It has been a wild week on CBS TV .. the exit of David Letterman, some would argue, means a lot. Others may say it’s simply an overdue act and that the third placed not king of late night should have left fifteen years ago when the Internet began rolling on with viral videos–without him..

What is clear today though is this: The set that David Letterman used and said goodbye on was quickly disposed of.. Some pieces, CBS says, were kept safe and transported to other places.. The George Washington bridge was carefully loaded into a truck. But most other pieces of the fake skyline of New York City that was behind him was simply thrown into a dumpster..
AND..
Fans reacted by dumpster diving for pieces of television history.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sAWFbH41pQ]

Does the set throw-away say anything about a culture? A throwaway culture perhaps?

Think of this. For weeks during the run up to the final LATE SHOW, we were told television history was going to be made.. that this exit will be as memorable as Johnny Carson’s.. That David Letterman was saying goodbye and along with him an era of TV was going too… CBS had a special on to celebrate his LATE SHOW time—-a lackluster special if you ask me..

But the very day that Letterman exits, fans leaving the final show are seeing the stagehands bringing out pieces of the Ed Sullivan theater and throwing them into the garbage.
All to make way for Stephen Colbert—a person I still think CBS mistakingly put into a gig that he will not succeed at..

Yes, I think there are some cultural messages here. Some elements of who ‘we’ are in a way.. something deep and profound exists in watching CBS trash the star they paid millions to, and then to the fans diving into wreckage to ensure they keep a piece of the millionaire’s fake set.

All of this means something.
I just can’t figure out yet what it is..