Stupid Talk-Show Tricks

NBC and CBS squabble in a corporate custody battle over David Letterman's shtick

A late night in September. David Letterman is on CBS, with the same bits he perfected (but maybe didn't patent) on his NBC show: running animals through stupid tricks and Calvert De Forest -- Larry "Bud" Melman to you -- through the humiliation gauntlet. Chevy Chase is on Fox, reprising the Weekend Update routine from his early stint on NBC's Saturday Night Live. So what does that leave for beleaguered NBC and its corporate parent, General Electric? To stick with the lunch-pail charisma of Jay Leno at 11:30. To hope that Conan O'Brien (Dave's 12:30 replacement) will disprove early indications that...

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