Late night talk show host Conan O’Brien, penned a touching tribute for Entertainment Weekly to David Letterman, who inspired him into late night television.

David Letterman, in a career that has spanned more than three decades, enters his final weeks as Late Show host. The talk show host will take his final bow on The Late Show on May 20th. Stephen Colbert will become the show’s host on September 8.

In his letter, O’Brien offered a brief history of comedy in the early Eighties before Letterman came onto the scene with his brand of comedy and unlikely television looks.

“Throughout college, everyone my age watched Dave and discussed his show the next day,” O’Brien wrote. “The late-night talk show had existed at that point for 30 years in more or less one form, but Dave and his writers completely re-invented the format.”

“By 1985, when I graduated from college and was ready to try my hand as a comedy writer, “Late Night With David Letterman” had been the Holy Grail for several miraculous years,” O’Brien wrote.

O’Brien told Entertainment Weekly that he first learned of Letterman from the short-lived morning talk show “Late Night With David Letterman” before Letterman matured into a major comedic influence on “Late Night.”
“In today’s world of 30 late-night programs, it’s tempting now to take Dave for granted. Do not,’’ O’Brien wrote. “Dave was a true revolution – and I believe his innovations are up there with the light bulb and the Twix bar.”