I just watched Oprah's hour with David Letterman and kinda wish I hadn't. Ms. Winfrey has this attitude that nothing is none of our business; that we have the right to know the intimate feelings in one's heart and to hear about the rifts in personal relationships. But of course, that's rarely what she gets in response to questions of that nature. Most of the time, she gets a pretty brief, cursory answer that represents what the guest feels will make him or her look good…and she always seems quite happy with the answers.
There were some curious things said. Oprah proclaimed that over the years, it was an "almost even split" between Dave and Jay as they battled for late night supremacy. I'm curious as to what accounting measure she's using. Leno has been ahead of Letterman during most weeks they've gone head to head. I doubt either man thinks it has been an "almost even split."
Also, Oprah spoke of a competition to succeed Johnny as if NBC knew when Johnny was leaving and made a choice between Jay and Dave. That ain't the way I heard it. My understanding is that NBC signed Leno to a contract to keep him on as Johnny's guest host for as long as Johnny needed one (up to the length of the contract) and then to guarantee Jay the host job if Johnny left during the span of that contract…and then, all of a sudden, Carson did. So it wasn't really a question of them deciding between Letterman and Leno. Later it was but not then.
In one part of the interview, Dave told the story of how, well before Leno got the nod to succeed Johnny Carson, he [Dave] had a meeting and "they" (he doesn't say who "they" are) offered him the job of replacing Johnny on The Tonight Show. When Dave found out that Johnny was unaware of these discussions, he said he wouldn't continue them until he was sure Johnny was on board with it all…and thereafter, there were no such discussions. Viewers will assume that the "they" in this case was NBC but it was actually, I believe, business associates of Mr. Carson who were trying to shove Johnny aside, seize control of Tonight and produce it with Dave as their employee. In other words, "they" were not offering Dave the show. It wasn't theirs to offer. They were trying to put together a package they could force on NBC and when Carson learned about it (reportedly through Dave), he put an end to it.
I'm not sure if it's what Dave said or the way it was edited (I suspect the latter) but the impression most viewers of this conversation will get is that NBC offered Dave the job as part of a palace coup and then when he wouldn't go along with it, Jay did. Not the way it happened.
On the quoted statement of Dave's about how Jay is the most insecure man in the world…well, he offered an example of Jay's behavior from around 1979 before either of them were successful. I wish Oprah had asked, "Well, that was a long time ago and you've both been through a lot since then. Aren't there things you did back then that aren't indicative of you today?" Insecurity is a puzzling charge for Letterman to hurl at someone and then turn around and talk about his own inability to solve his personal problems as he did.
Still, I'm not going to spend a lot of time thinking about this and for a simple reason. The whole thing reminded me how shallow this kind of interview is; how it sounds like they're digging below the surface but they're barely kicking the sand away. Every topic they touched upon is a much more complicated, nuanced situation than could possibly be covered in the time allowed. About all I got out of this hour is that Dave — though quite brilliant — is also quite troubled about some things, many of them personal issues that you don't make better by discussing them on the Oprah Network. Maybe that's all a viewer can or should expect from a show of this kind.