", working with eminent directors such as Fazil, and Priyadarshan. Nagarjuna was fondly called "Celluloid Scientist" for his nature of experimenting with different scripts. Some of his prominent hit films released subsequently included "President Gari Pellam", "Varasudu", "Gharana Bullodu" and "Allari Alludu". In 1994, he starred in his first Hindi-Telugu bilingual "Criminal" directed by Mahesh Bhatt. In the same year he ventured into comedy for the first time with "Hello Brother" which was a huge hit, and was later remade into Hindi as "Judwaa". Many of his films were also dubbed into Tamil. In 1996, Nagarjuna starred in and produced "Ninne Pelladata", directed by Krishna Vamsi. The movie won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu and Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu. The next year, Nagarjuna acted in "Annamayya", in which he portrayed the role of Annamacharya, a 15th-century Telugu singer and poet. This won him his Filmfare Best Actor Award and his first Nandi Award for Best Actor. He also received a National Award for this role. Later that year, he starred in the Tamil film "Ratchagan", directed by Praveen Gandhi. The film was a success at the Tamil Nadu box office. His subsequent releases were "Nuvvu Vastavani", "Ninne Premistha" and "Azad".


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: He starred in romantic comedies such as "Santosham", "Manmadhudu", and "Sivamani". He produced "Satyam" in 2003, which starred his nephew Sumanth. In 2004, Nagarjuna had two releases, "Nenunnanu" and "Mass". The latter was produced by Nagarjuna and directed by choreographer Lawrence Raghavendra. In 2005, Nagarjuna acted in and produced "Super". In 2006, he starred in "Sri Ramadasu", his second period film based on the 18th-century Telugu Saint/poet of the same name. Nagarjuna received the Nandi Award for Best Actor for this film. In December 2007, he appeared in "Don" and a year later, he appeared in "King" alongside Trisha and Srihari.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: In 2010, he had the films "Kedi" and "Ragada". "Gaganam" was released on 11 February 2011. Its Tamil version was titled "Payanam". In 2011 Nagarjuna signed three movies in a row: "Rajanna", "Damarukam" and "Shirdi Sai". His next film " Greeku Veerudu "alongside Nayanthara, was a sub par grosser. His next Bhai was a disaster at the box office. In 2014, Nagarjuna starred in the blockbuster family drama, "Manam", directed by Vikram Kumar. He had a dual role in "Soggade Chinni Nayana", which turned out to be one of his biggest blockbusters. Later he played a cripple in Vamshi Paidipally's bilingual film "Oopiri", which was a hit. In 2017, he played a devotional role in the film Om Namo Venkatesaya. It garnered average reviews from critics and turned out to be a disaster. He then starred in a horror film titled Raju Gari Gadhi 2, which had an average run at the box office. In 2018, he starred in the film Officer directed and produced by Ram Gopal Varma. It got poor reviews from critics and went on to become the biggest disaster in Nagarjuna's career. On 27 September 2018, Devadas, directed by Sriram Aditya, featuring Nagarjuna alongside Nani. This film co starred Rashmika Mandanna and Aakanksha Singh and turned out to be a moderate success.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: Nagarjuna made his début as a television producer in 2009 with the soap opera "Yuva". He was a major shareholders of the television channel Maa TV before it was sold to the Star Network. Nagarjuna hosted the Indian Telugu-language version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" titled "Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu". The first season of the show was telecast on MAA TV from 9 June 2014 to 7 August 2014 (40 episodes). The second season was also showcased on MAA TV from 9 December 2014 to 27 February 2015 (55 episodes). In 2015, he was honored with the Entertainment Leader Award (Television) for his work in the show at the TV5 Business Leaders Awards ceremony. He had hosted the third, fourth and fifth seasons of "Bigg Boss" in 2019, 2020 and 2021.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: Since 2013, He was a co-owner of the Mumbai Masters of the Indian Badminton League, along with Sunil Gavaskar, and the Mahi Racing Team India, along with MS Dhoni. Nagarjuna currently endorses Kalyan Jewellers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. He was listed No. 36 and No. 43 in "Forbes India"s top 100 Celebrities for the years 2012 and 2013 respectively. He is one of the co-owners of the Indian Super League club Kerala Blasters FC.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: Nagarjuna is the founding partner of N3 Realty Enterprises, the parent entity for N-Convention center, N-Grill and District N. The later two establishments are now non-existent. In 2014, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation identified that N convention had encroached on litigated premises. Subsequently, through legal opinions, a correction path of the land was initiated by the local administrators.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: Nagarjuna, along with his wife Amala, are co-founders of Blue Cross of Hyderabad, recognised by the Animal Welfare Board of India. It is a non-government organisation (NGO) in Hyderabad, which works for the welfare of animals. Nagarjuna was also involved in welfare programs undertaken by the MAA TV association, and presently serves as the brand ambassador for HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns. In 2010, he starred in an HIV/AIDS animated software tutorial created by TeachAids, a nonprofit founded at Stanford University.


title: Nagarjuna (actor)

text: Nagarjuna has been the recipient of two National Film Awards, nine Nandi Awards and three Filmfare Awards South.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: Bluey is an Australian preschool animated television series that premiered on ABC Kids on 1 October 2018. The program was created by Joe Brumm and is produced by Queensland-based company Ludo Studio. It was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the British Broadcasting Corporation, with BBC Studios holding global distribution and merchandising rights. The series made its premiere on Disney Junior in the United States and is released internationally on Disney+.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The show follows Bluey, an anthropomorphic six-year-old Blue Heeler puppy who is characterised by her abundance of energy, imagination and curiosity of the world. The young dog lives with her father, Bandit; mother, Chilli; and younger sister, Bingo, who regularly joins Bluey on adventures as the pair embark on imaginative play together. Other characters featured each represent a different dog breed. Overarching themes include the focus on family, growing up and Australian culture. The program was created and is produced in Queensland; its capital city Brisbane inspires the show's setting.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: "Bluey" has received consistently high viewership in Australia on both broadcast television and video on demand services. It has influenced the development of merchandise and a stage show featuring its characters. The program has won two Logie Awards for Most Outstanding Children's Program as well as an International Emmy Kids Award in 2019. It has been praised by television critics for depicting a modern everyday family life, constructive parenting messages and the role of Bandit as a positive father figure. "Bluey" was renewed for a third series in October 2020.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The child characters of "Bluey" are voiced by children of the program's production crew and are not credited as voice performers.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: In July 2017, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) co-commissioned "Bluey" as an animated series for preschool children to be developed by Queensland production company Ludo Studio. The production received funding from Screen Australia and Screen Queensland, with the setting of the series drawing upon the unique semi-tropical Queensland climate. Created by Joe Brumm, the series was inspired by his experience in raising two daughters. Brumm wanted to portray the importance of children participating in imaginative play, creating the title character Bluey as a Cattle Dog to give the series an Australian voice. Brumm had previously worked on children's programs in the United Kingdom as a freelance animator and decided to create "Bluey" as a replica of the program "Peppa Pig" for an Australian audience. He conceived the idea independently in 2016, and produced a one-minute pilot through his company Studio Joho, with a small team in their spare time. Brumm approached Ludo Studio to develop the series; co-founders Charlie Aspinwall and Daley Pearson pitched the pilot at conferences such as MIPCOM in France. Brumm stated that the first pilot contained some "dangerous" character behaviours which drew the attention of studio executives; this included Bandit pushing Bluey and Bingo on a swing in an unsafe way. Pearson expressed that it was difficult to pitch the series as it was not high-concept; but rather "just a show about family and games".


