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jaunthie...but in the meantime, I have a terrible, burning question:
Is David Letterman deathly ill or something?
Now understand that I don't watch Late Night, or any of the late night talk shows. If I'm up that late (which is rare), I'm probably watching either the news, or Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert - or much more likely not watching anything at all but am too engrossed in a book to put it down and go to bed. I'm just not a late-night TV watcher.
However...I am a fan of Bill Hicks. So is David Letterman. And Hicks was on Letterman tonight, despite having been dead for almost fifteen years now.
Fifteen years ago, Letterman asked Hicks to perform some stand-up on his show. It would be the twelfth time Hicks had done some of his routines on Letterman's show. A great opportunity, of course, but nothing that should have been surprising. Except...Letterman had just moved from NBC to CBS. He was in his first months of doing late night, instead of late-late night. And he was suddenly working for a much more conservative network.
Hicks gave Letterman his material to preview. It was approved by Letterman and the network suits. He came onto the show and performed his fifteen minutes. It was the material that had been pre-approved. He went home...
...and the entire segment was excised from the show right before it went on the air. No clear explanation was given at the time, other than the material was "unsuitable."
Hicks was furious, and heartbroken. He made his feelings about the debacle quite public and quite clear. He was also dying of pancreatic cancer, something Letterman didn't know at the time, but found out shortly enough. Hicks died just a few months after taping the segment-that-never-showed.
Never showed, that is, until tonight. Letterman invited Bill Hicks' mother onto his show tonight. He took full responsibility for pulling the segment, and apologised repeatedly and profusely for having been so "stupid" and "insecure" as he put it. He had a very nice, very softly-handled, almost low-energy (on his part) interview session with Bill's mom (who is DEFINITELY his mom - she was very polite, but very unafraid of expressing herself, and ever-so-politely bit him several times over the course of the talk). And he then aired the entire segment Bill had taped so many years ago.
Which is very cool. But that combined with his hollow voice, rather gaunt appearance, and unusually subdued demeanor has me wondering - is he sick? Is he righting past wrongs because he's not well? Or am I just so unused to seeing people own up to their past mistakes that this kind of public owning up makes me wonder what's wrong, as opposed to just being happy that something has been made right?
I don't know.
Is David Letterman deathly ill or something?
Now understand that I don't watch Late Night, or any of the late night talk shows. If I'm up that late (which is rare), I'm probably watching either the news, or Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert - or much more likely not watching anything at all but am too engrossed in a book to put it down and go to bed. I'm just not a late-night TV watcher.
However...I am a fan of Bill Hicks. So is David Letterman. And Hicks was on Letterman tonight, despite having been dead for almost fifteen years now.
Fifteen years ago, Letterman asked Hicks to perform some stand-up on his show. It would be the twelfth time Hicks had done some of his routines on Letterman's show. A great opportunity, of course, but nothing that should have been surprising. Except...Letterman had just moved from NBC to CBS. He was in his first months of doing late night, instead of late-late night. And he was suddenly working for a much more conservative network.
Hicks gave Letterman his material to preview. It was approved by Letterman and the network suits. He came onto the show and performed his fifteen minutes. It was the material that had been pre-approved. He went home...
...and the entire segment was excised from the show right before it went on the air. No clear explanation was given at the time, other than the material was "unsuitable."
Hicks was furious, and heartbroken. He made his feelings about the debacle quite public and quite clear. He was also dying of pancreatic cancer, something Letterman didn't know at the time, but found out shortly enough. Hicks died just a few months after taping the segment-that-never-showed.
Never showed, that is, until tonight. Letterman invited Bill Hicks' mother onto his show tonight. He took full responsibility for pulling the segment, and apologised repeatedly and profusely for having been so "stupid" and "insecure" as he put it. He had a very nice, very softly-handled, almost low-energy (on his part) interview session with Bill's mom (who is DEFINITELY his mom - she was very polite, but very unafraid of expressing herself, and ever-so-politely bit him several times over the course of the talk). And he then aired the entire segment Bill had taped so many years ago.
Which is very cool. But that combined with his hollow voice, rather gaunt appearance, and unusually subdued demeanor has me wondering - is he sick? Is he righting past wrongs because he's not well? Or am I just so unused to seeing people own up to their past mistakes that this kind of public owning up makes me wonder what's wrong, as opposed to just being happy that something has been made right?
I don't know.
