I ♥ Television

Dave & Bill Murray a long time ago

Not quite ready for bed last night, and uninspired by other syndicated options, I flipped over to The Late Show with David Letterman (11:30pm CBS). It was a commercial. I saw via the guide that John McCain was the guest. I wasn’t particularly in the mood for more politics, especially before bed (it’ll give you nightmares! Worse than from cheese!), but decided I’d stick around for a bit.

Back from advertisements, Letterman starts in with some seemingly banal banter with Paul Shafer.  He’s goes after McCain for a bit, particularly nailing McCain for having suspended his presidential campaign .  “Oh wait,” I say to myself, “Dave isn’t playing pissed.  Dave is pissed.”

As you all probably have heard, Dave was in fact in the middle of a diatribe against McCain for canceling his appearance on short notice.  Keith Olbermann joined Letterman soon thereafter as a last minute guest playing the role of Ed McMahon cum Terry McAuliffe for the festivities.  Olbermann goaded Letterman a bit more, but Dave didn’t need much of a push.

Television excels when this sort of drama unfolds.   Ashlee Simpson on Saturday Night Live, Jon Stewart on Crossfire, and Andy Kaufman on Letterman are some trivial moments that come to mind when we, as viewers, glimpsed into something that seemed real.

Why are these sorts of moments so captivating on televion?

• The intimacy.  David Letterman doesn’t know us, but we sure as hell know him.  We know his mannerisms. We sense when his stage persona cracks just a bit.
• The immediacy.  Each crevice of Letterman’s face is watched by millions every night.  In a time of HD, Letterman may as well be bitching to you while sitting next to you on the couch.
• The breakdown.  Television is tightly controlled.  Things that manage to break through, even for a moment, remind us of the medium’s intrinsic artificiality.

I thought Letterman’s outrage did not stem from political outrage as much as the ego-bruise resulting from McCain skipping out Dave at all. That said, Dave’s been more political in the last couple years than I remember him being in the past, so maybe there is some disenchantment in there too.

Judge for yourself.  Heads-up: the real fireworks are around 5 minutes in.