LOS ANGELES–In the first few days of shock and devastation, it was remarkably easy for television to find its footing with comprehensive, respectful coverage. Now is the hard part. As TV gradually resumes its regular routine while the national picture remains dark and complex, the medium is struggling to rise to the challenge. David Letterman and Jay Leno returned to late-night TV with reluctance and grave faces.
Their first guests, including newsman Dan Rather and musician Stephen Stills, spoke from the heart but left confounding echoes. Rather pledged allegiance to President Bush like a gung-ho soldier, while Vietnam War critic Stills tried to engage fellow guest Sen. John McCain, a former POW, in a brief, strained dialogue on that conflict.
Then, in a blink and a day, Letterman’s Top Ten list and Leno’s opening monologue and freedom to laugh were back, although both hosts mostly practiced safe comedy, like the top 10 things that rhyme with hat.
Ratings for both shows shot up on their return and remained higher than average.
“The Daily Show,” Comedy Central’s news parody that also took a hiatus after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, returned last Thursday.
Some of the most superficial efforts to heed the tragedy’s aftermath were born of uncertainty more than reason, such as the erasure of shots of the World Trade Center from sitcoms and dramas.
It’s like snipping lost loved ones out of the family photo album; is that the way to ease or eliminate our pain? But TV seems intent to err on the side of caution, and perhaps rightfully.
Other kinds of programs don’t have the option¥or inclination¥to ignore the pained elephant in the national living room.
“The Tonight Show” and “Late Show,” which feast on news events as sources of humor, initially flinched at the thought.
“In a world where people fly airplanes into buildings for the sole purpose of killing innocent people, a job like this seems incredibly irrelevant,” Leno said as NBC’s “Tonight” resumed Tuesday.
He’d crack jokes again but promised “we won’t be inappropriate, we won’t be insensitive,” a sentiment he repeated last Wednesday. How many loyal fans were distressed to hear that from the man who gave us the Dancing Judge Itos and other diversions from the world’s ills?
“The NFL said today they will resume playing professional football next week, which of course is bad news for the Cleveland Browns,” was part of a softer Leno monologue Wednesday. He did take one stab at more astringent humor: “I’m watching TV today and I see one of these stupid radical fundamentalists attacking our country … OAnd I said OUh, enough about Jerry Falwell.'”
Letterman’s Top Ten list Wednesday was devoted to least-popular theme restaurants, including Chuck E. Sneeze and, at No. 1, “L’ice.”
Controversy is the standard coin of ABC’s “Politically Incorrect,” but host Bill Maher quickly found out that provocative debate could engender greater fallout now.
When Maher railed Monday against U.S. military practices that he branded “cowardly,” he paid a price. Upset viewers complained, a Houston radio station called for ABC to dump Maher’s show¥the network stuck by him¥and Sears and FedEx pulled their commercials.
Maher conceded later he had brought the furor on himself: He should have more carefully explained his argument that U.S. politicians have been timid in not allowing the military to do its job.
“I will take the blame for being vague,” he said.
His comment, however, was just one of the many tossed out by Maher and his guests during the typically quick-moving show, with one thought barely completed before being shoved aside by another. His program can and will do better, Maher said.
“The No. 1 thing our loyal viewers want from the show is a realistic discussion. That’s obviously more difficult when times are more difficult. But it’s all the more necessary,” Maher said.