Worldwide Pants
Encyclopedia
Worldwide Pants Incorporated is an American television and film production company owned by comedian and talk show host David Letterman
. Its ongoing productions are Late Show with David Letterman
(since 1993) and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
(since 2005). It has produced the Late Show since 1993, and The Late Late Show since 1995.
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) is the senior vice-president; he is also the current Late Late Show executive producer.
, produced in partnership with NBC and Carson Productions
. The company, then known as Worldwide Pants Productions, shared a 1991 Peabody Award
, saying the three production companies managed to "take one of TV's most conventional and least inventive forms — the talk show — and infuse it with freshness and imagination."
Productions for CBS
:
Productions for NBC
:
Productions for ABC
:
Productions for PBS
:
Productions for HBO
:
(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. This changed 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 agreements automatically reverted to the final contract terms that the guild reached with the AMPTP at the end of the strike. 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 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 monologue
s 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
.
The granting of complete control of Late Show to Letterman was originally a condition CBS accepted in exchange for Letterman's agreement to switch networks in 1993.
, a prequel to the TV show of the same name
. The film premiered 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, giving it a limited release in summer 2006. The film grossed slightly more than $2 million, on $2 million production budget and $1.5 million prints and advertising budget.
article comments on the approach Letterman takes for Worldwide Pants television productions:
In April 2005 the Sci Fi Channel
announced that Worldwide Pants would produce a half-hour animated ensemble comedy for the channel from Brendon Small
, called Barbarian Chronicles
. A fall 2007 interview with Small posted on a hardcore/metal music review website made it clear that there are no plans to go through with the deal.
In October 2007, it was announced that Worldwide Pants would co-produce its first non-comedy project, a documentary about young adults running for public office. The documentary, titled The Youngest Candidate, was written and directed by Jason Pollock and premiered July 2008 at the Traverse City Film Festival
.
In March 2008, EcoMedia announced a "content partnership" with Worldwide Pants to "create original,
unscripted, environment-related content, in the style of The Late Show remote segments, for television and Internet distribution."
In 2008 Worldwide Pants signed a product placement deal with Ford to promote the Ford Flex
during The Late Late Show, using a series of weekly custom-written skits in which Ferguson played the leader of a band riding in a Flex as they traveled from Los Angeles International Airport
to the CBS Studio.
In April 2010, Worldwide Pants started Clear Entertainment, a.k.a. C.E. Music, a record label
and announced the signing of their first band Runner Runner
, a pop-punk group from Huntington Beach
, California
.
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
. Its ongoing productions are Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
(since 1993) and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is a Peabody Award-winning American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson, the third regular host of the Late Late Show franchise, follows Late Show with David Letterman in the CBS late-night lineup...
(since 2005). It has produced the Late Show since 1993, and The Late Late Show since 1995.
The company is headquartered at the Ed Sullivan Theater
Ed Sullivan Theater
The Ed Sullivan Theater, located at 1697-1699 Broadway between West 53rd and West 54th, in Manhattan, is a venerable radio and television studio in New York City...
Building in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The president and CEO is a former Late Show executive producer Rob Burnett
Rob Burnett (producer)
Rob Burnett is a producer, director and writer, best known for being the executive producer of Late Show with David Letterman. He is also the president and CEO of Worldwide Pants.In 2008, Burnett received the P.T...
. Peter Lassally
Peter Lassally
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...
(a former Tonight Show
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
and Late Show executive producer) is the senior vice-president; he is also the current Late Late Show executive producer.
Past television productions
The first Worldwide Pants production was Late Night with David LettermanLate Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
, produced in partnership with NBC and Carson Productions
Carson Productions
Carson Productions is a television production company established by Johnny Carson in 1980 to primarily produce The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1980 to 1992 and Late Night with David Letterman from 1982 to 1993....
. The company, then known as Worldwide Pants Productions, shared a 1991 Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
, saying the three production companies managed to "take one of TV's most conventional and least inventive forms — the talk show — and infuse it with freshness and imagination."
Productions for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
:
- The Late Show with David Letterman (1993 on)
- The Building (1993)
- The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder (1995–1999)
- The Bonnie Hunt ShowThe Bonnie Hunt ShowThe Bonnie Hunt Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted by Bonnie Hunt. It premiered on September 8, 2008. It is the second show featuring Bonnie Hunt to have that title. The first was a sitcom that ran for one season in 1995 and was retitled Bonnie when it returned after a mid-season hiatus...