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The studio developed a five-minute animation sample that was pitched at the Asian Animation Summit in Brisbane in 2016, and was thereby noticed by ABC and BBC executives. Michael Carrington of the ABC viewed the presentation and secured $20,000 of funding for the studio to produce a refined, seven-minute pilot. The new pilot was presented at the Asian Animation Summit in 2017. The two networks officially ordered 52 seven-minute episodes of "Bluey", with the BBC investing 30 percent of the funding and acquiring the global rights for distribution and merchandising. The series was produced entirely in Australia by a local team, many of whom were first-time animators from Brisbane. The program was announced to premiere in Australia on ABC Kids, followed by CBeebies.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The stories featured in "Bluey" depict Bluey and Bingo engaging in imaginative play. Brumm wanted to show that self-directed and unstructured play is natural in shaping children and allowing them to develop. He consulted research based on socio-dramatic play, reading the works of Sara Smilansky and Vivian Paley, who both had backgrounds in early childhood education. The episodes show the parents as guides for their children, who allow them to explore their immediate surroundings independently, giving them opportunities to practise adult roles. Brumm drew inspiration for scripts from his own experiences in watching his daughters play, which he described was "as natural to them as breathing". The program's scripts show how children can use gameplay to learn lessons and integrate the world of adults into their own; Brumm noticed how his children would recreate interactions such as visits to the doctor, through roleplay. Pearson stated that gameplay represents children's first experiences of collaboration, cooperation, responsibility and emotions such as jealousy. Brumm discovered the importance of play-based learning after his daughter struggled with formal education, which led him to exclude elements of literacy and numeracy in "Bluey" and focus on the depiction of life skills. Brumm stated that he wanted the series to depict his experience as a parent rather than aim for children to be explicitly taught something. His creative aims were to make children laugh, and show parents what children can learn while engaged in play.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The characters of "Bluey" each represent a particular dog breed, some of which are drawn from Brumm's personal life. Brumm had a Blue Heeler named Bluey throughout his childhood, in addition to a Dalmatian named Chloe. Bandit is based on a Blue Heeler belonging to his father's friend. Bandit's career as an archaeologist was inspired by Brumm's older sibling Adam.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: Brumm writes the majority of episode scripts, with Aspinwall labelling the series as an "observational" show, depicting Brumm's family life, and producer Sam Moor describing it as "[Brumm's] life on screen"; when producing the pilot, Brumm's daughters were aged between four and six, like Bluey and Bingo. Brumm's process for writing sometimes begins with making notes about his family's experiences; including games his children play and the conflict that arises between them. For this reason, Brumm has described the process as a challenge for other writers on the series. Moor stated that there are few writers besides Brumm, mostly animators already working on the series. The program was designed to be a co-viewing experience for parents and their children to enjoy together. Brumm described the process of writing each episode as "a chance to make a short film". The conflict and humour in the episodes stems from Bandit's relationship with his daughters. Bluey has been described as "rough and tumble" by Pearson, with both her and Bingo being seen to subvert the stereotypes of female characters, but rather have the characteristics of real puppies. This has led to uninformed viewers questioning if the characters are boys or girls. Pearson has credited the decision of Bluey and Bingo being girls to resemble the real families of Brumm, Aspinwall and McCormack. In relation to the humour of the series, Brumm has stated there is a lot of physical activity and "craziness".


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: "Bluey" is animated in-house at Ludo Studio in Brisbane, in Fortitude Valley, where approximately 50 people work on the program. Costa Kassab serves as one of the art directors of the series, who has been credited with drawing the locations of the series which are based on real places in Brisbane, including parks and shopping centres. Locations featured in the series have included Queen Street Mall and South Bank, as well as landmarks such as The Big Pelican on the Noosa River. Brumm determines the specific locations which are to be included. Post-production of the series takes place externally in South Brisbane.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: Approximately fifteen episodes of the series are developed by the studio at any one time across a range of production stages. After story ideas are conceived, the script-writing process takes place for up to two months. The episodes are then storyboarded by artists, who produce 500 to 800 drawings over three weeks while consulting the writer's script. After the storyboard is finished, a black and white animatic is produced, to which the dialogue recorded independently by voice artists is added. The episodes are then worked on for four weeks by animators, background artists, designers, and layout teams. The entire production team views a near-completed episode of "Bluey" on a Friday. Pearson stated that over time, the viewings developed into test screenings, with members of production bring their family, friends and children to watch the episode. The complete production process for an episode takes three to four months. Moor described the program's colour palette as "a vibrant pastel".


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: During the lockdown period of the 2019–22 COVID-19 pandemic, the production staff of 50 were required to work on the episodes remotely from home. A skeleton crew of three remained working on the series at the studio. After restrictions eased in May, this number increased to ten and later 20. Production on the third series concluded in April 2022.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The series features David McCormack, from the band Custard, as the voice of Bluey's father, Bandit. He was initially approached to read what he assumed would only be "a couple of lines", but ended up voicing Bandit for the entire pilot. McCormack performs his voice work for the series remotely in Sydney, which is then sent to the production company in Brisbane. He stated that he does not hear any other voice actors or view footage while recording, and that he does not alter his own voice to produce Bandit's dialogue. Melanie Zanetti provides the voice of Bluey's mother, Chilli; she became interested in the series after reading the script for the pilot.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: Brumm's mother, Chris Brumm, voices Nana Heeler, while his younger brother, Dan Brumm, voices Uncle Stripe, as well as working as a sound designer on the series. The child characters of the series, including Bluey and Bingo, are voiced by some of the children of the program's production crew.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: Joff Bush serves as one of the primary composers of "Bluey", writing half of the soundtrack himself and leading a group of additional composers, including David Barber. Bush graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium, where he met Pearson, and before "Bluey" worked on series such as "The Family Law" and "Australian Survivor". Bush has stated that each episode has its own unique musical style, and he likes to become involved in the episodes as they are scripted. Live instruments are regularly played for the recordings. Every episode of "Bluey" is individually scored, a decision made by Brumm, who was inspired by the original compositions for "Charlie and Lola" while working on the series in the United Kingdom.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: Classical music is regularly used throughout the underscore, with pieces such as Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" and Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca (from Sonata No. 11)" being interpreted by composers. A movement from "The Planets" by Gustav Holst is prominently featured in the episode "Sleepytime". Bush composed the theme song for "Bluey", and he has been nominated for several APRA Screen Music Awards, in 2019 for the soundtrack of the episode "Teasing" and in 2020 for "Flat Pack". He was nominated for the APRA Award for Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas in 2022, and the show's score won Best Music for Children's Programming in 2021. The music for "Bluey" is licensed by Universal Music Publishing on behalf of BBC Worldwide Music Publishing. The first soundtrack for the series by Bush, "", was released on 22 January 2021. It debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, and became the first children's album to reach the top of the charts in Australia. It won Best Children's Album at the 2021 ARIA Music Awards, and won the 2021 APRA Award for Best Soundtrack Album.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: A central theme of the series is the influence of a supportive family; this is reflected in the relationships between Bluey, Bingo, Bandit and Chilli. The Heeler family are presented as a nuclear family. Brumm was eager to reflect contemporary parenting practices, with both adults shown to be working parents; Bandit as an archaeologist and Chilli working part-time in airport security. Bethany Hiatt of "The West Australian" explains that the series depicts the realities of modern-day fatherhood, with Bandit seen regularly doing housework and engaging in imaginative play with his children. Chilli's role as a mother is explored as she balances both work and family life. Her struggles with newborn motherhood and encounters of competitiveness in a parenting group are depicted through flashbacks of Bluey experiencing significant developmental milestones. Both parents are shown to acknowledge and validate the emotions of their children, such as Bluey's distress after the death of a bird. Bluey and Bingo are shown to navigate their sibling relationship throughout the episodes, learning how to work together, compromise, and resolve conflicts. Episodes detail the family's contemporary domestic lifestyle, with Philippa Chandler of "The Guardian" describing the series as "social realism".


