Farewell, Late Night's Cranky Dad

About halfway through "A Day In The Life Of David Letterman," as the eponymous star is impressing a producer and a couple of writers by tossing grapes across an office into a glass of Perrier, he finally offers an answer as to what he plans to do with his retirement: "You know what I'm going to devote the rest of my life to? Social media." It's funny because, in recent years, Letterman would occasionally use time on the show to tweet something typically nonsensical, and in a way that made it clear he didn't really understand why he was doing it and thought it was dumb -- you know, sort of like how he'd act back when CBS still made him interview the latest ejected Survivor contestant each week. But the reason it's so absurd to think of Letterman remaking himself as a social media maven creating viral content like his erstwhile time slot rival Jimmy Fallon is that Letterman has never needed another platform on which to engage with his audience: any given episode of either of his late-night series showed us who he was. And while I had been dubious about the choice not to make the final Late Show a standard episode with guests and stuff, fearing some maudlin, ponderous, audience-less slog, it actually did everything I would hope an outing of that importance would do: I laughed, I cried, I remembered again why I love Dave so very much.

As it turned out, neither Tina Fey's nor Bill Murray's "final" Late Show appearances was actually their last, as both returned for a special all-guest Top Ten list.

Hey Barbara: if you live long enough to be on any other late-night host's final episode, maybe have four fewer glasses of white wine in the green room so you don't screw up the timing. Also, sucks to be the nine people on the panel who aren't Peyton Manning and for whom Letterman clearly cares less, hee hee.

But that was really it for celebrities: no panel, just video packages of what made the show great. There was the legendary Taco Bell remote currently burning up KOTM, for instance.

It's such a classic at this point that Letterman himself giggles as he introduces it, and the studio audience -- presumably superfans if they've managed to make it to the last-ever taping -- apparently recognizes it by airdate.

But for me, the best segment of the episode is the one collecting standout moments from Letterman's various interactions with kids. I've written before about how charming he is with most non-celebrity people he talks to on the show, but especially children, and watching this supercut, I had the epiphany that I have pretty much learned how to deal with kids by watching how Dave does it.

A lot of these I'd seen before -- like the Hallowe'en costume segments, I make a point of recording episodes with science fair participants -- but this one was new to me and maybe my favourite moment of the whole finale? Letterman asks a little boy about his friends, of which the kid says he has none.

I feel like Dave with kids is Dave Concentrate -- an unadulterated delight that the show was wise not to overuse.

I held it together pretty well through Letterman's goodbyes, including introducing his wife and son and his...son's friend. But this segment wound up with a reference to his return from his heart surgery fifteen years ago, and the story of the guests he most wanted to have on: Foo Fighters. His booker informed him that it might be tough, and indeed, it turned out that they were on tour in South America at the time...but they cancelled the tour to return to New York to play "Everlong" for Dave. And then they do it again, as bedding for a rapid-fire montage of what seem to be broadly chronologically arranged clips, starting with Late Night and winding up with scenes from the last few days on CBS. And if the Foo Fighters story hadn't made me start weeping, the montage would have.

What a life! We were lucky to have shared so much of it with him, and I will miss Dave terribly.