The Wary One

The Wary One

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The Wary One
The Wary One
It's been 27 years since Stephen Colbert came to Davis to tell the world about our famous toad tunnel

It's been 27 years since Stephen Colbert came to Davis to tell the world about our famous toad tunnel

Mayor Julie Partansky charmed Colbert as only Julie could (watch video of the entire episode here)

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Bob Dunning
Jul 22, 2025
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The Wary One
The Wary One
It's been 27 years since Stephen Colbert came to Davis to tell the world about our famous toad tunnel
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MR. STEPHEN COLBERT
CBS ENTERTAINMENT
NEW YORK CITY, NY

Hi, Stephen.

It's me, Bob.

I'm sure you remember, I'm the enterprising columnist you interviewed when Comedy Central sent you to Davis to do a Daily Show piece on our just-completed and already world-famous Toad Tunnel.

You were a young rookie at the time, just 34 years old and trying to make your way up the comedy ladder when you were assigned a story that was just too good to be true.

Your career has soared like a Space X rocket ever since.

I'm sure your interview with me and my quicker-than-lightning responses to your penetrating questions is what sent you on your way to late-night stardom.

That said, you owe me nothing.

I'm sorry that Donald Trump told Paramount to fire you. I know, I know, they say there are other reasons why they terminated the best show in the history of American television, but I don't buy any of it.

I'm writing to remind you of that wonderful day long ago in my life, and I'm sure in yours as well, when you graced our town with your presence, embraced our town with your warmth and skewered our town with your wit.

In a word, you were spectacular.

The year was 1998. The City of Davis, my hometown, had just spent $13 trillion to build a 220-foot long toad tunnel under the Pole Line Overpass so boy toads could visit girl toads in the middle of the night to make even more toads without getting squished into an awful mess under the tires of a Volvo on the overpass. (All Davisites drove Volvos in those days.)

The tunnel itself was an engineering marvel, rivaling the famed Alaska Pipeline from 20 years prior.

I memorialized that special time in my regular newspaper column for The Davis Enterprise, also known to longtime subscribers as The Daily Surprise.

"Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show,' " I began, "which treats the news of the day somewhere between Tom Brokaw and Alfred E. Neuman, did an intelligent and sensitive piece about our celebrated and corrugated underground toad pathway.

"Hoping to let the rest of the nation in on Davis' little secret 'The Daily Show' dispatched its top reporter and film crew - the so-called A team - to make a documentary film that could be used as a model for toad tunnel advocates everywhere.

"Leaving no toad unturned, reporter Stephen Colbert spent an entire day in our town, interviewing Mayor Julie Partansky, toad tunnel engineer Mike Goodison and, just to keep everyone honest, the above-pictured columnist."

I was brilliant out of the gate, answering Colbert's every thoughtful question with utmost clarity. Everything was recorded, to be spliced and diced and put into the complete story later.

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