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The series also depicts Australian contemporary culture, and is set in semi-tropical Queensland. The animation of Australian architecture in the series is designed to reflect the typical Queenslander residential designs of Brisbane; high-set suburban dwellings with characteristic verandas, against representations of Brisbane skylines. The characters speak with Australian accents in local and international airings. The series has a focus on the Australian sense of humour with dry wit frequently expressed through the dialogue. Several episodes detail the exploration of Australia's climate and nature, with characters encountering Australian wildlife such as fruit bats, wallabies, kookaburras and ibises. Flora of Australia are also depicted in the series, including Poinciana trees and Jacaranda trees. The series explores Australian sport through the inclusion of rugby league; the Maroons and the Blues are featured in a depiction of the State of Origin series. However, Brumm has expressed that he did not want to exaggerate the stereotypes of Australia.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The series advocates the importance of play throughout childhood. Bluey and Bingo are the vehicle used to display this theme; the episode "Trampoline" features Bandit imploring Bluey to continue creating new games to play. The siblings engage in imaginative play during "mundane" activities such as visiting the doctor or going to the supermarket. The parents are shown to engage in the play with their children. Bluey and Bingo also engage in imaginative play with their friends; learning lessons such as the importance of following the rules. The characters also learn lessons such as the influence of technology, the economy and personal finance through their gameplay. Pearson has stated that the characters experience emotions such as jealousy and regret through their gameplay. He commented that, while there is no antagonist in the series, these emotions form the central conflicts of the program.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The character of Jack is shown to have attention deficit issues; he states that he "can't sit still or remember anything". Upon the online character announcement, parents praised the representation of children with attention deficit issues. Dougie was introduced as a profoundly deaf character who uses Auslan to communicate with his mother in the episode "Turtleboy"; the character is shown signing but it is not the focus of the episode's story. Consultants were involved to authentically animate the Auslan signs, and viewers praised the representation. The episode "Onesies" alludes to the fact that Chilli's sister Brandy cannot have children, addressing the topic of fertility without specifically labelling the reason why. It was also reported that "The Show" subtly approaches pregnancy loss.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The first series premiered in Australia on ABC Kids on 1 October 2018, with 26 episodes airing daily throughout October. The following 25 episodes of the series began airing on 1 April 2019. The final episode of the first series, a Christmas special, aired on 12 December 2019. It was reported in March 2019 that production had begun on a second series of 52 episodes; the order was officially announced in May. The second series premiered on 17 March 2020, with the first 26 episodes airing daily, through April. The remaining episodes began airing on 25 October 2020, and were followed by a Christmas special which aired on 1 December 2020, and an Easter special airing on 4 April 2021. Preliminary discussions for the third series had begun by April 2020; the series order was made official in October. The third series began airing on 5 September 2021 with a Father's Day-themed special, followed by further episode blocks from 22 November 2021, and 13 June 2022.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: In June 2019, the international broadcasting rights to "Bluey" were acquired by The Walt Disney Company, with plans to premiere on the Disney Junior television network and be distributed on the Disney+ streaming service in all territories (excluding Australia, New Zealand and China) from late 2019. The series premiered on Disney Junior in the United States on 9 September 2019 and was later distributed on Disney+ on 22 January 2020 and in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2020. The series notably features the original voice actors while airing overseas, after producers were initially asked to replace the Australian accents of the characters. The second series debuted on Disney Channel in the United States on 10 July 2020. The distribution deal with Disney originally encompassed the first two series of the program; the third series was acquired in May 2021. The first half of the third series debuted on Disney+ in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other licensed territories on 10 August 2022, and will be followed on Disney's television networks at a later date.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: In October 2019, "Bluey" debuted in New Zealand, airing on TVNZ 2 and streaming on TVNZ OnDemand. The first series made its Australian pay-TV premiere on CBeebies on 4 May 2020. It made its free-to-air television debut on CBeebies in April 2021 in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Malaysia.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The series was first distributed on DVD in Australia by Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and BBC Studios, with the first two volumes, entitled "Magic Xylophone and Other Stories" and "Horsey Ride and Other Stories" released on 30 October 2019. They were followed by further volumes at later dates. In the United States, the first season was released on DVD in two volumes in early 2020. In the United Kingdom, the first volume was released on DVD in October 2021.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: "Bluey" has enjoyed a positive critical reception. The series received a seal of approval from Common Sense Media, with reviewer Emily Ashby commending its positive family and social themes. "Bluey" was praised by Philippa Chandler of "The Guardian" for its "sharp script" and depiction of everyday family life, while commenting that its Queensland background set it apart from other cartoons on television. Readers of "The New York Times" parenting blog submitted "Bluey" as their favourite children's show, describing it as charming, smart and "very real". The series was called "laugh-out-loud funny" by Stephanie Convery of "The Guardian", who credited its humour to the "quirky behaviour" of the child characters. In 2019, "TV Week" listed "Bluey" at number 98 in its list of the 101 greatest Australian television shows of all time. Despite only being on air since 2018, the magazine wrote that Bluey "stole Australia's hearts faster than any other cartoon character" in what it described as a "cute, funny and modern" series. The series was listed at number 14 in "Junkee"s list of 50 television programs that defined the decade, in which it was described as "an absolute delight". In a list published by "Rolling Stone" of the top 100 sitcoms of all time, "Bluey" was listed at number 96, the only Australian series to be featured. The episode "Sleepytime" has been well received, with director Richard Jeffery winning an Australian Directors' Guild Award in 2021, and the episode winning the 2022 Prix Jeunesse International Award in the category of TV – Up to 6 Years Fiction (Children's).


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The series received praise for its constructive parenting messages and depiction of Bandit Heeler as a positive father figure. The character was commended for his patient nature, willingness to do housework and play with his children. Jennifer McClellan of "USA Today" described Bandit as "sarcastic, sympathetic and silly". He has been received as "more emotionally intelligent" than the father from "Peppa Pig". Reporters for "The Guardian" wrote that the show's messages about parenting align with published literature on parental wellbeing, noting how the show depicts the importance of play and learning social skills in child development. McClellan acknowledged the family dynamic of the characters; she described Chilli as the "voice of reason" and noted how Bluey and Bingo learn to navigate their sibling relationship. Convery commented that the sisters are accurate depictions of children, and that the roles of the parents are not presented as stereotypical of their respective genders. The series has also received online praise for its representation of attention deficit issues through the character of Jack, and the inclusion of Auslan through Dougie, a profoundly deaf character.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: The website of the series was criticised for, in the character description of Chilli, suggesting that her return to part-time work prevents her from being as involved a parent as other mothers; the description was later altered. A separate incident saw an apology issued by the ABC in August 2020 in relation to the usage of the term "ooga booga" in the episodes "Teasing" and "Flat Pack", which was described as a term with "racial connotations and a problematic history for Indigenous Australians" through a viewer complaint. The ABC claimed that the term had only been intended as "irreverent rhyming slang made up by children", and maintained their commitment to addressing discrimination. The two episodes were temporarily removed from rotations before being edited to remove the term, which prompted mixed reactions from viewers.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: "Bluey" has received consistently high viewership on ABC Kids in Australia, becoming the most watched children's program across all channels on broadcast television in 2018 and 2019. The highest-rating live broadcast of the program, the final episode of the second series, "Easter", premiered on 4 April 2021 to 607,000 viewers. It was the most-watched broadcast across all free-to-air multichannels, and the third most-watched broadcast overall. In 2019, the series was the most-watched program through time shifting.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: In March 2019, it was reported that "Bluey" had become the most downloaded program in the history of ABC's video on demand and catch up TV service ABC iview, with 21.3 million total episode plays. Within one year of the show's premiere, this figure had risen to 152 million, and by May 2020, there had been 261 million plays of episodes from the first series. It was also reported that the second series had totalled 43 million episode plays by May. By May 2021, episodes from both series had generated over 480 million plays.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: In April 2019, BBC Studios entered a partnership with Penguin Random House Australia with a deal to publish three "Bluey" books before the end of 2019. "The Beach", "Fruit Bat", and a sticker activity book entitled "Time to Play", were released on 5 November 2019. All three books were recognised as the highest-selling releases in the weekly Australian book charts of November 2019, and had sold a combined total of 350,000 copies by January 2020. The combined sales of the first nine books reached 1 million in June 2020; and the figure for all books had reached 5 million by October 2022. In September 2020, the partnership with Penguin Random House was expanded to include global distribution rights, allowing the books to be released in the United States and the United Kingdom.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: Moose Toys was named as the global toy partner for "Bluey" in June 2019; the company announced that toys would be released in Australia by the end of 2019, and later in the United States. Plush character toys of Bluey and Bingo were released in November, and a character figurine set was released in December. The plush Bluey topped the Toys "R" Us release chart of Christmas 2019, while the demand for the plush Bingo exceeded the number of toys being supplied to stores. By December, over 100,000 plush character toys had been sold in Australia. The toy line was launched in the United States in June 2020.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: In January 2020, "Bluey" partnered with Bonds to release a clothing range for children, including pyjamas and socks featuring character designs. A more comprehensive clothing range was made available at Australian retailers in March, including clothing, sleepwear and underwear. A range of adult pyjamas were released in May 2020 through Peter Alexander stores, which became the fastest selling collection in the retailer's history. Commemorative birth certificates featuring "Bluey" artwork were made available to Queensland residents from March. Bauer Media Group released the first issue of a monthly "Bluey" magazine in May. A lifestyle range of children's furniture was released in June 2020.


