Amy Sedaris in front of "Stranger with Candy" movie posters (photo: jellywatson)
David Letterman has his own production company- Worldwide Pants. With its office headquarters in the Ed Sullivan Theater, the home of Dave’s “Late Show,” the company was officially launched in 1993 when he moved from NBC to CBS. The original incarnation was actually in 1991 and called Worldwide Pants Productions. That was co-owned by NBC and Carson Productions and it oversaw “Late Night with David Letterman.” As far as the corporation known as Worldwide Pants, Dave is the owner and founder.
The president of the company is Rob Burnett, a former “Late Show” executive producer. The VP is Peter Lassally, who worked for Johnny Carson and now is the executive producer of “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.”
Worldwide Pants has produced a bunch of successes and a few failures over the years. The TV shows that didn’t fare well were “The Building,” “The Bonnie Hunt Show,” “Welcome to New York,” and “The Knights of Prosperity” (a.k.a. “Let’s Rob Mick Jagger”). A few of them may have had critical acclaim, but these did not get the ratings needed to make it on television very long.
The following are the most notable Worldwide Pants productions:
1. “The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder”(1995-1999) David Letterman picked this iconic host of “The Tomorrow Show” to follow his “Late Show with David Letterman” for the first few years.
2.”Everybody Loves Raymond” (1996-2005) One of the most successful sitcoms of all time, this starred comedian, Ray Romano, and is sure to be continuing in syndication for many years to come.
3. “The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn” (1999-2004) Kilborn, the original host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”, took over Tom Snyder’s spot for a five-year run.
4. “Ed” (2000-2004) This quirky comedy was about a lawyer/bowling alley owner and starred Tom Cavanagh, Julie Bowen, Justin Long, and Michael Ian Black.
5. “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” (2004-present) When Kilborn left, another Craig became the host of the show following Dave. The Scotland-born Ferguson was best known in America as the boss on “The Drew Carey Show.”
6. “Strangers with Candy” (2005) This movie served as the prequel to the offbeat Comedy Central series about a middle-aged ex-con/junkie/prostitute (played by Amy Sedaris) going back to high school. Late night host, Stephen Colbert, was also a writer and performer on that show and film.
David Letterman has been known to start projects with people who honestly charm him and make him really laugh hard on his talk show. This was the case with Bonnie Hunt, Ray Romano, and Amy Sedaris. Their appearances on his show inspired him to want these collaborations to happen.
Comments
Mmmmm...bacon!
Maybe Dave well rename it Worldwide Pantsoff. He could have a new segmant on late night called "who hasnt had there pants taken off by Dave" where they look for a staffer he hasnt tried to have sex with by using the power of his position over them. What a hypocritic sleazebag Dave is.
Full agreement here.
If Stephanie Birkitt is still Dave's Assistant, she should leave out of respect for his wife... even if the sex ended years ago.
I agree with Ward.
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