Dave's Calls to Mom Collection on LNwDL, 1990-93 

His Mother was such a sweet lady, she always spoke with that a patient mother voice and was always willing to participate in all his set ups. I loved the way she always called him ''David'' the way she say's it is so endearing.

If Paul Shaffer had released a CD entitled 'Dialing Music' it would be on my shelf to this day.

Thank you so much for this. She taught all parents how a rebel scoundrel like Letterman could be so likable and a good person. It was her. God Bless her wonderful soul. RIP Mother Letterman.

Dave’s mom Dorothy lived a long and simple life. Aged 95 before she passed, thankful that we were able to enjoy her as shared by her son.

Poor Dave has such a hard time dialing a phone. This was great. Really enjoy all of your content Don Giller, thanks for all the hard work you do.

The background stories of the Tuchman call are very very interesting. These comments are from another RU-vid vid about the incident which was posted by Mitch Tuchman. Preston Tuchman mentions that he was able to figure out Dave's mom's phone number through the touch tones and call her (he knew her from his school years), which resulted in heads rolling at Rockefeller Plaza due to the security breach. Watching this series, you can see they only started rigorously silencing the touch tones in November 1991 (about 15ish months after the Tuchman call). Preston's comment seems to imply that this happened very soon after the Sid Tuchman call, so I suppose that Dave must have only gotten wind of the call and how it was done some time in 1991. The long 10 month gap between the Dave's mom segments in 1991 might also be explained by that call. ---------------------------- Mitch Tuchman: On July 31, 1990, Dave Letterman called my dad by mistake when he was trying to call his mom in Indianapolis. I can assure you, this was a complete ad lib by Letterman. He woke my dad up from his daily 4PM afternoon nap (they were taping the show in the afternoon in New York). The reason his mom knew Sid, was that Sid had 40 dry cleaning stores around Indianapolis called "Tuchman Cleaners." Everyone in town knows him! Letterman was right... the lawyers did call my dad the following day. But there was no way Sid was going to sue Dave. By the same token, I hope the network doesn't threaten to sue me for putting this video up for the public as one of the funniest Letterman bits ever! ----------------------------- Preston Tuchman: And now you know the rest of the story. I am Preston, Mitch's first cousin. Sid Tuchman and my dad, Joseph, are brothers. After David called Sid, by mistake, the producers called Sid and asked his permission to air that segment and he agreed. This happened in the late afternoon. Sid called my dad and asked him to tape the show when it aired that night. My dad called me the next day and told me all about it. I just had to see that tape. What I found interesting, however, was being able to hear the touch tones of the numbers they aired. They weren't all of the numbers, but part of them. I've been playing piano since I was three years old; 99% by ear. It wasn't very difficult for me to listen to the touch tones, compare them with the tones on the phone, and decode each number. By comparing the multiple strings of numbers and Sid's phone number, which I already knew, I was able to figure out Dorothy's phone number. Dave and I were in the same class at School #55, and his mother was my den mother. So I decided to give Dorothy a call and say, "Hi", after thirty some odd years. She remembered me and I talked to her around ten minutes. I also told her how I found her phone number and asked her to tell David I said, hi. I never heard anything more about it until two years later. My dad was at a dinner, could have been the Kiwanis Club, when this man approached him. He introduced himself as Hans Mengering, David's stepfather. He asked my dad if he was Joe Tuchman and if he had a son, Preston. My dad confirmed that. Mr. Mengering also asked my dad if he knew I had called his wife. My dad told him he was with me when I made the call from his kitchen phone. Mr. Mengering went on to say that heads rolled at Rockerfeller Center because of the security breach. And because of my call to Dorothy, no more numbers were aired when David called his mother. And that was the last I heard about all of this until I found out Mitch had uploaded this segment to RU-vid.

Don, you're awesome. Thank you for all your great Dave postings.

