What a sweet tribute...brought tears to my ears, just this short clip. Wish I'd seen the whole show.

no fair to have my crying over my computer.

I don't watch regularly but if I happen to still be up at 12:30am, I'll flip on the TV and watch the opening of The Late Late Show. I usually don't care who the guests are, and am never disappointed in Craig Ferguson's opening monologues. Sometimes he'll just be silly (like when he changes wigs in front of the green screen) but he's never mean.

I had the good fortune of being invited by a friend to the taping of the January 6 {7} show, which was one of the greats with Kim Basinger talking about biodiesel and being "off-the-grid" and Iron & Wine and Calexico doing a rousing rendition of "History of Lovers." I was floored with how genuine Craig seemed and noted how his brand of late-night comedy was genre-defying, as it wasn't mean, sycophantic, or cutesy. I just happened to catch his show last night and as a jaded television {mostly non-} viewer, I was wondering how the show would play out, given his preface. What transpired isn't really done justice by the relatively short clip. Craig spoke of his father, Robert, not in terms of generalizations or accomplishments, but by telling stories and vignettes of his everyday life; the little things that one remembers about loved ones. Anyone who has lost someone close to them could gain strength and solace from how Craig shared his thoughts and feelings, as he reacted to his father's passing and dealt with his grief. It struck me as a rare moment in television, when actor and audience share a real moment in life.

I wish I had seen this show. It's always so awkward when there's a tragedy -- personal, national or in-between (such as death of a celebrity) when talk show hosts generally of course feel they need to be funny, and must somehow shift gears and/or don't know how to act -- Letterman did such an incredible job after Sept. 11th -- and now Mr. Ferguson has been (truly) generous in sharing his feelings with his audience. He could have just taken a few days off. Instead he was brave and charming and honored his father in a wonderful way.

I was incredibly moved by his talking about his father touching his head. My mother used to do that, and after she died (in 1998) I was haunted by that wish, to have her do that one more time -- I hope this show is re-aired, I guess it may not be likely to be, but I would love to have seen (as I say) the entire thing. Thank you for sharing the clips of it.

Don't know for how much longer, but you can still view the entire monologue here:

http://www.cbs.com/latenight/latelate/comedy/