Talk Show Hosts Collection on Letterman, Part 1 of 7: Steve Allen

[@BigBingFan]

Steve Allen is/was a GENIUS; funny, witty, songwriter, performer, etc. One of THE BEST ever, in my opinion!

[@stephenhenderson1493]

Thanks for all your efforts, Don. Mr. Allen is a personal favorite of mine, and your preservation of Letterman's body of work is as admirable as it is important.

[@Bill_Woo]

Well spoken.

[@jimlaforte1755]

Steve Allen was a Pioneer who set the stage for what became, Late Night Television! Truly Brilliant and Talented.

[@johndalton3180]

Wow, Don. A feast for broadcast historians. Thank you!

[@siggylloyd3566]

Just spectacular! I can tell this series will be of great interest. Love Steve Allen, Jack Paar; that particular lineage of talk show hosts.

[@Walrus563]

Such a funny, talented, and truly fascinating man. I could listen to him for hours.

[@JackSilbert]

Another stellar batch. And the wicked Jay impression at the end is inadvertently perfect, as it brings it full circle to the Tonight Show's line of succession.

[@melltenfys]

Steve was such a delightful guest for Dave! I completely got lost watching this for 1 hour and forgot to do all the work I had to do lmao

[@chickenringNYC]

Wow, this will be yet another treasure for late night history buffs!

[@Bill_Woo]

Thank you immensely for this. He is my nomination for smartest, cleverest talk show host ever. Dave's very very high up on that list. And Cavett. (Would Groucho count?) Allen, Letterman, Cavett - oh, the bygone days of real geniuses. And Leno probably had higher ratings than them all. People...

[@whiskeycitydiggers]

I consider myself a late night buff so thank you for yet another invaluable resource. I just finished this first one. Hilarious Leno impression at the end. I wish Ernie Kovacs had lived long enough to be interviewed by Dave as his influence is felt on his work as much as Steve Allen's. The day after Prince died, I got in my car and drove to a film festival in Dubuque, Iowa, not knowing if I had enough gas money to get back, just to see a panel discussion about Ernie Kovacs. Dan Schlissel of Stand Up! Records, Kliph Nesteroff, and Josh Mills, the son of Edie Adams, were participants. I live for stuff like that.

[@dongiller]

The closest we can get - Edie Adam’s on Dave - kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWXblYl3gJanra8

[@fatalmodelmadhatter]

I'm in awe over all of this. Dave is talking to one of his biggest influences and idols (if not THE biggest), and Steve Allen, beyond being a treasure of a guest comedy-wise and intelectually-wise, is quite supportive of him. It's moments like that that make it a true Late Night world of love! Hey, CNN, pay The Donz at least a Coke, won't ya?

[@Bill_Woo]

Note Dave's clearly awed applause as he walks onto the stage. The way he gets up it's as though he's prompting the start of a standing ovation. Which I would readily contribute to.

[@fatalmodelmadhatter]

@@Bill_Woo Count me in on that.

[@GeneBurnett]

Just finished watching this. Thanks for including Dave's Leno imitation at the end. Hilarious!

[@sergiolobato1798]

The term comedic genius is use very liberally but in the case of the great Steve Allen is well placed!

[@Bill_Woo]

I have him #1 most brilliant. Genius really fits as well. Even a musical genius.

[@HolmanHal]

So true. Schmock! Schmock! (for true fans).

[@EranRicos]

Steve Allen was so far ahead of his time. He thought of reality TV back then. Brilliant mind

[@spuzzlightyeartoo]

Oh awesome, I did always want a Steve Allen retrospective.

[@timd8912]

Thank you so much.......

[@katiezee2]

Yay - good ole Steverino

[@prmaninla]

"Start of Something Big" for the street shot in the first clip is a brilliant piece of inside knowledge.

[@LeeKav]

Inside knowledge I apparently don't possess. Would you care to explain it?

[@prmaninla]

@@LeeKav Steve Allen wrote that it, and it was his theme song. (It's a great song. There's a video on youtube of him singing with Steve Lawerence and Edyie Gormet, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra and others!)

