Letterman sets show-biz standard for dealing with crisis

David Letterman once told an interviewer that he feels most fully alive during that hour of the day when he is taping his late-night show. During his broadcast Monday night, Letterman revived himself - and boosted our spirits as well - in an emotional and difficult hour of television that immediately became the show-business standard for coping with a national crisis. As one of the first major entertainment figures to address the nation after the terrorist attacks (CBS pre-empted "Late Show" for news coverage last week), Letterman shouldered a heavy burden. He had made some remarks on his NBC show in 1986 after the Challenger disaster, but that was an accident, however tragic. What happened last week was mass murder, with much of the killing done a few miles south of where Letterman's show is taped. The attacks - and the retaliation for them that is imminent - is all anyone can talk about. Late night hosts are no exception. Going in, Letterman surely knew this. This extraordinary hour began in an extraordinary way, with Letterman sitting behind his desk, instead of wandering out on center stage as he usually does. The light round of applause that opened the show was in sharp contrast to the controlled pandemonium that greets Letterman most nights. Looking haggard and weary-eyed, his voice trembling slightly, he told his audience that "I need to ask your patience and indulgence because I have to say a few things." To continue doing his show, Letterman said, "I just need to hear myself talk for a couple of minutes." Though you knew he had agonized for hours over what to say, Letterman spoke haltingly. He seemed unsure at times of what to say next. "It's terribly sad," he kept saying. "Terribly, terribly sad." Letterman explained that he hadn't really wanted to go back on the air but decided to do so after New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's repeated exhortations to New Yorkers to resume their normal lives. "The reason I am back to work is because of Mayor Giuliani," Letterman said, after which he praised the mayor extensively. When he said, "Rudolph Giuliani is the personification of courage," the studio broke into applause. Several more times the otherwise subdued audience would cheer references to Giuliani as well as to the rescue workers who were either working around the rubble of the World Trade Center or buried beneath it. After speaking for about eight minutes - it seemed to go on much longer - Letterman took a commercial break. The band did not play, though it was performing when the break ended. That pattern continued throughout the show. CBS news anchor Dan Rather was the first guest, and from the start he looked as uncomfortable to be there as Letterman had been earlier on. After heaping more praise on Giuliani and the rescuers, the two men turned to talk of what would happen next. "We're now being put to the test," Rather said, "but if you could go down to ground zero, down to lower Manhattan" - his voice began to crack - "and see those firemen ... " He began to sniffle, and then, deeply moved, put his left hand in Letterman's right and asked him to cut to a commercial. Rather regained his composure during the break, only to lose it again while reciting a verse from "America the Beautiful." He apologized profusely - "I'm a pro, and I get paid not to let it show," he said. Letterman countered, "Good (grief), you're a human being." Indeed, the moment put one in mind of Walter Cronkite fighting back tears as he read the news of John F. Kennedy's assassination on live TV. That touching segment was followed by a welcome jolt of can-do energy courtesy of Bronx native Regis Philbin, who supplied the perfect counterpoint to Rather and a portent of more normal broadcasts to come. There are no network standards for dealing with tragedies, of course. But it would be hard to imagine how this silly business of television could go on unless its stars, like Letterman and Rather, were allowed to show their humanity as they did on Monday night. Unprofessional, perhaps; but undeniably real and undeniably healing. Kansas City viewers won't have to choose whether to watch Letterman's show at 10:35 or "ABC News Nightline." That's because local affiliate KMBC, Channel 9, has no plans to change its late-night schedule to accommodate an earlier airing of "Nightline." For 21 years KMBC has delayed "Nightline" 90 minutes so it can suck even more money out of advertisers' pockets by showing syndicated programs. Occasionally, though, management at Channel 9 has had a change of heart and moved "Nightline" up to 10:35 p.m. on days when important news was breaking. You would think that a nation on the brink of war would be sufficiently important. But you would be wrong. An advisory sent out by KMBC on Monday confirmed that "Nightline" - one of the most decorated news programs in the history of television - will continue to air at 12:05, following two sitcoms and "Entertainment Tonight." "Nightline" airs immediately after the late news in about 90 percent of the country. The exceptions are a few small-market stations. And one that thinks that way. You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com.