Worldwide Pants

 

For David Letterman’s morning show (1980), that was produced by a company called Space Age Meats. (Letterman always seemed to have a meat obsession). On his CBS Late Show he did a segment called “Know Your Cuts of Meat.” Space Age Meats is also credited with producing Letterman’s NBC show Late Night with David Letterman from 1982-1990. This was produced in partnership with NBC and Carson Productions. Founded in 1991, Worldwide Pants was responsible for co-producing the final two years of Letterman’s Late-Night show (1991-1993) along with NBC and Carson Productions.
Letterman’s 1993 contract had some things in common with Johnny Carson’s 1980 contract. Carson Productions gave Johnny ownership of his show and projects made by the company (Amen and The Big Chill being two examples). With ownership of his Late Show and other programs, Letterman had many projects to contribute to building his wealth. Other than Late Show with David Letterman, the most successful Worldwide Pants show was Everybody Loves Raymond, starring Ray Romano (1996-2005). Letterman had Romano on his Late Show and wanted to base a sitcom around his life. This was co-produced with HBO Independent Productions and creator/executive producer Phil Rosenthal’s company, Where’s Lunch. The company tried to produce two programs with Bonnie Hunt, The Building (1993) and Bonnie (2015). Both were short lived. Worldwide Pants produced The Late Late Show which had different hosts, including Tom Snyder (1995-1999), Craig Kilborn (1999-2004) and Craig Ferguson (2005-2014). The program Ed was produced from 2000-2004 and aired on NBC. HBO shows produced by Letterman’s company include The High Life (1996) and Foo Fighters Sonic Highways (2014). Netflix shows include The Fundamentals of Caring (2016), My Next Guest Needs No Introduction (2018-present) and That’s My Time with David Letterman (2022). That’s my Time was a great showcase for young up-and-coming comics. Three shows were produced for PBS in conjunction with Sesame Workshop. The Knights of Prosperity was produced for ABC in 2007. In 2024, TBS aired a Worldwide Pants show called Stupid Pet Tricks, a program that was based on a Letterman staple from his Late Night and Late Show. It was hosted by Sarah Silverman.
Other crazy names for Letterman production companies over the years included: Cardboard Shoe Productions, United States Chemical Cheese Productions and Recreational Poultry Productions.

*Some information from Wikipedia and latenighter.com.