4. NewsRadio “Bill Moves On” – In the summer of 1998, Phil Hartman was killed in his sleep by his wife. His friends on both The Simpsons and NewsRadio had to
cope with not only the tragic loss of a friend, but the much infinitely less important creative challenge. NewsRadio opened its fifth season immediately after the WNYX staff returned from Bill McNeal’s funeral. For the whole episode, the characters, and by extension the actors and creative staff, grieve for their friend. On a purely technical level, it’s an amazing achievement – Hartman was, by all accounts, a genuinely sweet man. Bill McNeal was not. Still, the way they invoke memories of Bill would have been heartbreaking even if the episode weren’t driven by a real-life tragedy. As it is, it’s a devastating reminder that we lost a great comedian and a wonderful person.
3. Futurama “Jurassic Bark” – I’m not going to lie to you. This one’s rough. After finding the fossilized remains of his dog, Seymour Butts, from the 20th Century, Fry sets out to have him cloned. A series of flashbacks reveal Fry and Seymour’s relationship, including Seymour’s panic when Fry disappeared on New Year’s Eve, 1999. Just before the cloning process begins, Professor Farnsworth carbon dates the remains, and finds that Seymour lived for another ten years after Fry was cryogenically frozen, and Fry stops the cloning process. He reasons that if Seymour lived that long, his two years with Fry were just a small part of his life – he would have had another owner after that who he loved and who he would miss in the 30th Century. It’s a rare moment of maturity for Fry. And then comes the ending. We see a montage of Seymour waiting outside the pizzeria where Fry worked, waiting. He waits as the seasons change and he gets older and weaker. Seymour waits right up until the day he dies. You don’t have to be a dog lover to weep openly at this scene, but if you are, you are absolutely going to lose it.
2. Homicide: Life on the Street “Crosetti” – When the third season of Homicide began, Jon Polito’s Crosetti was nowhere to be seen. At first, we were told he was on vacation. After a few episodes, other characters wondered when he was coming back. This episode opened with the discovery of his body. All signs point to a suicide, and a suicide means that Crosetti will not get an Honor Guard at his funeral. Frank Pembleton refuses to attend the memorial service, as he’s suffering a crisis of faith and can’t bring himself “into God’s presence”. But as the funeral procession passes the Police Station, there stands Frank in his dress blues, saluting his comrade. Part of what makes it work is that it’s completely unexpected – Frank and Crosetti weren’t even particularly close. Frank’s just showing honor to a colleague. It’s a near-perfect scene, and if it doesn’t make you cry at least a little, you are probably not human.
1. Late Night with David Letterman September 17, 2001 – You have to remember what this time was like. For several days after September 11, nothing mattered anymore. It felt like we wouldn’t be able to laugh again. The whole world was different, and it didn’t seem like there would ever be a time when we’d be able to watch people making jokes on TV ever again. The Monday after the attacks, David Letterman’s show came back.
Letterman isn’t exactly known for his sincerity. You can count on your fingers the number of times he’s betrayed his real emotions on the air. But he came back to the airwaves only six days after the world changed, and he opened his show with a speech. What Dave did was exactly what all of us wanted to do – he took some time to process the monstrous things that happened. He talked through it, he opened up, and he just let himself go. Dave cried, because there was nothing else he could do.
What he had to say was eloquent and honest, and in some way, he helped the rest of us. He came out and said that he was sad and scared and confused, and he acknowledged how much of a battle it was for all of us to keep putting one foot in front of the other. David Letterman said what we felt, and that made it OK for us to admit it, too.
Even watching it now, seven years later, it’s impossible to get through the clip without crying. It’s one of the most important TV moments of the decade, and it’s really just a public person, who never reveals their private self, being honest and unguarded.
