A couple years back, in one of his countless efforts to draw Oprah Winfrey back to his show, David Letterman proposed a "Super Bowl of Love" in which the two would come together and bury whatever real or perceived animosity lingered between them.

After she finally did appear on "The Late Show" Thursday night (Dec. 1) -- 16 years after her last appearance on Letterman's NBC show and on the same night a musical version of "The Color Purple" opened on Broadway, across the street from Letterman's theater -- a question pops to mind: Following their exceedingly pleasant, 30-minutes-with-commercials chat, who's Letterman going to turn to now when he needs a running gag?

There's always Regis, I guess, and chances are Letterman won't just abandon one of his most reliable comedy bits. But at times during the show, even Winfrey herself seemed taken aback by her host.

Early on, Winfrey remarked that she wasn't sure if Letterman was being sincere about his admiration for her -- expressed profusely in the week since her appearance was confirmed -- "or you were just doing your Dave thing." At least twice during the interview, she said words to the effect of "I can't believe you're being this serious," and she ended by thanking Letterman "for being so nice to me."

Part of the "Dave thing," though, has always been his ability to draw out real conversation from his guests. He did it with Winfrey in discussing her pivotal moments in her life and her current efforts to aid children in Africa.

Which is not to say that "The Late Show" suddenly turned into "Charlie Rose" Thursday night. Letterman cut several times to shots of "backup host" Tony Danza -- on hand, Dave said, in case anything went wrong, and delivered an all-Oprah Top 10 list and a monologue with lines like "I want to thank Jimmy Carter for brokering the peace settlement. ... Plus, we had to give her a Pontiac."

If there ever was any real friction between them, though, neither one could recall the source (although Winfrey told Time a couple years ago that she felt uncomfortable being the subject of numerous Letterman bits). "We've never had a moment's feud, as far as I know," Winfrey says.

She even brought a peace offering to prove her point: a photo of her and Uma Thurman -- the two subjects of Letterman's "Oprah, Uma" bit at the 1995 Oscars -- signed by both women. "I want you to know it's really over, whatever you thought was happening," she said.

Upon seeing the gift, Letterman remarked, "Are you sure it's over?"