The Late Shift
Synopsis
David Letterman vies with Jay Leno and his manager to succeed Johnny Carson, retiring from "The Tonight Show."
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 43+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Box Office
Box office
Produced on a $6.0M budget
Production budget
$6.0M
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Cast & Crew
43 unique people credited
Top billed cast
John Michael Higgins
as David Letterman
Daniel Roebuck
as Jay Leno
Kathy Bates
as Helen Kushnick
Bob Balaban
as Warren Littlefield
Ed Begley Jr
as Rod Perth
Peter Jurasik
as Howard Stringer
Reni Santoni
as John Agoglia
John Kapelos
as Robert Morton
Steven Gilborn
as Peter Lassally
John Getz
as Brandon Tartikoff
Lawrence Pressman
as Bob Wright
Sandra Bernhard
as Sandra Bernhard
Supporting cast
31Treat Williams
as Michael Ovitz
David Brisbin
as Alan Levine
Michael Chieffo
as Rick Ludwin
Wendy Cutler
as Reporter #2 Letterman Press Conference
Nancy Cheryll Davis
as Reporter #2 Carnegie Hall
Paul Elder
as Rupert Murdoch
Michael Fairman
as Michael Gartner
John R Fors
as Writer #2
Nicholas Guest
as Robert Iger
Lucinda Jenney
as Debbie Vickers
Ivan Kane
as Reporter #1
Ken Kragen
as Ken Kragen
Susan Krebs
as Airport Attendant
James Kiriyama Lem
as Reporter #1 Letterman Press Conference
Dan Lipe
as Writer #1
Aaron Lustig
as Paul Shaffer
Cynthia Lynch
as Laurie Diamond
Michael C Mccarthy
as Jim Brogan
Kerry Noonan
as Letterman's Girlfriend
Penny Peyser
as Susan Binford
Little Richard
as Little Richard
Ann Ryerson
as Betty Hudson
Kevin Scannell
as Dick Ebersol
Edmund L Shaff
as Jack Welsh
Joanne Takahashi
as Thai Waitress
Arthur Taxier
as Lee Gabler
Cathy Worthington
as Kragen's Asst.
Rich Little
as Johnny Carson
Arnold F Turner
as Reporter #3 Letterman Press Conference
Dean Francois
as CBS Executive to Howard Stringer (uncredited)
Angie Gray
as Mrs. Wright (uncredited)
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