A star-studded “Top Ten” list and a final send-off from the Foo Fighters helped turn David Letterman’s final “Late Show” into a farewell for the ages on Wednesday, as the gap-toothed host signed off after 33 record-breaking years on late-night TV.
Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Steve Martin, Barbara Walters, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jim Carrey, Peyton Manning and Bill Murray all contributed to a Top Ten list of the “things I’ve always wanted to say to David Letterman.”
“Dave, I’ll never have the money I owe you,” said Murray, with the No. 1 item on the last of Letterman’s legendary lists.
Louis-Dreyfus paid tribute to the host with a joke about her role in the finale of “Seinfeld.”
“Thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale,” she said as the camera cut to Seinfeld cringing.
Three living former presidents — both Bushes and Clinton — and President Obama appeared via video. They echoed the late Gerald Ford in saying, “Our long national nightmare is over,” with Obama delivering the punchline, “Letterman is retiring.”
The funnyman’s monologue cited NBC’s infamous snub denying him the chance to be Johnny Carson’s successor.
“It’s beginning to look like I won’t get ‘The Tonight Show,’ ” he quipped.
He also joked, “When I screw up . . . now I’ll have to go on someone else’s show to apologize.”
Letterman’s wife, Regina, and son, Harry, were in the audience, as he said goodbye. He joked about how the show has “been hard on my family. My son keeps saying, ‘Why does Daddy have to go to prison?’ ”
Addressing the question of what he’s going to do when he retires, Letterman quipped, “I hope to become the new face of Scientology.”
He then suggested another career move for him and longtime band leader and comedic sidekick Paul Shaffer.
“We’ll be debuting our new act at Caesars Palace with our white tigers,” he said.
There also were video tributes from “The Simpsons” and “Wheel of Fortune,” including a clip from the game show in which the answer to the puzzle was, “Good riddance to David Letterman.”
The show featured classic segments, such as Letterman running a “Taco Bell” drive-thru and clips of the host’s hilarious interactions with children.
The 68-year-old comedian became emotional before the show ended with a long montage of clips from over the past 30 years as the Foo Fighters played “Everlong,” which Letterman credited with helping him recover from heart surgery 15 years ago.
In fact, the band performed the same song on the show in 2000, when Letterman returned following his quintuple-bypass operation.
Although the comic didn’t tear up, many fans did as they left the Ed Sullivan Theater.
“It was really incredible,” said Will Landman, of Long Island. “It was the best way he could go out.”
Tarrah Lynn, 34, from Kelso, Wash., compared Letterman’s retirement to a loved one moving away.
“It’s very sad. It’s like a friend you’ve had for most of your life who is always there for you when you get home,” she said.
Letterman’s tenure hosting CBS’s “Late Show” and NBC’s “Late Night” before that makes him the longest-running late-night host in TV history.
Stephen Colbert, who made his mark on cable TV’s Comedy Central, will take the “Late Show” reins in September.
With Post Wires