title: Bluey (2018 TV series)

text: It was announced that a stage show based on "Bluey" was being developed in November 2019. The live stage show, titled "Bluey's Big Play", toured in fifty theatres around Australia and featured the characters from the series. The tour was initially scheduled to begin in May 2020, but was delayed due to restrictions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. After eased restrictions, two preview performances were held at the Canberra Theatre Centre in January 2021 before further shows across the country. "Bluey's Big Play" also toured the United States, debuting at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in November 2022. A balloon of the Bluey character appeared at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November 2022.


title: David Letterman

text: David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982 debut of "Late Night with David Letterman" on NBC and ending with the May 20, 2015 broadcast of "Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS. In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of "Late Night" and "Late Show", surpassing his friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late night talk show host in American television history. In 1996, Letterman was ranked 45th on "TV Guide"s 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. In 2002, "The Late Show with David Letterman" was ranked seventh on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.


title: David Letterman

text: He is also a television and film producer. His company, Worldwide Pants, produced his shows as well as "The Late Late Show" and several prime-time comedies, the most successful of which was "Everybody Loves Raymond", now in syndication and streaming.


title: David Letterman

text: Several late-night hosts have cited Letterman's influence, including Conan O'Brien (his successor on "Late Night"), Stephen Colbert (his successor on "The Late Show"), Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart, and Seth Meyers. Letterman currently hosts the Netflix series "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman".


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1947, and has two sisters, one older and one younger. His father, Harry Joseph Letterman (April 15, 1915 – February 13, 1973), was a florist. His mother, Dorothy Marie Letterman Mengering (née Hofert; July 18, 1921 – April 11, 2017), a church secretary for the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, was an occasional figure on Letterman's show, usually at holidays and birthdays.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman grew up on the north side of Indianapolis, in the Broad Ripple area, about 12 miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He enjoyed collecting model cars, including racers. In 2000, he told an interviewer for "Esquire" that, while growing up, he admired his father's ability to tell jokes and be the life of the party. Harry Joseph Letterman survived a heart attack at the age of 36 when David was a young boy. The fear of losing his father was constantly with Letterman as he grew up. The elder Letterman died of a second heart attack in 1973 at the age of 57.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman attended his hometown's Broad Ripple High School and worked as a stock boy at the local Atlas Supermarket. According to the "Ball State Daily News", he originally wanted to attend Indiana University, but his grades were not good enough, so he instead attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, and graduated in 1969 from what was then the Department of Radio and Television. A self-described average student, Letterman later endowed a scholarship for what he called "C students" at Ball State. Though he registered for the draft and passed his physical after graduating from college, he was not drafted for service in Vietnam because he received a draft lottery number of 346 (out of 366).


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman began his broadcasting career as an announcer and newscaster at the college's student-run radio station—WBST—a 10-watt campus station that is now part of Indiana Public Radio. He was fired for treating classical music with irreverence. He then became involved with the founding of another campus station—WAGO-AM 570 (now WCRD, 91.3).


title: David Letterman

text: He credits Paul Dixon, host of the "Paul Dixon Show", a Cincinnati-based talk show also shown in Indianapolis while he was growing up, for inspiring his choice of career:


title: David Letterman

text: I was just out of college [in 1969], and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And then all of a sudden I saw him doing it [on TV]. And I thought: That's really what I want to do!


title: David Letterman

text: Soon after graduating from Ball State in 1969, Letterman began his career as a radio talk show host on WNTS (AM) and on Indianapolis television station WLWI (which changed its call sign to WTHR in 1976) as an anchor and weatherman. He received some attention for his unpredictable on-air behavior, which included congratulating a tropical storm for being upgraded to a hurricane and predicting hailstones "the size of canned hams." He also occasionally reported the weather and the day's very high and low temps for fictitious cities ("Eight inches of snow in Bingree and surrounding areas"), on another occasion saying that the state border between Indiana and Ohio had been erased when a satellite map accidentally omitted it, attributing it to dirty political dealings. ("The higher-ups have removed the border between Indiana and Ohio, making it one giant state. Personally, I'm against it. I don't know what to do about it.") He also starred in a local kiddie show, made wisecracks as host of a late-night TV show called "Freeze-Dried Movies" (he once acted out a scene from "Godzilla" using plastic dinosaurs), and hosted a talk show that aired early on Saturday mornings called "Clover Power", in which he interviewed 4-H members about their projects.


title: David Letterman

text: In 1971, Letterman appeared as a pit road reporter for ABC Sports' tape-delayed coverage of the Indianapolis 500, which was his first nationally telecast appearance (WLWI was the local ABC affiliate at the time). He was initially introduced as Chris Economaki, but this was corrected at the end of the interview (Jim McKay announced his name as Dave Letterman). Letterman interviewed Mario Andretti, who had just crashed out of the race.


title: David Letterman

text: In 1975, encouraged by his then-wife Michelle and several of his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers, Letterman moved to Los Angeles, California, with the hope of becoming a comedy writer. He and Michelle packed their belongings in his pickup truck and headed west. As of 2012, he still owned the truck. In Los Angeles, he began performing comedy at The Comedy Store. Jimmie Walker saw him on stage; with an endorsement from George Miller, Letterman joined a group of comedians whom Walker hired to write jokes for his stand-up act, a group that at various times also included Jay Leno, Paul Mooney, Robert Schimmel, Richard Jeni, Louie Anderson, Elayne Boosler, Byron Allen, Jack Handey, and Steve Oedekerk.


