Comic Irate at CBS’ Cutting His Spot on Letterman Show

So, just what happened to comedian Bill Hicks last Friday on CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman”?

Hicks himself isn’t sure, and the “Late Show” and CBS folks aren’t saying much. All that’s for certain: Hicks performed during the afternoon taping, but by the time the show aired, the segment (and all mention of Hicks) had been edited out and replaced with a canned segment by comic Bill Scheft.

It all happened on the very same stage, Hicks was quick to point out this week, on which Elvis was edited from the waist down on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Hicks had appeared 11 times on Letterman’s old NBC “Late Night” program. He came away from the Oct. 1 taping--his first since Letterman changed networks and time slots--thinking it had been his best spot yet. “The show went great,” Hicks said by phone from West Palm Beach, Fla. “Dave even gave me a Havana cigar during the break.”

But later that night, in his hotel room, Hicks says he got a call from “Late Show” executive producer Robert Morton. CBS representatives had decided Hicks’ six-minute set touched “too many hot spots” and had ordered it axed, Hicks said Morton told him. According to Hicks, Morton said he had fought “tooth and nail” to save it.

“Late Show” representatives, meanwhile, are saying for the record that the decision was a joint one, between the network and the show’s producers. “It was just that it didn’t fit into the show’s set of standards,” said “Late Show” spokeswoman Rosemary Keenan.

But Hicks said the show’s producers had reviewed and OKd his set the week before, when he was bumped (for time constraints) from an earlier program. He blames the network for what he considers a blatant act of censorship.

“It’s absolutely stunning to me, the contempt in which the network holds the audience,” Hicks said. “The idea that these people have standards is laughable.”

Hicks is known for a dark and cutting comic view, but insists his material last Friday was not offensive. “I perform this stuff for my mom on her porch in Little Rock, Ark.,” he said. “I even wore a delightful new outfit, with fall colors. I didn’t wear black.”

Keenan would not comment on the material, or on what specifically was found unacceptable. Hicks was not told either, but in six minutes managed to touch on such topics as homosexuality (noting ironically how homophobes will condemn male gays, but are turned on by skin-magazine photo spreads of women together) and religion (wondering aloud about the main symbol of the Christian faith and whether Christ, on his return, really wants to see a lot of crosses).

He also joked in the set that he had been offered a TV series, “Let’s Hunt and Kill Billy Ray Cyrus,” and he challenged anti-abortion activists to test their beliefs by blockading cemeteries.

The New York Post reported Thursday that unnamed sources said Letterman and his staff were “furious” at CBS over the Hicks affair. Hicks himself wondered about the precedent the action sets, and whether Letterman at his new home and earlier time slot will have to play it safer. CBS would not comment on that charge.

“We live in a time of ‘I’m offended,’ ” Hicks said. “Well, guess what? I’m offended too. It’s just that the list is so long I don’t know where to send it.”

Hicks did say he has been invited back on the show in three weeks, but said, “I don’t know if I can learn to juggle that fast.”