Letterman Gets What He Wants: Respect

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/16/2002 at 01:45 AM EDT

CBS unveiled its fall schedule Wednesday at New York's Carnegie Hall, and there was a special surprise guest -- who even surprised his network, says the Hollywood Reporter. "Late Night" bad boy David Letterman, 55, strolled out onstage before the assembled ad buyers and declared, "What a dump!" Many of his remarks, reports the trade paper, were aimed at CBS president Les Moonves, who nearly lost the star to rival ABC, which not too long ago was wooing Letterman to replace "Nightline" and Ted Koppel. Playing off the poorly kept secret that Dave has felt underappreciated by his network, a videotape presentation showed Moonves scrubbing down Letterman's car, cleaning the fake windows on the "Late Night" set and impersonating bandleader Paul Shaffer. Mel Karmazin, the CEO of Viacom (which owns CBS), also leapt into the act. His tape showed him driving a truck up to Letterman's house and dumping money bags on the doorstep. Letterman ended his appearance with "Top 10 ways I will make the 'Late Show' better," he said. "No. 10 -- who am I kidding? After 20 years, I'm too tired to do anything but the same old crap." As for new CBS shows, they include former "NYPD Blue" star David Caruso, 46, in a spinoff of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" to be called "CSI: Miami," reports The New York Times, and "Presido Med," a medical drama from two creative forces behind NBC's "ER" and starring Blythe Danner, Dana Delaney and Anna Deavere Smith. Cancelled were "Family Law," "The Education of Max Bickford" and "First Monday."