How to watch classic David Letterman clips on YouTube

Celebrated late night host and Indianapolis native David Letterman announced a new YouTube channel during a heartfelt return to "Late Night with Seth Meyers" on Tuesday night — exactly 40 years after Letterman debuted the NBC show.

During a 20-minute interview that spanned the career and experiences of both hosts, their families, the coronavirus pandemic and the late night genre, Meyers teed up a plug for Letterman's channel. It includes segments from both "Late Night with David Letterman" and CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman," including standup comedy performances, celebrity interviews, top 10 lists and other popular gags from Letterman's 33 years on late-night television.

Meyers noted that Letterman looked away as the program showed a famed early clip of "elevator races" in the NBC building, as Letterman does not like to watch his old shows and will not be frequenting the new YouTube channel.

Asked if Harry, Letterman's 18-year-old son, enjoys seeing old clips of his dad, Letterman quipped "I don't think he enjoys seeing me in person."

More: 40 years ago today, David Letterman's 'Late Night' debuted. Watching it today is weird.

The channel began uploading clips on Tuesday, with more added at a steady pace Wednesday.

Among the highlights are some of Letterman's more iconic gags, such as working the drive-thru window at a Taco Bell, as well as interviews from throughout the decades with Beyoncé, Bill Gates, Tom Brady, Taylor Swift and a pre-presidential Barack Obama.

But the greatest trove is the collection of standup sets, including Jerry Seinfeld's first appearance in 1982, Norm MacDonald's final televised set in 2015 and a wild 1993 Bobcat Goldthwait performance.

During his guest spot Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Letterman and Meyers bonded over the "paralytic fear" each felt early on in hosting the show.

Letterman asked Meyers about hosting the show remotely, which the latter did for several months as the pandemic raged on. Meyers said it brought him closer to the home viewing audience, whom he realized was usually watching several nights a week.

Meyers said Letterman would have thrived in that environment, and Letterman agreed.

"The constraints of that — you don't look at them as constraints so much as opportunities," Letterman said. "Here I am at the house. What can I do? And, you know, I would go wake my family — see how that goes."

Meyers asked about Letterman's decision to use his mother, Carmel's Dorothy Mengering, who passed away in 2017, as a regular guest on the show as both a kitchen and Olympics correspondent.

More: Dorothy Mengering's life story, written by her children

Letterman borrowed the idea from Howard Stern, then a radio disc jockey, and it took off.

"People would say 'oh, we love your mother. We love your mother.' Yeah? Try living with her for 18 years," he joked.

"I found with Mom, it was like doing a ventriloquist's act, because in the question I would have to supply the answer," Letterman said. "And we'd get along and people thrived on this and loved it, and I thought it was a great way to bring us closer together."

Though he praised Meyers' band and show, particularly the "jokes Seth can't tell" segments, Letterman chastised the host for not having "an animal guy."

He recounted the time Jack Hanna — who "we realized two or three shows in knew nothing about animals'' — was bitten on set by a beaver.

Letterman said Hanna refused an ambulance because he "didn't want to call attention to the show."

"He was afraid he would embarrass the show," Letterman said, adding it eventually became a police matter when hospital personnel mistook the bite as a gunshot wound.

Meyers, as you might expect, was not especially swayed by this argument.

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Rory Appleton is the pop culture reporter at IndyStar. Contact him at 317-552-9044 and rappleton@indystar.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RoryDoesPhonics.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: David Letterman returns to 'Late Night,' announces YouTube channel