I am 81 years old... this guy probably had more of an impression on my life. I'd listen to him on wor every night... He also had a show on Saturday that were absolutely classic... I saw him live many times at The village gate and also years later at Princeton where he'd give a show at reunion week..... I don't think he went to Princeton but he was there for a few years I remember one of those years when the cicadas were all over the place..... Jerry's Seinfeld has said he also was influenced by Shepherd and much of his material Donald fagen also his album The nightfly a lot of the stuff in there was influenced by Shepherd while he was growing up in Passaic New Jersey listening to Shepherd at night.
It makes me so happy to hear that Shep’s influence on Jerry Seinfeld is finally starting to be acknowledged. Jerry needs to be prodded into talking about it more, I heard him mention it in a commentary and everyone else said ‘who?!’ Jerry sounded absolutely disgusted with ‘em.
Maybe you were at Princeton when Shep claimed the Princeton show was in the Guinness Book of Records for its longevity. He was quite proud of the years he performed there. Of course, he claimed that several times.
One thing I learned recently (and maybe this is a tangent, I don’t know) is that not sure which audience it was but I know before he made A Christmas Story, Bob Clark was in the audience for a bunch of shows and wrote down material that he’d never heard Shep repeat nor that Shep later remembered? What’s great about that is that those bits ended up being put into the script for A Christmas Story, and ended up being some of the movie’s best moments, like The Old Man’s mispronunciation of ‘fragile’, things like that?
You lucky lucky dog, what a wonderful time to grow up in. I get caught up in Shep's nostaligia and romantisize those bygone eras even tho i was born in early 7os. Cant get enough of these shows and its a geeat way to start my mornings.
Shep taught me how to talk ''American'' I still know the words to Ragtime Cowboy Joe. Remember how he'd talk over the commercials. Sometimes the sponsors refused to pay so he had to play 'em again I remember 'The night Calumet river caught fire.''
Jesus, this guy was magical. He sat down next to Dave, who was completely unimpressed, and borderline patronizing, to this bearded man in a leisure suit, who he'd clearly only heard of in passing. And as he was telling this story of his childhood, he won Dave over with his wit, charisma and superior storytelling skills. What's more, Jean Shepherd completely mesmerized the audience like a master storyteller, making them laugh in all the right places, and never once losing their attention. They really do not make 'em like this dude anymore.
came to post the same. and you did a better job of it. had these thoughts as I saw the latest reboot of A Christmas Story. All of which are destined to failure, because at a pop culture level that art has been reduced to the lamp, bunny suit and the red ryder bb gun. Shepherd had some honest sould/wit that can't be faked and is damn hard to find these days. Norm about the only one I can think of.
Here is a YT video of Shep doing his magic from one of his WOR broadcasts. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-akyTVNorXQ8.html That channel has quite a few others.
I grew up in Queens, New York. Going to a very education high school, I would listen to him at night and would help me unwind. Pure genius he really was theater of the mind.
This guy was great. My Old Man listened to him every time he was broadcast. I saw him once with my Aunt and Old Man. He signed a copy of 'In God we trust, all others pay cash', when my Dad wasn't looking and I gave it to him for his birthday. He was thrilled. I kept it after he died. Still have it.
When my dad was a teenager he had long hair that my grandmother hated. She told him if he would cut it to even shoulder-length she would buy him front row seats to see Jean Shepherd at Princeton. He hit the barber and ended up taking her as his date. He says it's one of his best memories.
Granted this was '84, but it's a rare guest that can keep Dave willingly silent for this long on his own program and illicit genuine laughter. A different generation. A real, back of the class kid. Formed by real life experience and doesn't care if the audience understands his wit.
The audience does understand his wit. Check out his WOR radio shows. Jean Shepherd is a genius storyteller very popular in his day. His classic stories always relate to the basic human condition.
Neither Letterman nor the audience seem to know what to make of Shepherd at first, but Shepherd soon draws them into his orbit with the power of his story telling skills…..
Shep formed my entire personality. So much fun to read everyone else's memories below of listening late into the night on the tiny transistor radios so that our parents wouldn't know we were up past our bedtimes. I was one of the few girls I knew who was Shep obsessed. And, even as I write these words my husband and I are watching A Christmas Story. I just told my California born and bred spouse that I felt sorry for him for not growing up listening to Shep. Excelsior!
Fascinating to watch. So obvious why he could never make it in television. His was the pacing of the oral tradition, and TV has no time for that. Greatest comic exhibition I saw in my entire life was Shep live at Camden County Community College around 1969. I laughed so hard my body literally ached for days.