(1995–1996) - Welcome to New YorkWelcome to New YorkWelcome to New York was a television sitcom that aired on CBS. The show starred Jim Gaffigan, who played a weatherman from Fort Wayne, Indiana, who then moved to New York and worked as a meteorologist for fictional morning news show called "AM New York"...
(2000–2001) - Everybody Loves RaymondEverybody Loves RaymondEverybody Loves Raymond is an American television sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005. Many of the situations from the show are based on the real-life experiences of lead actor Ray Romano, creator/producer Phil Rosenthal and the show's writing staff...
(1996–2005, owned by HBO) CBS - The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (1999–2004)
- The Late Late Show with Craig FergusonThe Late Late Show with Craig FergusonThe Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is a Peabody Award-winning American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson, the third regular host of the Late Late Show franchise, follows Late Show with David Letterman in the CBS late-night lineup...
(2005 on)
Productions for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
:
- Late Night with David LettermanLate Night with David LettermanLate Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
(1991–1993), co-produced with Carson ProductionsCarson ProductionsCarson Productions is a television production company established by Johnny Carson in 1980 to primarily produce The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1980 to 1992 and Late Night with David Letterman from 1982 to 1993.... - EdEd (TV series)Ed is an NBC television program co-produced by David Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated, NBC Productions, and Viacom Productions that aired from 2000 to 2004....
(2000–2004), (co-produced by Viacom ProductionsViacom ProductionsViacom Productions was a television production company active from 1974 until 2004.-History:*1971: Viacom Enterprises was reincorporated from CBS Enterprises .*1973: Viacom Enterprises was spun-off from CBS....
) NBC StudiosNBC StudiosThe NBC Studios in New York, New York is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the historic GE Building houses the headquarters of the NBC television network, its parent General Electric, and NBC's flagship station WNBC , as well as cable news channel MSNBC.When NBC Universal relocated,...
NBC
Productions for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
:
- The Knights of ProsperityThe Knights of ProsperityThe Knights of Prosperity was a short-lived comedy series that premiered on ABC in the United States on Wednesday, January 3, 2007. It was created by Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman, who also created the NBC comedy-drama Ed...
(2007)
Productions for PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
:
- Coming Home: Military Families Cope With ChangeSesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
in association with Sesame WorkshopSesame WorkshopSesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...
and Lookalike Productions (2009) - Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough TimesSesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
in association with Sesame WorkshopSesame WorkshopSesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...
and Lookalike Productions (2009) - Sesame Street: When Families GrieveSesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
in association with Sesame WorkshopSesame WorkshopSesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...
and Lookalike Productions (2010)
Productions for HBO
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...
:
- The High Life (1996)
2007 WGA strike
Production of new episodes of the company's two late-night CBS talk shows ceased on November 5, 2007 when the Worldwide Pants writers joined the strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television ProducersAlliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is a trade association based in Encino, California that represents over 350 American film production companies and studios in negotiations with entertainment industry trade unions in collective bargaining...
(AMPTP), the trade association
Trade association
A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association or sector association, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry...
to which Worldwide Pants is a member.
During the first part of the strike reruns of Worldwide Pants shows were aired. This changed when Worldwide Pants broke ranks with the AMPTP by negotiating an independent, interim collective bargaining agreement with the Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America, East
Writers Guild of America, East is a labor union representing writers of television and film and employees of television and radio news. The 2006 membership of the guild was 3,770....
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 agreements automatically reverted to the final contract terms that the guild reached with the AMPTP at the end of the strike. The agreement allowed both the Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to return to the airwaves with their full writing staffs on January 2, 2008.
The agreement gave Worldwide Pants and CBS a perceived advantage over their rivals at NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. 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
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
. 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 monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
s 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
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
celebrities refused to cross a picket line
Picket line
A picket line is a horizontal rope, along which horses are tied at intervals. The rope can be on the ground, at chest height , or overhead. The overhead form usually is called a high line....
.
The granting of complete control of Late Show to Letterman was originally a condition CBS accepted in exchange for Letterman's agreement to switch networks in 1993.
