What has David Letterman been doing since leaving late night TV?

No? Then what else explains this beard?

Credit: Olivier Douliery

Credit: Olivier Douliery

But as of Friday, our long national nightmare is over.

Well, those of us who have Netflix, that is.

(Or better yet, know our nasty neighbor’s password, heh, heh).

The premiere episode of Letterman’s new six-installment talk show, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” drops on Friday. Subsequent episodes will appear monthly in what could turn out to be the first -- or only -- season of the hourlong show.

And Letterman, 70, proved he wasn’t kidding about that title by booking his very first guest: Former President Barack Obama, making his first talk show appearance since leaving the White House a year ago this month.

We can’t imagine they’ll have anything to talk about (eye roll). After all, it’s not like Dave hasn’t been busy since saying goodbye to late night:

He went to India as a reporter: In 2016, Letterman spent 11 days reporting on climate change, energy shortages and other environmental issues in India for an episode of the National Geographic Channel documentary series, "Year of Living Dangerously."  He even used his well-honed interviewing chops for a thoughtful conversation with Narendra Modi.

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He spoke at Peyton Manning's statue dedication: When the Indianapolis Colts unveiled the statue outside Lucas Oil Stadium in October 2017 Letterman was there to salute the team's Super Bowl winning quarterback -- and score a pretty good extra point of his own. "Where the hell is my statue?," Indianapolis native Letterman bemoaned. "Seriously. You make one, you can make two."

He played movie host on Atlanta's TCM with Alec Baldwin: As one of the guest hosts of "The Essentials," Letterman curated a list of flicks and shmoozed about them with Baldwin. Letterman's selections, which ran on the Atlanta-based classic movie channel on Saturday nights in May and June 2017 were: "The Bad and the Beautiful" (released in 1953); "East of Eden" (1955); "Gilda" (1946); "No Time for Sergeants" (1958); "Brief Encounter" (1945); "The Lost Weekend" (1945) and "The Big Sleep" (1970).

 He waded into the war of words between President Trump and Georgia congressman John Lewis: In a March 2017 interview with New York magazine, Letterman weighed in on Trump calling Lewis "all talk . . . no action" --  after the Atlanta civil rights icon had said he wouldn't attend Trump's inauguration (go here to refresh your memory of their verbal contretemps): "I was about John Lewis's age when he marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Would I have had the guts to do that?" Letterman began a lengthy response that took issue with Trump, whom he'd interviewed numerous times on his show. "(Trump)'s ignorant in a way that's insulting to the office, insulting to America, insulting to human rights, insulting to civil rights, insulting to John Lewis. Trump saying that broke my heart."

 He's kept up a regular "boys night out" routine: Letterman says he goes out every Friday night for cheeseburgers with his 13-year-old son Harry. He's also revealed he meets every few weeks for dinner with Paul Schaffer, who was the bandleader and sly second banana by his side for 33 years on "Late Night with David Letterman" on NBC and "Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS.

 He grew a beard. Deal with it. Longtime Dave watchers were shocked when photos emerged of him months after going off the air looking like Grizzly Adams's less well groomed brother. Had he joined a cult? Run through his entire fortune already? Nothing quite so deep, at least not at first: "I just got tired of shaving every day," he told the New York Times in October 2016. But at some point, he admitted, "It became something else . . . The beard is a good reminder to me that that was a different life." And while young Harry Letterman apparently finds the beard "creepy," by now Dad seems locked into it. "They will bury me in it," the Washington Post reported him saying a few months ago.