Ruitherford, NJ, Bergen County...7 miles from the city, with the skyline always there....in high school, under the covers listening to Jean well past bedtime with my prized transistor radio...a few of us would do the "Flick Lives" sign as we passed in the halls....New Year's Eve...in Town Hall, blocks from Times Square, playing kazoos as Jean wound up his show. You could hear Times Square going nuts at midnight. That was the ONLY time I ever went to NYC on New Year's Eve 1967 and it was to see Jean! Nothing on the airwaves like him....we listened to his political take, his imagination go wild....Loved his PBS series, too! adored him then...and NOW! Jean, where ever you are.....FLICK LIVES!
@@isettajohn Nice to meet you! Was back to visit in 2016 and still have relatives in Rutherford. My mother taught in the Jr. and Sr. High Schools through the mid-80's--mostly Social Studies.
@isettajohn He often referred to it as Fairly Ridiculous. I was envious every year or so when he’d plug his upcoming show there, 100 miles away from young me.
This made me cry as I miss being able to hear "Shep" (as we used to call him) and his various observations and witticisms from the days of WOR to the shows I worked on with him later as an adult at NJPTV and WGBH...thanks so much for posting this...
"EXCELSIOR!" - indeed; as a HS kid in Plymouth Mass, listened on WGBH-FM to taped shows on the weekend until the night I was DXing and heard that distinctive voice on WOR AM...and life wold never be anything but sardonic again. It's 50+ years later, and still Shep reigns.
@@rghart4025 Hello GBH-er... did you see the show we did with him for WGBH? I remember when he came back to NJ and I was lucky enough to work on that show Shepard's American Pie and a live concert. We were headed back to Trenton one day and out of the blue he had us go up a road and did 45 minutes on this abandoned drive in a Drive-In movie theater and Shep predicted how they would go away to conto development and all the movies would be on your TV... and how the TVs would get smaller and smaller. That was before hand-held phones of course. He was such a sociologist and I miss his insights... even George Carlin couldn't replace Shep!
Love Shep! He was a big part of my childhood. My brother and I shared a bed as little kids and we listened to Shep weeknights and laughed together. Look at how Shep mesmerized Letterman and the audience. They hung on his every word. My childhood would have been the less if not for Jean Shepherd. Mad Magazine, and my Lionel train set.
Tuesday 21st February 2023 It's 9:40 a.m. I'm in my truck working I just poured myself a cup of coffee and started watching this video I'm sure the people next to me at the stoplight are wondering why I'm laughing so hard and I don't dare take a sip of this coffee what a wonderful storyteller
I didn't realize how funny he was. I came here to see what the voice of the father in Carousel of Progress looked like.. I really cannot believe I didn't realize it's the same guy from A Christmas Story. Mind blown. 🤯🤯🤯🤯
My wife and I used to listen to his radio show, back in the seventies, on Monday nights. Jean was a mesmerizing story teller. Couldn’t skip a Monday night. He was truly funny and just plain entertaining.
"The old man could replace a fuse faster than a jack rabbit on a date. He bought'em by the gross." Nobody could do a metaphor like Jean Shephard. Completely singular sensibility. And it's interesting to see him on Letterman. They were both masters of irreverence in their respective generations.
Shep was an American treasure. Still is, actually. And the early Letterman shows were so great; he'd have on all kinds of oddballs and creative people who weren't superstars, just interesting and offbeat. Miss those days.
Thanks so much for posting this Don! As a kid growing up on Long Island in the '60s I listened to Jean's show every weeknight on WOR. It was on from 10:15 to 11:00 and I was supposed to be asleep in bed so listened through the little cheap plastic earphone that hooked into my 6-transistor radio. Jean was so consistently funny that it was all I could do to stifle my laughter on many occasions so that my parents wouldn't hear it. He seemed to be endlessly inspired as he related stories about his childhood growing up in Indiana and also about his Army experiences. The characters of his life became so familiar they were like my own friends. His momentum would build throughout each show, and at its close he'd play some swelling music...and leave you totally satisfied, yet wanting more. And you knew he'd be on again the next night. No matter what was going on in school or at home, his show was a safe, uplifting refuge. RIP Jean, you are sorely missed. For those of you who liked the movie A Christmas Story, which is taken from Jean's material, go get his book "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash". You won't be disappointed.
A friend from work had a reel to reel tape recorder with a broken motor. He used to twirl the reels by hand to record Shep's radio shows. I gave a Shep book to another friend; his 12 year old son dictated the contents of the book onto cassettes. I created a true fan.
Thank You for a great synopsis of what Jean Shepard was like to listen to on WOR New York. My Dad turned me on to him when I was young, and we'd enjoy the shows immensely. I did get to see him perform live at Princeton. Such a memorable experience with my Dad, who truly was a Huge fan. I encourage anyone to listen to a show and not be enthralled with Shepard's exquisite delivery and elaborate details.
