![]() ![]() ![]() The idea of someone being a guest on a late night talk show and having the audience jeer as they enter is surprisingly jarring to see, but as a professional wrestler, Lawler no doubt took it in stride. He beat up Andy Kaufman.” But just think about that for a second. You’re no doubt thinking, “of course they would. Lawler is brought out first, and as the band brings him out, the audience immediately begins to boo him. He piledrivered Kaufman into the mat two times in under a minute, and Andy was rushed to the hospital with a neck injury.Ī little over three months later, on July 29th, 1982, David Letterman invited both Kaufman and Lawler on the show. In April of 1982, professional wrestler Jerry Lawler challenged Andy to his first same-gender wrestling match. ![]() To be specific, he wrestled women before declaring himself the Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World. Well, from the limited scope I had, when people talked about these early Letterman episodes, it would always be about the same few moments: the Velcro wall, the appearances from Larry “Bud” Melman or Chris Elliott or the Andy Kaufman/Jerry Lawler episode.įirst, a little background for those of you who haven’t seen the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon: Andy Kaufman, the popular, for lack of a more descriptive term, comedian, started incorporating wrestling into his act. Growing up, Late Night with David Letterman episodes were hard to see instead I had to settle for the occasional clips that would appear on random “NBC salute to comedy” specials. I grew up watching Conan on Late Night, so seeing Letterman walk out onto that stage, or to hear the stripped down band play the Late Show theme song or to see Paul with hair always makes me do a mental double take at first. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)Įarly Letterman always seems strange to me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |