From the Publisher

By Elizabeth Valk Long

"At some point during the article can you mention that I'm looking tan and well rested?" David Letterman asked TIME in an interview four years ago. "I know I'm not, but I always think that makes for a real successful piece." It was a quintessential Letterman quip, poking fun at himself and the conventions of show business. This time around, we obliged him right on the cover. The truth in his jest is that Letterman is never really tan and well rested -- wasn't then and isn't now, as he puts the finishing touches on the latest entry in the late-night-TV sweepstakes. "He's in as good shape as I've ever seen him, but he's basically an anxious, insecure guy," says senior writer Richard Zoglin, who wrote the 1989 article and this week's cover story.

Zoglin, who counts himself a "huge fan," has been following Letterman for more than a decade -- tuning in nearly every night since Late Night first aired in 1982. Zoglin arrived at TIME the next year, after four years as TV critic at the Atlanta Constitution. Since then he has watched TV for us with a couch potato's endurance and a sharp but fair-minded critic's eye, writing hundreds of savvy, tightly crafted reviews and features -- as well as cover stories on such subjects as Bill Cosby, Diane Sawyer, Arsenio Hall and Murphy Brown.

This week's cover held a special appeal for Zoglin, who always regretted that he didn't get to review the Letterman show for TIME. As if to make up for that missed opportunity, he did much of the reporting himself -- interviewing Letterman's two executive producers, several of his writers, some of his old friends from the comedy-club days, his diminutive band leader, and the gap- toothed host himself at his new venue in the freshly renovated Ed Sullivan Theater.

"Letterman is a tough celebrity to crack," says Zoglin. "He's complicated, enigmatic and sincerely uncomfortable tooting his own horn. He's got a girlfriend he desperately tries to keep from the public. He likes his private life private."

As does Zoglin, it turns out. When he finally decided to get married last summer, at 43, to Glamour entertainment editor Charla Krupp, his closest co- workers didn't find out about the engagement until it was disclosed, show- business style, in a gossip column. Next time you have news like that, Richard, give us a call before it leaks to the tabloids. That goes for you too, Dave.