How was David Letterman considered a "Network Star" in 1978?
Or was CBS just that desperate for competitors?
(Racing Billy Crystal, 02:30 into the clip)
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From IMDB:
As the late 1970s approached, Letterman was working as a struggling stand-up comic at The Comedy Store and started writing for television shows. He wrote for the summer series "The Peeping Times" and for such shows as "Good Times" (1974). Letterman had become something of a minor celebrity by 1978, by which time he had appeared on "The Gong Show" (1976), Mary Tyler Moore's variety series "Mary" (1978), "Liar's Club" (1976), "The $10,000 Pyramid" (1973), "Password Plus" (1979) and the variety series "The Starland Vocal Band Show" (1977). (It was also revealed on the Game Show Network that Letterman hosted a pilot of a game show in the seventies called The Riddlers (1977) (TV), but it was not made into a series.)