Letterman’s on fire

One of the coolest things I got for Christmas this year was a DVR for my home office.

One of the coolest things about it is I can record lots of different shows every night on all kinds of different channels. With the VCR, I had to set a channel then program the time to record that channel. This new way is much improved!

So I’ve been recording Letterman every night. Seems like I was always hearing the next morning about something cool that happened on Letterman the night before.

And man, has it been paying off. Just in the last few weeks, there was his surreal, no-holds-barred sit-down with impeached former governor Rod Blagojevich that stretched out and ate up almost an entire show. He was the first late night show to get the hero pilot Sully Sullenberger and his whole flight crew on, and we learned for the first time from one of the crew members that a panicking passenger opened up the back door of the downed plane, causing it to begin to sink.

He had the late comic Bill Hicks’ mother on and played an entire bit that her son taped for Letterman back in the nineties that the censors cut. Then he apologized to her.

And last night, man, was one for the books. Joaquin Phoenix was the guest in his current guise as bearded, monosyllabic caveman. His Jim Morrison-in-Paris phase. It made for a loopy interview (at one point Dave mumbles, “We may owe Farrah an apology” and another time he remarks to Phoenix, “Well, we’re sorry you couldn’t make it here tonight…”) but one that is gonna be just terribly sad in retrospect if this talented young actor winds up like apparent role model Morrison, DOA in the full flower of his beauty. Phoenix seemed by turns out of it, surly, uncooperative and unresponsive, answering many of the host’s questions with a dead-silent glare from behind dark sunglasses. His body language was hunched over and defensive. What a shame it would be to lose two very talented show-biz brothers to dope and/or booze, a decade apart. Somebody needs to get in there and straighten that boy out.

If Andy Dick can get sober, anybody can.

And speaking of late night, I’m also recording the last couple weeks of Conan from New York. as you may know, he’s inheriting the “Tonight Show” in a couple months and moving to L.A. and next week is his last show from NYC. Already it’s become a bit of an extended laudatory farewell tour with the requisite best-of clip-jobs and the expected paeans by visiting guests. I expect next week to be even more touchy-feelie. Perhaps a visit from a friend of the show by way of New Jersey for the finale…?

The thing is, O’Brien’s being given “Tonight” as long-promised, but his lead-in every night is going to be the local news, preceded by… Jay Leno. That’s right, Leno will still headline Monday through Friday night on the Peacock Network (at 10PM) and O’Brien will continue to bat in the clean-up position. After the ratings-killer of the local evening news every night.

I got nothing against Jay Leno, who delivers a zinger affably, which is his job description. But in the 31 Flavors® of late-night comedy, he’s the single scoop of vanilla in a wafer cone. And I can’t help feel like O’Brien got gypped. You just know that he didn’t think when he signed his deal years ago, “Wow, when I inherit the ‘Tonight Show,’ I hope NBC can find a way for me to still follow Jay Leno!”

Anyhow, it’s been a couple of weeks of excellent Letterman. Most late-night comics try to rise to their material night after night, but Letterman tries to rise to the times. It’s a bigger job, and more important, and most nights he brings it off with unselfconscious class and a curmudgeon’s sense of lack of propriety.