February 1, 1982: Late Night with David Letterman debuted in the US on the NBC network. It aired weeknights for one hour starting at 12:30 am.
Letterman was the heir apparent to Johnny Carson who hosted The Tonight Show for almost 30 years. However, when Carson went into retirement, NBC named comedian Jay Leno to replace him.
Stung by that development, Letterman left NBC for rival network CBS. The Late Show premiered August 30, 1993.
Throughout the years, both Carson’s and Letterman’s shows featured standup comedians. That was how Letterman got his break; he performed his comedy on The Tonight Show and much later became a guest host for Carson.
Countless standup comics got their initial TV starts on Letterman’s show. Including Bill Hicks.
Hicks was a Georgia-born comedian who got his start at clubs in Houston, Texas. His first stage appearance was in 1977… when he was just sixteen years old.
His television debut on Letterman’s Late Night program came in November 1984 at age 23. He would make eleven appearances on the NBC show over the course of the next eight years.
His mostly observational material would be described as dark, edgy, caustic, original, and funny. Though quite popular on the nightclub circuits, he was praised as a comedians’ comedian.
August 30, 1993: The Late Show with David Letterman premiered on CBS. They had rebuilt the old Ed Sullivan Theater for his broadcasts.
One month into Letterman’s new tenure, Bill Hicks appeared on the show to perform a seven-minute standup routine. His act was well received and the taping ended as scheduled.
That was Hicks’ twelfth Letterman appearance. It was also his last.
However, his performance never made it to the air. Although the rest of that night’s show was broadcast as planned, Hicks’ standup set was edited out. That had never happened to any comedian before.
The decision came from show producer Robert Morton who had been with Letterman since the early NBC days. Hicks’ material included abortion and religion which were deemed too controversial in that era. Morton and Letterman agreed to cut his set.
Hicks got more attention due to that censorship than he’d ever received in his previous eleven Letterman appearances.
Unfortunately, he had little time to enjoy it. Hicks had been harboring a secret: he’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was receiving chemotherapy.
Four months after that censored performance, Bill Hicks died at age 32. Everyone, including some who were close to him, was stunned.
January 30, 2009: David Letterman had, by that time, been on CBS for 16 years. He decided to reexamine his decision to censor Bill Hicks and would finally air the never-before-seen deleted set.
He even invited Hicks’ mother on the show and interviewed her for over 8 minutes before they watched her son’s set together.
Hicks’ set touched on gay children’s books; his opposition to the pro-life movement (“Don’t lock arms and block med clinics… lock arms and block cemeteries.”); cigarette smoking in heaven; and Jesus returning to Earth and horrified to find people wearing crucifixes.
After watching the full set, Letterman admitted he was at fault for censoring the material. With genuine remorse and humility, he publicly apologized to Mary Hicks on air, which she graciously accepted.
The 1993 Letterman episode can be viewed here.
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