Worldwide Pants Incorporated is an American television production and film production company owned by comedian and talk show host David Letterman. Current television productions include Late Show with David Letterman (1993-present) and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005-present). This article is about television in the United States, specifically its history, art, business and government regulation. ... Film production on location in Newark, New Jersey. ... For the documentary about Jerry Seinfeld, see Comedian (film). ... A talk show (U.S.) or chat show (Brit. ... David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947, in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.) is an Emmy Award-winning American television host and comedian. ... Late Show redirects here. ... The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show on CBS. It immediately follows The Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Lettermans Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City, next to the studio of the game program The Price Is Right. ...

The company is headquartered at the Ed Sullivan Theater Building in New York City. The president and CEO is a former Late Show executive producer, Rob Burnett; Peter Lassally, a former Tonight Show and Late Show executive producer and current Late Late Show executive producer, is a senior vice-president. Ed Sullivan. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ... Late Show with David Letterman is an hour-long weeknight comedy and talk show broadcast by CBS from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City. ... Rob Burnett is an Emmy Award winning producrer, director and writer, best known for being the executive producer of shows such as Ed, Late Show with David Letterman, and the new ABC comedy The Knights of Prosperity. ... Peter Lassally is a former Carson Productions executive who served as the executive producer of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Late Night with David Letterman, and the Late Show with David Letterman. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Late Show with David Letterman is an hour-long weeknight comedy and talk show broadcast by CBS from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City. ... The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show on CBS. It immediately follows The Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Lettermans Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City, next to the studio of the game program The Price Is Right. ...

Past television productions

The first Worldwide Pants production was Late Night with David Letterman, produced in partnership with NBC and Carson Productions. Late Night with David Letterman was a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. ... Carson Productions is a television production company established by Johnny Carson in the early 1980s to primarily produce The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1980 to 1992 and Late Night with David Letterman from 1982 to 1993. ...

Subsequent productions for CBS include:

• The Building (1993)
• The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder (1995-1999)
• The Bonnie Hunt Show (1995-1996)
• Welcome to New York (2000-2001)
• The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (1999-2004)
• Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005)

The company also produced The High Life (1996) for HBO, Ed (2000-2004) for NBC, and The Knights of Prosperity (2007) for ABC. The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show on CBS. It immediately follows The Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Lettermans Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City, next to the studio of the game program The Price Is Right. ... The Bonnie Hunt Show is an upcoming syndicated talk show to be hosted by comedian Bonnie Hunt set to premiere in fall 2008. ... Welcome to New York is a short lived sitcom television series that aired on CBS. The show starred Jim Gaffigan who played a weatherman from Fort Wayne, Indiana and then moves to New York and worked as a meteorologist. ... The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show on CBS. It immediately follows The Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Lettermans Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City, next to the studio of the game program The Price Is Right. ... Everybody Loves Raymond is an American sitcom originally broadcast on CBS from 1996 to 2005. ... The High Life is a DVD released by the ska punk band [spunge] on March 21, 2005. ... HBO (Home Box Office) is a premium cable television network with headquarters in New York City. ... Ed was an NBC television program produced by Worldwide Pants Incorporated from 2000-2004. ... The Knights of Prosperity is a TV comedy series that premiered on ABC in the United States on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 and lasted less than one season. ...

In April 2005 the Sci Fi Channel announced Barbarian Chronicles, a half-hour animated ensemble comedy from Brendon Small, which will be produced by Worldwide Pants. SCI FI (originally The Sci-Fi Channel, sometimes rendered SCI FI Channel) is an American cable television channel, launched in early 1992,[1] that specializes in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. ... The Barbarian Chronicles is a planned animated television program by Brendon Small, creator of the program Home Movies (cartoon series). ... Brendon Small (born February 15, 1975 in Springfield, Illinois) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, composer, and musician. ...

A 2002 Forbes article comments on the approach Letterman takes for Worldwide Pants television productions: For other uses, see Forbes (disambiguation). ...

Letterman's approach is to nurture an idea with seed money from his production company, then get someone else to pay for the rest of it. He isn't particularly hands-on once the programs get past the initial stages, but his imprimatur carries weight with network buyers. "They've got a point of view about everything they do," says Chris Albrecht, president of original programming at HBO. "These guys are making television every night and have been for a long time. You feel more comfortable with them."

Chris Albrecht was chairman and CEO of Home Box Office from July 2002 until May 2007. ...

Film production

The company has produced its first film, a movie prequel to the TV show Strangers with Candy, also called Strangers with Candy. The film had its world premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, within the "Park City at Midnight" category. Warner Independent Pictures subsequently signed up as North American distributor of the film, before ThinkFilm acquired the rights from Warner, scheduling a limited release of the film in summer 2006. A prequel is a work that portrays events which include the structure, conventions, and/or characters of a previously completed narrative, but occur at an earlier time. ... Strangers with Candy is a television series produced by Comedy Central. ... Strangers With Candy is a film released in 2006 by ThinkFilm, first screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ... The year 2005 in film involved some significant events. ... The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival in the state of Utah in the United States. ... Park City, Utah Main Street during a parade Looking down Main Street Park City is a city located in Summit County, Utah, United States. ... WIPs logo, which closely resembles half of the WB shield. ... ThinkFilm is a distibutor of independent films which was founded in 2001. ...