Film production
The company produced its first film, Strangers with CandyStrangers with Candy (film)
Strangers with Candy is a 2005 comedy film released by THINKFilm, first screened at the Sundance Film Festival. It serves as a prequel to the TV series of the same name...
, a prequel to the TV show of the same name
Strangers with Candy
Strangers with Candy is a television series produced by Comedy Central. It first aired on April 7, 1999, and concluded its third and final season on October 2, 2000. Its timeslot was Sundays at 10 p.m....
. The film premiered at the 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
, within the "Park City
Park City, Utah
Park City is a town in Summit and Wasatch counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,558 at the 2010 census...
at Midnight" category. Warner Independent Pictures
Warner Independent Pictures
Warner Independent Pictures was the specialty division of film studio Warner Bros. Entertainment. Established in August 2003, its first release was 2004's Before Sunset...
subsequently signed up as North American distributor of the film, before ThinkFilm
THINKFilm
THINKFilm is a privately held production and distribution company founded in September 2001. It has been a division of David Bergstein’s Capitol Films since 2006. Bergstein also serves as the company’s chairman...
acquired the rights from Warner, giving it a limited release in summer 2006. The film grossed slightly more than $2 million, on $2 million production budget and $1.5 million prints and advertising budget.
Other announced deals
A 2002 ForbesForbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
article comments on the approach Letterman takes for Worldwide Pants television productions:
- 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 AlbrechtChris AlbrechtChris Albrecht is an American media executive. Albrecht is currently the President and CEO of Starz, LLC, Liberty Media Corp.'s pay cable and movie unit. Albrecht is the former Chairman and CEO of HBO. He founded Foresee Entertainment, an independent content creation, development and distribution...
, 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."
In April 2005 the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
announced that Worldwide Pants would produce a half-hour animated ensemble comedy for the channel from Brendon Small
Brendon Small
Brendon Small is an American sitcom writer/producer, actor, comedian, voice actor, composer, and musician...
, called Barbarian Chronicles
Barbarian Chronicles
The Barbarian Chronicles is a planned animated television program by Brendon Small, creator of Home Movies and Metalocalypse. It is slated for "'10-'12" and has been described as a "cross between Lord of the Rings and Curb Your Enthusiasm"....
. A fall 2007 interview with Small posted on a hardcore/metal music review website made it clear that there are no plans to go through with the deal.
In October 2007, it was announced that Worldwide Pants would co-produce its first non-comedy project, a documentary about young adults running for public office. The documentary, titled The Youngest Candidate, was written and directed by Jason Pollock and premiered July 2008 at the Traverse City Film Festival
Traverse City Film Festival
The Traverse City Film Festival is an annual film festival held every late July through early August in Traverse City, Michigan. The festival was created as an annual event in 2005 to help “save one of America's few indigenous art forms—the cinema." The event was co-founded by Michael Moore, the...
.
In March 2008, EcoMedia announced a "content partnership" with Worldwide Pants to "create original,
unscripted, environment-related content, in the style of The Late Show remote segments, for television and Internet distribution."
In 2008 Worldwide Pants signed a product placement deal with Ford to promote the Ford Flex
Ford Flex
The Ford Flex is a full-size crossover manufactured by Ford Motor Company. Its styling is based on the Ford Fairlane concept unveiled at the 2005 North American International Auto Show. The production vehicle made its debut at the 2007 New York International Auto Show. Sales of the Flex began in...
during The Late Late Show, using a series of weekly custom-written skits in which Ferguson played the leader of a band riding in a Flex as they traveled from Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...
to the CBS Studio.
In April 2010, Worldwide Pants started Clear Entertainment, a.k.a. C.E. Music, a record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
and announced the signing of their first band Runner Runner
Runner Runner
Runner Runner is an American pop rock band founded in Huntington Beach, California in 2008. They were the first band signed to a joint venture between Capitol Records, Merovingian Music and C.E. Music, a subsidiary of David Letterman's Worldwide Pants, Inc...
, a pop-punk group from Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach, California
Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 189,992; making it the largest beach city in Orange County in terms of population...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
External links
- Who Ever Said Comedy Had To Be Fun?, from a May 2003 Fast Company article