Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Around 1986 Dave became fascinated with a Kitschy Local Commercial in New York for the Wilfred Academy of Beauty, featuring a stilted testimonial for the school by hairdresser Floyd Kenyatta, turning the phrase "beauty is my bidness!" into a Running Gag. But the video of the ad shows that Kenyatta actually said "come on, join me in the beauty bidness!"
Keep Circulating the Tapes: With Late Night co-owned by NBC Productions and Letterman's World Wide Pants, don't expect a "Best Of" DVD anytime soon.
Network to the Rescue: Given how much of a shambles his relationship with NBC ended up becoming, it's easy to forget that hiring Letterman for Late Night was a gamble for the network after the high-profile flop of The David Letterman Show in 1980, something that Letterman acknowledged when he was invited as a guest on Late Night's 40th anniversary episode.
Conan O'Brien applied for a job as a writer for Late Night with David Letterman around 1986, and was apparently seriously considered. When Letterman was reminded (years after the fact) just who he'd turned down, his response was, "Well, our loss."
When Letterman left to host The Late Show on CBS, David Spade was approached as a replacement, but he declined. Spade would host a late-night talk show, Lights Out with David Spade, on Comedy Central on 2019.
shows that Kenyatta actually said "come on, join me in the beauty bidness!"