title: David Letterman

text: By the summer of 1977, Letterman was a writer and regular on the six-week summer series "The Starland Vocal Band Show", broadcast on CBS. He hosted a 1977 pilot for a game show called "The Riddlers" (which was never picked up), and co-starred in the Barry Levinson-produced comedy special "Peeping Times", which aired in January 1978. Later that year, Letterman was a cast member on Mary Tyler Moore's variety show, "Mary". He made a guest appearance on "Mork & Mindy" (as a parody of EST leader Werner Erhard) and appearances on game shows such as "The $20,000 Pyramid", "The Gong Show", "Hollywood Squares", "Password Plus", and "Liar's Club", as well as the Canadian cooking show "Celebrity Cooks" (November 1977), talk shows such as "90 Minutes Live" (February 24 and April 14, 1978), and "The Mike Douglas Show" (April 3, 1979 and February 7, 1980). He was also screen tested for the lead role in the 1980 film "Airplane!", a role that eventually went to Robert Hays.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman's brand of dry, sarcastic humor caught the attention of scouts for "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", and he was soon a regular guest on the show. He became a favorite of Carson and was a regular guest host for the show beginning in 1978. Letterman credits Carson as the person who influenced his career the most.


title: David Letterman

text: On June 23, 1980, Letterman was given his own morning comedy show on NBC, "The David Letterman Show". It was originally 90 minutes long but was shortened to 60 minutes in August 1980. The show was a critical success, winning two Emmy Awards, but was a ratings disappointment and was canceled, the last show airing October 24, 1980.


title: David Letterman

text: NBC kept Letterman on its payroll to try him in a different time slot. "Late Night with David Letterman" debuted February 1, 1982; the first guest was Bill Murray. Murray went on to become one of Letterman's most recurrent guests, guesting on his later CBS show's celebration of his 30th anniversary in late-night television, which aired January 31, 2012, and on the final CBS show, which aired May 20, 2015. The show ran Monday through Thursday nights at 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time, immediately following "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (a Friday night broadcast was added in June 1987). It was seen as edgy and unpredictable, and soon developed a cult following (particularly among college students). Letterman's reputation as an acerbic interviewer was borne out in verbal sparring matches with Cher (who even called him an "asshole" on the show), Shirley MacLaine, Charles Grodin, and Madonna. The show also featured comedy segments and running characters, in a style heavily influenced by the 1950s and 1960s programs of Steve Allen.


title: David Letterman

text: The show often featured quirky, genre-mocking regular features, including "Stupid Pet Tricks" (which had its origins on Letterman's morning show), Stupid Human Tricks, dropping various objects off the roof of a five-story building, demonstrations of unorthodox clothing (such as suits made of Alka-Seltzer, Velcro and suet), a recurring Top 10 list, the Monkey-Cam (and the Audience Cam), a facetious letter-answering segment, several "Film[s] by My Dog Bob" in which a camera was mounted on Letterman's own dog (often with comic results) and Small Town News, all of which moved with Letterman to CBS.


title: David Letterman

text: Other episodes included Letterman using a bullhorn to interrupt a live interview on "The Today Show" on August 19, 1985, announcing that he was the NBC News president Lawrence K. Grossman and that he was not wearing any pants; walking across the hall to Studio 6B, at the time the news studio for WNBC-TV, and interrupting Al Roker's weather segments during "Live at Five"; and staging "elevator races", complete with commentary by NBC Sports' Bob Costas. In one appearance, in 1982, Andy Kaufman (who was wearing a neck brace) appeared with professional wrestler Jerry Lawler, who slapped and knocked the comedian to the ground (Lawler and Kaufman's friend Bob Zmuda later revealed that the incident was staged).


title: David Letterman

text: In 1992, Johnny Carson retired and many fans believed that Letterman would become host of "The Tonight Show". When NBC instead gave the job to Jay Leno, Letterman departed NBC to host his own late-night show on CBS, opposite "The Tonight Show" at 11:30 p.m., called the "Late Show with David Letterman". The new show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was taped at the historic Ed Sullivan Theater, where Ed Sullivan broadcast his eponymous variety series from 1948 to 1971. For Letterman's arrival, CBS spent $8 million in renovations. CBS also signed Letterman to a three-year, $14 million/year contract, doubling his "Late Night" salary.


title: David Letterman

text: But while the expectation was that Letterman would retain his unique style and sense of humor with the move, "Late Show" was not an exact replica of his old NBC program. The monologue was lengthened. Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band followed Letterman to CBS, but they added a brass section and were rebranded the CBS Orchestra (at Shaffer's request); a small band had been mandated by Carson while Letterman occupied the 12:30 slot. Additionally, because of intellectual property disagreements, Letterman was unable to import many of his "Late Night" segments verbatim, but he sidestepped this problem by simply renaming them (the "Top Ten List" became the "Late Show Top Ten", "Viewer Mail" became the "CBS Mailbag", etc.). "Time" magazine wrote, "Letterman's innovation ... gained power from its rigorous formalism"; as his biographer Jason Zinoman puts it, he was "a fascinatingly disgruntled eccentric trapped inside a more traditional talk show."


title: David Letterman

text: The "Late Show"'s main competitor was NBC's "The Tonight Show", which Jay Leno hosted for 22 years from 1992 to 2014, except from June 1, 2009, to January 22, 2010, when Conan O'Brien hosted. In 1993 and 1994, the "Late Show" consistently gained higher ratings than "The Tonight Show". But in 1995, ratings dipped and Leno's show consistently beat Letterman's in the ratings from the time that Hugh Grant came on Leno's show after Grant's arrest for soliciting a prostitute.


title: David Letterman

text: Leno typically attracted about five million nightly viewers between 1999 and 2009. The "Late Show" lost nearly half its audience during its competition with Leno, attracting 7.1 million viewers nightly in its 1993–94 season and about 3.8 million per night as of Leno's departure in 2009. In the final months of his first stint as host of "The Tonight Show", Leno beat Letterman in the ratings by a 1.3 million-viewer margin (5.2 million to 3.9 million), and "Nightline" and the "Late Show" were virtually tied. Once O'Brien took over "Tonight", Letterman closed the gap in the ratings. O'Brien initially drove the median age of "Tonight Show" viewers from 55 to 45, with most older viewers opting to watch the "Late Show" instead. After Leno returned to "The Tonight Show", Leno regained his lead.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman's shows have garnered both critical and industry praise, receiving 67 Emmy Award nominations, winning 12 times in his first 20 years in late night television. From 1993 to 2009, Letterman ranked higher than Leno in the annual Harris Poll of "Nation's Favorite TV Personality" 12 times. For example, in 2003 and 2004 Letterman ranked second in that poll, behind only Oprah Winfrey, a year that Leno was ranked fifth. Leno was higher than Letterman on that poll three times during the same period, in 1998, 2007, and 2008.


title: David Letterman

text: On March 27, 1995, Letterman hosted the 67th Academy Awards ceremony. Critics blasted what they deemed his poor performance, noting that his irreverent style undermined the traditional importance and glamor of the event. In a joke about their unusual names (inspired by a celebrated comic essay in "The New Yorker", "Yma Dream" by Thomas Meehan), he started off by introducing Uma Thurman to Oprah Winfrey, and then both of them to Keanu Reeves: "Oprah...Uma. Uma...Oprah," "Have you kids met Keanu?" This and many of his other jokes fell flat. Although Letterman attracted the highest ratings to the annual telecast since 1983, many felt that the bad publicity he generated caused a decline in the "Late Show"'s ratings.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman recycled the apparent debacle into a long-running gag. On his first show after the Oscars, he joked, "Looking back, I had no idea that thing was being televised." He lampooned his stint two years later, during Billy Crystal's opening Oscar skit, which also parodied the plane-crashing scenes from that year's chief nominated film, "The English Patient".


title: David Letterman

text: For years afterward, Letterman recounted his hosting the Oscars, although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continued to hold Letterman in high regard and invited him to host the Oscars again. On September 7, 2010, he made an appearance on the premiere of the 14th season of "The View", and confirmed that he had been considered for hosting again.


