in my childhood it was “M*A*S*H”
(11 seasons) then it was “the cosby show” (8 seasons) “cheers,” (11 seasons)
“frasier,” (11 seasons) “seinfeld” (9 seasons) and “friends” (10 seasons.) because all of these live in syndication i’ve
not missed them like i will miss david letterman.
i remember at 9 or 10 years old, on those friday nights
spent at my paternal grandparents’ house, getting up to watch while the
rest of the house slept. i’ve always
been an insomniac and everyone slept too early for me so i would sneak out of
bed at 11:30 with my brother and my cousins sleeping and turn the TV down real low, sit just
inches from the screen and watch dave.
i loved it: larry bud melman and the man under the
stairs, stupid pet tricks and paul shaffer, hello deli and biff henderson. sometimes my brother got up to watch with
me. i loved that too. i’ve watched dave for 33 years; i’m 41.
i’ve found myself crying every night as i watch his last season. i cried with him after his heart surgery and
i cried with him after 9/11. i’ll cry
with him tonight as he says goodbye. i’m
sentimental so my attachment to a person i’ve never met or seen in
person isn’t that odd but because he's the man who made a scared, lonely little girl
laugh every single night i desperately mourn his leaving.
for an insomniac late night TV is
a lifesaver. when i was a teenager we
didn’t have cable and we only got 4 channels, ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. FOX still went off the air at about
midnight. while dave was on NBC, and
followed the tonight show, i had those 2 glorious hours to myself while everyone
else was out or asleep. he moved to CBS
when i was in college. i watched every night.
i cannot imagine his
absence. i love stephen colbert and will
watch his show but there will always be a part of me that mourns dave.
grace and peace and dave
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