Worldwide Pants logo

The Worldwide Pants card following The Late Show With David Letterman is usually accompanied by a one-liner somehow involving pants. Examples of this include "Nice pants, Pepe", "Time for pants!", "Take off the pants, Penny", "Mmmm...Deep-Dish Pants!" and "Did you say 'pants?'" Sometimes the voice-over is odd or bizarre, for example, "That's damn good mayo," "I hate bread" and "Nice Shoes, Big Shot." The stranger lines are performed by show announcer Alan Kalter, while the mock-serious versions are usually voiced by freelancer Jay Gardner. If the logo appears on a show besides The Late Show, it is usually overridden by the closing music of the preceding show (the most common instance of this is on Everybody Loves Raymond reruns in syndication and on TBS), or generic network music (which is primarily used to override logo music in the first place). Alan Kalter on the Late Show with David Letterman Alan Kalter, or Big Red, began his stint as the voice of The Late Show with David Letterman on September 5, 1995. ... Everybody Loves Raymond is an American sitcom originally broadcast on CBS from 1996 to 2005. ...

The card first appeared when older Late Night with David Letterman episodes were briefly rerun on the A&E cable network. In that case, the logo aired at the beginning of the show, was more elaborately animated, and featured a consistent voiceover from Gardner: Late Night with David Letterman was a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. ...

"Worldwide Pants! The leader in pants and entertainment... and pants."

Origin of the Name

This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (December 2007)

The reason for Letterman using the word pants in his production company's name probably dates back to an early incident on Late Night. While playing a piece of film Dave read a joke essentially consisting of the line "Guess what's in this guy's pants". However, when the piece aired that evening the NBC censors decided to mute the word pants from the punchline. Letterman, more amused than annoyed, talked extensively on-air about the absurdity of the word pants somehow being considered offensive or risqué. Letterman used pants humor extensively for two or more weeks; creating an hilarious footnote in censorship history. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Production company refers to a company responsible for the development and physical production of performing arts, film, radio or a television program. ... Late Night with David Letterman was a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. ... This article is about the television network. ...

Pants humor returned during the first Late Show episode of 2008. Letterman was ready to activate a pair of electric underpants, an accessory Letterman said was necessary to fight back the biting winter weather picketing writers faced, when he was interrupted by a member of his writing staff; Bill Scheft. Scheft noted that, although Letterman was on the air with his writers, the writers strike remained unresolved. Scheft then berated the media moguls for "spending all [their] money on cufflinks, cocktails, and whores" and urged them to bargain in good faith so that maybe "America won't be denied seeing David Letterman hold up a pair of flaming underpants." Late Show redirects here. ... Employees of the BBC form a picket line during a strike in May 2005. ...

2007 Writers Guild of America Strike

Production of new episodes ceased on November 5, 2007 when the Worldwide Pants writers joined the strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade association to which Worldwide Pants is a member. During the first part of the strike reruns of Worldwide Pants shows were aired. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is a trade association based in Encino, California, USA that represents over 350 production companies and studios in negotiations with entertainment industry trade unions in collective bargaining. ... An industry trade group is generally a public relations organization funded, founded and formed by corporations that operate in a specific industry. ... Rerun van Pelt is the name of Linus and Lucys younger brother in the comic strip Peanuts. ...

This changed due to an extraordinary development on December 28, 2007 when Worldwide Pants broke ranks with the AMPTP by negotiating an independent, interim collective bargaining agreement with the Writers Guild of America in which Worldwide Pants essentially agreed to operate in accordance with the contract demands of the WGA for the duration of the labor dispute. The agreement allowed both The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to return to the airwaves with their full writing staffs on January 2, 2008. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the contract between the NHL and the NHLPA that defines the structure of procedural, financial, and disciplinary relationships between the NHL, its teams, and its players. ... Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is a labor union representing writers of television and film and employees of television and radio news. ... Late Show redirects here. ... The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show on CBS. It immediately follows The Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Lettermans Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City, next to the studio of the game program The Price Is Right. ...

The agreement gave Worldwide Pants and CBS a perceived advantage over their rivals at NBC. The latter network was unable to make similar arrangements for its late night programming because NBC has retained control of production operations for both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Unlike CBS, NBC would have had to negotiate an agreement covering the entire network in order to have writers work on the two late night shows. NBC aired new episodes of its late night shows on the same night as CBS, but without writers. This meant, among other things, that Leno and O'Brien were unable to perform their traditional monologues without violating strike rules (as the WGA had determined Leno did with monologues he claimed to write) and were unable to secure the appearance of many A-list celebrities, since most SAG celebrities refused to cross a picket line. This article is about the television network. ... May 26, 2006 opening monologue of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an Emmy Award-winning American late-night talk show hosted by comedian Jay Leno on NBC. It premiered on May 25, 1992, succeeding The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. ... Late Night with Conan OBrien is an Emmy Award-winning American late night talk show that is syndicated worldwide. ... A monologue, pronounced monolog, is a speech made by one person speaking his or her thoughts aloud or directly addressing a reader, audience, or character. ... For other uses, see Celebrity (disambiguation). ... Employees of the BBC form a picket line during a strike in May 2005. ...

The granting of complete control of The Late Show to Letterman was originally a condition CBS accepted in exchange for Letterman's agreement to switch networks in 1993.

External links and sources

• Worldwide Pants Incorporated at the Internet Movie Database
• Summary of the company, from Hoover's via Yahoo!
• Celebrity 100 article about Letterman and Worldwide Pants, from a July 2002 Forbes article
• Who Ever Said Comedy Had To Be Fun?, from a May 2003 Fast Company article
• Sound clips of some Worldwide Pants logo voiceovers, from a fan's website
• Letterman's Worldwide Pants Inc and WGA Reach Agreement, a New York Times article from December 29 2007
• Letterman to return in deal with striking writers, a Reuters article from December 29 2007