title: David Letterman

text: On January 14, 2000, a routine check-up revealed that an artery in Letterman's heart was severely obstructed. He was rushed to emergency surgery for a quintuple bypass at New York Presbyterian Hospital. During the initial weeks of his recovery, reruns of the "Late Show" were shown and introduced by friends of Letterman including Norm Macdonald, Drew Barrymore, Ray Romano, Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Megan Mullally, Bill Murray, Regis Philbin, Charles Grodin, Nathan Lane, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Jerry Seinfeld, Martin Short, Steven Seagal, Hillary Clinton, Danny DeVito, Steve Martin, and Sarah Jessica Parker.


title: David Letterman

text: Subsequently, while still recovering from surgery, Letterman revived the late-night talk show tradition of "guest hosts" that had virtually disappeared on network television during the 1990s, allowing Bill Cosby, Kathie Lee Gifford, Dana Carvey, Janeane Garofalo, and others to host new episodes of the "Late Show". Upon his return to the show on February 21, 2000, Letterman brought all but one of the doctors and nurses on stage who had participated in his surgery and recovery (with extra teasing of a nurse who had given him bed baths—"This woman gave me a bath!"), including Dr. O. Wayne Isom and physician Louis Aronne, who frequently appeared on the show. In a show of emotion, Letterman was nearly in tears as he thanked the health care team with the words "These are the people who saved my life!" The episode earned an Emmy nomination.


title: David Letterman

text: For a number of episodes, Letterman continued to crack jokes about his bypass, including saying, "Bypass surgery: it's when doctors surgically create new blood flow to your heart. A bypass is what happened to me when I didn't get "The Tonight Show!" It's a whole different thing." In a later running gag, he lobbied Indiana to rename the freeway circling Indianapolis (I-465) "The David Letterman Bypass". He also featured a montage of faux news coverage of his bypass surgery, which included a clip of Letterman's heart for sale on the Home Shopping Network. Letterman became friends with his doctors and nurses. In 2008, a "Rolling Stone" interview stated he hosted a doctor and nurse who'd helped perform the emergency quintuple-bypass heart surgery that saved his life in 2000. 'These are people who were complete strangers when they opened my chest,' he says. 'And now, eight years later, they're among my best friends.' Additionally, Letterman invited the band Foo Fighters to play "Everlong", introducing them as "my favorite band, playing my favorite song." During Letterman's last show, on which Foo Fighters appeared, Letterman said that Foo Fighters had been in the middle of a South American tour which they canceled to come play on his comeback episode.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman again handed over the reins of the show to several guest hosts (including Bill Cosby, Brad Garrett, Whoopi Goldberg, Elvis Costello, John McEnroe, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Bonnie Hunt, Luke Wilson, and bandleader Paul Shaffer) in February 2003, when he was diagnosed with a severe case of shingles. Later that year, Letterman made regular use of guest hosts—including Tom Arnold and Kelsey Grammer—for new shows broadcast on Fridays. In March 2007, Adam Sandler, who had been scheduled to be the lead guest, served as a guest host while Letterman was ill with a stomach virus.


title: David Letterman

text: In March 2002, as Letterman's contract with CBS neared expiration, ABC offered him the time slot for long-running news program "Nightline" with Ted Koppel. Letterman was interested, as he believed he could never match Leno's ratings at CBS due to Letterman's complaint of weaker lead-ins from the network's late local news programs, but was reluctant to replace Koppel. He addressed his decision to re-sign on the air, stating that he was content at CBS and that he had great respect for Koppel.


title: David Letterman

text: On December 4, 2006, CBS revealed that Letterman signed a new contract to host "Late Show with David Letterman" through the fall of 2010. "I'm thrilled to be continuing on at CBS," said Letterman. "At my age you really don't want to have to learn a new commute." Letterman further joked about the subject by pulling up his right pants leg, revealing a tattoo, presumably temporary, of the ABC logo.


title: David Letterman

text: "Thirteen years ago, David Letterman put CBS late night on the map and in the process became one of the defining icons of our network," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation. "His presence on our air is an ongoing source of pride, and the creativity and imagination that the "Late Show" puts forth every night is an ongoing display of the highest quality entertainment. We are truly honored that one of the most revered and talented entertainers of our time will continue to call CBS 'home.'"


title: David Letterman

text: According to a 2007 article in "Forbes" magazine, Letterman earned $40 million a year. A 2009 article in "The New York Times", however, said his salary was estimated at $32 million. In June 2009, Letterman's Worldwide Pants and CBS reached an agreement to continue the "Late Show" until at least August 2012. The previous contract had been set to expire in 2010, and the two-year extension was shorter than the typical three-year contract period negotiated in the past. Worldwide Pants agreed to lower its fee for the show, though it had remained a "solid moneymaker for CBS" under the previous contract.


title: David Letterman

text: On the February 3, 2011 edition of the "Late Show", during an interview with Howard Stern, Letterman said he would continue to do his talk show for "maybe two years, I think." In April 2012, CBS announced it had extended its contract with Letterman through 2014. His contract was subsequently extended to 2015.


title: David Letterman

text: During the taping of his show on April 3, 2014, Letterman announced that he had informed CBS president Leslie Moonves that he would retire from hosting "Late Show" by May 20, 2015. Later in his retirement Letterman occasionally stated, in jest, that he had been fired. It was announced soon after that comedian and political satirist Stephen Colbert would succeed Letterman. Letterman's last episode aired on May 20, 2015, and opened with a presidential sendoff featuring four of the five living American presidents, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, each mimicking the late president Gerald Ford's statement "Our long national nightmare is over." It also featured cameos from "The Simpsons" and "Wheel of Fortune" (the latter with a puzzle saying "Good riddance to David Letterman"), a Top Ten List of "things I wish I could have said to David Letterman" performed by regular guests including Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and Bill Murray, and closed with a montage of scenes from both his CBS and NBC series set to a live performance of "Everlong" by Foo Fighters.


title: David Letterman

text: The final episode of "Late Show with David Letterman" was watched by 13.76 million viewers in the United States with an audience share of 9.3/24, earning the show its highest ratings since following the 1994 Winter Olympics on February 25, 1994, and the show's highest demo numbers (4.1 in adults 25–54 and 3.1 in adults 18–49) since Oprah Winfrey's first "Late Show" appearance following the ending of her feud with Letterman on December 1, 2005. Bill Murray, who had been his first guest on "Late Night", was his final guest on "Late Show". In a rarity for a late-night show, it was also the highest-rated program on network television that night, beating out all prime-time shows. In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of "Late Night" and "Late Show", surpassing friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in U.S. television history.


title: David Letterman

text: In the months following the end of "Late Show", Letterman was seen occasionally at sports events such as the Indianapolis 500, during which he submitted to an interview with a local publication. He made a surprise appearance on stage in San Antonio, Texas when he was invited up for an extended segment during Steve Martin's and Martin Short's "A Very Stupid Conversation" show, saying "I retired, and...I have no regrets," Letterman told the crowd after walking on stage. "I was happy. I'll make actual friends. I was complacent. I was satisfied. I was content, and then a couple of days ago Donald Trump said he was running for president. I have made the biggest mistake of my life, ladies and gentlemen" and then delivering a Top Ten List roasting Trump's presidential campaign followed by an onstage conversation with Martin and Short. Cellphone recordings of the appearance were posted on YouTube by audience members and widely reported in the media.


title: David Letterman

text: In 2016, Letterman joined the climate change documentary show "Years of Living Dangerously" as one of its celebrity correspondents. In season two's premiere episode, Letterman traveled to India to investigate the country's efforts to expand its inadequate energy grid, power its booming economy, and bring electricity to 300 million citizens for the first time. He also interviewed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and traveled to rural villages where power is a scarce luxury and explored the United States' role in India's energy future.


