--- title: Tina Fey Says Goodbye to Letterman by Taking Off Her Dress description: "This is my last time wearing a fancy dress on a talk show and conforming to gender norms out of respect for you" canonical: https://time.com/3851589/tina-fey-goodbye-letterman/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-08T13:13:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:05.341Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Tina Fey Says Goodbye to Letterman by Taking Off Her Dress og:description: "This is my last time...conforming to gender norms out of respect for you" og:url: https://time.com/3851589/tina-fey-goodbye-letterman/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tina Fey Says Goodbye to Letterman by Taking Off Her Dress twitter:description: "This is my last time...conforming to gender norms out of respect for you" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Tina Fey Says Goodbye to Letterman by Taking Off Her Dress by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 8, 2015 1:13 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 8, 2015 1:13 PM UTC Tina Fey has been on _The Late Show With David Letterman_ 20 times, and now that he’s retiring, she says she’ll never wear a fancy dress on a late night show again. “I dress up like this out of respect for you,” she said from the guest seat Thursday night. “This is it, because…what, am I gonna put a dress on for Jimmy? That’s creepy, he’s like my brother.” Since this would be her last time wearing something nice on a talk show, she decided to give Letterman the dress as a gift. He helped her remove her frock onstage to reveal what she called “almost medical” contraptions of shapewear that read, “Bye Dave / #lastdressever.” ### Photos: David Letterman’s Early Career  One of David Letterman's earliest roles before he made it as a television host was as a guest star on Mork & Mindy. CBS/Getty Images  Before he received his own show, Letterman was a regular guest host for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Above, he is seen interviewing Betty White. Paul Drinkwater—NBC/Getty Images  In 1980, Letterman finally got his own morning comedy show, The David Letterman Show. Above, he is seen interviewing Truman Capote. Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  After the cancellation of his morning show, Letterman was given a new show and time slot, Late Night With David Letterman which immediately followed The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The first version of the Late Night franchise, debuted on February 1, 1982 and would eventually be succeeded by Conan O’Brien, seen above. Al Levine—NBC/Getty Images  Letterman left NBC for CBS to start the Late Show with David Letterman when NBC gave the reigns of The Tonight Show to Jay Leno instead of him after Johnny Carson's retirement. The first show debuted on August 30, 1993, with Letterman's retirement announced for 2015. New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3851589/tina-fey-goodbye-letterman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3851589/tina-fey-goodbye-letterman/"},"headline":"Tina Fey Says Goodbye to Letterman by Taking Off Her Dress","datePublished":"2015-05-08T13:13:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:05.341Z","description":"\"This is my last time wearing a fancy dress on a talk show and conforming to gender norms out of respect for you\"","url":"https://time.com/3851589/tina-fey-goodbye-letterman/","keywords":["Television","tina fey","David Letterman","late show"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3851589/tina-fey-goodbye-letterman/","name":"Tina Fey Says Goodbye to Letterman by Taking Off Her Dress"}}]}] ```