Long before David Letterman even launched the show he'll soon step down from on CBS, the host was familiar face in late night on NBC. And back in those days, he had a whole lot of fun with network friend Al Roker.
"There's probably a whole generation that doesn't realize he was first at NBC," Roker reminisced on TODAY Friday. "He started with a daytime show and then moved to nights. His studio was across from our local news studio, WNBC, when we'd do 'Live at Five,' and he'd bust in on our show."
Letterman would keep his cameras rolling as he studio hopped to playfully harass Roker on live TV.
"What about the barometric pressure?" he asked the weather guru with a sly grin during one such visit. "I can't leave the house without knowing what the air pressure is. I have very sensitive skin."
"We had one news director, who had no sense of humor, order the doors locked during the Letterman show," Roker recalled. "That only lasted about two days."
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Of course, listening to Roker's stories, it's not hard to understand why that news director wanted a little order.
"One time [Dave] came in with Zippy the Chimp and the Mobile Monkey Cam," he recalled. "[The chimp] immediate went and started drinking [anchor] Jack Cafferty's coffee."
Good times!
It's no wonder Roker and Letterman hit it off so well back then. In addition to a mutual passion for goofing around, Dave got his start as a fun-loving weatherman, too.
Letterman's final episode of "Late Show" airs May 20 on CBS.
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