JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
You probably know the names Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert. Their late-night shows reach national audiences. But Maine has its very own voice of late night - Danny Cashman.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NITE SHOW")
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: From the Gracie Theatre in Bangor and broadcasting all over the state, it's Maine's only late-night talk show - "The Nite Show" with Danny Cashman.
DANNY CASHMAN: Thank you very much.
(CHEERING)
CASHMAN: Thank you. Welcome to "The Nite Show." My name is Danny Cashman.
SUMMERS: Airing Saturday nights in Maine's top three TV markets, "The Nite Show" has all of the trappings of those other late-night shows - opening monologue, studio audience, celebrity guests - but with an emphasis on the state of Maine. According to Cashman, it is the only locally produced late-night talk show in the country. But after 15 years, he is calling it quits. So we brought him on to talk about that decision and to reflect on his experiences hosting "The Nite Show." Danny Cashman, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
CASHMAN: Thank you, Juana. It's a pleasure to be here.
SUMMERS: So we know that you've already taped your last episode, which, as we said, will air on Saturday. I just want to know, how are you feeling in this moment? How does it feel to be closing the doors on "The Nite Show"?
CASHMAN: It was very bittersweet, I have to say, but the way that we were able to close this up has been sort of a dream storybook ending for us. And I think in comedy, timing is everything, and I think in television, it can be said the same, and I think we timed it just right. And just in the past few weeks, I've kind of come to a different level of peace with how we are wrapping this up now that it's right ahead of us.
SUMMERS: How did you make the decision? Was there a moment where you just knew it was finally time to sign off?
CASHMAN: There were a few moments, and I don't think any one of them was more significant than another, but they all sort of brought me to the same conclusion. One moment - my computer died on me, that I used to edit the show, the day I had to get a one-hour Christmas special and our regular edition of our show off to the stations. And it was the day before Christmas Eve. So I was in the office by myself trying to fix a computer, which I can't do, late into the evening. I finally did get the show off to the stations, but I thought to myself, this is not probably the best way to live one's life.
But in a more reflective way, I started this show when I was 19 years old, an earlier version of the show, and my parents were 47, and they dropped everything to help me live out this dream. And now I'm 47. I have a couple of kids. Life is busy. I want to make sure that I have that same ability to drop everything and help my kids with their dreams if they come up with some crazy idea like starting a TV show.
SUMMERS: I mean, that's incredible. That schedule has to be hectic. If I remember correctly, you still have a full-time job, right?
CASHMAN: Yeah, I'm a public relations person by day, and I also have a nonprofit that I've cofounded. I'm the chair of that. And the TV show has been - boy, it's been a stress reliever. It's been a dream. It's been everything that just kind of pulled me out of the day-to-day difficulties of work to be able to do something different.
SUMMERS: Now, many of our listeners probably associate late-night interview shows with those national names, from Johnny Carson to the Jimmys, but your show is a local show for a local audience. How is that different?
CASHMAN: Definitely more of an emphasis on local. We have local personalities, athletes, coaches, but we also have been able to bring in the occasional national person. We've had Patrick Dempsey. We had Ed Asner. We've had Paula Cole perform. And our final guest last weekend was my idol, David Letterman. And he came to our show as a surprise. Our audience did not know he was coming. Another idol of mine was Marc Summers - is Marc Summers. And he hosted "Double Dare" when I was a kid, but he's done a thousand things since then, both in front of the camera, behind the camera. He's been on Broadway. And he's done our show several times.
So we've been lucky to kind of bring people in like that, who have an appeal that goes beyond the state's borders. But then we do local comedy and local monologue jokes, local sketches. We do jokes about local dive bars that people in the state would understand. It might not hit as well to somebody in Dubuque, but in Maine it seems to go pretty well.
SUMMERS: Now, we actually have some tape from that episode where David Letterman came to your show. I know that aired last weekend. We'll play it.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NITE SHOW")
DAVID LETTERMAN: I understand you're leaving the show.
CASHMAN: I'm leaving the show, yeah.
LETTERMAN: I have a couple of thoughts, a couple of things to say. First of all, are you certain? Are you sure? Are you leaving to spend more time with your family? And if that's the reason, you might want to check with your family.
(LAUGHTER)
SUMMERS: And, Dan Cashman, I know from being in this job, we get so few of those opportunities where you get to be face to face and talk to and interview someone that you admire. I just - what was the experience like of having him on the show as your final celebrity guest?
CASHMAN: My head is still spinning from it, to be honest. It was equal parts surreal and unreal. Through the entire course of this show, I've tried to sort of emulate the people that I grew up watching. Letterman first and foremost, Johnny Carson - I somehow found after I found Letterman - and Conan are the three pillars for me for late-night talk show people. And I try to emulate them.
So in the moment, I was trying to think back to when David Letterman had Johnny Carson on his show the first time. And I was just trying to do my best to portray a late-night talk show host. And I'll say, as soon as he walked offstage - he disappeared sort of behind a doorway we have set up - and I went right back to being a fanboy. And I took a deep breath, and I couldn't believe what had just happened.
And the audience that we had in place, who had no idea that he was coming, gave a pretty lengthy standing ovation, and that got very emotional for me. My head was swirling, and I realized at some point, when they stopped clapping, they probably - I probably have to say something. And my head was blank. All I could say after a little bit of a pause was, thank you. I didn't really know what else to say. And I think at some point in time, I'll be able to process all of that, but I still haven't gotten there yet.
SUMMERS: Final episode hasn't aired yet, but I wonder, what do you want from that final episode to leave your audience with? What are some of the notes that you hope to hit?
CASHMAN: I really want to make sure that the audience understands how impactful the relationship has been that we've had with the students and the staff at the New England School of Communications at Husson University. The students have been the people running the cameras and running the audio and doing the backstage prep, and they go from that program on to work world-class events. So we have a little bit of a clip package ready to go that includes some of that.
And I want people to maybe see it the way that I've seen it, see this as a love letter to Maine, a love letter to Bangor, where we are based, but a love letter to Maine. We've tried hard to have fun on television. That's been our main goal, but to do it with a local angle. Especially today, there's so much divisiveness. There's so many people who are angry with each other or angry with things. And, yeah, we make fun of some politics, but we make fun of everything, and we try to do it in a way that's lighthearted and fun and not with any sort of agenda. And I hope that that's given people a chance to relax a little bit before they go to bed when they watch our show.
SUMMERS: Dan Cashman, host of Maine's "The Nite Show." Its final episode airs tomorrow. Thank you so much for joining us. And, Dan, congratulations.
CASHMAN: Thank you, Juana. Thank you again for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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