Two adults, an older male and a younger male, wearing formal suits from the mid-20th century, seated in what appears to be a television studio setup with professional lighting. 15:07
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Johnny Carson pulls a phone prank on Letterman

David Letterman pumps his fists and admits he is a little nervous. Then Johnny Carson walks out to a roar, turns back as if he forgot something, and returns with his own desk. more

The desk is Johnny's first bit. After a few years, he tells David, this is the only way he can talk with anybody, even at dinner. When the two desks get compared, he has a reply ready. In another 20 years, "you will have this desk."

Then he says he is a little miffed. When the invitation came, he said yes because he loves David Letterman, and he pictured New York in May, first class, a hotel and a limousine. Instead he walked across an asphalt parking lot to get here. He could have done Wheel of Fortune on the way over, he says, and a man dressed as a giant zucchini was waiting to go on Let's Make a Deal.

Two adults, an older male and a younger male, wearing formal suits from the mid-20th century, seated in what appears to be a television studio setup with professional lighting. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
David Letterman pumps his fists and admits he is a little nervous.

David figures he must hate being a guest. It is strange, Johnny admits, sitting here and looking this way, but guesting has one perk. "You can be cruel" on other people's shows, because you don't have to be back tomorrow. His very first TV show, he remembers, was in Omaha, where he played a milkman in a documentary about unpasteurized milk.

Asked about taking his own show back to New York, he says there aren't many studios left there for it. The one they used to work in is all news now.

Then he asks if David minds if he does something. He gets a big kick out of the nights David phones the parents of someone in the studio audience, and he wants to try it himself. He shows David a number. David swears he has never seen it before in his life, then gives in, because it's his home phone number back in Indiana.

A man in a suit and tie holds a telephone to his ear while seated at a desk with papers nearby. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Johnny has the number, and after a little stalling, David admits whose it is.

David warns that Mom's hearing isn't what it was. A woman picks up and says yes, she's Mrs. Dorothy Letterman, mother of the David Letterman who does late night on NBC. It's Johnny Carson calling, he tells her, from NBC in Burbank. Then he asks whether David has ever told her he hopes Johnny gets run over by a Sparkletts water delivery truck, so he can get the 11:30 time period on NBC.

Her answer is yes, then yes again, and the studio comes apart. After the break, Johnny lets David in on the joke. The woman on the phone was an actress, and nobody had tipped David off. He says it sounded to him like a cheerleader had broken into Mom's house to answer the phone.

An older man with white hair, in a suit and tie, laughs broadly with windows behind him. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
After the break, Johnny lets David in on the joke.

His real mother did meet Johnny once, about three years earlier, while she was in California for about ten days. It made her entire trip, David says, and it was very nice of Johnny to do it.