title: David Letterman

text: On April 7, 2017, Letterman gave the induction speech for the band Pearl Jam into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame at a ceremony held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City. Also in 2017, Letterman and Alec Baldwin co-hosted "The Essentials" on Turner Classic Movies. Letterman and Baldwin introduced seven films for the series.


title: David Letterman

text: In 2018, Letterman began hosting a six-episode monthly series of hour-long programs on Netflix consisting of long-form interviews and field segments. The show, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", premiered January 12, 2018 with Barack Obama as its first guest. The second season premiered on May 31, 2019. Season 3 premiered on October 21, 2020, and includes Kim Kardashian West, Robert Downey Jr., Dave Chappelle and Lizzo as guests. Season 4 premiered on May 20, 2022, with Billie Eilish as the first guest. In October 2022, Letterman traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine, to film a special standalone episode of "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", interviewing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.


title: David Letterman

text: In spite of Johnny Carson's clear intention to pass his title to Letterman, NBC selected Jay Leno to host "The Tonight Show" after Carson's departure. Letterman maintained a close relationship with Carson through his break with NBC. Three years after he left for CBS, HBO produced a made-for-television movie called "The Late Shift", based on a book by "The New York Times" reporter Bill Carter, chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for the "Tonight Show" hosting spot.


title: David Letterman

text: Carson later made a few cameo appearances as a guest on Letterman's show. Carson's final television appearance was on May 13, 1994, on a "Late Show" episode taped in Los Angeles, when he made a surprise appearance during a Top 10 list segment. In early 2005, it was revealed that Carson occasionally sent jokes to Letterman, who used them in his monologue; according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally (a onetime producer for both men), Carson got "a big kick out of it." Letterman would do a characteristic Carson golf swing after delivering one of his jokes. In a tribute to Carson, all the opening monologue jokes during the first show after Carson's death were by Carson.


title: David Letterman

text: Lassally also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor". During the early years of the "Late Show"s run, Letterman occasionally used some of Carson's trademark bits, including "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Paul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band", and the "Week in Review".


title: David Letterman

text: Oprah Winfrey appeared on Letterman's show when he was hosting NBC's "Late Night" on May 2, 1989. After that appearance, the two had a 16-year feud that arose, as Winfrey explained to Letterman after it had been resolved, as a result of the acerbic tone of their 1989 interview, of which she said that it "felt so uncomfortable to me that I didn't want to have that experience again". The feud apparently ended on December 2, 2005, when Winfrey appeared on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" in an event Letterman jokingly called "the Super Bowl of Love".


title: David Letterman

text: Winfrey and Letterman also appeared together in a "Late Show" promo aired during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLI in February 2007, with the two sitting next to each other on a couch watching the game. Since the game was played between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, the Indianapolis-born Letterman wore a Peyton Manning jersey, while Winfrey, whose show was taped in Chicago, wore a Brian Urlacher jersey. On September 10, 2007, Letterman made his first appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" at Madison Square Garden in New York City.


title: David Letterman

text: Three years later, during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLIV between the Colts and the New Orleans Saints, the two appeared again in a "Late Show" promo, this time with Winfrey sitting on a couch between Letterman and Leno. Letterman wore the retired 70 jersey of Art Donovan, a member of the Colts' Hall of Fame and a regular Letterman guest. The appearance was Letterman's idea: Leno flew to New York City on an NBC corporate jet, sneaking into the Ed Sullivan Theater during the "Late Show"s February 4 taping wearing a disguise and meeting Winfrey and Letterman at a living room set created in the theater's balcony, where they taped their promo.


title: David Letterman

text: Winfrey interviewed Letterman in January 2013 on "Oprah's Next Chapter". They discussed their feud and Winfrey revealed that she had had a "terrible experience" while appearing on Letterman's show years earlier. Letterman could not recall the incident but apologized.


title: David Letterman

text: "Late Show" went off air for eight weeks in 2007 during November and December because of the Writers Guild of America strike. Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, was the first company to make an individual agreement with the WGA, allowing his show to come back on the air on January 2, 2008. In his first episode back, he surprised the audience with a newly grown beard, which signified solidarity with the strike. His beard was shaved off during the show on January 7, 2008.


title: David Letterman

text: On June 8 and 9, 2009, Letterman told two sexually themed jokes about a daughter (never named) of Sarah Palin on his TV show. These included a statutory rape joke about Palin's then 14-year-old daughter, Willow, and MLB player Alex Rodriguez. Palin was in New York City at the time with Willow, and none of her other children were at the game. Some contemporaries questioned the racial connotations of joking about a Latino player of Dominican descent committing statutory rape.


title: David Letterman

text: In a statement posted on the Internet, Palin said, "I doubt [Letterman would] ever dare make such comments about anyone else's daughter" and that "laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is disgusting." On his June 10 show, Letterman responded to the controversy, saying the jokes were meant to be about Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, whose pregnancy as an unmarried teenager had caused some controversy during the United States presidential election of 2008. "These are not jokes made about [Palin's] 14-year-old daughter ... I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl."


title: David Letterman

text: His remarks did not end public criticism. The National Organization for Women (NOW) released a statement supporting Palin, noting that Letterman had made "[only] something of an apology." When the controversy failed to subside, Letterman addressed the issue again on his June 15 show, faulting himself for the error and apologizing "especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke." Rodriguez demanded an apology for implying that he was a child molester. Letterman never specifically apologized to Rodriguez.


title: David Letterman

text: On August 17, 2011, it was reported that an Islamist militant had posted a death threat against Letterman on a website frequented by Al-Qaeda supporters, calling on American Muslims to kill him for making a joke about the death of Ilyas Kashmiri, an Al-Qaeda leader who was killed in a June 2011 drone strike in Pakistan. In his August 22 show, Letterman joked about the threat, saying "State Department authorities are looking into this. They're not taking this lightly. They're looking into it. They're questioning, they're interrogating, there's an electronic trail—but everybody knows it's Leno."


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman appeared in the pilot episode of the short-lived 1986 series "Coach Toast", and appears with a bag over his head as a guest on Bonnie Hunt's 1990s sitcom "The Building". He appeared in "The Simpsons" as himself in a couch gag when the Simpsons find themselves (and the couch) in "Late Night with David Letterman". He had a cameo in the feature film "Cabin Boy", with Chris Elliott, who worked as a writer for Letterman. In this and other appearances, Letterman is listed in the credits as "Earl Hofert", the name of Letterman's maternal grandfather. He also appeared as himself in the Howard Stern biographical film "Private Parts" and the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic "Man on the Moon", in a few episodes of Garry Shandling's 1990s TV series "The Larry Sanders Show", and in "The Abstinence", a 1996 episode of the sitcom "Seinfeld".


