All Apologies

Did you watch Conan O'Brien last night? Of course you didn't. Nobody did. And why would they, when an extortion-fueled sex scandal has made "The Late Show With David Letterman" some of the most compelling television ever aired.

Last night, Dave delivered a masterful performance that, whatever you might personally think of him, turned himself into the butt of the jokes for most of a monologue that was as self-effacing as it was funny.

After being met by thunderous applause by the studio audience, he cracked, "Did your weekend just fly by?"

Somebody in the studio audience shouted, "We love you Dave!" This was followed by more applause. Although, scandal-wise, there is much repair work to be done, it's clear that there's a substantial contingent out there who forgive Dave his indiscretions.

This probably has more to do with the way he's handled the situation than with the scandal itself. There's something inherently old-fashioned and "American" (in that Gary Cooper/John Wayne kind of way) about manning up to one's misdeeds, admitting you screwed up and shouldering responsibility that's somehow rare in a culture that allows people to sweep away the blame for anything they do. "I only robbed that liquor store because I was high on crack, and I turned to drugs because mommy and daddy forced me to star in a sitcom and I never had a normal childhood. Waaaah!"

The jokes, at his own expense, were brutally honest and perfectly attuned to the talk show he's been doing for decades. Joking about a recent cold snap, he quipped, "It's chilly outside my house — chilly inside my house."

Then came this one: "This is only Phase 1 of the scandal. Phase 2: Next week I go on 'Oprah' and sob."

And then came the apologies, first to his staff, who he said have been "browbeaten" and "humiliated" by relentless reporters looking for dirt on their boss. "I'm terribly sorry that I put the staff in that position. Inadvertently. I just wasn't thinking ahead. No I am not having sex with these women. Those episodes are in the past. The staff here has been wonderfully supportive to me, not just through this furor, but through all the years that we've been on television and especially all the years here at CBS. So, again, my thanks to the staff for, once again, putting up with something stupid I've gotten myself involved in."

But the main event was Letterman's apology to his wife, Regina Lasko. "She has been horribly hurt by my behavior," Dave confessed. "And when something happens like that, if you hurt a person and it's your responsibility, you try to fix it. And at that point, there's only two things that can happen: either you're going to make some progress and get it fixed, or you're going to fall short and perhaps not get it fixed. So let me tell you folks, I got my work cut out for me."

This was met with a moment of stunned silence, followed by hestitant clapping. This is uncharted talk show territory, and the audience was clearly uncertain about how to respond.

Knowing Letterman's reputation as a reclusive quasi-hermit who prizes his privacy, this sudden openness must be as painful as a root canal for him. But it also seems to have freed him somehow, almost as if some weird weight has been lifted off him.

As guest Steve Martin pointed out, this whole mess "proves that you're a human being. And we weren't really that sure before."