One day back when John McCain was the G.O.P. nominee for president, he was scheduled to appear on David Letterman's show but canceled at very close to the last minute, claiming he had to rush back to Washington on vital gov't biz. In what was no doubt a panic, the producers scrambled to find another guest and they called in Keith Olbermann for reasons Keith Olbermann enumerates in the article to which I'm about to link you. Olbermann scurried over and filled Dave's guest chair.
In the midst of the taping, Dave learned that the Senator from Arizona was not on a plane back to Washington at that moment. He was a number of blocks away, getting ready to tape an interview with Katie Couric for the CBS Evening News. It was even possible for the crew in the Ed Sullivan Theater to use the CBS in-house feed to view what was going on at that moment in Ms. Couric's studio and there, chatting aimiably with her before the interview, was John McCain.
As Olbermann notes in this nice tribute to Dave, Letterman made the quick decision to address this matter then and there on his show, including putting some of that in-house network feed on his show. From his desk, he showed America the scene of McCain with Couric and delivered a very funny, spontaneous rant.
I believe though Mr. Olbermann is omitting one detail. For a show to do that — to put another show's feed on the air — is a major breach of protocol and probably corporate policy. I mean, if CBS News just grabbed the feed of Dave taping and used it in their telecast, he would have gone through several roofs with outrage. So what Dave did (I heard from someone on his show) was to quickly call Les Moonves, the head of CBS, during a break and say in effect, "I want to do this…is it okay?" And Moonves, who probably had about ten seconds to decide about this unprecedented, sure-to-piss-some-people-off move, said "Go ahead."
I'm not sure if Dave himself made that call — I think he did — or if one of his producers did but Moonves said yes because it was Dave…and probably only because it was Dave. And then he probably protected Dave from any anger from the news folks who might have felt violated. I do not know if Moonves called and told them before or as it happened. The point is that CBS wouldn't have let anyone else do that.
Anyway, read the Olbermann piece. It's pretty good — broadcaster saluting broadcaster — and watch his appearance with Dave that night. It's in two parts (slightly outta sync) that should play one after the other in the box I'm embedding below. I like it because it's two smart men talking with no pre-interview, no arranged questions, no planned anecdotes or anything. I wish all talk shows were this unscripted…