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman provided vocals for the Warren Zevon song "Hit Somebody" from "My Ride's Here", and provided the voice for Butt-head's father in the 1996 animated film "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America", again credited as Earl Hofert.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman was the focus of "The Avengers on "Late Night with David Letterman"", issue 239 (January 1984) of the Marvel comic book series "The Avengers", in which the title characters (specifically Hawkeye, Wonder Man, Black Widow, Beast, and Black Panther) are guests on "Late Night". A parody of Letterman named David Endochrine is gassed to death along with his bandleader, Paul, and their audience in Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns". In "", Letterman was parodied as "David Litterbin". Letterman appears in issues 13–14 and 18 of Harvey Pekar's autobiographical comic book "American Splendor". Those issues show Pekar's accounts of appearances on "Late Night".


title: David Letterman

text: In 2010, a documentary directed by Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina, "Dying to do Letterman", was released, featuring Steve Mazan, a standup comic, who has cancer and wants to appear on Letterman's show. The film won best documentary and jury awards at the Cinequest Film Festival. Mazan published a book of the same name (full title "Dying to Do Letterman: Turning Someday into Today") about his own saga.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman appeared as a guest on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" on May 29, 2012, when he was interviewed by Regis Philbin, the guest host and Letterman's longtime friend. Philbin again interviewed Letterman (and Shaffer) while guest-hosting CBS's "The Late Late Show" (between the tenures of Craig Ferguson and James Corden) on January 27, 2015. In June 2013, Letterman appeared in the second episode of season two of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee". On November 5, 2013, he and Bruce McCall published a fiction satire book, "This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me)", .


title: David Letterman

text: In Week 13 of the 2021 NFL season, Letterman joined Peyton and Eli Manning on their ESPN2 feed of the "Monday Night Football" game between the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills. Letterman mocked Bill Belichick after he was caught on camera wiping his nose with his shirt and was in the middle of recalling being with Roger Goodell when Goodell was booed at the unveiling of Peyton Manning's statue in Indianapolis when ESPN suddenly cut to commercials.


title: David Letterman

text: On February 1, 2022, Letterman was the guest on "Late Night with Seth Meyers", marking the 40th anniversary of the franchise's debut.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman started his production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated, which produced his show and several others, in 1991. The company also produces feature films and documentaries and founded its own record label, Clear Entertainment. Worldwide Pants received significant attention in December 2007 after it was announced that it had independently negotiated its own contract with the Writers Guild of America, East, thus allowing Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and their writers to return to work, while the union continued its strike against production companies, networks, and studios with whom it had not yet reached agreements.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman, Bobby Rahal, and Mike Lanigan co-own Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, an auto racing team competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and NTT IndyCar series. The team has twice won the Indianapolis 500: in 2004 with driver Buddy Rice, and in 2020 with Takuma Sato.


title: David Letterman

text: The Letterman Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming is a private foundation through which Letterman has donated millions of dollars to charities and other nonprofit organizations in Indiana and Montana, celebrity-affiliated organizations such as Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, Ball State University, the American Cancer Society, the Salvation Army, and "Médecins Sans Frontières".


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman's biggest influence and mentor was Johnny Carson. Other comedians who influenced Letterman were Paul Dixon, Steve Allen, Jonathan Winters, Garry Moore, Jack Paar, Don Rickles, and David Brenner. Although Ernie Kovacs has also been mentioned as an influence, Letterman has denied this.


title: David Letterman

text: Comedians influenced by Letterman include Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Ray Romano, Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, Larry Wilmore, Seth Meyers, Norm Macdonald, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and James Corden.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman has tinnitus, a symptom of hearing loss. On the "Late Show" in 1996, he talked about his experience with tinnitus during an interview with William Shatner, who has severe tinnitus caused by an on-set explosion. Letterman has said that he was initially unable to pinpoint the noise inside his head and that he hears a constant ringing in his ears.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman no longer drinks alcohol. On more than one occasion, he said that he had once been a "horrible alcoholic" and had begun drinking around the age of 13 and continued until 1981 when he was 34. He has said that in 1981, "I was drunk 80% of the time ... I loved it. I was one of those guys, I looked around, and everyone else had stopped drinking and I couldn't understand why." When he was shown drinking what appears to be alcohol on "Late Night" or the "Late Show", it was actually apple juice.


title: David Letterman

text: In 2015, Letterman said of his anxiety: "For years and years and years—30, 40 years—I was anxious and hypochondriacal and an alcoholic, and many, many other things that made me different from other people." He became calmer through a combination of Transcendental Meditation and low doses of medication. Letterman is a Presbyterian, a religious tradition he was originally brought up in by his mother, though he once said he was motivated by "Lutheran, Midwestern guilt".


title: David Letterman

text: In August 2021, Letterman was hospitalized in Providence, Rhode Island, after hitting his head on the sidewalk and falling unconscious. He favorably recalled the care he received at Rhode Island Hospital in a video released by the hospital's owner.


title: David Letterman

text: On July 2, 1968, Letterman married his college sweetheart, Michelle Cook, in Muncie, Indiana; they divorced by October 1977. He also had a long-term cohabiting relationship with the former head writer and producer on "Late Night", Merrill Markoe, from 1978 to 1988. Markoe created several "Late Night" staples, such as "Stupid Pet/Human Tricks". "Time" magazine wrote that theirs was the defining relationship of Letterman's career, with Markoe also acting as his writing partner. She "put the surrealism in Letterman's comedy."


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman and Regina Lasko started dating in February 1986, while he was still living with Markoe. Lasko gave birth to their son, Harry Joseph Letterman, on November 3, 2003. Harry is named after Letterman's father. In 2005, police discovered a plot to kidnap Letterman's son and demand a $5 million ransom. Kelly Frank, a house painter who had worked for Letterman, was charged in the conspiracy.


title: David Letterman

text: Letterman and Lasko wed on March 19, 2009, in a quiet courthouse civil ceremony in Choteau, Montana, where he had purchased a ranch in 1999. Letterman announced the marriage during the taping of his show of March 23, shortly after congratulating Bruce Willis on his marriage the week before. Letterman told the audience he nearly missed the ceremony because his truck became stuck in mud two miles from their house. The family resides in North Salem, New York, on a estate.


title: David Letterman

text: On October 1, 2009, Letterman announced on his show that he had been the victim of a blackmail attempt by a person threatening to reveal his sexual relationships with several of his female employees—a fact Letterman immediately thereafter confirmed. He said that someone had left a package in his car with material he said he would write into a screenplay and a book if Letterman did not pay him $2 million. Letterman said that he contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's office and partook in a sting operation that involved the handover of a fake check to the extortionist.


title: David Letterman

text: Joe Halderman, a producer of the CBS news magazine television series "48 Hours", was arrested around noon (EST) on October 1, 2009, after trying to deposit the check. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury following testimony from Letterman and pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted grand larceny on October 2, 2009. Halderman pleaded guilty in March 2010 and was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by probation and community service.


title: David Letterman

text: A central figure in the case and one of the women with whom Letterman had had a sexual relationship was his longtime personal assistant Stephanie Birkitt, who often appeared on the show. She had also worked for "48 Hours". Until a month before the revelations, she had shared a residence with Halderman, who allegedly had copied her personal diary and used it, along with private emails, in the blackmail package.


title: David Letterman

text: In the days following the initial announcement of the affairs and the arrest, several prominent women, including Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of NBC's "Today Show", and NBC news anchor Ann Curry, questioned whether Letterman's affairs with subordinates created an unfair working environment. A spokesman for Worldwide Pants said that the company's sexual harassment policy did not prohibit sexual relationships between managers and employees. According to business news reporter Eve Tahmincioglu, "CBS suppliers are supposed to follow the company's business conduct policies" and the CBS 2008 Business Conduct Statement states that "If a consenting romantic or sexual relationship between a supervisor and a direct or indirect subordinate should develop, CBS requires the supervisor to disclose this information to his or her Company's Human Resources Department".


title: David Letterman

text: On October 3, 2009, a former CBS employee, Holly Hester, announced that she and Letterman had engaged in a yearlong secret affair in the early 1990s while she was his intern and a student at New York University. On October 5, 2009, Letterman devoted a segment of his show to a public apology to his wife and staff. Three days later, Worldwide Pants announced that Birkitt had been placed on a "paid leave of absence" from the "Late Show". On October 15, CBS News announced that the company's chief investigative correspondent, Armen Keteyian, had been assigned to conduct an "in-depth investigation" into Letterman.