A champion of science, truth and Lord of the Rings bids us adieu

Stephen Colbert and his team won an Emmy last year, punctuating a brilliant decade of fierce political satire, hijinks, erudite Lord of the Rings-laced humor and a spot-on-Biden-in-Aviators.

But arguably, that talent only landed well with part of the audience, and some critics could have seen this day. I was not necessarily among them, though I told folks at the time I wasn't really a fan. I was too sad about Dave leaving.

All of that changed once I got into the show, and especially when I attended. I became such a fan that I attended four times and got to ask him a question. What did he miss of the South? I asked the night Trevor Noah was on to say goodbye to his show. Family, friends, food, he said; then he dug his heel into the floor for a bit - I could see from the light - and looked to the band and laughed, "Pluff mud." I would later find out from my seatmate, Jennifer, whom I had met because we were both attending singly, that "it is what remains when the tide goes out." She said it was beautiful, that crabs and birds walk on it.

Colbert is that poetic guy, the Shakespeare scholar, the son of an NIH and Yale scientist and doctor, the man who has an encyclopeic mind that rivals a savant's. When I've attended his show and observed how he answers questions, it is clearly time he relishes. He loves to educate. He would be a fantastic professor, though he would tell you he's a born actor.

Colbert was pushed from his perch by Trump and Paramount Plus/CBS but he was already standing at the tip of the bow. He pushed harder with every passing day. I do remember once watching a Carson rerun and wondering, 'Why can't Stephen leave some of this alone?" Because he could not. Trump was too destructive, too all-consuming, and by the way too hilarious a target for Colbert's Schtick.

Goodbye, Stephen, from the fan who only grew to love you more each passing day. I leave you with an excerpt from my interview with Berg in 2011:

"The fact is he's sort of burned conservatives." - former Tonight Show producer Dave Berg, September 2011, upon the debut of Stephen Colbert's Late Show

When Stephen Colbert took over The Late Show, I interviewed former Tonight Show producer Dave Berg, who wrote a book called "Behind the Curtain: An Insider's View of Jay Leno's Tonight Show." One thing stuck with me from that interview, that Dave, unlike most others with whom I spoke, had his doubts about Colbert's fit for the new gig. Here is an excerpt from my transcript of early September, 2011:

Me: "Now, on to Stephen Colbert. Looking in your crystal ball, tell my readers whether he will or won’t succeed? And are there shades of grey in the competitive world of late night network TV?

Berg: At the outset, I feel like Colbert has a lot of media pundits and fans and people in academia that basically worship the guy, he’s the savior of late night; I am not in that category. But at the same time, I don’t count him out. He’s bringing something fresh to the table, in today’s shows, Fallon and Kimmel, they don’t really do that much serious interviewing, it’s more about schtick – I am not trying to be critical. The art of the interview has gone away since Letterman and Leno – at least from two main competitors, so I think Colbert, who is emphasizing how erudite he is [with] a lot of help from fawning media pundits – he brings great potential to the table with his interviewing skills with the guests that he is interviewing. When he released his guest list – Biden, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Bernie Sanders, Elon Musk. All of a sudden, Fallen books Donald Trump. Do you think that just happened? They are reacting to him. So I think Colbert has a real shot at bringing something fresh to the table, and I think the person who will be most affected by this will be Kimmel. Fallon has his audience, Kimmel is a distant second - [with his] pranks and some of his humor is mean, and I thikn he’s the one who stands to learn the most.

I’m not convinced Colbert’s going to be successful – [and] the fact is he’s sort of burned conservatives."

Video clip, the Srike Force Five before air, May 11, 2026: Images: Top: By Montclair Film Fest; Bottom: the author at one of his performances, after proudly grabbing an inflatable cat, one of many bobbing around by the band.