Stephen King Talking Creepshow On Late Night With David Letterman (1982)

Friends, while I will sadly admit that all of the podcasts I have a hand in producing are running a little late this month – teaming up with the Projectionist on the Saturday Frights podcast – it is safe to say I enjoy the horror genre. Stephen King was a large part of my life while growing up – starting with his short story collection from ’85, the paperback release of Skeleton Crew. While I feel it is honest to say I truly became a fan of King’s writing thanks to his 1986 novel It – I first learned of him thanks to the number of film adaptations based on his work. Carrie, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Christine, Cujo, and of course Creepshow. In fact on the Saturday Frights podcast we tackled each segment of that 1982 horror anthology film separately – as I felt they each deserved a full-length discussion. While I do quite enjoy Creepshow 2 from ’87 – it is missing some of the elements that made the original film so much fun – such a perfect tribute to the EC Comics titles like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear. Creepshow‘s upcoming release to theaters was why Stephen King was a guest on Late Night with David Letterman – supposedly taped on April 1st of 1982.

I have no reason to doubt that Stephen King’s appearance on Late Night with David Letterman didn’t take place on the 1st of April – especially since he mentions Creepshow was being released in July. If you go by the internet movie database however the film was actually released to theaters on November 12th of ’82 – and for what little it is worth – I am pretty positive I caught it at the Drive-In in ’83. At that point we had two Drive-In theaters in my neck of the woods and they were both seasonal – which means it would have been shown around here in the Spring of ’83.

Here is a fun fact for you to end the article – Late Night with David Letterman premiered on the night of February 1st of ’82 – with Bill Murray as the very first guest. This was nearly two years after David Letterman had his own morning show on NBC, The David Letterman Show. While the morning program won two Emmy Awards – it ended up being cancelled due to NBC not being happy with the ratings numbers for the show.