Johnny Carson on "Late Night"

Larry "Bud" Melman and Phil Collins

hot towels at the bus station

courtesy of Larry "Bud" Melman!

R.I.P., Larry Bud!

From Time magazine:

"Not long after David Letterman discovered him in a student film, Calvert DeForest, reinvented as Larry (Bud) Melman, introduced the comic's first-ever late-night show on NBC in 1982. The earnest ex-file clerk went on to become Dave's fumbling, inadvertently hilarious lucky charm. Before retiring in 2003, he covered the 1994 Olympics in Norway, mock hawked products like Toast on a Stick, and greeted tourists with hot towlels in New York City's seedy Port Authority bus terminal. He was 85."