"where will dave go?" letterman: don't mind me, i'm just a temp.on retired after being on the tonight show for 30 years, it was an open field, hence the intense competition between jay leno and david letterman. bell: suddenly it became about, like, who gets his show? and then leno got it, and then letterman goes, "maybe i don't have a place in show business." morton: he made it very clear up front that his dream was to someday host the tonight show. letterman: it just didn't seem to me to make any sense to have jay leno doing an hour of a talk show, and then i would come on afterwards doing an hour of a talk show. and i really felt like, you know, maybe my time had come to step out of network television. lassally: i said to dave, "if nbc wants to put you on at 12:30 "after jay leno, "you'll kill yourself." i said, "i have to get you an 11:30 show." and then the battle began. ludwin: dave letterman started getting offers from other networks. lopez: you know, letterman was the king. sarandon: you're pretty cocky in the middle of these negotiations. y