David Letterman returned to The Late Show Thursday night and, with the help of Stephen Colbert, revived one of his classic bits: tossing things off the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater.
Letterman made his return one week ahead of the final episode of the show he created 33 years ago, when he jumped from NBC to CBS.
During his appearance, David Letterman did not hold much back when sharing his opinion of CBS and the cancellation of The Late Show. At one point during his interview, he said, “To the folks at CBS, in the words of the great Edward R. Murrow, good night and good luck, motherf——.”
He added at another point during the show, “I have every right to be p—– off, so I’ll be p—– off here a little bit.
“You folks wouldn’t be at this theater if it weren’t for me, and Stephen wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me. We built this theater and then Stephen came in here and, look at this, it’s like the Bellagio. But, as we all understand, you can take a man’s show, you can’t take a man’s voice, so that’s the good news.”
Something is going on with the furniture
It was around that point that David Letterman complimented Stephen Colbert on how nice the theater looked, including the furniture. He then asked if the chair he was sitting in belonged to the network.
“It would be a shame if something happened to it,” he said, then called some people in to remove it.
That led Letterman and Colbert to move their conversation to seats in the audience.
The furniture returns and gets launched off the roof
It wasn’t the last time the furniture was seen, however. After their talk, Letterman and Colbert moved to the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater.
“I thought maybe tonight’s occasion would be a little sad, being the end of your run here, but this brings true joy to my heart,” Letterman told Colbert. “We are up here for the wanton destruction of CBS property.”
“Now, I know for many years, I enjoyed this as a viewer. You would throw things off the Ed Sullivan building. This is a true story,” Colbert replied. “When I first got this gig, one of the first things they told me before we even moved into the offices is that I would not be allowed to throw anything off of the roof of the Ed Sullivan building, because evidently there was a problem with a previous tenant.”
“Yes. I’m so excited about this,” Letterman interjected.
“So am I. All right. So, I was never allowed to do this… I never did it, but we’re at the end here, so all bets are off.”