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By Bradley Towle
SCHOHARIE — David Letterman loomed large on late-night television for years, from his early years on NBC after The Tonight Show, to his coveted 11:35 pm slot on CBS, where he finished his career on network television, many of us hold special memories of staying up later than our parents to watch Letterman and his musical director, Paul Schafer’s specific brand of irreverent humor, the famed Top Ten lists, and more. It was unpredictable; the bands were always cool; and sitting alone in the dark at night, to the glow of the TV, laughing while the rest of the house slept, was a formative experience, with the likes of Jimmy Kimmel and Judd Apatow citing Letterman’s shows as inspiration for their own careers. I did not grow up in Schoharie (I moved here from Albany in 2007), so it was an odd thing to uncover the depth of David Letterman’s relationship with my adopted home.
As many of our readers may know or remember, Letterman filled the Ed Sullivan Theater with 475 residents of Schoharie for a special show on November 18, 2002. The Letterman show placed an ad in the Times Journal, offering a trip to the show on a chartered bus via a toll-free number in October, and one month later, the lucky group attended the taping, which included then-mayor John Borst reading the Top Ten list, with Kevin James, and Matchbox 20 as the night’s guests. Old Stone Fort site interpreter Jeffery Tew dressed as a British Revolutionary War soldier, but had to leave his musket in the car. The road leading to the village sewage plant was renamed in Letterman’s honor. Also airing on the show that night was “Biff Henderson’s America.” In the ongoing bit, Hnederson, Letterman’s stage manager since 1980, would travel to various towns across the U.S., showcasing (and poking fun at) localities. Henderson traveled to Schoharie, and thanks to a fan request by Stephan Rightmyer of Richmondville, is now available to view on YouTube on the official Letterman channel.
In “Fan Request: Biff Henderson In Schoharie, New York | Letterman”, Henderson visits some familiar sites, and some that are now long-gone. Henderson visits the Schoharie school, reading Dr. Seuss to a group of students who were likely a bit past that reading level. For anyone who did not have the chance to view Mildred Vrooman’s painted egg museum, the video offers a glimpse of the now-closed collection. Henderson hangs out in the Glass Bar and asks drunken patrons whether we should invade Iraq and what we should do about Y2K (which was by that point a non-issue if it ever even was one). Henderson chats with “the most powerful man in New York State”—then-Mayor John Borst and stops in the no-longer-existent hardware store on Main St. His visit with Hans Janke on Rickard Hill Rd. is best left unspoiled and well worth the watch, but as a teaser, Henderson jokingly introduces Janke as “nuts.”
Letterman would once again put Schoharie in the spotlight in September 2011, when the legendary host devoted roughly six minutes of his show to highlighting the damage Hurricane Irene caused to our little spot on the map to a national audience. Schoharie clearly held a special place in the host’s heart, a place he described as a “wonderful little town about 150 miles from New York City,” as he detailed the damage and presented ways people could help by donating to recovery efforts in Schoharie. Being the deft comedian that he is, Letterman wove in a few jokes into his otherwise earnest plea to help the community impacted by Irene. That entire monologue can be found on YouTube as well, entitled “David Letterman Helps Out Schoharie NY”. Letterman has stayed busy with his Netflix show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman” and recently delivered a masterful speech honoring the late-great Warren Zevon during his long-overdue induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (just two weeks before Letterman hosted Schoharie, he devoted an entire episode to Zevon, his dying friend, who performed for the last time that evening).
If ever there was a man who deserved a road to a sewage plant to be named in his honor…
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