and thoroughly rehearsed, but the interviews with
the show’s guests were not. This situation—given
Letterman’s willingness to needle even the most fa-
mous celebrities—led to some notoriously tense mo-
ments, especially when the celebrities did not share
Letterman’s sense of humor. (The actress Nastassja
Kinski, for example, vowed never to return to his
show after her on-air hairdo served as the butt of his
unwelcome jokes.) This element of unpredictability,
however, only made the show more popular, giving
viewers reared on television’s more pat conventions
a fresh reason to tune in. By forcing guests out of
their familiar personas, Letterman provoked some
of television’s earliest “real” moments, thus laying, if
inadvertently, the groundwork for the “reality televi-
sion” of the twenty-first century.
Impact Despite adopting the trappings ofThe To-
night Show, Letterman adapted them to his own
comic purposes, adding original routines and ele-
ments that would become standards among televi-
sion talk shows and exemplifying the possibility of in-
novation within even the most well-established of
formats.
Further Reading
Dunn, Brad.When They Were Twenty-Two: One Hun-
dred Famous People at the Turning Point in Their
Lives. Riverside, N.J.: Andrews McMeel, 2006.
Letterman, David.Late Night with David Letterman.
New York: Random House, 1985.
___.The Late Night with David Letterman Book of
Top Ten Lists. Edited by Leslie Wells. New York: Si-
mon & Schuster, 1990.
Arsenio Orteza
See also Comedians; Talk shows; Television.
Lévesque, René
Identification French Canadian premier of
Quebec from 1976 to 1985
Born August 24, 1922; Campbellton, New
Brunswick, Canada
Died November 1, 1987; Île des Sœurs, Quebec,
Canada
René Lévesque led Quebec’s sovereignist movement and
forced the Canadian government to tr y to address the con-
cerns of the Québécois.
René Lévesque was a Quebec nationalist activist and
politician. After uniting several groups that sup-
ported independence for the Canadian province to
form the Parti Québécois, he led this political party
to victory in Quebec’s election in 1976. Soon after
coming to power, his government passed Bill 101,
which made French the official language of Quebec.
In 1980, Premier Lévesque held a referendum on in-
dependence from Canada. His approach to achiev-
ing independence, however, was somewhat com-
plex. It was known as sovereignty-association. This
term meant that he sought popular approval from
his people to conduct negotiations with Canada re-
garding independence. If he were successful, another
referendum on the agreement reached in those
negotiations would follow.
Though the first referendum failed to obtain
public support, it led Canadian prime minister Pi-
erre Trudeau to attempt to satisfy the demands of
Quebec without granting the province sovereignty.
Even during the referendum campaign, TrudeauThe Eighties in America Lévesque, René 585
René Lévesque.(Library of Congress)