[@albertpeterson5585]

"...all aboard Elizabeth Taylor!" - hysterical!

[@Sam-ic9my]

Something I didn’t learn until recently: Mr. Allen was actually quite healthy at the time of his death - he died as a result of an automobile accident. Dave says “78, that’s pretty good” in the last clip and it’s sad to realize Steve probably would have lived well into his 80s, possibly even beyond, if not for that car wreck.

[@leonardstilwell1894]

I knew Johnny is Dave's hero, so I thought it was strange when Joan Rivers said Dave took most of his cues from Allen. Now I see why she said it!

[@BaccarWozat]

"Swingin' Garbage" would be a great name for an album. Also, I really liked Mr. Allen on that episode of Homicide. And at about the same time he appeared on the PBS pledge drive during the intermission of his own tribute documentary, playing piano.

[@eckesg2]

"How ducks make out" What a line.

[@Bill_Woo]

I actually involuntarily laughed at him right out of the gate for the first several minutes and that just doesn't happen to me. "3 years. Seemed like 5." ... ... "5 years. Seemed like 3." My stomach hurts from laughing. I hope I had my laughing pants on. I love this series. Good call.

[@bodyslamhimjeff]

Hahaha, his fake outrage around minute 45 is hilarious. I assume they were cued, but I still love how the audience jumped right in. Fantastic. Thanks for this whole series, Don!

[@jaysonspann8042]

Nice of Dave to invite his father on the program 😂

[@shortliner68]

I remember the show with Steve Allen as a human tea bag swimming around in a tank of hot water. Steve said the "tea" would be served to all the studio audience afterwards, though I'm sure he was just kidding. I missed a lot of those shows because of being school age and the show coming on at 11:30pm weeknights. I did catch the tea bag show, however. It probably aired during summer vacation.

[@tristan01101]

Seeing Steve Allen on What's My Line, it never even occurred to me that he created the Tonight Show. Nonetheless when I watched him in these KZbin recordings of WML episodes, I couldn't help but think he is an awful lot like David Letterman & the two of them would be good in the same room

[@HolmanHal]

Correction: David Letterman is a lot like Steve Allen.

[@LeeKav]

"If you've ever had your eagle spread you know how painful that is." Is that were Dave picked up his favorite recurring joke?

[@sanderconron971]

Hope Worldwide doesn’t zap all these compilations. At least they’re nice about just taking down clips with no strike. Yet I don’t foresee all the music clips being reposted by DL channel. Your collections are fantastic.

[@dongiller]

Thanks! My channel remains intact, at least for now.

[@red_ford23]

This feels like toto pulling the curtain back.

[@stephenstewart271]

Hi-Ho Steverino!

[@GeneBurnett]

Two of the quickest and funniest wits in comedy right there...I wonder if Groucho Marx ever appeared on either of their shows...I'm guessing yes and guessing it was pretty great.

[@dongiller]

Groucho died in August 1977, so it would have been impossible for him to have appeared on any of Dave’s shows. The only Marx family member to guest on Dave was Harpo’s son Bill on November 4, 1985, uploaded here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGSmq2d7ot56rqc

[@GeneBurnett]

@@dongiller Right...I was thinking Groucho lived longer than that...It sure would have been fun to see him with Dave...Thanks for the link.

[@GooseOD]

Coooool!

[@dianewinters8628]

Poor Dave all his show biz friends have passed on before him.

[@dimitrikorsakov2570]

I wish there were more videos of Steve Allen's Tonight Show on KZbin. It's surprising in this day and age when everything seems to be on YT that there is so little.

[@tonybarrett8543]

So we know now were teabagging comes from🤣🤣🤣

[@willieluncheonette5843]

Quick---Name one of the 8500 songs Steve Allen wrote in his long career.

[@tmcoyles9676]

I’m guessing it’s Halloween ? Or why the pumpkins ?

[@dongiller]

The airdates are in the video aa well as in the description that no one reads.

[@artrogue4150]

The morning show was awesome. More parody and less reality.