Letterman’s Last 2 Weeks at NBC: Sweet or Sour? : Television: The final shows will tell whether the late-night host’s departure from the network is amicable. He debuts at CBS on Aug. 30, going head-to-head with Jay Leno.

How does a network say goodby to a star who has brought it big profits and prestige for 11 years but now is going to work for the competition after a heated public breakup?

In short, will NBC and David Letterman--who has often needled the network and is moving to CBS this summer--have a gracious parting? Will NBC, which has virtually stopped promoting Letterman, show some class with a few gestures of gratitude? Or is it more like: Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?

On the flip side, will Letterman, who’s also zinged NBC’s parent company, General Electric, bid a reasonably courteous farewell to the network where he found fame--or will he fire darts right to the end?

All this will be answered in the next two weeks when, after a recent hiatus in which NBC aired Letterman reruns, the comedian returns Tuesday for his final group of new broadcasts before departing the network following his June 25 show.

Letterman will debut on CBS Aug. 30 in his long-awaited head-on competition with NBC’s Jay Leno, who beat him out for the job as Johnny Carson’s successor on “The Tonight Show.” CBS said Thursday that the series will be titled “Late Show With David Letterman.”

With Letterman soon joining a rival network, Warren Littlefield, president of NBC Entertainment, and Robert Morton, co-executive producer of the comedian’s current and future series, both say that NBC, predictably, is just letting things run their natural course until the performer leaves. There’s no telling, of course, what the unpredictable Letterman will come up with for his finale, but Morton downplays the notion of a big goodby.

Carson left “The Tonight Show” last year with an NBC broadcast that was a national event. But Morton says, “We’re not going off the air, so I don’t want to send out the signal to our viewers that it (the farewell) is an end and that CBS is a totally new beginning. Dave is the same guy.

“The last thing that I want our regular viewers to think is that we’ll be a whole new invention on CBS. In essence, we’ll see the same show.”

While NBC hardly wants to give a boost to a future competitor despite his past contributions, Letterman’s guests during his final two weeks on the network will include at least two of the top personalities of the broadcast company, nightly news anchor Tom Brokaw and “Today” co-host Katie Couric.

In addition, both Morton and NBC say that Letterman will appear on the “Today” show on the morning of his final broadcast for the network.

“We initiated that,” says Morton. “We don’t want people to think we’re leaving this network on bad terms.”

When Letterman returns with new broadcasts Tuesday, his guests will be Couric and comedians Brett Butler and Richard Lewis. Other guests next week include Penn and Teller on Wednesday, Larry King and Pete Townshend on Thursday and Tom Selleck on Friday.

Guests for Letterman’s final NBC week include Julia Child on June 22, Brokaw on June 23, Garry Shandling on June 24 and Tom Hanks on June 25. Shandling, who turned down an offer from NBC to replace Letterman, is reportedly considering joining CBS with a late-night series that would follow Letterman’s.

Ironically, NBC, according to Littlefield, is planning at the moment to keep showing Letterman reruns at least through the end of August, when his late-night replacement at the network, the little-known writer-comedian Conan O’Brien, launches his own series, currently penciled in for Aug. 30.

“We will keep running Dave” until O’Brien is ready to debut, says Littlefield.

If O’Brien is, in fact, ready by Aug. 30--an NBC source says “there is no guarantee”--he and Letterman will debut their new shows on the same night, which would certainly make for one of the highlights of the coming season.

Theoretically, however, if O’Brien doesn’t arrive by Aug. 30 and NBC does indeed continue showing Letterman reruns, then Letterman conceivably could air on both networks for a while--new shows on CBS followed by his old repeats on NBC.

“If Conan premieres after Aug. 30,” says Morton, “are you going to see David twice in one night? It might be confusing.”

Morton was, however, happy to hear of Littlefield’s stated plans to show Letterman reruns on NBC in the two months before the comedian premieres on CBS.

“I think it could only help us,” he says. “My only concern was that we would not be on TV. They (NBC) haven’t called us for what our best shows are. It would be a perfect time for doing the worst of Letterman,” the producer laughed. “We haven’t heard from them. I can’t imagine why.”

Littlefield acknowledges that NBC cut back on-air promotion of Letterman personally for “pretty obvious” reasons, while plugging his series.

“We have an asset in the late-night franchise,” says Littlefield. “We continue to promote that franchise, but we also have someone who has decided to go to work for the competition, and it does not make sense for us to continue to promote (him). In May (the recent ratings sweeps month), it was a particularly tough battle, and our priorities were prime-time success and Jay Leno.”

Replies Morton: “There was a time when we were getting no promotion coverage and we made a big stink about it and they restored some, but in the last couple of months there’s been no mention of Letterman’s name. It’s business, and I understand that perfectly well.

“But, then again, we’re still here honoring our agreement with the network and still trying to book the best names, and David is out there working very hard. It’s a little upsetting. It’s not like we’re holding back any punches.”

As for Letterman’s June 25 NBC finale, Littlefield says that the series is “totally under his creative control, and he will say goodby in whatever way that he feels is fitting.”

Morton says he expects that during the next two weeks, the Letterman show will broadcast some of its “classic remotes from the last 11 years. On the last show, I’m sure David will say something and thank people, but we’re not planning any celebration. It’s just another show for us.

“But it will be bittersweet just leaving. There will be people we’ll be saying goodby to. A lot of the crew is staying at NBC. But along with our staff, some of the crew is coming with us. They expressed a desire to do that and we’ve arranged it so that they’ll be working now for CBS.”