later Late Night with David Letterman and finally Late Night with Conan O'Brien). Final three weeks Letterman received notice that his show was being cancelled, but would continue for three more weeks. He decided that if he had three weeks on the air, he was going to have fun with them. He arranged a "Have The David Letterman Show in Your Own Home" contest and chose a family in Cresco, Iowa. He flew in a farmer named Floyd Stiles from Collins, Missouri, with his wife, Zola Mae Stiles, and gave him a "Floyd Stiles Day". Esquire noted, "He cut loose with his own jokes until they had a 2:00 a.m. comedy-club edge. He reached for his emergency weapons. Let go, he let go. By the beginning of October, audiences were packing themselves into the studio." College boys hitched cross-country with petitions to save him. Some Long Island housewives threatened to block Manhattan traffic until the network relented. For the next year, NBC would pay him $1,000,000 to do nothing except not work for someone else without their permission. Episode status Approximately 83 episodes (of the 90 produced) are held in the archives of Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants in New York City; a brief clip from the finale was shown on Letterman's 15th anniversary show in 1997, and several episodes were featured as interstitials on the Late Show's'' final episode in 2015. Some episodes are available for on-site viewing at the Paley Center for Media in New York. In 2022, Letterman started releasing interviews from this program on his official YouTube-channel, after longtime Letterman-archivist Don Giller did this on his own fan channel. References External links Opening minutes of the September 30, 1980 show Detailed Episode Guide for The David Letterman Show 1980 American television series debuts 1980 American television series endings 1980s American television talk shows English-language television shows NBC original programming American live television series Television series by Universal Television David Letterman