Great mom she is such a sweetheart

I love when Paul plays 'Blue Jay Way' by The Beatles after Dave tries to bait his mom into talking smack about Blue Jays. :)

Thank you! Awe! I got my Grandmother to start watching this because of Sweet Dorothy. She loved Dave and Dorthory! I hope she is hanging out with her up above. How about this. I started watching Letterman when I was 9, our sons are born 1 day apart in 2003! How about that!!

Hi Don You do an amazing job and I want to say thanks again for your channel!. Helps to get through these grim times. I've been doing a pop culture memory lane for a few years now. Your archives are priceless to me as, once I got to 1982, I added Late Night on my watch list and have watched every episode I can from what's accessible on RU-vid. I'm currently up to January 1990 and I stumbled across a phone call Dave made to his Mom on January 16 sometime after the George Foreman interview. The episode was a little cut up, but Dave is asking her to bet with him on the upcoming Super Bowl 49ers vs Broncos. Didn't know if you were chronicling every call. When he picked up the phone to call her, I was ready for it to be a gag because a couple episodes previously from Dec 1989 there was a woman a few times playing "Dave's Mom" in studio with a cigarette dangling from her mouth. Was surprised it was real. Anyway, thank you again for keeping our spirits up.

I haven't laughed out loud so hard in ages. Amazing TV. Thanks so much for all your efforts in uploading these

Thanks for putting this up, Don!!!

Great upload!

Thanks for creating this post.

The mothers of comedians are often times very sweet ladies, aren't they?

Pure comedy gold....especially mom dabbling with Sid Tuckman!

Its funny in the beginning Dave loved Paul's dialling music. Then he gradually became impatient with it. Paul started getting confused. Both Dave and Paul's true abilities can only be really appreciated firsthand. To the viewer its only entertaining or it isn't.

Strangely entertaining. Mom is great!

I love 11:30 where the typist for the list keeps making typos :)

I could not laugh as much as I did 31 years ago unfortunately. I've been reading about the difficult relationship comics often have with their mothers. Peter Lassally and writer Bill Carter have indicated that Dave was no exception. Watching these now, I get the impression that she and Dave may often been on different wavelengths his entire life in my opinion. It is especially apparent at the 38:30 mark when she completely douses being home to watch "Cop Rock."

🎶🎶Love David's Mom❤️🥰

The Sid Tuchman story is quite endearing. He was such a good sport and a well known business establishment in Indy. The family was asked numerous times by bottom feeding lawyers to sue Dave since their privacy was being violated numerous times by people that had copied their phone number from the show. No way they would ever sue Dave...he was like family and they were proud that Lettermen was from their city.

I love the way she says 'yes' and 'no'.

Respect, Donz.

R.I.P. !!!

51:10 LOOK AT ALL THAT DENIM, RIP to the 90s

55:12 - "Enjoy..." :)

Don, this is my favourite too.

The most perfect pair

Would love to see a compilation of all of Dave's mom's appearances!

Paul eating anything...always the same comment: “Very...very good!”

2. BEACON

Nice

The Kreskin/guessing weight episode was on November 28th, '91.

"Robert Klein? No, Kevin. Never mind."

just had a flank steak sandwich, set me back about 80 bucks.

$3.50 for senior? Movies for seniors now cost up to $12-18 depending on type (blurred regular vs IMAX).

Sorry, I asked a question just answered it. Dave's mom died last April at the age of 95. Very sad. A very good long life but still sad. Anyway, with those genes Dave should be around at least 25 more years.

The boy next to guy at 1:10:34.. Isn't that Macaulay Culkin?

Hey, Don. Just a quick question. I went out to look for your Arnie Barnes collection and am not able to find it. Did you pull it down for some reason?

BEACON

Sid Tuchman!!

Dave’s inability to dial the phone number correct the first time has me worried if he often got locked in the studio until the next day when the early crew arrived.

A can of Windex?

9:15 for the great first call to mom but then you'll miss the build up

David you're beautiful

I consider it a travesty Don has less than 1M+ subscribers. Most obvious case of RU-vidrism of which I'm aware.