Same - grew up in central NJ and listened to his show at night. I remember how he used to get around the censors by referring to a guy as a "dilldock". Cracked me up!
As a kid I would hide under the covers at night listening to Shep on the small crystal radio I had made. It was always the highlight of my day. I often drifted off and would awake with music …… American Airlines “Music til Dawn” on WOR.
If you don't like Jean Shepherd, you have no heart or soul. Enjoyed listening to Jean's story and watching Letterman at a loss for words. It seemed he had no idea of who Jean was. Thanks.
I'm a late 80's, 90's kid that grew up with "A Christmas Story". Didn't recognize the name or face but that voice is unmistakable as the narrator. Funny guy. Thanks as always, Don.
This one flew under my radar. I had heard Jean on late-night radio many times. I wasn't aware he had been on Letterman. I started regularly watching at the end of March 1982, missing this episode, which I don't believe they ever re-ran.
His program length and start time shifted over the years. I started listening in 1965, and in 1968 or so, they moved him an hour earlier. IIRC, that meant a start time shift from 11.15 to 10:15, which made getting up for school a lot easier.
IDK how I missed this post until now, Don. THANK YOU for this video. I listened to Shepherd every night on WOR, instead of Top 40. I was enthralled. My Dad, on the other hand, referred to him as "that B.S. Artist." Yet, my folks still took me to see him when he was signing "The Ferrari In The Bedroom" at A & S in Hempstead. Still have the pictures my Mother took of me with him, and still have the autographed book.
Several years ago we visited Jean Shepherd Community Center and saw the kid actors in Christmas Story. I was honored to talk with author of Excelsior You Fathead, Eugene Bergmann. We saw the actual home that Jean Shepherd literally really grew up in Hammond Indiana. My girls were young then but remember that like yesterday. We have watched Shep's, Ollie Hopnoodles Haven of Bliss many times. Great movie about an average family vacation. It's on RU-vid.
thanks for the memory jog! this guy was the greatest story teller of ALL time.usta listen to him at what seemed like late night when I was a kid laying in bed with the lights out.unless your an old geezer like me, you probably just know him for the iconic Christmas story. but do yourself a favor and look him up on the internet for some of his old shows, priceless.comedy is so rare today it's undercooked, this guy always delivered with his oddball nostalgia,like other masters Groucho and Vonnegut. some quality like this stays well preserved like antique furniture. Excelsior indeed.
He wrote several humorous books, recorded albums, had several radio shows and was considered a great storyteller. He’s more than “A Christmas Story.” There’s other made for TV movies based on his stories, several here on RU-vid.
Don, you are a scholar and a gentleman. I can't thank you enough, good sir. Sure hope you are safe and sound during this quarantine. Thank you again so much!
Good ole Shep, his ease and charm honed through many years on WOR--AM & FM and at the Limelight in Greenwich Village. This with Letterman was a couple years shy of the release of "A Christmas Story" in theaters.
*Thanks for posting !!* I listened faithfully to Shep's 45-minute WOR am show from the late sixties to the mid seventies when it wrapped up. Interesting to hear how he condenses the elements of two tales he might have taken 20 minutes a piece to gradually develop, making it seem like it's just off the cuff, until the ending swoops down and ties it all together~~~~ here he lays it all out in four and a half minutes, while still trying to convey his sense of verbal rhythms. Surprised I never saw this, I must have had a gig that night~~ Thanks again!
@@robertthikkurissy679 That's right. And he has other connections to Disney studios. But for me I think the original narrator holds a special nostalgia for that Carousel of Progress. But life is about change-- so who am I to argue? :)
My father, born in 1940, would listen to Sheppard while at Fordham. One night Shepard suggested a cartoon in which an Edison type is leaning over a hand blown lightbulb saying, “hello, hello… Damn thing doesn’t work. The cartoon showed up a few days later in the school newspaper.
My father introduced me to Jean Shepherd when I was around 9 or 10. Every night at 9 PM I would be in bed with my transistor radio in my ear, listening to him tell stories on WOR 710 A.M. It was magical.
This is really interesting. Given Dave's interest in radio (he certainly knew about Bob & Ray, for example), it's intriguing that he clearly has no idea what Shepherd did on the radio, and doesn't realize that what Shepherd's doing here is essentially a mini-version of one of his radio hours. (Shepherd is really working hard, selling his material.) Dave is trying--he's never sarcastic with Shep--but he can't quite get himself attuned to Shepherd's rhythms. I wonder why Shepherd was booked; maybe he had a fan on the staff. Thanks for posting this.
I think it's just that there's no room for improvisation in this type of a polished storyteller's routine. He makes a few simple comments but knows better than to derail Shepherd's train of thought.
