Dave Spencer Remembers Dave Letterman’s First Night Back after 9/11 [VIDEO-BRIEF STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING]

All plans were put on hold indefinitely. All plans of all kinds after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, flew a plane into the Pentagon, and were forced to the ground in Pennsylvania along with their uncommonly courageous fellow passengers of United Flight 93.

I say "indefinitely," but after about a week, television regrouped. Talk shows returned to the air; they were the only types of shows that were new in early September. The 2001-2002 TV season had yet to begin.

And with the return of the talk shows came the first reactions by some of our favorite personalities to the horrific tragedy of September 11th, 2001.

I chose David Letterman's because he is my favorite of the late night hosts or any talk show host, for that matter.

He is also a New Yorker. He works in the city and lives in its metropolitan area.

And the night he returned to The Late Show, he--as many of us were--was still visibly shaken.

He was not a celebrity or an entertainer or an icon who had molded my own personal sense of humor over (then) 20-some-odd years.

He was a guy from New York reacting to something still unimaginable.

And I'll never forget what he said.