the person who deserved to get it was david letterman.it. jay leno got it. >> leno, who earlier rode his motorcycle into a news conference hosted by nbc entertainment president warren littlefield, still has a bruised ego about the way the network wavered in its support for him. >> when we found out that leno was going to get "the tonight show," we were all obviously depressed. we felt like we were being punished for making fun of them and not cooperating and not being as collaborative as we could have been. and we also felt like we were being disrespected because we did 11 years of great shows. >> just how pissed off are you? [ laughter and applause ] >> by all rights, david letterman should have taken over for johnny carson, but his agent took a very, very aggressive stand. we're going to really control all of late night. it's going to cost you a fortune. and they put our backs to the wall. >> i can only tell you that it has been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you. and i hope when i find so

the person who deserved to get it was david letterman.ised ego about the way the network wavered in its support for him. >> when we found out that leno was going to get "the tonight show," we were all obviously depressed. we felt like we were being punished for making fun of them and not cooperating and not being as collaborative as we could have been. and we also felt like we were being disrespected because we did 11 years of great shows. >> just how pissed off are you? [ laughter and applause ] >> by all rights, david letterman should have taken over for johnny carson, but his agent took a very, very aggressive stand. we're going to really control all of late night. it's going to cost you a fortune. and they put our backs to the wall. >> i can only tell you that it has been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you. and i hope when i find something i want to do and i think you will like and come back, that you will be as gracious inviting me into your home as you have been. i bid you a veryry hea

. >> david letterman originally had a one-hour daytime show, and nbc, after like 13 weeks, decided to booing ] have these people been frisked? >> it was a dismal failure in terms of the ratings, but not in terms of introducing us to letterman. >> david, thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you very much for having me, i appreciate it. >> in spite of all this nonsense that goes around in the background, stay with it, don't give up. stay with us here in new york. >> dave is back in new york. you're going to host a late-night television program that premieres monday night. what are critics likely to say tuesday morning? >> i don't much care because i found a way to deal with that, pills and whiskey. >> david, you're on. >> oh, i'm on? i'm sorry. >> proceed. >> i'm enjoying listening to you snort. >> they gave him "the late night show" after "the tonight show." and at the time, people thought who's going to watch television at 12:30 at night? who's up? i'll tell you who's up. young people. college people. >> is it going well? i know this is the first show and i think this guy nee

. >> reporter: in 1998, he told david letterman about when he first played. >> my daddy was a baseballnow. >> the thing i remember most about buck is you always felt better leaving buck than you did when you came to see him. >> reporter: kendrick was with o'neil when the class of 2006 was announced. and somehow o'neil didn't make the cut. >> i said, well, buck, we didn't get enough votes. and he looks at me and he smiles, and he said, that's how the cookie crumbles. and he asked me how many had gotten in. i said 17. he ecstatic that 17fame. now, i, on the other hand, was furious. i'm in disbelief you can put 17 in and leave buck out. >> reporter: and then o'neil was asked to speak at the induction ceremony for those 17. at the age of 94. >> so i've done a lot of things i like doing, but i would rather be right here, right now, representing these people that helped build a bridge across chasm of prejudice. >> i say it is one of the most selfless acts in american sports history because baseball fans were saying this should be your hall of fame induction speech. and there was this very ki

. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome david faster, president and ceo of thedavid letterman institute of american history . >> hello everybody. i hope you're enjoying your meal. it's great to be here for a resumption of the george washington prize which we have valued all these years. i'm jim basker and president of the lehrman institute of americanhistory . [applause] and i just got permission from doug bradburn to say a few words about what the institute does because we are trying to be some trains that run on time tonight. but i did want to say that those of you who know us know that we were founded in 1994 by richard gilder lewis lehrman. that our mission is to improve the teaching and learning of american history and civics. especially in k-12 schools but we do other projects as well and i'm proud to say the moment we have now 31,000 schools in our affiliate network across all 50 states and a scattering across about 70 countries around the world . [applause] thank you. we provide all kinds of educational resources. we do a lot of teacher development. we have almost 10,000 teacher