American Splendid

The first time I read of Harvey Pekar was in the glossy pages of “Heavy Metal” magazine, a series of columns by Bhob Stewart detailing the history of underground comics. Pekar had come to some cult prominence with his aggressively non-comic book comics that featured his wry bleak view on life, a sort of Cleveland Woody Allen. He didn’t draw at all but he had pals like Robert Crumb who could expertly translate Pekar into a proper caricature of his character. The first time I saw Harvey Pekar was on Late Night with David Letterman back in 1986, when his show was the most ferociously original new comedy show since SNL or SCTV. His staff also read “Fangoria” and would pull in guests like Tom Savini, John Waters and Fred Blassie. Pekar was the perfect foil, an awkward funny curmudgeon that Letterman would try to one-up in sarcasm. As if Pekar didn’t see right through the host’s television artifice. Their tension appearances led to the infamous one in 1987 that even Letterman wouldn’t allow to be seen in the excellent film of Pekar’s strange life, AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003).Well, we have that amazing footage, which features Pekar coming out in a shirt advertising his strike against NBC and GE for their collusion in anti-trust and nuclear reactor leaks. I never forgot this moment and we’ll never forget Harvey Pekar, certainly one of the great American satirists and commentators.

The Goat Boy Unbanned

From John Lahr’s famous New Yorker piece on Bill Hicks:

On October 1st, the comedian Bill Hicks, after doing his twelfth gig on the David Letterman show, became the first comedy act to be censored at CBS’s Ed Sullivan Theatre, where Letterman is now in residence, and where Elvis Presley was famously censored in 1956. Presley was not allowed to be shown from the waist down. Hicks was not allowed to be shown at all.

Even though Letterman acknowledges regret over the incident on the Hick’s documentary, IT’S JUST A RIDE, I always thought the ultimate karmic due would be to simply play the entire appearance. In an encouraging sign of the new times, David Letterman is doing just that. From the Bill Hicks website:

“The Late Show with David Letterman has scheduled a telecast of the never-aired October 1, 1993 Bill Hicks appearance. The show was pre-taped Jan. 26th (with Bill’s mom as a guest) and will air Friday, January 30th on your local CBS affiliate. We’d like to acknowledge and thank Bill’s many fans and everyone who has had a hand in keeping Bill’s comedy and philosophy alive. We hope everyone can tune in and experience what you may have missed or what you barely remember — Bill Hicks performing for a national audience on network television.”

UPDATED: Just watched it. I gotta give Letterman enormous credit. What a mensch. Though he didn’t admit he removed the piece because one of his sponsors was…a Pro-Life group. Anyway, Mary Hicks ruled all. You can watch all of Letterman’s segment right here. Here’s Bill Hick’s final censored TV appearance and marvel at his prescient genius.