Rick Scheckman, December 1, 1955 - March 10, 2023

"I went to NYU for several years but was in the School of Business. I knew Steve [Winer] from film screenings around town and such places as The Museum of Modern Art. Though Steve most definitely got me my job at Letterman." -- e-mail from Rick, August 24, 1994

"I began as a film consultant to the show the first week of March, 1982, but at the time I was working on my Masters in Finance. Finally they said I was making too much money as a consultant, so they hired me on staff the first week of June. When I first started out, I shared an office with Chris Elliott and Edd Hall. Although the office was actually just the coffee/supply room." -- AOL Late Show site: Taste Test, February 5, 1997

Rick was one of the longest-employed staffers on Dave's late night talk shows, starting as a said-consultant a month after Late Night's February 1982 debut on NBC, and staying on until Dave's retirement on CBS's Late Show in May 2015. His official position throughout was "Film Coordinator," responsible for providing film footage the show would often need at a moment's notice. For over 33 years it was referred to on both the NBC and CBS shows as "Shecky Footage," little mind the last name missing the first "c."

But Rick was far more than that both inside and outside the show. Inside, he was one of Late Show's producers, though never titled as such, sitting in the back row of the control room during the tapings, being at the ready for any Shecky Footage that might be required ASAP. He was also responsible for distributing clips to legitimate parties requesting them. Viewers, though, knew him more for his on-camera comedy skits in which he was asked to participate, perhaps his most enduring as Late Night's Elvis Presley. But he also once took a vicious punch on Late Show from Bruce WIllis, who in another piece gunned him down, accompanied with his most famous movie phrase, "Yippee ki yay, Shecky!!"

His interests outside the show were far more vital to him: early- to mid-20th-Century films. He had acquired an enormous collection of rare movies and had his own business as the Chairman of the Board at F.I.L.M. Archives. He was highly regarded within the legacy film industry and was known there for his film expertise rather than his decades-long association with Dave.

He had also amassed a gigantic collection of comics, baseball cards, and film posters. Visiting his home was like entering a museum. His basement contained thousands of videotapes, nearly all of them old films. One of his upstairs rooms was filled with thousands of DVDs, all neatly stacked, both his tapes and discs retrievable only via his immaculate computer databases.

Others who knew him far better than me, his decades-long close friends on the show, his decades-long close friends off the show, will choose to share their own Rick memories. Here's mine:

I first "met" Rick on CompuServe's Letterman message board in 1991/92, when, while at NBC, he had been producing A&E's nearly-year-long run of syndicated Late Nights. He had been soliciting suggestions for shows to air from the board members. I remember sending him a list of around 40 Late Nights. Highly impractical, but I'd never had that sort of access with him or any other staffer before, so I went a little nuts.

We then reconnected in 1994, when he was at Dave's Late Show on CBS. We would trade tapes. He would invite me into his office on one of the top floors in the Ed Sullivan building to watch shows while he worked downstairs.

In early 1995, Rick called me and asked if I had any videos of Academy Award shows. I did, so I stayed up all night dubbing all that I had. Little did I know then that they were meant for Dave to screen as part of his prep work for hosting the Awards show in late March. I take some pride in contributing in my own small way to what many then considered a fiasco.

Other video and data requests from Rick and others at the show soon followed.

Rick became not only an essential contact to Dave's show but a friend as well. He was extremely generous with his time, sharing all sorts of Late Night/Late Show trivia with me for the next 25+ years, much of it confidential;. He was a walking encyclopedia of Dave knowledge and the keeper of the institutional history. That in itself is such an incalculable loss.

After Late Show ended in 2015, Rick would alert me to staff alumni who had begun their final journeys or were about to, so I could then begin preparing YouTube compilations in their honor -- Kenny Sheehan, Tony Mendez, Alan Kalter. That he entrusted me with such then-private news was an honor for me that I'll always cherish.

When I learned of Rick's illness a few days ago, I distracted myself from the thought of his deteriorating health by putting together a short tribute.

God speed, Rick. You were one of the good guys.