Listening to Shep always brings me into a great space where weather is different but the kids are still kids. The Great Indiana Blizzard would be just if not better than The Christmas Storey. The visuals , the sounds and trying to dig to school and the aftermath are amazing even if you are not a kid. Kudos to whoever puts these on for us to enjoy
Much as I admire each of these guys, clearly they don't mesh, and maybe you have nailed the reason. Maybe Shep was never really great at conversation, more used to talking non-stop to himself, or to an engineer behind the glass who never responded, or to an audience without conversing. Or maybe Dave just didn't get it, or was even, at that stage, a bit intimidated by the combo of knowing that Shepherd's reputation was legendary while not really knowing what he did.
It's too bad Dave hadn't experienced Shep personally. My first Shep experience was the December 1968 Playboy with "Banjo Butt Meets Julia Child." I never heard his radio work, being just beyond the range of NYC radio stations, but I saw his shows on PBS and New Jersey Network. Shep had a column in Car and Driver in the early 70s, some of which left me in tears of laughter. And I was also lucky enough to see him in person in Princeton 15 times, Clinton NJ twice.
@@brucestrickland8561 Interesting, that you got to be a fan without hearing him in his usual element. It reflects how good he was as a writer, and the quality of the TV adaptations.
By freak accident , I heard a recording of his show and loved it. Found a podcast that plays his stuff. He’s great. I find his show shows how nothing really changes but technology, his analysis of humans are spot on and the most amazing thing is , he seems like someone I couldn’t stand I real life lol.
Interesting comment, and you’re spot on about liking him or not IRL. He was married 3 times, and had 2 kids with one wife who he walked out on and rarely saw afterwards. I think he had a very big ego, which you’d need to make it in major market radio back then.
The magic of radio ~~~~ the listener makes the pictures to go with the words, the skillful storyteller brings his audience into the fire's glow to co-create the experience ~~~~
Jean was great. But I think even by 1982 people were not so much into story-tellers. He's doing his show here; with all the subtly and quietude that radio appreciates, but not so much television. Guys like Jean Shepherd and Garrison Keillor were radio, NOT TV. That we have lost this great art form is a shame.
"I moodily squatted on the edge of my poured-concrete bed with its meager foam rubber cushion. Mere inches from my nose, Principles of Organic Chemistry, a hated volume of arcane, stupid, useless lore lay open on my desk amid a few scattered notebook pages, bearing my pitiful notes. Chemistry was my Moby Dick. I had a brooding, certain knowledge that it would get me in the end. Subsequent events were to bear this out, but that is another story." Page 11. I have that quote posted outside my door (I teach organic chemistry). My mother - bless her - had Shep sign a copy of his new book "A fistful of Fig Newtons" at a library convention.
I am producing a documentary on Jean Shepherd and had just recently reached out to Dave's folks to inquire about an interview with Dave about this interview between he and Shepherd. For those interested in more on Jean Shepherd and the documentary being produced check it out here: www.shepdocumentary.com
Nice to see that, at least when I'm typing this, "Great American 4th of July" is finally on YT! Watching it is AAA: an Amusing American Adventure! (I prefer it to Christmas Story.)
My brother told me about this interview… fantastic! Saw him live at Metuchen High School circa 1968… and listened most nights before bed with my transistor radio! Excelsior! (You fathead)
Shep! Don, do you have a collection of Late Show Fun Fact segments? As a teacher I have used a few of the lines in class and I’ve been missing that segment. If not the whole thing, perhaps only one or two clips. It would make my week!
There were over 140 “FunFact” segments. I’ve compiled none of them and plan on never doing so. It would take an enormous amount of time determining which to select. So this won’t happen anytime soon, if ever.
He strode in real gangster, nice and smooth like Frank Costello striding into the senate chamber. He probably got that from his dad. His dad was a street guy in Chicago. He spoke about his dad stealing copper and doing all kinds of other antics.
Shep was the greatest.As a kid, I listened Ito his show, intently, at night in the fifties. Later, I was also a Letterman fan, but I don't think he was at all interested of understood that JS was a ground breaking genius in media and that he indirectly owed a debt to pioneers like Jean.
@@marty9660 The movie combines a bunch of his short stories over the years, collected in a couple of his books, which in turn overlapped with various tales he spun on the radio. The movie is a sort of "Shepherd's greatest hits," at least from among his growing-up stories.
6:45 who’s this strumming, I immediately thought “Is that Paul Weller from The Jam?” (I promise I read the Description, Don 😅). Is it a baby Will Lee?!
Don - I'm not on Twitter, so I'll post this here. Wasn't there a time when Late Night promoted the fact that Woody Allen was going to be on the show and it had to do with Dave going to some party when Woody just stood by awkwardly? Feels like a fever dream, but I think it actually happened. Also, any chance you can post that bit where the show mimicked Yellow Submarine? Two requests in one post...don't hate me!
